@ReneeJoel Unfortunately no. This wav file I used was recorded on my Windows 95 and then burned onto a CD years ago. My Window 95's CD burner had stopped working awhile after I made the CD, so moving the MIDI file over to my newer computer would be impossible, sadly.
There is no way the Gravis Ultrasound beats the AWE line... for its time, the AWE line sounded very close to real instruments. Even though Gravis had an impressive sound, it still sounded fake.
When replacing "gm.dsl", make sure that the file isn't write-protected. Because in Windows 7, when you try to delete it (it's 3.3 mb) it magically comes back or overwrites your new ".dsl" file. You need to replace it using Windows Recovery Console or use some other trick. It's all explained in that link I sent a few posts ago.
Re-open TiMidity++ and voila! You should be able to play MIDI files and hear a huge difference.
To change the windows wavetable, you need to convert your soundfont to a ".dsl" file. You'll need a program "Awave Studio". Open your soundfont, and go "Save Collection As...", and select the "DLS - Downloadable Sounds Level 1" (Level 2 doesn't work in Windows Vista/7). Find the "gm.dsl" file and replace it with your new ".dsl" file you created from your soundfonts.
Now to emulate SoundBlaster Live! sound cards, download a really cool MIDI playback emulator called "TiMidity++ version 2.13.2". Open it and go to "Config">"Preferences". In the "Effect" tab, change "Emulate Specific Module" to Sound Blaster Live!. Then go to "player" tab, beside the config file box click the "Edit" button. I opened the directory where I have my FluidR3GM.SF2 soundfont file. Remove all previous soundfonts and add FluidR3GM.SF2. "Save&Quit" and close TiMidity++.
So I downloaded what are called "soundfonts" (SF2 files), a collection of midi sounds for playback. You can find one by googling "SF2 midi".
The one I downloaded was called "Fluid R3". It's free, and 68.5mb. Then, I had to decompress the "FluidR3 GM.sfark" file using a program called "sfArk". It gives me the .SF2 file.
Androsynth, is there any way to emulate MIDI sounds using software? Sorry, I don't know much about how to work MIDI on computers and I'd love to play my old MIDI's like in the glory days.
There are no sound cards these days that play MIDI well, and I was wondering: is there was some software that would play my old MIDI files decently? Or is there a better sythesizer table for Windows Vista or Windows 7 that I could install?
@yTubeBlowsBigBalls I agree with you all the way, the modern mwave synth {or whatever it's called} for newer computers is, to put it bluntly, a joke.
I'm sorry, can't really help you there. I've pretty much spent all night looking for a "Midi card emulator" and got nothing of interest. I guess one somewhat tedious solution would be to play midi songs on an MS-DOS media player through DOSBox. DOSbox has a sound blaster classic emulator built into that can play midi files like a charm.
After scouring the internet for HOURS, I found the solution. And I got passport.mid to sound really good on my Windows VISTA, on the same playing field as AWE64, but not perfect. How I did it is a long story, I'll make several posts.
@AndrosynthNuclear So basically, the reason why MIDI sounds awful on computers is because it is using a bad general midi (GM) wavetable synthesizer and probably lacks a good MIDI chip on the soundcard (like mine). Windows Vista and 7 comes with a god awful Microsoft GM Wavetable synthesizer. It requires a hack to change it. Go to this website, the guy explains it all: ps3news.com/forums/pc-general-news/midi-hacking-use-soundfonts-any-soundcard-52261.html .
That's what it's called. They really need to update it, but I can see why they wouldn't. It's not like there's much of a need for a good MIDI synth these days, since hard drives are so big and computers so fast that they can handle MP3 just fine.
@Luciferminusone You can't just drag a MIDI file into DOSBox and expect it to know what to do with a MIDI file :P. You have to have a DOS based media player running in DosBox first, and then you would load the MIDI file from there.
I love the AWE 64 (and AWE32), but it wasn't 64bit (which would be a bit ridiculous for a soundcard.. really). But, as I remember, it could load 64 individual instruments in its memory banks and play them at the same time. Still, I believe the Gravis UltraSound (and the MAX version) to be the greatest synthesizers of the 90s... especially because they already came out in the early part of the decade and it danced circles around the competition (including Creative). Anyway, thanks for the upload!
@tubeteijn Woops, I didn't mean to say 64 bit. Just whenever I think 8, 16, 32 or 64, I immediately think "bit" ;). I'll be sure to correct that.
Gravis Ultrasound, very popular and indeed has a good quality considering the time it was made in. However, AWE64 seems far superior, considering that such a card was way ahead of it's time and it was made only a while after the Ultrasound. BTW, do you know what the MIDI card that Windows Vista and 7 attempt to emulate? It sounds like poop..
@AndrosynthNuclear I probably shouldn't have compared GUS with the AWE64. GUS came out in 92, AWE32 in 94, AWE64 in 96. I only owned the GUS and after that the Soundblaster Live! (in 98). That card enabled me to use the same soundfonts as the AWE cards, but use the pc's memory instead of on card memory. And I loved it!
I use LInux, so I don't know about Windows MIDI emulation... but to be honest, since the 90s I haven't been very involved with MIDI anymore. It just brings back great memories!
@tubeteijn Great memories Indeed! And wow, I could only dream of a MIDI card that pulled memory from the computer instead of its own supply, after all, my Windows 95 had a whopping 64 Megabytes of memory at the time! I remember that I had an Awe32 program that let you customize some of the built in sound effects for MIDI, but since it was only an AWE64 basic, I had only about 2 MB's of onboard memory :(
Well, you can, but I already recorded the audio output of my computer with Audacity. a .WAV file of this video's audio is now on my computer. It sounds exactly the same as it does in this video. If you do post an MP3, it will be interesting to compare the difference in quality (if any, as MP3 compresses data and is a lossy sound format, WAV is lossless).
I intend to finish compiling all of the songs I want and burn a disc by Wednesday evening, U.S. Pacific time, July 21.
@dogman15 Well you know, I was just thinking, since Youtube has a bad habit of super compressing sound quality and therefore, making it sound a bit worse then it should
AWE64 sounds the same as Microsoft GS Synthesizer.
NexXxus86 1 month ago
I wish there was someway to emulate this on modern systems
BigPalookaalt 3 months ago in playlist Favorite videos
It sounds awesome !
TheAGKMisadventures 4 months ago
Do you happen to have the actual .mid or .midi file, I have been looking for it for ages but I can't seem to find it, thanks.
ReneeJoel 4 months ago
@ReneeJoel Unfortunately no. This wav file I used was recorded on my Windows 95 and then burned onto a CD years ago. My Window 95's CD burner had stopped working awhile after I made the CD, so moving the MIDI file over to my newer computer would be impossible, sadly.
AndrosynthNuclear 4 months ago
@AndrosynthNuclear I actually found it somewhere, if you want it I can PM you a download link.
ReneeJoel 4 months ago
This brings back memories of fiddling around on Dad's 500MHz IBM.
shnunk1 4 months ago
There is no way the Gravis Ultrasound beats the AWE line... for its time, the AWE line sounded very close to real instruments. Even though Gravis had an impressive sound, it still sounded fake.
ab50721 4 months ago
Comment removed
Noruzenchi86 11 months ago
@Noruzenchi86 Really? It works for me, even when I'm not logged in
AndrosynthNuclear 11 months ago
@Noruzenchi86 Just use DVDVideoSoft to download this.
gaybathroomsex 9 months ago
I remember this song from somewhere!
the747videoer 1 year ago
When replacing "gm.dsl", make sure that the file isn't write-protected. Because in Windows 7, when you try to delete it (it's 3.3 mb) it magically comes back or overwrites your new ".dsl" file. You need to replace it using Windows Recovery Console or use some other trick. It's all explained in that link I sent a few posts ago.
Good luck, and enjoy wonderful MIDI music :D!
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
@yTubeBlowsBigBalls Ty for the information! You wouldn't happen to know any kind of soundfont that emulates the original 8bit soundblaster would you?
AndrosynthNuclear 1 year ago
Comment removed
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear No sorry, I haven't found any. Though in TiMidity++ you can emulate different soundcards and change the output to 8-bits.
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
Re-open TiMidity++ and voila! You should be able to play MIDI files and hear a huge difference.
To change the windows wavetable, you need to convert your soundfont to a ".dsl" file. You'll need a program "Awave Studio". Open your soundfont, and go "Save Collection As...", and select the "DLS - Downloadable Sounds Level 1" (Level 2 doesn't work in Windows Vista/7). Find the "gm.dsl" file and replace it with your new ".dsl" file you created from your soundfonts.
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
Now to emulate SoundBlaster Live! sound cards, download a really cool MIDI playback emulator called "TiMidity++ version 2.13.2". Open it and go to "Config">"Preferences". In the "Effect" tab, change "Emulate Specific Module" to Sound Blaster Live!. Then go to "player" tab, beside the config file box click the "Edit" button. I opened the directory where I have my FluidR3GM.SF2 soundfont file. Remove all previous soundfonts and add FluidR3GM.SF2. "Save&Quit" and close TiMidity++.
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
So I downloaded what are called "soundfonts" (SF2 files), a collection of midi sounds for playback. You can find one by googling "SF2 midi".
The one I downloaded was called "Fluid R3". It's free, and 68.5mb. Then, I had to decompress the "FluidR3 GM.sfark" file using a program called "sfArk". It gives me the .SF2 file.
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
Androsynth, is there any way to emulate MIDI sounds using software? Sorry, I don't know much about how to work MIDI on computers and I'd love to play my old MIDI's like in the glory days.
There are no sound cards these days that play MIDI well, and I was wondering: is there was some software that would play my old MIDI files decently? Or is there a better sythesizer table for Windows Vista or Windows 7 that I could install?
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
@yTubeBlowsBigBalls I agree with you all the way, the modern mwave synth {or whatever it's called} for newer computers is, to put it bluntly, a joke.
I'm sorry, can't really help you there. I've pretty much spent all night looking for a "Midi card emulator" and got nothing of interest. I guess one somewhat tedious solution would be to play midi songs on an MS-DOS media player through DOSBox. DOSbox has a sound blaster classic emulator built into that can play midi files like a charm.
AndrosynthNuclear 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear If someone here knows about any kind of "Midi card emulator", be sure to tell me about it. I myself am curious if one exists.
AndrosynthNuclear 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear Good News!
After scouring the internet for HOURS, I found the solution. And I got passport.mid to sound really good on my Windows VISTA, on the same playing field as AWE64, but not perfect. How I did it is a long story, I'll make several posts.
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
Comment removed
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear So basically, the reason why MIDI sounds awful on computers is because it is using a bad general midi (GM) wavetable synthesizer and probably lacks a good MIDI chip on the soundcard (like mine). Windows Vista and 7 comes with a god awful Microsoft GM Wavetable synthesizer. It requires a hack to change it. Go to this website, the guy explains it all: ps3news.com/forums/pc-general-news/midi-hacking-use-soundfonts-any-soundcard-52261.html .
yTubeBlowsBigBalls 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW (for software) Synth"
That's what it's called. They really need to update it, but I can see why they wouldn't. It's not like there's much of a need for a good MIDI synth these days, since hard drives are so big and computers so fast that they can handle MP3 just fine.
RABBIDGamfan 9 months ago
@AndrosynthNuclear How come when I drop a midi file in the Dos Box it gives an error message.
Luciferminusone 7 months ago
@Luciferminusone You can't just drag a MIDI file into DOSBox and expect it to know what to do with a MIDI file :P. You have to have a DOS based media player running in DosBox first, and then you would load the MIDI file from there.
AndrosynthNuclear 7 months ago
@AndrosynthNuclear Thanks for clarifying that. :)
Luciferminusone 6 months ago
I love the AWE 64 (and AWE32), but it wasn't 64bit (which would be a bit ridiculous for a soundcard.. really). But, as I remember, it could load 64 individual instruments in its memory banks and play them at the same time. Still, I believe the Gravis UltraSound (and the MAX version) to be the greatest synthesizers of the 90s... especially because they already came out in the early part of the decade and it danced circles around the competition (including Creative). Anyway, thanks for the upload!
tubeteijn 1 year ago
@tubeteijn Woops, I didn't mean to say 64 bit. Just whenever I think 8, 16, 32 or 64, I immediately think "bit" ;). I'll be sure to correct that.
Gravis Ultrasound, very popular and indeed has a good quality considering the time it was made in. However, AWE64 seems far superior, considering that such a card was way ahead of it's time and it was made only a while after the Ultrasound. BTW, do you know what the MIDI card that Windows Vista and 7 attempt to emulate? It sounds like poop..
AndrosynthNuclear 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear I probably shouldn't have compared GUS with the AWE64. GUS came out in 92, AWE32 in 94, AWE64 in 96. I only owned the GUS and after that the Soundblaster Live! (in 98). That card enabled me to use the same soundfonts as the AWE cards, but use the pc's memory instead of on card memory. And I loved it!
I use LInux, so I don't know about Windows MIDI emulation... but to be honest, since the 90s I haven't been very involved with MIDI anymore. It just brings back great memories!
tubeteijn 1 year ago
@tubeteijn Great memories Indeed! And wow, I could only dream of a MIDI card that pulled memory from the computer instead of its own supply, after all, my Windows 95 had a whopping 64 Megabytes of memory at the time! I remember that I had an Awe32 program that let you customize some of the built in sound effects for MIDI, but since it was only an AWE64 basic, I had only about 2 MB's of onboard memory :(
AndrosynthNuclear 1 year ago
Comment removed
dogman15 1 year ago
@dogman15 No problem man, do you want me to post an MP3?
AndrosynthNuclear 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear:
Well, you can, but I already recorded the audio output of my computer with Audacity. a .WAV file of this video's audio is now on my computer. It sounds exactly the same as it does in this video. If you do post an MP3, it will be interesting to compare the difference in quality (if any, as MP3 compresses data and is a lossy sound format, WAV is lossless).
I intend to finish compiling all of the songs I want and burn a disc by Wednesday evening, U.S. Pacific time, July 21.
dogman15 1 year ago
@dogman15 Well you know, I was just thinking, since Youtube has a bad habit of super compressing sound quality and therefore, making it sound a bit worse then it should
AndrosynthNuclear 1 year ago
@dogman15 I posted an MP3 in the video description. Actually, its a WMA but they use the exact same compression method so it doesn't really matter.
AndrosynthNuclear 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear: Thanks!
dogman15 1 year ago
@AndrosynthNuclear they dont
jjovereats 1 year ago