Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

I keep running into dead ends here. I have a modern i7 machine with
Windows XP and Microsoft's GS Wavetable SW for MIDI which sounds
different than the one I remember in Win95/98 when I used Voyetra
AudioStation to mess with MIDIs.

I tried Virtualbox which doesn't simulate the old OPL3 MIDI device, I
tried Microsoft's VirtualPC 2007 which simulates it horribly to the
point that it's unlistenable.

I was hoping you guys could help me out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ome3vfadYvs That's how the MIDIs are
supposed to sound like.
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/midi/GROOVE.MID

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

zarlox_670 wrote:

I keep running into dead ends here. I have a modern i7 machine with
Windows XP and Microsoft's GS Wavetable SW for MIDI which sounds
different than the one I remember in Win95/98 when I used Voyetra
AudioStation to mess with MIDIs.

I tried Virtualbox which doesn't simulate the old OPL3 MIDI device, I
tried Microsoft's VirtualPC 2007 which simulates it horribly to the
point that it's unlistenable.

I was hoping you guys could help me out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ome3vfadYvs That's how the MIDIs are
supposed to sound like.
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/midi/GROOVE.MID

Have you considered buying some midi-specific hardware?

--
- You're such a pig-****er, Philip!
- Terence, why would you call me a pig ****er?
- Well, let's see... First of all, you **** pigs.
- Oh, yeah.

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

On Feb 23, 8:39*am, "Auric__" wrote:
zarlox_670 wrote:
I keep running into dead ends here. I have a modern i7 machine with
Windows XP and Microsoft's GS Wavetable SW for MIDI which sounds
different than the one I remember in Win95/98 when I used Voyetra
AudioStation to mess with MIDIs.

I tried Virtualbox which doesn't simulate the old OPL3 MIDI device, I
tried Microsoft's VirtualPC 2007 which simulates it horribly to the
point that it's unlistenable.

I was hoping you guys could help me out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ome3vfadYvsThat's how the MIDIs are
supposed to sound like.
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/midi/GROOVE.MID

Have you considered buying some midi-specific hardware?

--
- You're such a pig-****er, Philip!
* - Terence, why would you call me a pig ****er?
- Well, let's see... First of all, you **** pigs.
* - Oh, yeah.

Like what? And no, not really. 'Was hoping it could be properly
virtualized or if an OPL3 soundfont existed.

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

wrote:

I tried Virtualbox which doesn't simulate the old OPL3 MIDI device,

As I read from he

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=9918

============
2. Sound /Audio Integration.

In VirtualBox, you must enable Sound, and use "Sound Blaster 16".
It is available since VBox 1.6.0.

The procedure for installation is rather simple:
NOTE: The procedure below is only needed if you switch from AC'97 to
SB16.
It is not needed, if you create new VM with SB16, then install Win98 on
it.

2.1. Delete your sound card device and all unknown devices from "Device
Manager".
2.2 Add New Hardware (from Control Panel).
==============

Now I don't know if Virtualbox will emulate AC97 sound when running
Win-98, but even if it can't (did you try?) I would have thought that
"Sound Blaster 16" device would have had midi functionality.

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

On Feb 23, 9:18*am, 98 Guy wrote:

I would have thought that "Sound Blaster 16" device would have had midi functionality.

It doesn't.

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

On Feb 23, 9:52*am, wrote:
On Feb 23, 9:18*am, 98 Guy wrote:

I would have thought that "Sound Blaster 16" device would have had midi functionality.

It doesn't.

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52843

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

wrote:

I have a modern i7 machine with Windows XP and Microsoft's
GS Wavetable SW for MIDI which sounds different than the
one I remember in Win95/98 when I used Voyetra AudioStation
to mess with MIDIs.

Just in case you're interested, I played your sample midi file:

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/midi/GROOVE.MID

On my win-98 system (with on-board AC-97 audio) and while it was
playing, I used sndrec32.exe to record it to a wav file. If you want to
hear what this midi file sounds like, here's the wav file:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2012/6/...408/groove.wav

The file is about 10 mb in size.

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

On Feb 23, 11:27*am, 98 Guy wrote:
wrote:
I have a modern i7 machine with Windows XP and Microsoft's
GS Wavetable SW for MIDI which sounds different than the
one I remember in Win95/98 when I used Voyetra AudioStation
to mess with MIDIs.

Just in case you're interested, I played your sample midi file:

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/midi/GROOVE.MID

On my win-98 system (with on-board AC-97 audio) and while it was
playing, I used sndrec32.exe to record it to a wav file. *If you want to
hear what this midi file sounds like, here's the wav file:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2012/6/...408/groove.wav

The file is about 10 mb in size.

Your system is using the GS Wavetable SW MIDI device, the same as
mine. All computers made after 2000 come with AC'97 cards. There's
nothing wrong with the new MIDI device, but MIDIs sequenced and
intended to be listened with the old OPL3 MIDI device don't sound as
good on the more modern ones.

As a Win98 purist, you should be apalled that you don't have a genuine
Win98 environment. See the YouTube link for how groove.mid should
really sound like.

Also, next time you upload audio, consider compressing with MP3, make
sure its not clipped (lower your volume, god), if you refuse to
compress then use a 22 khz samplerate as MIDIs are not sampled above
that anyway.

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ome3vfadYvs

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/midi/GROOVE.MID

http://www.fileden.com/files/2012/6/...408/groove.wav

Your system is using the GS Wavetable SW MIDI device, the same as
mine. All computers made after 2000 come with AC'97 cards. There's
nothing wrong with the new MIDI device, but MIDIs sequenced and
intended to be listened with the old OPL3 MIDI device don't sound
as good on the more modern ones.

Well, I beg to disagree.

I have listened to both my .wav recording and your version on youtube,
and hands down I think the musical quality (instrument quality) of my
..wav file is superior.

I clearly hear the aliasing in the youtube version when the high-hat is
tapped. It sounds awful.

You might want to read this, particularly the last sentence in the first
paragraph:

http://www.schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php

====================
About GeneralUser GS

GeneralUser GS is a GM and GS compatible SoundFont bank for composing or
playing MIDI files. There are currently versions for use with FluidSynth
(or Qsynth), MuseScore, Sound Blaster Live!/Audigy/X-fi sound cards, and
other SoundFont-compatible hardware and software synthesizers. For
owners of Sound Blaster audio cards, GeneralUser GS can greatly enhance
the sound quality of GM/GS compatible MIDI files when loaded into the
sound card's RAM. Compared with the default SoundFonts that Creative
Labs ships with their sound cards, the instrument sounds in GeneralUser
GS are far more realistic.

Although GeneralUser GS was originally designed for use with Sound
Blaster audio cards, most recent development has been for the excellent
FluidSynth, the best software SoundFont player available, in my opinion.
It also sounds quite good on many other softsynths, although not all are
guaranteed to sound fully correct.
=====================

I went out and downloaded the GeneralUser_GS_1.44 sound-font file and
installed it in my VLC player (it uses fluidsynth), so now VLC can play
midi files. The wav file that I recorded earlier was played by Windows
Media Player 9. I don't know what sound-font WMP is using - if any.

I've played the mid file with both WMP and VLC and I can't hear any
difference.

For those that are interested, here's the link to the sound-font file:

http://www.schristiancollins.com/sou...FluidSynth.zip

As a Win98 purist, you should be apalled that you don't have a
genuine Win98 environment.

I don't see how having AC-97 audio hardware (not the inferior SB16 sound
card) makes my system any less of a "pure" win-98 system. By late 1999
or early 2000, many win-98se systems came from the factory with
motherboards that had on-board AC-97 hardware.

See the YouTube link for how groove.mid should really sound like.

Yes, and as I've said, it sounds awful compared to my version. I
welcome others to weigh in with their opinions.

On a tangent, I found this in the wikipedia entry for Sound card:

--------------
Crippling of features

Most new soundcards no longer have the audio loopback device commonly
called "Stereo Mix"/"Wave out mix"/"Mono Mix"/"What U Hear" that was
once very prevalent and that allows users to digitally record speaker
output to the microphone input. Many users suspect the RIAA is
responsible for colluding with or pressuring computer and soundcard
manufacturers to disable this and other features because of their
ability to be used for copyright infringement (although many legitimate
uses exist for this feature), but no proof of this currently exists.

However, virtually no other answers exist as to why computer and
soundcard manufacturers have been discontinuing this feature. No notice
or information is usually given to consumers of the exclusion or
inclusion of the feature when purchasing or in specifications. Lenovo
and other manufacturers fail to implement the chipset feature in
hardware, while other manufacturers disable the driver from supporting
it.

In some cases loopback can be reinstated with driver updates (as in the
case of some Dell computers); alternatively software (Total Recorder)
can be purchased to enable the functionality.

According to Microsoft, the functionality was hidden by default in
Windows Vista (to reduce user confusion), but is still available, as
long as the underlying sound card drivers and hardware support it.
----------------

This is what allowed me to easily record to wav file the audio signal
why the midi file was being played. I have used this sound-recording
feature a few other times when recording music being played (streamed)
from various web sites.

Playing MIDIs with Win98's original SB16 OPL3 sound card
 

wrote:

I was hoping you guys could help me out.

I have no idea how far you'll get with this:

TiMidity++ Windows Synthesizer

http://en.sourceforge.jp/projects/twsynth/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/twsynth/
http://twsynth.sourceforge.net/

===========
What's TWSYNTH

TWSYNTH is a TiMidity++'s synthesizer engine which has Windows Midi
Input feature. Use it with an Midi loopback device, it works like a
Windows Midi Output device. So all softs with Midi Output feture can
acess TiMIdity++ synthesizer engine!! Enjoy !! exellent TiMidity++ MIDI
sound!!
===========

It might run on win-98, or you might need to also install KernelEx.

Have a look at this thread:

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?p=213314