If you've got a 16 bit version of a tune, but you need an 8 bit version (why - less data?) then why not just convert the file? Something like Audactity can prob do that? I know that the little MS utility that comes with Windows XP will do this, the prog is called SNDREC32.EXE, bacause I've used this to convert some files between different .WAV formats. You just load in the 16 bit .WAV, and then save it again as an 8 bit version. Clearly the quality will be a lot less, but the file/data is a LOT smaller. Note that different versions of this prog do different things, so I'm sure it's the XP version you should try. The W7 version doesn't allow any conversion, but may have some other pluses?
Also, if you managed to create some midi files from .WAV files, I'd be interested in seeing the resultant file - mess of piano notes notwithstanding. Might be the 'mess' of notes could be 'un-messed'? A lot easier than starting from scratch? For this forum, zip up the file(s) and attach, if you can?
Oh, on my XP machine, the prog referred to above is in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 and is about 131k in size. Different version of windows have different versions. NB, the prog I have from XP works fine on a W7 laptop, and I think that the W7 prog worked under XP. The XP prog will RECORD for 60 seconds only, but I think it will load more. The W7 prog will RECORD for much longer, but no convert options.
Geoff