Trip Through the Grand Canyon

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Trip Through the Grand Canyon
Output - MIDI.svg
Output - OPL3.svg
Output - OPL3.svg
Composer George Stone
Arranger George Stone
Released 1990-??-??
Length 2:02.41
BPM 170
Format MIDI.png
Game Windows 3 (DOS)

Trip Through the Grand Canyon is a MIDI song composed by George Stone in 1990 when he was the chief MIDI Producer for Passport Designs. The song became popular because of its inclusion in Windows when it was first released with Windows 3.0 with Media Extensions and was included in most of the Windows releases up until 2000.

The song has a very interesting history. George Stone originally composed the song for Passport Designs for their various programs, but when the company was going out of business, they sent the MIDI file to Microsoft to try and keep running. George wasn't even aware about the use of his song until he was told about it. Stone tried to acquire the rights to the song, but unfortunately, Passport Designs had already given the rights to the song to Microsoft, and he had previously signed a contract with Passport Designs granting them the exclusive rights to the song. George tried to contact Microsoft in a final effort to at least get credit on the song, but by this time, Passport Designs was already owned by G-Vox and George decided not to bother with the issue any longer.

Ironically, this iconic Windows song was composed on the Macintosh program, Master Tracks Pro.

George said this about the song:

Trip through the Grand Canyon was made exclusively on Passport Master Tracks Pro sequencing software using a Roland MT32 and later Roland Sound Canvas Module. I was sequencing back then on the hottest computer available: A Mac SE30 with a 30 MB hard drive and. . .a RAM upgrade from 1 MB to 2 MB. Unbelievable.

Games

Windows 3 (DOS)

Platform - W16.png
Windows 3 (DOS)
Windows 3 - DOS - Media Player.png
Released 1990-??-??

Because the game was released when sound cards were still in their infancy, the song has been recorded using both MIDI and AdLib sequencers, both of which were popular at the time.

Chip's Challenge (W16)

Platform - W16.png
Chip's Challenge (W16)
Chip's Challenge - W16 - 1.png
Released 1992-??-??

If you play Chip's Challenge (W16) when CANYON.MID is in the Windows folder, the game will add the file into its rotation of game music.

File Location

The CANYON.MID file is installed in different locations for different versions of Windows. See the table below to help locate the file.

Windows Version Path
3.0 and prior Not included
3.0 (With Multimedia Extensions) \Windows
3.1 \Windows
3.11 \Windows
95 \Windows\Media
98 \Windows\Media
ME Not included
NT 3.1 \WinNT\Media
NT 3.5 \WinNT\Media
NT 3.51 \WinNT\Media
NT 4 Not included
2000 \WinNT\Media
XP and later Not included

Links