MOTM

Sorry for the OT, but I suspect folks here may have some useful 
information.   I am an analog guy, I do not know much about midi.

I am helping a neighbor in figuring out how to control a multi-
channel scary halloween display he is building in his front yard.   
The plan is to have several speakers strewn about the area and we 
want to play .wav files out to these speakers.   There may be about 8 
to 10 speakers, and we want to control what sounds go out to the 
speakers.

1) Can midi play .wav files?

2) Any suggestions on readings, software, hardware that may help in 
doing this?

Please email me offline, andy@... if you have any suggestions.

Thanks
Andy

--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "gooboworks" <andy@g...> wrote:
> The plan is to have several speakers strewn about the area and we 
> want to play .wav files out to these speakers.   There may be about
8 
> to 10 speakers, and we want to control what sounds go out to the 
> speakers.
> 
> 1) Can midi play .wav files?
> 
MIDI can't handle any audio data directly. It transmits control
information. It can trigger hardware or software that plays wav
files.  

> 2) Any suggestions on readings, software, hardware that may help in 
> doing this?
> 
Two options come to mind.

You could use a cheap sequencer and assign multiple audio tracks to
multiple outputs. I use Sonar, but there are several audio/midi
programs in the $100 range. 

The real trick is that you'll need an audio out for each
channel/speaker. If you don't have or need a sound card with multiple
outs, you could add a couple of el-cheapo audio cards. That would do
for Halloween purposes. Then it would be a matter of creating the
number of tracks you need in your sequencer, and assigning each track
to an individual output.

Another option would be using MIDI to trigger a hardware sampler.
You'll be limited to the number of outputs on the hardware sampler.