BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vista/7

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RFNagel
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BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vista/7

Post by RFNagel »

Over at the VOGONS message forum on the Internet ( http://vogons.zetafleet.com ), forum member "DOSFreak" had previously posted a link to this... figured I'd post it here as well :)

BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synthesiser Driver for Windows XP/Vista/7 :)

Announcement and discussion -> http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... opic=87639
Download -> http://kode54.foobar2000.org/stuff.php

Directly from the above "Hydrogen Audio" forums announcement and discussion message thread:
This is a new SoundFont-based usermode MIDI system driver for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. It uses the BASSMIDI library by Ian Luck, as the synthesiser.

Features:

* Dynamic sample caching
* Unlimited polyphony
* SoundFont chaining/stacking
* Works on Windows Vista and Windows 7, including 64-bit versions.
* Support for the following controllers & events:

MIDI note events.
MIDI program events.
Channel pressure.
Pitch wheel.
Bank change MSB. (CC#0)
Modulation. (CC#1)
Portamento. (CC#65 / CC#84 / CC#5)
Volume. (CC#7)
Panning. (CC#10)
Expression. (CC#11)
Sustain pedal. (CC#64)
Soft pedal. (CC#67)
Low-pass filter resonance. (CC#71 or NRPN 121h)
Release time. (CC#72 or NRPN 166h)
Attack time. (CC#73 or NRPN 163h)
Low-pass filter cut-off. (CC#74 or NRPN 120h)
Reverb send level. (CC#91)
Chorus send level. (CC#93)
Stop all sounds. (CC#120)
Reset all controllers. (CC#121)
Release all keys. (CC#123)
Mono/poly mode. (CC#126 and CC#127, respectively.)
Pitch wheel range. (RPN 0)
Fine tuning. (RPN 1)
Coarse tuning. (RPN 2)

And presumably if GS/GM2 mode is activated:
Drum key low-pass filter cut-off. (NRPN 14knh)
Drum key low-pass filter resonance. (NRPN 15knh)
Drum key coarse tune. (NRPN 18knh)
Drum key fine tune. (NRPN 19knh)
Drum key volume level. (NRPN 1Aknh)
Drum key panning. (NRPN 1Cknh)
Drum key reverb send level. (NRPN 1Dknh)
Drum key chorus send level. (NRPN 1Eknh)

It also supports GM, GS, and XG reset System Exclusive messages, and the drum channel enabling features of GS and XG when switched into those modes. It also supports GS and possibly XG reverb preset control messages for adjusting reverb time, delay, low-pass cut-off, high-pass cut-off, and level. And chrorus delay, depth, rate, feedback, level, and chorus to reverb send level. It also supports the master volume level message.

Kode54 should be thanked for making this possible. I wrote the installer and configuration app.

...and cut 'n' pastes of what I posted over at VOGONS:
I haven't tried it yet, but that looks EXTREMELY interesting... been saying to/nagging Ian Luck (the author of XMPlay, the XMPlay soundfont compatible MIDI Plugin, and the BASS audio libraries) for quite sometime that he should create a 'global' WinDoze MIDI driver of sorts using the MIDI plugin for XMPlay (the BASSMIDI Synth is essentially that) :)
OK, I installed the BASSMIDI MIDI Synthesiser... and it works GREAT!

From what I could tell, ZERO latency, and it sounds just like XMPlay's MIDI plugin :) Running on a P4 2.666Ghz CPU with 768MB RAM, output was smooth with no glitches or stutters.

One problem though, it seems to completely knock out/disable Jamie O'Connell's "MIDI Yoke" patch driver ("Out To MIDI Yoke: #", "In From MIDI Yoke: #", etc...). I use that driver for various things when composing MIDI music.

(Update) I posted a message over at Hydrogen Audio forums ( http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... opic=87639 ), and the author said that he would see if he could fix the MIDI Yoke problem with the driver :)


P.S. Of course, like the XMPlay MIDI Plugin, it sounds GREAT using my "¥Weeds¥ General MIDI SoundFont v3.0" -> http://www.richnagel.net/#soundfonts <grin> :)

P.P.S. Oh, and of course this MIDI driver can be used with DOOM as well :)
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by Gez »

Oooh, there's the source code too! In GPL v2 form! Very interesting.



About the MidiYoke issue, you might try to see if LoopBe1 could work as a replacement for MY until a fix is found. It does basically the same thing after all.
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by Kappes Buur »

Please, forgive my complete ignorance on the subject MIDI.

I've seen you post items on the subject before. While I wondered what possible use I could have for this, I never really delved into the subject. I have an older app of Sony ACID, which I know can open MIDI files, but I have no idea about creating my own MIDI files.

So, now my questions:
How can I use this ?
How do I create a MIDI file ?
Do I need a MIDI keyboard ?
How do I use this in connection with DOOM ?

Any enlightenment would be greatly appreciated.
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by RFNagel »

Gez wrote:Oooh, there's the source code too! In GPL v2 form! Very interesting.
This thing definitely proves to be interesting :) Sound output (the soundfont rendering) is excellent, as it's based upon Ian Luck's BASS audio libraries, and will sound a lot better than Timidity, I'm sure :)

Ian Luck's XMPlay MIDI Plugin is also based on this (BASS); and anyone who knows me, knows how much I rave about how well XMPlay sounds playing MIDI files :)

Gez wrote:About the MidiYoke issue, you might try to see if LoopBe1 could work as a replacement for MY until a fix is found. It does basically the same thing after all.
Thanks for that heads-up, will definitely be checking it out :)

In all honesty though, I don't even really need the BASSMIDI driver, as I have a Sound Blaster Live. But, I've always been on the lookout for a decent soundfont compatable softsynth, one that had the quality of XMPlay's MIDI Plugin... which I've always said, sounds as close to *real* EMU-8K/10K/20K hardware, without the actual hardware <grin> :)
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by RFNagel »

Kappes Buur wrote:How can I use this?
Most Windows PCs will use the bog-standard "Microsoft GS Wavetable Software Synthesizer" for all MIDI music playback within Windows <yuck>. This driver simply can be used in place of the MSGS SoftSynth, and when used with a decent soundfont (Sound Blaster AWE32/AWE64/Live technology), can make MIDI files sound extremely nice :)

Kappes Buur wrote:How do I create a MIDI file?
Hehe, personally I use an old artifact, Cakewalk Professional v3.01 for Windows (circa 1995). Quite a while back Twelve Tone Systems granted permission to freely distribute the full retail installation of Cakewalk Professional v3.01. You can download the zipped installer from this web page -> http://www.queststudios.com/roland/utilities.html , direct link to the file -> http://www.queststudios.com/roland/util ... ewalk3.zip :)

Kappes Buur wrote:Do I need a MIDI keyboard?
With CWPro you can enter notes with your mouse. It features a "score" view (sheet music view), and a piano-roll view... which both can be used to enter notes.

Of course, a MIDI keyboard is a lot easier, but not really required :)

Kappes Buur wrote:How do I use this in connection with DOOM?
After installing the BASSMIDI driver, you'll first need to download a decent soundfont that will be used to render the MIDI music with. Then, after configuring the BASSMIDI driver to use the soundfont, you would simply select the BASSMIDI driver from within ZDOOM's "Sound Options/MIDI Device" screen :)


P.S. How do MIDIs sound when using soundfonts? Check any of the YouTube or MP3 samples on my web page here -> http://www.simpilot.net/~richnagel/#mp3 and here -> http://www.simpilot.net/~richnagel/#youtube :)
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by Gez »

Oh, it's not the BASS code itself that's open sourced. Disappointment. :(

(There's not even the header file so you can't compile the driver yourself even if you tried.)
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by Graf Zahl »

... making the license fishy at best...
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by RFNagel »

Gez wrote:Oh, it's not the BASS code itself that's open sourced. Disappointment. :(
Yeah, the BASS audio libraries are a commercial thing by Un4seen Developments (Ian Luck). You'll find BASS.DLL in all sorts of games and apps for their audio support, that's how Ian pays the bills.

Gez wrote:(There's not even the header file so you can't compile the driver yourself even if you tried.)
Graf Zahl wrote:... making the license fishy at best...
I never realized that, although, I'm no programmer by any sense of the term.


P.S. Just read this reply over at another message forum about the BASSMIDI driver:
Raymond wrote:I just got around to testing BASSMIDI on the laptop, and well, I just uninstalled TiMidity++. :D
<grin> :)
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by RFNagel »

I posted a message over at Hydrogen Audio forums ( http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... opic=87639 ), and the author said that he would see if he could fix the MIDI Yoke problem with the driver :)
Problem fixed! Download the new version here (*Note: Uninstall the old version before installing this newer one) -> http://mudlord.emuxhaven.net/stuff/bassmididrv.exe
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by Marisa the Magician »

There's also an issue for Windows 7 users, we can't change the default MIDI device to BASSMIDI, it will just revert back to the windows one.
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by wildweasel »

Zanaveth wrote:There's also an issue for Windows 7 users, we can't change the default MIDI device to BASSMIDI, it will just revert back to the windows one.
Really? I'm not having that issue myself - are you making sure to click the Apply button below the drop-box after selecting BASSMIDI?

For the record, the system I've tested this on is a netbook running Windows 7 Starter.
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by RFNagel »

Zanaveth wrote:There's also an issue for Windows 7 users, we can't change the default MIDI device to BASSMIDI, it will just revert back to the windows one.
wildweasel wrote:Really? I'm not having that issue myself - are you making sure to click the Apply button below the drop-box after selecting BASSMIDI? For the record, the system I've tested this on is a netbook running Windows 7 Starter.
I posted this over at the DOOM World forums:

I noticed (at least on my PC, Windows XP Pro SP3) that I had to change the active MIDI device from within the Sounds and Audio Devices control panel (Start/Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Audio/MIDI Music Playback Device) in order for it to "stick". Didn't seem to wanna stay "set" if I set the MIDI device from within the BASSMIDI driver configuration utilitiy itself.

The problem that I had with picking the MIDI device in Windows XP, I figured was due to the way that BASSMIDI selected the device (which I assumed was prolly done like that as a workaround for that issue with W7).
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by RFNagel »

Just a little linkage update, it appears that there's more "official" discussion about the BASSMIDI driver over at the VGMusic forums here -> http://www.vgmusic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 16&t=13967 .
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Re: BASSMIDI Soundfont Compatible MIDI Synth Driver: WXP/Vis

Post by Marisa the Magician »

Won't work at all. Not even Gez's solution works. Everything keeps using "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth".

Note: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
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