Groups.IO has SO MUCH MORE to offer group members than you're used to with the Yahoo Groups! And you can learn all about them if you'll spend some time reviewing the *HELPS*. https://groups.io/helpcenter/membersmanual Want to add your name in your profile, change your email address? Want to add in a brief BIO? Don't know how to mark some topics, how to "not see" all messages or topics? Want to add your picture'/avatar to the group? It's all under *Setting Preferences*. It's all there, in a highly organized HELPS menu. There is SO MUCH we can do in this Group! Life is a learning experience from day 1, until . . . . Add to your knowledge base. Spend some time in the HELPS pages! As Monk used to say . . . You'll thank me later! LOL

New Ideas . . . Thanks to Dick & Jane Schmitt for this spark! A lot of our members are Boomers. We have a lot of "history" we can share. I know a couple of our members who could share VOLUMES! I've been a performing/studio musician since the mid 60's. So you KNOW I have stuff to share! (Or . . . maybe not share! LOL) Many members are younger. Some might not relate to our stories. But perhaps many would be interested to hear some of our stories, shenanigans, anecdotes etc. from the past. I think if we all just posted these stories to our main group, maybe some members would be turned off a bit. Maybe too many long posts not really midi related. Should we start a MidKar Remembers group, and then add links from the MidKar.com site? Maybe even add Memories to our MidKar site? I'd be open to the idea of adding pix or our members to the MidKar site, with links to their BIO AND memories posts! We could have a Topic of the Week. Then members could post to that topic. Maybe just start a Memories group, not necessarily a MidKar group. And invite those who join Memories to join Midkar? Input, ideas and comments welcome!!! Wayne

Over the past couple weeks we had more than a few cases where members were auto-unsubscribed. This appears to be happening when a member marks a Midkar post as SPAM. If you mark a MidKar post as SPAM, GROUPS.IO and/or your email service then considers all email from MidKar to be SPAM, and unsubscribes you from the group. This actually happened to me, MidKar Owner Team member! I got booted. I checked it out and found out why. I accidentally moved a post into my SPAM folder instead of my delete/trash folder. Best guess, Yahoo then determined MidKar posts were SPAM and GROUPS.IO then dropped me as a member because they thought that "I" thought MidKar posts were SPAM. I removed the email from my SPAM folder, marking it "not SPAM", and BINGO, I was back! LOL If this happens, you will get an email with a link to re-subscribe if you got booted by mistake. Just click the link. NOTE: If you get any post from MidKar that you think could be SPAM, notify the MidKar owners. We will remove the post and any violator. Then simply delete the post/email. As always, stay safe! Wayne

If you have a MIDI, AND DON'T KNOW IT'S ORIGIN, . . . don't know who made it, and don't know how to verify the documentation please do not post it to the group! Actually, pardon my abruptness but I need to re-phrase that . . . DO NOT post it to the group! If you have doubts, either send it to the person who requested it directly to their email address, or send it to one of the MODS/ owners. It is NOT OK to post PRO midis to the group. That means a midi that was made by a company, to be sold. We can get busted for posting these midis! A couple days ago 2 midis were posted for the song Ain't No Mountain High Enough. One of those songs is a copyrighted Pro midi. (C) 1994 Tune 1000 Corporation ;1967 Jobete Music Co. If you saved one of these midis be sure not to re-post them to our group. Gary, Robert, Bob and I try to check out all the midis posted to the group. That takes some time. Fortunately Robert caught this one early. I'll delete the post. Everyone, please be careful. If you are going to post a midi, be sure it's not a Pro midi! KEEP THIS IN MIND . . . One of the reasons groups.io allowed us to have our midi sharing group, after denying other requests, is because in out rules it clearly says . . . One warning, then you're removed. However this applies more to a person who intentionally posts Pro midis. In this particular case, the poster is a pro himself, and a team player. This was an over sight. Thanks to all for reading this important message. Wayne, MidKar Mod/Owner Team member

When you request a MIDI, please use the following format . . . The subject should state the request, with song title, and the preferred artist or version you're looking for. EX . . . MIDI Request: Already Gone by The Eagles Also, when possible, include a link from YouTube to a video of the version you're looking for. Just copy/paste the URL from YouTube into the post. If you wanted Inside, Looking Out, by Grand Funk Railroad, but simply said . . . Inside, Looking Out . . . you'd probably end up with the better known Animals version. This format makes it easy for those of us who make the MIDI sequences to keep track of the requests. If the subject isn't specific, we have to look for the email, try to remember what the subject was, etc. This is especially true if someone just replies to a post about another subject or topic. If there's a post with an unrelated subject/topic, and in the body of the reply there's a MIDI request, we could very easily miss it. Plus. we need to go back and find it. The subject written as above helps us keep track of the requests, PLUS . . . we can more easily just reply to that thread with the attached/requested MIDI. This way the request becomes a thread. Thanks! Wayne

If, for any reason, you have considered unsubscribing, PLEASE DO read this! This is a simple break down of all MidKar Membership Subscription Activity. It’s critically important for our members to see this, and understand it because it is critical to our growth, and our existence! Thank you. Wayne Since 10/14/2020 . . . 372 members were approved for membership 271 members are currently subscribed 23 members were removed for marking a post as SPAM 12 members rejoined after accidentally marking a post as SPAM 11 members either intentionally marked a post as SPAM, or didn’t see the email that included a link to re-subscribe if they clicked SPAM accidentally. Marking a post as SPAM is NOT how you should leave the group. This is a black mark on us! And you know that no post can possibly be SPAM. You subscribed to receive the posts. And obviously did not select “no email” when you subscribed. (Most likely so you would receive the daily posted MIDIs.) You need to unsubscribe, not mark posts as SPAM. AND . . . 72 members unsubscribed The SPAM issue isn’t highly critical, but still a problem. 8.5% of our members have marked a post as SPAM. 4.4% re-subscribed, as it was unintentional. 4.1% did not re-subscribe. As a result, we lost 11 members. HOWEVER . . . the real issue is . . . 27% of the people who subscribed to MidKar have unsubscribed. A few of them did so because they were trying to update their profiles. As in, some wanted to enter their name, or change their email address. It was an Ooops! LOL I’m not a naïve person. I understand that we might not be for everyone. Maybe MidKar did not provide what they were looking for. But I really have a problem believing that. What I personally believe is that the majority of our members who unsubscribed, did so because they got too any email posts they did not want. Some of our members really just want to be able to get some free MIDIs. And that’s cool! BUT . . . 1). You don’t have to receive ANY posts if you don’t want to! Simply login, and edit your profiles to No Email. If you cannot figure out how to do this, simply contact a MidKar owner or Mod, or post your question to the group. Best option, select "Special Email Only" so you still receive messages from the owners and/or Mods. But no member posts. 2). Not getting the posts means you don’t receive the MIDIs posted DAILY! MANY of these are current to recent HITS not found anywhere else on the Net! 3) . . . The real solution is to simply set up a folder for MidKar in your email program. Then set up a filter so ALL email from MidKar goes into that ONE folder, not into your inbox. Then, simply go to that one folder any time you want to see what posts and MIDIs came in. All posts are together. Sort the folder by “attachments on top”. Delete all below the top posts with attachments. BINGO! OK, TWO THINGS and I’m done! 1). If you have any problems setting up a folder and filter (takes all of maybe a minute) PLEASE just post to the group. I guarantee someone will chip in and help you get them set up. Be sure to post what email program you use. (Or Google “How to set up folders and filters in …your email program”.) Youtube has dozens of videos about this. 2). PLEASE . . . if you’re going to unsubscribe, please drop me a personal email BEFORE you unsubscribe. PLEASE let me know why you want to unsubscribe first. Even if you just don’t think the group has anything to offer you, which could be the case, let me know. Perhaps, if you let me know, you can do your part to help us improve MidKar. Your community contribution can help make MidKar a better community. Thanks. Wayne (Reed) Knazek thenettrainer@... MidKar Owner/Moderator Team member midkar.com site owner

I know there are many ways to generate/program musical midi files. Just wondering if any of you folks would care to share your methods. I usually start with PowerTracks Pro Audio (PG Music software) running on a desktop computer. It comes with Real Tracks but I don't use that feature. Once I set up the tracks I use one of my Yamaha keyboards (connected via USB cable ) to enter the data. Most of the time I simply play it in real-time. The PTPA software offers several other entry methods also. I have some software synths but prefer to let the Yamaha keyboard serve as the playback sound source (latency is almost nil). Occasionally, I start with a " Band In A Box" arrangement (also PG Music software) and render it to a midi file (one mouse click from within BIAB). I then load it into PTPA and customize it or use as is. Usually, the BIAB renditions are a bit robotic and repetitious but can easily be made quite musical. With all that said, the operative word is "usual". I experiment with other software and hardware but the method I've outlined seems to yield the most usable and enjoyable results. Thanks, Deat