The LTC or MIDI timecode decoded from a MagicQ MIDI/Timecode interface or from Winamp can be retransmitted over the network as Art-Net timecode. This can then be received by any MagicQ console on the network even if it does not have a MIDI/SMPTE interface - just set the timecode input type to ArtNet. Download free plugins for Winamp in Output category, all Winamp plugins directory on WinampHeritage.com.
Thursday, January 26, 2017: Suppose I should mention that since my latest system in 2012, I haven't had a Sound Blaster installed. I do still have the Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro; however, it's not in anything.
Finally getting around to updating this page. I decided to just call this my Sound Blaster page since the particular model of Sound Blaster I have changes over time. I've had the Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16ASP w/ Wave Blaster, Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold, Sound Blaster Live!, Sound Blaster Audigy (Ok, well technically Gateway's Sound Blaster Audigy card but it's the same thing really), and now a Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro!
This page will be devoted to the Sound Blaster cards which allow you to load your own SoundFont banks into RAM on the cards and/or system memory. I will only put MIDI files on this page which require a SoundFont to be loaded to sound correct. Any General MIDI files which do not require a SoundFont will be placed on my MIDI page.
Converted MOD Files
To try and learn more about SoundFonts, the AWE64, and the Vienna SF Studio 2.1 software, I have converted a few MOD files into MIDI files. I took the samples in the MOD files and converted them to SoundFonts. Obviously, using a MOD player which supported loading the samples into the AWE's memory directly would be better; however, the only one I've found so far gives an Err 09 and then closes. So, if you have a Windows MOD player designed for an AWE, let me know!
Winamp Midi
| ZIP size | Axel-F Theme | 51 KB | 110 KB | Since the MOD file did not have any special effects, this sounds pretty much exactly like the MOD file. |
| Courtouchka! | 154 KB | 317 KB | This is one of my most favorite MOD files. I decided to convert this to learn how to make SoundFonts. This has some very good heavy metal sounding guitar samples. Update 1/1/2006: The X-Fi pointed out some flaws in the instrument samples which caused crackling and pops. I have corrected the sound samples so that it plays properly on the X-Fi and have uploaded the corrected version. | |
| Humanoid | 85 KB | 172 KB | This contains HUMANOID.MID, which uses the SoundFont and HUMANGM.MID, which uses General MIDI instruments. Shows you how the two different MOD to MIDI converters I've located convert a file. | |
| Major Tom | 68 KB | 131 KB |
Programs
| File | Size | Description |
| Winamp MIDI Plugin | ||
|---|---|---|
| 65 KB | This is an older Winamp in_midi.dll plugin file which supports auto-loading of SoundFont files. First, make a backup copy or rename the current in_midi.dll file in your WinampPlugins folder and then copy this DLL file into your WinampPlugins directory. Next, in Winamp, go to the Input Plug-in preferences and select the Winamp2 MIDI plug-in v2.63b and click Configure. In the Device tab, set the Device to something like midiOut / SB Audigy Synth A [DF80]. In the SoundFont tab, make sure Disable SoundFont Support is NOT checked and that Autoload SF2 files is checked with the Bank set to 1. Bank 1 seems to the be the most popular setting. Dec 31, 2009: As of Winamp version 5.571, this plug-in still works with a Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro in Windows XP. Jul 10, 2013: As of Winamp version 5.64, this plug-in still works as far as playing MIDI files in Windows 7. Apr 4, 2020: Thought I should mention that I have been running Windows 10 for a few months and mostly use the WACUP (WinAmp Community Update Project) player now. Actually, never installed Winamp itself into it. I never bothered with the version Radionomy made. I should also mention that the auto-loading SoundFont ability of this plug-in will only work with Sound Blaster and compatible cards. I have only used it up to the Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro in Windows XP. Anything beyond that I can't say with any certainty. | |
| MOD to MIDI Converters | ||
| 130 KB | This is a DOS program which will convert 4-channel MOD file into 4-track MIDI files. Thus, each track contains many patch changes. So far, I have had to transpose each track up by 8 semi-tones for it to sound correct. Of these two converters, this yields the best results; however, since each track has many patch changes, it's difficult to change them to General MIDI instruments (if you didn't want to use a SoundFont). | |
| 222 KB | This is an old Windows 3.X program which uses VBRUN200.DLL (included). It separates each sample of a 4-channel MOD file to be on it's own track in the MIDI file. Thus, only one Patch Change is needed per track. This makes it easier to assign General MIDI instruments if so desired and for transposing the percussion tracks to match the right notes. However, it doesn't seem to convert some files correctly. It will create a track for an instrument, but won't have any note information to go along with it. Also, seems to be more work involved transposing the tracks. | |
Methods of playing MIDI files using custom soundbanks, without the use of a music sequencing application.
Tags:Audio, MIDI
Posted: 6 March 2011
Contents
Background
Back in the 90’s, MIDI was at the peak of its popularity. Scheda ethernet admtek basata su an983 driver. The format was favoured due to its relatively low computational overhead, which suited the limited hardware of the day, as well as the small filesizes that made it ideal for transferring over the internet.
However, the nature of MIDI somewhat limited the potential of the format, since composers had no control over what end users actually heard. The final sound depended on the soundbanks (collections of pre-recorded samples) that the user’s synthesiser or sound card used for playback, which were often low-quality and rarely sounded the same as those used by the composer.
In order to extend the format’s potential and facilitate better results, several organisations worked on developing file formats that would allow composers to create their own custom soundbanks, which could then be loaded by MIDI synthesisers, to ensure the end user heard exactly what the composer had intended. Download acr1281 1s dual reader bus driver driver.
This solution offered increased flexibility, and was actually rather reminiscent of module music, a format which contained samples and instrument instructions in the one file (and which I happen to have a bit of a soft spot for, see my article on MOD music.)
Though several different formats of soundbanks surfaced, the two notable formats are Creative’s SoundFont and MMA’s Downloadable Sounds (DLS). SoundFont took off and gained a large following, whereas DLS, which never gained any sizeable momentum, is ironically the format supported natively by the synthesisers built into both Windows and Mac OS X.
Solution Applies To…
The SoundFont format, due to its popularity, is well supported by the open source community, and can be utilised under most operating systems.
However, as far as DLS goes, you’re stuck with using Windows or Mac OS X. I’ve been unable to find a cross-platform solution that supports DLS files, so Linux users will have to stick to SoundFont files.
Cross-Platform Solution for SoundFont files
If you want to play MIDI files with SoundFont soundbanks, it’s easy to do so using the excellent cross-platform VLC Media Player, which utilises the FluidSynth library to do the synthesising. As it turns out, VLC is actually incapable of playing MIDI files without first loading a SoundFont, so these instructions may already be familiar to you if you’re a VLC user:
Winamp Midi
- Open the VLC preferences dialog, ensuring that the view is set to display All settings, not the Simple view.
- Drill down through the hierarchy as so: Input / Codecs -> Audio codecs -> FluidSynth.
- Browse to the *.sf2 SoundFont file you wish to use
If VLC isn’t your cup of tea, or you want to enable MIDI playback for all applications under Linux, SoundFont files are also supported by the somewhat less user-friendly Timidity++, which can be configured as a local MIDI server. There are some instructions here.
Both of these applications can output to a file, so either one can be used for converting MIDI files.
QuickTime under Mac OS X or Windows
Apple’s QuickTime, available under Windows and Mac OS X, supports both SoundFont and DLS files for the synthesis of MIDI files. Better yet, since iTunes utilises QuickTime and also has a feature to convert MIDI files, by changing the soundbank used by QuickTime you are changing the soundbank used by iTunes for MIDI conversion.
These instructions are simplified from those found here, which covers this topic fairly well.
- Copy the soundbank file(s) you want to use to the relevant directory, depending on operating system:
- Under OS X, it’s
/Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks - Under Windows, it’s
C:/Program Files/QuickTime/QTSystem
- Under OS X, it’s
- Open the QuickTime control panel applet, under Windows, or the QuickTime preferences, under Mac OS X, and locate the option to change the soundbank / instrument set. Select the one that you want, and confirm if necessary.
Bear in mind that the soundbank(s) will be listed by the name embedded in the file, not the filename itself, so soundbanks that have no embedded name information may just show up as ‘Instrument Set’.
Incidentally, it seems that QuickTime can have difficulties with certain soundbanks. When attempting to perform these steps under Windows with a couple of the soundbanks I had on hand, using a SoundFont file from HammerSound produced no sound, whilst using one of my DLS files actually crashed the QuickTime player. (Attempting to convert a MIDI file using iTunes yielded the same results, as expected.)
In order to confirm that it was my soundbank files that were the culprit, I copied GM.DLS (the default Windows MIDI soundbank) to the QuickTime folder, and when using that everything worked fine. Based on this, all I can say is that your mileage may vary.
Windows-only Solution #1: Winamp MIDI Plugin and DirectSound
The Windows-only media player Winamp has a plugin to enable MIDI input. The plugin is bundled with the player, but needs to be explicitly enabled during the installation process.
Once the player is installed with the MIDI plugin enabled, only two settings need to be modified in the plugin’s configuration dialog:
- First, under the Device tab, the device needs to be set to ‘DirectMusic / Microsoft Synthesiser’ from the dropdown list.
- Then, under the DirectMusic tab, simply tick the checkbox labelled ‘Use custom DLS file’ and browse for the DLS file you want to use.
The settings will take effect after restarting playback. When combined with a file writer output plugin, this makes Winamp a useful MIDI converter.
Windows-only Solution #2: Sound Card-specific Utilities
Winamp Media File
This solution depends entirely on the software available for your specific sound card. As such, the Winamp solution is preferred. The details I have provided here are those specific to the sound card in my computer. Though I have heard of similar utilities for other cards, I have been unable to investigate them.
In the case of my laptop, the sound card was listed under Device Manager as SoundMAX Digital Audio. A quick search online yielded a number of references to a utility to load DLS files, that was supposed to be bundled with the card’s driver. The SoundMAX DLS Loader utility was not included in the preinstalled software on my machine, so I grabbed an installer from the Helwett Packard website that included it.
Installing the SoundMAX control panel applet from the HP website broke the existing applet instead of replacing it, but otherwise appeared to have no negative effects on audio playback or the system overall. The DLS Loader utility allows you to select a MIDI file and a DLS file, and then opens Windows Media Player to perform the playback. As long as the DLS Loader window is still open, the DLS soundbank will be used when playing back all MIDI files through Windows Media Player.
In addition to playing back MIDI files with the loaded soundbank whilst the DLS Loader is still open, files in the obscure RMID format (which contains both MIDI and DLS data in the one file) will also work in Windows Media Player, alleviating the need to switch soundbanks when playing different files. I whipped up a quick utility that combines MIDI and DLS files into RMID files, which allowed me to enjoy the full benefit of this feature.
The only way to convert MIDI files using this method is to record your system’s audio output using a program like Audacity, which can be somewhat cumbersome.
Mobile Applications
The following Android applications support MIDI playback using custom SoundFont files, either from a MIDI file or from a hardware keyboard:
Conclusion
Ultimately, the DLS format just didn’t become mainstream enough to garner as much support as SoundFont. It does seem a little bizarre that it became the native format for the Windows and Mac OS X inbuilt synthesisers, but that could quite possibly have resulted from licensing agreements more so than popularity. Regardless of the reason, if you’re a user of one of those platforms, feel free to enjoy all the DLS you can get (which is very little.)
The main lesson here would probably be to stick to SoundFont files where possible, because that way you’ll be set, regardless of platform.
Resources
Info:
- HammerSound, the number one source for SoundFont files
- Changing Soundfonts on the Sphere RPG Engine Wiki (archived version, since the live site appears to be blank)
- Software Synthesis How-To from the Ubuntu Community Documentation
- Mark’s DLS World - an old page with some information on DLS
- An article on DLS and an article on SoundFonts from Electronic Musician Magazine
Software:
- ADI SoundMax AC97 Integrated Digital Audio Driver from the Helwett Packard support site