Clear guide to MIDI files

[borak2k7]

Ok after alot of searching through the forums and not getting anywhere, can someone help me with this.

I have been looking for a way to enhance my MIDI files for FF7 but most of the solutions I find seem to be soundfonts for Sound Blasters. The closest I had to that was an Audigy but I can no longer fit that in my case as I don't have enough PCI slots spare to fit my card in so at the mo I have onboard HD audio (My 8800 blocks 1 PCI and my other is filled with my wireless card). What solutions do I have to improve my MIDI?

Now I know there is the MP3 option but I want my music to loop perfectly IE as the MIDI's do. I have Vista so the Yamaha Synthesizer will not install (I tried the XP compatible version and still no luck). Does anyone have a solution?

 

[Landarma]

Basically, the MIDI sound is dependant on MIDI device.  Unless you got MIDI Synth modules(Hardware), and make it work in your windows and game, I have no idea for that...

**Too bad that softsynths don't work on Vista........

 

[borak2k7]

Anyone know of a version of the softsynths that works on Vista?

 

[Guspaz]

I've taken to building my own (I use Vista32). I use Cantabile as a host, with two copies of sfz to render the MIDI streams with soundfonts. Two copies because there's some problem where bank 128 (the drums) isn't selected. So what I've done to solve that is have Cantabile send everything BUT channel 10 (almost always drums) to the first instance of sfz, and then send channel 10 to the second copy, which I set to bank 128 for drums.

I use it primarily for playing MIDI files (which Cantabile has a built-in player for), which includes the FF7 MIDI files with either the FF7 soundfont or a generic higher-quality one, but Cantabile as a music app of course supports MIDI input. So I use a loopback driver for that.

I've never tried FF7, though (which I don't have installed atm). Attempts to route entire midi files through the loopback (from WMP or winamp) to cantabile produced strange timing issues (In other words, it didn't work properly, although all the notes were played), but it works fine for simple stuff like a single MIDI instrument when I mess about with Virtual Midi Keyboard. I don't know if FF7 would work properly, and to be honest I haven't tried the loopback setup in Vista yet, just the internal MIDI parser.

Still, if you're motivated, you can get stuff done yourself

EDIT: I recently tried it with FF7 PC on Vista. It worked, but Cantabile/SFZ doesn't quite like the original FF7 soundfont. Maybe they did some strange out-of-spec things that SFZ doesn't like. It sounds much better with higher quality GM/GS soundfonts anyhow.

The timing issue is there, but not as bad as it was with WinAmp -> Cantabile. I'll have to look into it further.

 

[Goku7]

EDIT: I recently tried it with FF7 PC on Vista. It worked, but Cantabile/SFZ doesn't quite like the original FF7 soundfont. Maybe they did some strange out-of-spec things that SFZ doesn't like.

They did, at least by today's SB Live!/Audigy standards.  The SF2 files were designed with an AWE32/64 in mind, and that chip has the basic GM samples hard-coded into the silicon.  As such, they are able to use what are known as "ROM samples", which are basically references to the hard-coded samples along with modifications to what the LFOs and such are supposed to do with them, instead of raw sample data.  It was rather space-efficient to do that back in the day.

SFZ can't emulate that because it doesn't know what to do with those instructions.