                                                       !!! PLEASE READ THIS !!!

This is the first add-on pack of the 'Very Best of GUS MIDI' collection.

(Look out for the 'Very Best of GUS MIDI' collection - more than 250 great MIDI
files! Available via FTP, filenames: BESTMID1.ZIP ... BESTMID4.ZIP - if you
can't locate them anywhere contact me)


This compilation was done by Gerd R. with the help of many people on the
Internet (see last section for thanks and greetings).
It is a collection of more than 100 MIDI files that sound great on the GUS
(Gravis Ultrasound) and probably any other General Midi soundcard.

The compilation is intended for the MIDI-interested GUS owner who doesn't want
to listen to the thousands(!) of MIDI files available on the Internet to find
out which files actually are good. I did and I tell you it wasn't always easy
to listen to the many badly done and incorrectly voiced files. This compilation
represents only my personal taste so maybe you won't like some of the files.
But since this compilation includes many different styles of music I'm sure you
will find some tunes you like.


All these files have only been tried out with PLAYMIDI version 5.06 on a GUS
with 1 MB onboard memory. There may be difficulties playing some of these files
with Windows (especially the PIANO files).


The compilation is split up into three parts:

  Classic :  classical music
  Piano   :  piano only music
  Pop     :  all other music
  
Ok ok, I know that this classification is not great, but I just don't feel
authorized to distinguish between Pop, Rock, Jazz, Folk etc. so I put all that
into 'Pop'.

  
As far as I know, all of these MIDI files are freely distributable, but most of
them are copyrighted. Many of these files were posted in the alt.binaries.
sounds.midi newsgroup, so I hope that distributing them is not prohibited. If
I should break any laws by doing this please tell me.

----

This compilation couldn't have been done without the help of these nice people:

Eric, Gerard, Jim, John, Jojo, Keijo, Martin, Nanite, Peter, Raphael, Rod, Ron,
Scott, Viktor, Will, 
and all people who post in alt.binaries.sounds.midi ...

and of course all the unknown composers of these beautiful pieces of music.


Greetings go to them and all the *powerful* ppl on IRC, especially

AndrewM, Commander Data, dome, double-j, DragonMaster, FAZ, FireTrack,
Gunslinger, jgint, Jojo, mjr, Nanite, pCk, Sebastian, super-io, Trilobyte

and to all the ppl I have forgotten (kick me next time you see me on IRC ;) )

----

One thing is very important for me: Whatever you think about this compilation -
if you think it's great or awful - essential or useless - PLEASE tell me!

Email your comments/gratulations/thanks/flames to:

  e8925292@student.tuwien.ac.at


For the latest informations and links to MIDI sources and other MIDI WWW pages
visit my new MIDI page in WWW:
  
  http://stud1.tuwien.ac.at/~e8925292/bestmid.htm    or
                                      bestmid.html   (try both)
              


Thank you very much,
                     Gerd.


Gerd R. is a student (but not a representative!) of TU Vienna, Austria, Europe.
You can sometimes find him as 'Powergerd' on channels #GUS and #DooM on IRC.

-----

P.S.: 
Watch out for future add-on packs to the 'Very Best of GUS MIDI' collection ...