Notation Player opens, displays, and plays two types of files: (1) MIDI (.mid) and Karaoke (.kar) files, and (2) Notation (.not) files:

A MIDI file usually has a .mid file name extension.

A Karaoke file is a special type of MIDI file, which has a lyrics track normally intended to be displayed as text without notes. A Karaoke file usually has a .kar file name extension. Most Karaoke playing programs display only the lyrics; but Notation Player displays both the lyrics and the notes. Since a Karaoke is technically only a special type of MIDI file, this Notation Player documentation will sometimes use the terminology MIDI file to refer to both .mid and .kar files.

A Notation file is a song file created by one of Notation Software's products, such as Notation Musician or Notation Composer. A Notation (.not) file contains all of the musical performance data of a MIDI file, plus music notation details that the author enters using one of the Notation programs. Notation Player serves as a free "reader" and "player" of Notation files created by these other products.

Besides serving as a "reader" and "player" of Notation (.not) files, the central feature of Musician is that it can import MIDI and Karaoke files from the Internet, or from another music software program, and transcribe them into music notation with amazing accuracy. When Notation Player imports the MIDI or Karaoke file, it preserves all of the fine details of the musical performance. Even though Notation Player nicely rounds off notes to readable note durations, the underlying exact timings of the notes are preserved and accurately performed by Notation Player during playback.

The topics that follow describe procedures for:

Opening a song file on your system

Viewing the song title and author information

Searching for and downloading MIDI and Notation files from the Internet

Transcribing MIDI files to notation