hey haijinks, and welcome to Reaper.
Glad you're making some headway. MIDI can be a challenge, especially when you're using a file you found on the net.
A MIDI file doesn't make sound on its own, it only contains instructions that tell an instrument how/what to play. Kinda like a player piano roll.
To make things worse, not all MIDI files are standarized, and you can get unexpected results with many of them. Also, most of them don't have sounds for every key, so it's like having a piano where only a handful of keys are actually connected to notes. If you play a key that doesn't have a note attached, you get no sound.
They came up with the General MIDI Standard to try to fix this, but not all MIDI files follow the standard.
Anyway, there are free virtual instruments that allow you to load sounds that will play MIDI files. SFZ is a good one that works with soundfonts. Might be worth trying.
teej
__________________
It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna hafta serve somebody.
__________________
|