MFP-DS - MIDI File Player Output for NDS and NDS Lite - Downloadable ROM - 1.31B - (08/13/2026)
A pocketable MIDI file player for real synths. Drop .mid files on an SD card, plug the DIN cable into your gear, press play.
MFP-DS is a hardware MIDI file player for the dual-screen handheld. It reads Standard MIDI Files from SD and plays them out a DIN cable through the slot-2 mDS MIDI cart, to synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, and sound modules. It makes no sound of its own and needs no computer.
The bottom screen is a sixteen-channel touch mixer. Drag faders to set levels, mute and solo during playback, and override program, pan, transpose, and velocity per channel, or route one channel's part onto another. The mix can be saved beside the song and is recalled whenever that file loads. A confirmed reset returns the file to its own mix.
Playback features:
- Full transport with prev/next through the current folder
- Tap anywhere on the progress bar to jump there. Patches, volumes, and controllers are restored automatically, so it always sounds right
- Tempo to two decimals with fine nudge, tap tempo, and one-tap return to the song's own tempo
- Playback modes: single, auto-next, seamless loop one (zero-gap), loop all
- 24 PPQ MIDI clock out that follows the song, so a drum machine can sync to it
- Play-along soft thru with channel remap.
- Per-song SysEx control. Send the reset dump where it helps, skip it where it hurts
The top screen shows either the monitor (a live trace of the MIDI stream, a throughput meter, and per-channel activity) or a full-screen visualizer (notes placed by pitch over sixteen velocity bars), switched with a shoulder button. Transmission errors are always displayed on both.
The playback scheduler is isolated from the interface, so screen drawing, SD reads, and page changes do not affect timing. Every build is tested against a software simulation of the full signal path before release.
Plays SMF type 0 and 1, up to 32 tracks, unlimited length. Files stream, so nothing is ever loaded whole. Settings persist across power-off.
Requires the slot-2 mDS MIDI cart, a flashcart with SD, and a synth on the other end of a MIDI cable.
Other features:
- Plays SMF 0/1 from SD to real hardware over DIN MIDI
- 16 touch faders: volume, mute, solo, live, mid-song
- Per-channel program, pan, transpose, velocity, and routing
- Per-song settings saved beside the file, recalled on load
- Seek anywhere in a song; sounds and settings restore automatically
- Tempo to 0.1 BPM, tap tempo, instant return to file tempo
- Seamless zero-gap loop mode
- 24 PPQ clock out, synced to the song
- Soft thru with channel remap for play-along keyboards
- Wire monitor with live byte scope and throughput meter
- Full-screen note visualiser
- Hardware panic button that silences everything instantly