A number of people are working on interesting MIDI players that show
a visual representation of a piano roll.  That's great, as far as
it goes.

If, however, you are playing a MIDI file with multi channels, i.e.,
for a multi-rank organ or for several instruments, this display is not
really sufficient.  I know that you can display the multi-channels in
Cakewalk or a similar program; you cannot do this, however, if you want
to play the MIDI files directly from a file manager/sorting/indexing
program such as Windows Media Player.

Another possibility occurred to me after I converted a small 54-note
single-rank keyboard organ to MIDI operation.  I eventually put a small
LED above each key, triggered by that key.  To this day it still
surprises me how much extra that has added to my enjoyment of the organ
-- simply to watch the interplay between medley and accompaniment or to
watch the doubled octaves chase up and down the keyboard.

If I could display on the computer monitor several rows of "light",
each row fired by a particular channel, each light by a specific note,
then I could achieve my goal of a fascinating display.  The problem
is that no such program exists.  The closest I have come to finding
it is a program called MIDI Key Viewer, at

http://www.jdkoftinoff.com/main/Free_Projects/MIDI_Key_Viewer_for_Windows/

This program listens to a MIDI IN port and displays incoming MIDI
messages on multiple graphic keyboards.  The free source code is
available for this program.  It seems to me that anyone with some
programming knowledge might simply be able to convert this program
into a one with more "street appeal".

I am sure it is just not me who wants or needs this extra visual input.
It makes me wonder how this apparent need for extra stimulus has become
part and parcel of our modern world.

Phil Dayson