I Found Prog Rock SMF's

These are complex orchestrations and include accurate drum parts, lead synthesizer solos, backing chords, bass parts, vocal melodies, etc...  The real test for me was how the backing chords are structured.  Are they only simple triads or do they include 4 note complex chords?  Are they all simple first position chords or do they include inversions?  The answer to both questions is exactly what I hoped for.  There are plenty of complex chords and inversions.

I have no idea how people created these...some sound too good to be done manually one note at a time.  I've dabbled with some software that claims to convert wave audio to MIDI, but it's so inaccurate as to be completely worthless.  Maybe there's a super high quality program that can do this well, but I'm not aware of it.  I load these into my sequencer, mute the channels that play the lead synth and backing organ/mellotron parts, and then play along...it's great fun!  I also load them into my PC notation program (MuseScore) and can isolate the instrument parts I want to learn and print out the sheet music and go from there.

You won't believe what SMF's are available.  Looks like every single Genesis song from "Trespass" through "Calling All Stations"!  Also other assorted songs from Crimso, Yes, Gentle Giant, ELP, Floyd, Tull, Camel, IQ, etc...

Anyway, the site says it's last update was May 2004 - it seems odd no one has touched this site in nearly 10 years.  I'm not sure how long it will remain up and running...so if you're curious, I'd head over to check it out sooner rather than later.  Here's the URL:  http://web.agria.hu/kepenu/   

So, how do you think the SMF's were originally created?  Did someone actually take the time to learn all the parts to these songs and put "Suppers Ready" together 1 instrument at a time?  It's mind boggling to me how much time that would have actually taken.  Or do you think they used some kind of fancy audio->MIDI conversion tool?

I just learned the synth solo section from Cinema Show this week.  There's that 1 completely insane section where it's 4 measures of straight 16th notes that seem to make no logical sense.  I loaded it into MuseScore and tore it apart and learned it's basically a mix of 4 and 3 note triad arpeggios mixed together in this order: G 4 notes, A 4 notes, Bm 3 notes, C#m 3 notes, D 4 notes, E 4 notes, F#m 3 notes, G 3 notes...all the way up the keyboard.  I'm so pumped that I figured it out and I never could have done it without these SMF's!

I'm still amazed that someone has created these one track at a time.  I've done guitar transcriptions for Schizoid Man and Epitaph so I have a decent ear, but to figure out all the parts to these prog epics just blows me away!  I'm so thankful I found them 

As to how are these files made, I would say that probably not one note at a time, but just by playing the music on a digital instrument by someone who can play the song, and letting the soft convert it to MIDI. As far as I know the software for audio to MIDI conversion has still indeed limitations, but when the instrument you play is digital, there is no problem.