Firstly, much love and respect to all the MIDI creators out there. As someone who learns to play by ear you make my life so much easier, it's great to be able to pick a piece apart and learn each line separately.

Question: how the heck do you do what you do? Do you transcribe an entire piece by ear? If so, then you have my undying respect. I'm able to learn most things merely by listening, but there are some things that I'd never be able to figure out - for example: in "It's Difficult to Stand on Oppressed People" from FF VII there's that counterpoint line (I don't know how best to describe it - in my cover it's the "wah" guitar - if that helps) which is an E flat and E note played simoultaneously (as a composer, I never would've thought to use two notes right next to each other, it shouldn't work but somehow it does!) I just don't know how you guys work this stuff out, but I'm so glad you do!

Same thing goes for you who write sheet music and tabs.

I just write down what I hear, also does trial and error. On some systems, such as the SNES or the Playstation, it's possible to use a tool to individually mute channels which sometimes makes the task MUCH easier.

There is also tools to slow down a song without altering the pitch (the quality is very altered though), but it helps sometimes when very quick notes are here.

 Ah, I suspected it was a combination of learning by ear and some technological trickery! At times I have noticed some minor mistakes in midi files (some that I'm certain of, others that I could be mistaken about - sometimes I disagree with a flat or sharp note) - though none in yours, Bregalad! ;)

Thanks for the info.

I have to confess to using Bregalad's trick for the complex Diminished and Augmented arrangements and the super-fast, ultra-ultra legato arrangements (ie: Zeromus / Gilgamesh); but mostly it's by ear whenever possible.  Having been both a lead and backup singer, melodies, countermelodies, harmony structures, etc., have always come kind of easy for me (not to brag).

ZSNESW is a fantastic Emulation download with the ability to slow down the sountrack and play each instrument track individually.  Highly reccomended for MIDI programmer cheaters like myself!

 Awesome, thanks for the info, CabbitSD!