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Where to Find MIDI Files

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Orfeo plays standard MIDI files, and it also opens karaoke, Guitar Pro and MusicXML files. Thousands of songs are free to download in these formats. This page lists good places to start and how to find a version worth practising with.

  • Search for the song and the format, for example Golden Brown midi. Add piano if you’re after a piano arrangement, or karaoke or kar for a version with lyrics.
  • Download two or three versions of the same song. Quality varies a lot, from a full band arrangement to a single rough piano track, and the first result isn’t always the best.
  • Many sites let you play a file in the browser before you download it, so you can hear whether it’s the arrangement you want.
  • Can’t find a MIDI file? Look for the song as Guitar Pro tabs, MusicXML or a karaoke file. Orfeo opens those too and converts them once into a MIDI file next to the original. See Supported formats.
  • Put your downloads into your library folder, or open them directly. See Opening MIDI files.

 Tip

Downloaded files are often untidy: extra tracks, wrong instruments, or bar lines that don’t match the music. Turn a messy download into a lesson shows how to clean one up, and Tap Tempo fixes a wrong tempo.

MIDI files (.mid)

Karaoke files (.kar)

Karaoke files are MIDI files with the lyrics built in.

Guitar Pro files (.gp3 to .gp5)

MusicXML files (.musicxml, .mxl)

MIDI files of copyrighted music are still copyrighted. Downloading them for your own practice is fine; sharing them or using them commercially needs a licence. Music in the public domain, which mostly means works by composers who died before 1955, is free to use. See Privacy & Legal for how this applies to Orfeo.