[kelvie]

Could media player actually just play midi dumps like this back in the day?

I've been on Linux for so long now, that being able to just play a MIDI file without making a bunch of decisions about soundfonts and synthesizers [1] just seems mind-blowing to me now.

Part of me wishes that just by default, mpv or something would just pick a softsynth and just play it (like WMP here) rather than have me install a separate program, pick a sound font, invoke it in some weird way to let it know what soundfont I want, and not even be able to seek back and forth.

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/MIDI#List_of_SoundFonts

[TazeTSchnitzel]

Windows and macOS have both bundled similar low-quality licensed versions of a Roland GS sample set and low-quality software synthesisers since the late 1990's. Neither of them are as good as even the lowest-end dedicated hardware General MIDI synth from Roland was, but they're still better than nothing. You're unlucky because you happen to be using Linux. unfortunately the best in that field was and remains proprietary so this will probably never be solved on that platform.

[dleslie]

Yes, and sharing midi files was commonplace before mp3s took over. Mid and mod, what an era.

[tripflag]

mods are still alive, and crazier than ever -- proof that 4 channels is all you need! https://www.stef.be/bassoontracker/?file=ma-205456

[saint_yossarian]

Yes, there was even a <bgsound> HTML tag to play MIDI files, which was heavily used in places like Geocities.