Trinity Hymnal Music Collection

Revised 10/24/2001 by W. H. Bacon

This disk contains 3 files:

Th1.exe - A self-extracting archive of MIDI hymns for Windows
Th1.sit - A self-extracting archive of MIDI hymns for Macintosh
Readme.html - This text file which contains instructions for use.

The MIDI files use the sound card in your PC to play hymns using the MIDI format.

Most PCs have Windows Media Player as part of Windows 95/98 etc. I have not tried these on a Mac, but they should work fine with Mac MIDI players.

At a minimum, your sound card needs to support MIDI. You will harm nothing by trying to play a MIDI file. If your sound card does not support MIDI, inexpensive sound cards can be purchased and installed in your PC.

You can also purchase external MIDI interfaces that connect to the Serial, Parallel or USB ports on your PC. The MIDI interface can then be connected to MIDI-capable instruments such as keyboard synthesizers, organs or pianos.

The default instrument is used by the hymn files. The default instrument is a piano. Other instruments can be selected and played using the included "inst" files.

Be sure you can hear audio from the system when running other programs before trying to get this software working. You can edit these files using a MIDI editor such as Cakewalk.

To use this disk:

Put the disc in the appropriate drive.
On the WIN95/98 task bar, select START, RUN, BROWSE
1. Select the drive letter for your drive.
2. Double click on TH1.EXE
3. Answer the prompts and select UNZIP.
4. This file will be extracted to a directory on your hard disk: c:\music\hymns\th1. (If the suggested destination directory is not where you want the files to be stored, be sure to change it.) Each file starting with "Th1" and ending in ".MID" is a hymn file.
5. Follow this step in the future to update the hymn files. Overwrite existing files to ensure that any debugged files are updated.
Remove the disk from your drive and keep it in a safe place.
Run Windows Media Player or other jukebox software (obtainable separately).

Select FILE, OPEN.
Select C:\MUSIC\HYMNS\TH1
Select a hymn number by pointing to it.
Double click on it to play it, or follow the Help for your player. You can use the buttons just like a CD or VCR player to start, stop and continue the music.

Instrument files.

Files starting with "Inst" and ending in ".MID" can be "played" to set your sound card's instruments to something other than the default instrument.
Select the instrument file and doubleclick on it to play it. You will only hear a very short burst of noise.
Now select and play a hymn.
Unless your MIDI player software resets the instruments to the default piano, you should be able to hear the hymn played by the newly-selected instruments.

All hymns have the number of verses in the original Trinity Hymnal plus one (an introduction verse), and the amen at the end. The music is in 5 parts:
1. Channel 1: Right hand (Soprano/Alto)
2. Channel 2: Left hand (Tenor/Bass)
3. Channel 4: Pedal (Bass down 1 octave)
The first verse has a one beat rest after you start playback. This is to allow modification of the file to include additional instrument patches to be set up, should you have the necessary software.
Tempos are fixed, and hopefully not too fast or too slow. Again, with the appropriate MIDI editing software, you can adjust the tempo to suit your congregation.
Multiple tunes

Second Tune hymns have an "s" appended to the hymn number.
Third Tunes have a "t" appended to the hymn number.
Fourth Tunes have an "f" appended to the hymn number.
The first tune in multiple tune hymns uses only the hymn number. For example: hymn 77, third tune is: Th1_077t.mid; Hymn 77, first tune is: Th1_077.mid

This is a work-in-progress. Please tell me about "bugs" (the rest of the world calls them errors; we call them another effect of the fall). E-mail the information to me: whbacon@snet.net. Tell me the hymn number and the approximate position in the hymn, and the verse (if it only occurs in one verse).
To get better sounding audio, you can connect the output of your PC's sound card to an unused LINE input of your stereo system. LINE inputs are where Cassette, CD or VCR components connect their audio to the amplifier, usually using "RCA" connectors. You'll be surprised at the difference it makes.
To play a group of songs at the right time in worship requires practice. A few tips:

Create a subdirectory for the hymns you will play during the service.
Using Explorer, copy the hymns from the main directory into this new directory.
You can rename them to put them in the order you will play them, for example:
1_Th1_004.mid
2_Th1_Dox1.mid
3_Th1_319.mid
This also makes it less confusing—only a few hymns to worry about.
Be sure to copy, not move, the hymns.
Some MIDI players have a mode that can be set to halt play after each hymn and wait for a keypress. Selecting this mode is the most "goof-proof" method.

The files were created by scanning in each page from the hymn book and then using "Smartscore" software to recognize the music and create a MIDI version of the image. The notes were then checked for accuracy. Finally, Cakewalk software was used to add the pedal line, add phrasing breaks, extend held notes, add verses and add randomness to the start and end of each note to make it sound a little less mechanical.
For technical questions or to order disks, contact Bill Bacon (email and postal addresses below).

In Christ's service,

Elder William H. Bacon
Westminster Orthodox Presbyterian Church
565 Shepard Ave.
Hamden, CT 06514-1603