What happened to MIDI sites?

[pushedbutton]

I seem to find it a lot harder these days to find free pro quality midi files.
Anyone recommend any good midi sources? I'd consider buying one of those ebay offers but I know they're probably going to be disappointing.

Anyhow, Midi, discuss.

[esselfortium]

What sort of midi files are you seeking out? Midi files have gone down in popularity over the past decade, but there's still some activity in places that have a use for midis.

There are loads of fantastic original compositions coming out of musicians in the classic Doom community, well worth hearing IMO! I find it a shame that the collective consciousness has associated "midi" with "tone-deaf Eiffel 65 covers", because the GM instrument set is capable of some incredibly moving work in the hands of someone who knows their way around it.

If you're interested in high-quality original midi compositions, the works of James Paddock and Stuart "stewboy" Rynn would be great places to start. I also do a lot of midi composing myself, and I've had the honor of working with both of them on Back to Saturn X.

James Paddock - Within Reach
James Paddock - Liquid Luck
James Paddock - Weather Warning

Esselfortium - Womp
Esselfortium - Lost City
Esselfortium - Ether

[pushedbutton]

Well to be honest what I'm looking for is a reliable source of midi that might be used as a project starter. Quite often this means something that is bang up to date and sometimes it's something from the past few decades. There was a time when you could pretty much find a midi version of  anything in the pop charts but these days overzealous copyright rules have scared many of the hobbyists away. The people I work with can be pretty fickle so I'm reluctant to just go buying tracks from hittrax to see the idea abandoned the following week.

[Namahs Amrak]

I recently went looking for a few MIDI files. Once was to create a vintage synth psytrance version of Stairway to Heaven, and another was to get some inspiration from the bassline of Exodus by Bob Marley. In both instances I simply used google to search for the specific files I wanted and found some within seconds. With the increased power of google search, trawling through individual websites looking for that elusive thing is getting easier by the day.

[pushedbutton]

Well even more recently I have come to the conclusion that something happened around March last year to make doing that less of a sure thing. So ner.