Midi Related Glitches

Messing Up a Website's BGM Midi
If a website that uses a midi as background music is opened in too many tabs, the music will begin to conflict and eventually, notes will begin to hang.

Sadly, this glitch can no longer be done since BGM midi support isn't supported by most Browsers anymore (IE just opens a midi in Media Player, Chrome just downloads the midi instead, etc.)

Microsoft Powerpoint - Piano Midi Glitch
If a midi file is inserted into Powerpoint, is edited with "Custom Animations" using the "Timing" option, and then the "Effect" tab, and then the "Start Playing" option is changed to say "From Time", any time set after 0:00 will make the midi's instruments (excluding Drums) load as Grand Acoustic Pianos. The Drums will load with the default Drumkit.

This likely happens because Powerpoint doesn't give the file chance to load its instrument information.

Video: Sorry, no video is available online yet...

Midi Hangs Upon Stopping Playback
In Windows 98 SE, if using Windows Media Player & are using a DreamBlaster Synth S1 General MIDI soundcard, if a midi file is stopped, the last notes that were playing will hang infinitely.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJrlgFL_TjE

It is possible that this also happens on other Windows OSes using this soundcard.

Windows Media Player 12 Incorrectly Plays Certain Midis
For some reason, Windows Media Player 12 will not play certain midi files properly; usually, this happens with drums, but it can happen to instruments too. It isn't the soundcard either, as using another Midi playing/editing program to play the midi on, such as Anvil Studio, makes the file play like normal.

An example is "europe-final_countdown.mid": there should be an intro using the Gunshot instrument. However, it refuses to play them in Windows Media Player 12. Playing it with Anvil Studio made it play how it should do:

Proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQZvZOxHxUs - Here, the Gunshots don't play, as the audio was recorded from Windows Media Player 12.

Proof 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqzgQjEjRrU - The same default Windows soundcard (Roland Sound Canvas GM/GS) is being used here, but because it is open in a different player, the Gunshot sounds play. Note that the midi is drowned in reverb here.

Incorrect Timing (Skipping Midi)
Some soundcards may struggle to keep up with the midi and will make it "skip".

A Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital (SB0220) does it while playing Passport.mid here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSZlqvDopVQ

Note Cuts Out During Playback
Sometimes, a midi file's instruments may cut out. This annoying glitch tends to happen more often with midi files that contain loads of Pads, FXs and String Instruments at once. But it can happen to ANY instrument during playback even on a fast computer.

An example here:

Passport.mid being played on a Gravis Ultrasound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiQXRvbHbMQ

Notice the Midi's instruments cutting out at 0:41 in the video?

Here's what it should sound like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgkxW_YT6Og

The instrument doesn't cut out at 2:44 unlike the other video above this one.

Drums are NOT safe either!

In this video of Canyon being played with a Roland Sound Canvas GM/GS (Soundcard for Windows ME-Windows 10), the drums at the end of the midi cut out in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FI3MW_3MBw&t=114

Here is what it is supposed to sound like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIW4F285QjA&t=114

Out of Tune Piano Tracks on Older Midis
Some older midi files contain out of tune Grand Acoustic Piano tracks. This Out of Tune Piano instruments trend occurs commonly in most Windows 3.0 Midis.

Using midi editing software, changing the track number of these piano tracks to 10 reveals that these piano tracks were once an extra set of drums.

However, in the case of Reggae.mid, the "Applause" track is actually a drum track that has, for some strange reason, been changed into a different instrument other than a piano.

The midi files that have these out of tune piano tracks that were once drums are: An Anonymous User explains why this occurs on the Reggae.mid page in the comments section:
 * Yosemite (Has an empty Acoustic Grand Piano track; may have had an extra drum set)
 * Canyon (Alternative Version) - It appears to have been removed from the newer versions on Win95
 * Passport (Alternative Version) - It appears to have been removed from the newer versions on Win95
 * Most of the Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions MIDIs (Almonds, Dreamy, Someband, Metblast & both versions of Stomp)
 * Three of the the demo midis from Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16 (Jazz, Ballade & Reggae). since Minuet is nothing but Grand Acoustic Piano tracks, and not one is an unused drum track.
 * jbelrock (A Christmas Midi from the Project Britain Online Advent Calendar)

"The "Applause" track in this midi is actually another drum track that is set to regular sound bank instead of drum bank, just like the out of tune piano tracks that appear in lots of similar midis.

It seems to us there's a reason lots of these old midis have these drum tracks that play with piano or another wrong sound: in all of these files the additional drum track lies on channel 16, with channels 13, 14, and 15 providing a stripped down instrumentation of channels 1-10.

So what this looks like is this: the sound card that is supposed to play the file should either recognize channels 1-10 as "the song" and ignore any channel beyond 10; or it should alternatively use only channels 13-16 (16 being drum track) and ignore everything else. Maybe there were sound cards around that could not play more than 4 channels.

Also it is notable that in each of these files channels 13-16 don't have any pan setting, and even the drum track 16 is simplified compared to track 10. We observed this whole pattern in many of these midis, however the reasons for this are only guesswork. We would like to learn more about the actual sound cards of the time and their performance/limitations."

Anvil Studio - Midi Changes to Piano
Sometimes, while playing back a midi and then flicking between the screens (such as looking at the Midi Comments), the midi will glitch out and then begin playing some instruments as pianos.

This will fix itself if the midi is stopped or if the midi loops.

Video: Sorry, no video is available online yet...

MIDI Out Dies in Maschine
A major glitch where if a Midi file is played for too long in Maschine, everything but the Drums will suddenly stop working, and there is no way to get them to work again. This glitch has apparently not been patched.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEZCjff30Q8

MIDI Out Dies by Freezing a Track in Logic Version 10.3.2
If a Midi track is frozen in Logic Version 10.3.2 if a Velocity Midi Plugin has been enabled, the midi will play nothing but silence. The video shows the glitch, and a work around for it:

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28E9mOe6AGU

FL Studio - Midi Loads with Incorrect Instruments
There is a YouTube video showing off Yakety Sax.mid in FL Studio, but the midi file in the actual video has been messed up by a glitch in FL Studio, causing all instruments to be Grand Acoustic Pianos. The track names are displayed correctly, however.

This glitch is caused by using the incorrect midi importing setting to load up the midi file.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsGaF8_V25E