midkar crew


Special Members
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MidKar Founder
Dan West, founder and leader of the Midkar Group, passed away 9/15/2017. Owner/Moderator/Member
Dan West, aka "Wild West" was from California, USA. Dan sequenced original MIDI's in various styles.
Dan was the Founder of "The MIDKAR Yahoo Group" started in April Of 2004. Dan is greatly missed.

Dan on YouTube
Danny on YouTube

MidKar's Grand Poobah!

One of the "Founding Four"! Robert has literally been here since the beginning! Meet Robert Silvestri, aka "Da Mav", from Illinois, USA. After many years of commitment and dedication to the MidKar Group, Bob has retired, and has been bestowed with the titles "MidKar Grand Poobah" & "Lifetime MidKar Owner" by the remaining Co-owners and Moderators.

Still active in the background, he continues to be an active member. Robert was primarily responsible for developing and maintaining the MidKar Web site and promoting The MIDI Community through his relentless and tireless efforts. (BTW, Robert did not write this! LOL We love Bob for his commitment to MidKar!)

Robert on YouTube
Robert on YouTube

Robert's Holiday YouTube
~ Bob on "This Is My Jam" ~ & ~ Robert on Facebook ~
Creator of Timbres of Heaven!
Member Don Allen from Utah, USA, has contributed an entire new method of listening to MIDI with the use of his "Timbres of Heaven" SoundFont. Don has unified MidKar. All members now hear all MIDIs the same! On the SoundFont page, Don explains the use of the method, how to install it, and suggests programs for working with it. Midkar is the sole distributor of Timbres! Thank you Don, for the incredible SoundFont. And for making MidKar the only source to get it!


Don on YouTubeDon"
Don on Facebook
So, what is HOTS!?!
Meet Bob Eldridge, long time Midkar Co-Owner/Moderator/Member from New Jersey, USA. Bob is a retired Math and Science teacher and has been a part time professional musician & singer for many years, specializing in Big Band, Lounge & Wedding Music.

An avid musician and vocalist, he sings in English, Italian, and Spanish. Currently, Bob plays keyboard and sings on Saturday evenings. The music ranges from hits from the 1950's to the present, American Standards from the 1930's through the 60's, Italian, Latin and Brazilian songs, Jazz, and Cabaret style music.

Teacher of Higher Order Thinking Skills Class at Gifted Child Society! HOTS is a class designed for grades 3-5 (there is also a middle school 6-8 class). The focus is using Higher Order Thinking Skills to solve problems. Included are logic puzzles, math puzzles, wordless

(such as "head ache" = splitting headache), toothpick puzzles, dice games, and nim games to name
a few of the activities.

Bob has been an active and contributing MidKar member since it's early beginnings in the early 2000's.
Bob does not currently have a Web site, however he is on Facebook.

Bob on Facebook
Bob"

Get your kicks . . on Route . 66!
Awesome entertainer, pianist and superb singer Nat King Cole . . . umm . . . Wait a minute.
Nat wasn't a MidKar member! But I loved the guy! So . . . in his honor, I will post a special
45 minute long MIDI Medley of his most memorable songs.
(The name of our band is Route 66!)
Nat King Cole
September, 2011
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For those of you who may have visited Les Gorven's MIDI Studio Consortium in the past couple
of years and discovered the site was a 404, we have news for you. Les passed away in February
of 2010 after several years of illness. Jack and I, with the permission of Les' wife, Betty Gorven,
have spent several months restoring the site.

We weren't able to restore it 100% to its original state but we managed to get the majority of it.
There are well over 1,900 MIDI's, many MP3's, Audio, WAV files, and technical information on the site.
Some technical information may be outdated.

Click Les' picture
MidiStudio Consortium
Bob & Jack
Special Member
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Life time member, group Moderator, Co-Owner of The MidKar Group Forum,
Gary Rogers had a MIDI site as well that was loaded with MIDIs, tutorials, and more!
There were 1691 MIDIS on Gary's site! Plus MP3s and tutorials! His site has been re-built
on the MidKar site.

Gary also hosted the MidKar "Can You Guess This Song" game! Every Sunday morning
posted a game, sometimes two! Sadly, Gary passed away June, 2022.

His game goes on, in his memory. Listen to the MIDI, read the hints. Guess the song and artist!

This week's game, 3/13/22, marked the last game of our 10th year!

Next weekend we will be starting our 11th year. In those 10 years we have used about 950
songs! With the exception of a few weeks a year (when I got to play "2nd Chair Host!") Gary
posted his game every week for over 10 years!

Geoffrey Carter and I co-hosted the game for several months. I now host the game once a month.

You can go to Gary's MIDIs right here on MidKar by Clicking Here!
Gary

The Can You Guess This Song Page is linked here! Check it out!
Special Member
Co-Owner/Moderator Team Member, MidKar.com Web site owner, Musician/Sequencer, Wayne (Reed) Knazek, aka "The Net Trainer" from Central Ohio, USA is our connection to the Professional Musician's Guitar & Blues Harp world! Long time MidKar member, Wayne facilitated the change over from the old YahooGroups to our new home with Groups.io. While Wayne will never replace our Grand Poobah, Robert Silvestri, he has stepped up to the plate and now owns and is responsible for, and Webmaster of the MidKar Web site. Wayne contributes sequences (MIDI files) to the group and is always ready to jump in on any theory questions or technical issues. A retired computer programmer and Quality Engineer, he is still a performing musician and produces professional backing tracks.

Wayne also has a Tutorial section on MidKar. Wayne's Corner. There are tutorials, tabs, and backing tracks. Current workshops & lessons include "The 90 Day Guitar Challenge", "MIDI Sequencing 101", "Music Theory 101 Overview", plus many other music, performing and gear related tutorials and backing track supported lessons.

Wayne's Corner

Wayne on Facebook


Wayne Reed & Route 66
Special Member
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Geoffrey Carter, long time MidKar Group Member and prolific MIDI poster! Geoff is originally
from the UK where he was brought up on a diet of Blues, Soul, Reggae and R&B. He worked as a
DJ in the 70s and plays guitar and keyboards. He's been based in Bangkok since 1994, but has
worked in many countries where sequencing became a hobby to pass the time. He produces MIDIs
& Kars in many of the local languages where he has visited. One note of interest: Geoff
sequences many current hits you won't find on ANY other site! How current? Some are
literally STILL ON THE CHARTS!
Geoffrey Carter's Facebook page Geoff's MIDI list of 788 MIDIs.
Special Member
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Meet Dr. James Pitt-Payne, long time MidKar member.

James is our most prolific MIDI sequencer/poster by far!. A retired General Medical
Practitioner living in SE London, he has been sequencing for twenty years since he
had a stroke. This activity began as rehabilitation for his right arm. Disabled in
a health sense, but active in his music endeavors. Dr J is one of the world's most
prolyphic MIDI sequencers!

James has sequenced over 30,000 MIDIs & KARS! He especially enjoys sequencing
entire musicals. His collection includes Ragtime, Novelty Piano, Polka, Cole Porter
style music and much more.

If you enjoy piano instrumentals, if you're looking for KARS! We have Dr. J's MIDIs &
KARS right here!. You could spend a lifetime listening to Dr. J on MidKar! We now have
14,018 MIDIs & 10,482 KARS on site!. (See link below)

Check out Dr. J's MIDI Page right here on MidKar.com!
Dr. James' MidKar MIDIs

Visit Dr. James on Facebook here.

Dr. James' MIDIs & KARs!
(Click his picture!)
MidKar Special Guest Member
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Elan Michaels,

I came to know Elan Michaels by way of Midkar, early in it's younger years. I found him to be a spiritual
man who was deeply devoted to Earth music of peace, tranquility, and spirituality for alternative healing.

It is reflected in his music. I did not have a chance to get to know him better. I wish I had. Just goes to
show you that what you don't do today, you may not have a chance to do it tomorrow.

After a time, Elan granted us permission to use his unique New Age and Native American MIDI, without
charge on Midkar, though Elan never became a member in spite of our requests.

Sadly, Elan passed away in 2019, leaving us his music legacy. Please visit Elan's MidKar MIDI page. His
story is continued there, with a beautiful quote from Elan.

Robert Silvestri, MidKar Co-Founder, Co-Owner, Moderator and Friend


Elan's MidKar MIDI Page

Elan's Personal web Site
Elan's Reverbnation Site
MidKar Special Member

Meet Julie Hill, MidKar Moderator and active member! Julie lives in the USA, and travels back home to Australia annually to spend the Chrismas season with friends and family.

Julie's introduction to MIDI resulted from her getting back into music, after years
away raising her two kids, family life, etc. Julie studied keyboards (organ) as a
child, and started lessons again. As with us all, music fills so many voids!

Julie had this to say about Midkar . . .

"When I discovered the Midkar site I was very impressed as it covered many genres of music and I really think it offers something for everyone. Timbers of Heaven SoundFont, Technical Support and Software, Wayne's Corner with lessons, and tons of MIDIs, KARs and BIAB files! What more could you want!

"Wayne is doing such an amazing job making the site easier for us all to navigate around. And to have our talented members who are creating new MIDIs for us on a daily basis is truly amazing.

"Thank you Midkar and friends! Julie Hill"


And thank you, Julie, for helping MidKar become what it is today!