According to Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections the technical note RP-029, "Bundling SMF and DLS data in an 'RMID' File" was published by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) in 2000.
It was available at http://www.midi.org long time ago, but not anymore. Indeed, the document "rp29spec(rmid).pdf" can be read in the "Wayback Machine" at http://web.archive.org following the link provided by the Library Of Congress.
I can understand that the format is deprecated, and should not be used anymore to produce new content in favor of other alternatives like XMF. Anyway, the access to the official specification is interesting for digital preservation, so existing files in RMID format can be decoded and played in the future on new machines and Operating Systems. Maybe it can be published here again, perhaps with a prominent "deprecated" marking on it?
Second question. I am developing read-only support for RMID in my open source Drumstick libraries, and I want to test it. There are many examples of RMID files on the Internet. A few were included in several Windows editions. But I have never found a single example bundling SMF and DLS together. All of the examples I've accessed have SMF alone. Please, can someone provide one? Maybe Geoff?
Thanks!
It was available at http://www.midi.org long time ago, but not anymore. Indeed, the document "rp29spec(rmid).pdf" can be read in the "Wayback Machine" at http://web.archive.org following the link provided by the Library Of Congress.
I can understand that the format is deprecated, and should not be used anymore to produce new content in favor of other alternatives like XMF. Anyway, the access to the official specification is interesting for digital preservation, so existing files in RMID format can be decoded and played in the future on new machines and Operating Systems. Maybe it can be published here again, perhaps with a prominent "deprecated" marking on it?
Second question. I am developing read-only support for RMID in my open source Drumstick libraries, and I want to test it. There are many examples of RMID files on the Internet. A few were included in several Windows editions. But I have never found a single example bundling SMF and DLS together. All of the examples I've accessed have SMF alone. Please, can someone provide one? Maybe Geoff?
Thanks! 
Oi, Pedro - why pick on me?
Never heard of RMID files.
However, a quick Google finds details of the ASUS SoundMax system, which appears to support RMD files (prob the normal extension used rather than the full RMID). Looking at the manual for this system, I see reference to DLS files (which are a separate file version of the DLS component) and RMD files (which contain BOTH midi and DLS data). There is a screen illustrated for selecting the .RMD or .DLS file. Maybe the complete installation file contains examples of both? I'd think something would be needed to at least test the system.. The system might well NOT work without the necessary hardware (this is I think some sort of Synth card) but the files might be accessible?
I'll have a further dig. Also more search for .RMD rather than .RMID?
Any of this any help???
Geoff
Never heard of RMID files.
However, a quick Google finds details of the ASUS SoundMax system, which appears to support RMD files (prob the normal extension used rather than the full RMID). Looking at the manual for this system, I see reference to DLS files (which are a separate file version of the DLS component) and RMD files (which contain BOTH midi and DLS data). There is a screen illustrated for selecting the .RMD or .DLS file. Maybe the complete installation file contains examples of both? I'd think something would be needed to at least test the system.. The system might well NOT work without the necessary hardware (this is I think some sort of Synth card) but the files might be accessible?
I'll have a further dig. Also more search for .RMD rather than .RMID?
Any of this any help???
Geoff
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Oi, Pedro - why pick on me?
Because you are often involved in discussions about MIDI files in this forum. Many thanks for your help!
I'll have a further dig. Also more search for .RMD rather than .RMID?
The usual extension is ".RMI", although I've found many files with .MID extension that are RMID files in fact. Some programs, like Windows Media Player, can play both formats and don't care about the file extension. I don't think that .RMD files have anything to do with it, though.
One example of this file type is https://midis.fandom.com/wiki/Dance_of_the_Sugar-Plum_Fairy.RMI , a Tchaikovsky composition that was included in several old Windows editions.
Hi folks - late to the party, but I found a tiny stash of 15 DLS-embedded RMI files on archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/RIFF-MIDI-DLS
It's too bad this was not more widely adopted.
https://archive.org/details/RIFF-MIDI-DLS
It's too bad this was not more widely adopted.
Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas
marked this post as Resolved — 7 months ago
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