Want some handy MIDI tools, check out our chat with Günter Nagler - the man behind GNMIDI.

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Günter Nagler recently won one of the webmasters' prizes in Hitsquad.com's $10,000 Computer Music Competition. His site www.gnmidi.com is a treasure trove for any MIDI fan. Not only is there a heap of software on the site, but quite a number of MIDI files as well. We dropped in on Günter and asked him a few questions about himself and his site. Q. You've got several programs listed on Shareware Music Machine, what motivated you to make these programs?
I am a professional software programmer and programmed many DOS freeware tools. DOS commandline programs are not so easy to use for novice computer users, so many wished that I write Windows software. For long time I did not want to do this because I hated Windows programming. Later the developer studios became better and it was easier to integrate the DOS utilities into Windows programs like GNMIDI. It is more work than programming DOS software so I offered it as inexpensive Shareware.

Q. Do you get a lot of feedback from your users?
Yes, many users find my site http://www.gnmidi.com with help of Shareware Music Machine and are impressed by the huge list of selfmade midi tools, most of them are freeware. The software is stable so I am glad that I get nearly no error reports. Many users send ideas for new tools.

Q. How did you first get interested in programming and music?
Multimedia programming is my job. I studied flute, accordion, keyboard by myself, not perfect but good enough for hobby.

Q. Do you play in any bands?
No, I play only at home with my interactive music workstation Korg i30. I started composing music some years ago with my Korg i3 keyboard. My first audio cd "Interactive Love" was produced in 1998, demo clips are available at http://www.gnmidi.com, some songs won already in midi song contests and 4 songs were played in local radio.

Q. What software - that you made yourself - are you proud of most?
GNMIDI (midi tools) and GNIStyle (Korg style editor) are very successful. Both were already described in magazines with good comments. I think I am most proud of GNIStyle because Korg itself now uses the software to produce professional styles and recommends it to Korg i-series keyboard owners.

Q. What is your favourite music software?
I like to print out my compositions with Shareware NoteWorthy Composer.

Q. Where do you think music is heading?
It is an important part in my life

Q. Are you currently working on any musical or software projects?
Extending GNMIDI with more useful tools takes much time, registered users can use these updates for free.

 

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