Hello,

Big problem here, I'm fairly sure that there have been a number of quite different systems that have used .SNG files, each with a quite different structure for saved files. You probably do need to get the original system, if you can.

The only immediate help I can suggest is if you attach one of your .SNG files, you may have to put it into a .ZIP file first. Seeing the file data may give some hints. Or at least see if another system that also uses .SNG will access the file.

Geoff

Oh, and converting to an MP3 is a totally different thing. This is a digital format, totally unlike any sort of midi file. Unless the SNG format you already have is also a sort of digital variant, nothing like a midi file??

Geoff

Update: I did a Google search, and found a similar message to your's on another forum, this also was getting nowhere but a posting there referred to the same software for an Atari. and an Atari forum where it was discussed. I followed to the Atari forum, and there contact was made with someone with the software running on an Atari, and they were able to load and run the .SNG files, and play the midi (?).

I would expect that both PC and Atari versions will use the same internal file system (.SNG).

You might try a similar path?

Geoff

Moreno,

I've downloaded an - old ? - version of the software (v.1.07M) and created an install disk. The files on the disk seem to be OK, but not tried to install yet. The files include a number of .MID files, but there are no .SNG files, so I don't know if this version is any use? The .SNG format may be for internal use only, so the fact there are none on the disk may not be significant. If you could upload one of the .SNG files you want to convert this would still help.

I did something similar with a version of Voyetra a while back, this system handled .MID files but used it's own files as well, they may have been .SNG too. This system allowed the conversion between .MID and .SNG, but I assume a different .SNG format?

Assuming the install works, I'll let you know further.

Geoff

The system I downloaded seems to have installed perfectly from the image floppy onto my XP machine, and it seems to be operating OK.

Yes, the system defaults to .MID files, but also uses 'Studio' files which are .SNG. I'd guess that these store extra information over and above standrd midi. You can easily convert between the two formats by loading as 1, then saving as the other, this is what the Voyetra system did as well.

How would you like to proceed from this point?

Geoff

For information...

I've now tried the version of MidiSoft that I downloaded on my W10 laptop, and while it tries to, it will not run as it's a 32bit applic on a 64bit platform.

I've just been looking at some of the details for the various DOS Virtual systems, most of which enable the running of DOS (16bit even) systems on for example W10. I have used vDOS which works well here. I note there is another system in this family called DOS-BOX-X and this (so says the website) this this variant has further extensions for running early Windows systems (i.e. DOS based Windows) as well. This sounds like it should include the version of MidiSoft that I've referred to above. This could well allow you to run the system you already know and love on your W11 machine. And at least convert the files yourself. I do not know if this will allow linking to midi and hence playing the music? Maybe you could install one of the Virtual Synth systems as well (such as SynthFont). This could be worth trying.

Geoff

Both Geoff and I converted some sng files for someone a while back. But as stated, it depends on which format the sng files are in. Upload your files and we'll have a look. 

If you're curious about the older posts, they can be found here (minus attachments which still haven't been ported over from the old forums :/ )

I downloaded MidiSoft Studio a while back and ran it in a Windows 98 emulator.  Since it's also made by MidiSoft, chances are good that I can open your files and convert them.

https://midi.org/community/creating-with-midi/can-a-file-be-un-corrupted#post-5165

https://midi.org/community/midi-specifications/sng-files-from-voyetra-spg#post-3568

https://midi.org/community/midi-software/turtle-beach-voyetra-digital-orc-plus-sng-conversion-to-mid-file#post-1173

Certainly, here is a test SNG file. I haven't been able to convert it to MIDI in any way.

SNG test

Hello,

I've got your file, and tried to access it.

You don't say what you've tried, so maybe This doesn't help... I've tried to open the file within the version of the software I've got, but is comes up with an error message saying it's not a valid file, so the format of .SNG isn't correct. Doesn't give any indication of what the problem is.

I've used a hex viewer, and the data in the file does not appear to be damaged. All looks viable. I see the actual song name near the top - SECUOLA.SNG. Further down I see 'BASSO' which could be a track header? Significant parts of the data seem to have 'records' of variable length with various (?) standard start/ends, regular use of FF bytes. I see data that might be midi. It could be possible to determine the structure of the file, and extract midi data from it? Hard work though!!

I don't know which versions of the system you've tried, but I would have expected that if it was just a different version of the same system then the prog would have recognised this and given a more helpful message?

I'll look further at the file and see what else I can determine.

By the way, does the .SNG file you have show a date, this might help relative to the dates of versions of MidiSoft.

Geoff

MidiSoft Studio 4.0 for Windows 95 opens the file.  Here's the resulting "Save As" MIDI file.

Jason,

Thanks for doing that. I've tried the mid file playing thru SynthFont, and it sound OK, although it might not have been GM and the instrumentation may not be correct, but it's reasonable. Piece sounds like it's not finished, as in it ends like there should be at least a bit more.

Interesting that the midi file is a LOT shorter than the SNG, so the SNG format must contain a lot of extra information, or is just a LOT less compact. Or both!

Geoff

I've checked via the web, and this version of MidiSoft can be downloaded from the Vetusware site, where it shows as a 1.4Mb .rar file.

Comment uploaded shows that the system installed using W3.1 and DosBox-X.

Geoff