The PCDLS...Project...Thingy.

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Join us, Goku...you know you want to.

Anyway, I'd like to have everything available in a DLS1 AND 2 version, for different systems. My WDM-wunderkind doesn't support DLS2, sadly. And besides, DLS1 doesn't sound all that bad with alittle work...I mean look at Sam's DLS :D

Mmm...must get samples. Saaaammmples...
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Yeah, I can give help from time to time, though compared to Samuel or "Cloud_Strife" (of the VGmusic.com forums) I'm only a beginner at DLS/soundfont tweaking.  I've yet to fully comprehend all the different stuff you can do (in Awave Studio, in this case) to a waveform when preparing it to be a sample.  The stuff I have done (mainly the Revision2 update to the Original FF8 DLS), was possible largely because they were relatively simple "imports" of waveforms that were already primed for use as instrument samples, except for the volume of the OverDrive Guitar, that one was a little too loud for me to just import and leave it alone.

-edit-
Had to reword a few sentences. :P
 
You wouldn't happen to know why Awave keeps crashing on me, would you? This is getting annoying...
 
This is version .2, btw. Spent six hours exporting the GM and GS drums one by one from Audio Compositor because the damn thing corrupts the file when you export it whole.

Great. Looks like the M$ GS synth only has 64 polyphony. Ugh. (Is there a config button for it anywhere?)
 
Hmm.....is the trial period for it already up?  Maybe they programmed it to crash as an incentive to pay for it if you haven't already done so. :P

Other than that, how many programs do you have open simultaneously that are trying to access either the same Dmusic device or DLS?  That can cause crashes if they try to use the same file at the same time, I think....
 
I wouldn't know. I abandoned the M$ GS Synth long ago for the MS DLS Synth.

I think the GS synth really relies on the .idf file. Anyone know exactly what it does?
 
A quick guess at the acronym would be "Instrument Definition File", but I wouldn't know :).

Where's this file located?

EDIT: Upload is done

Another edit: You know, this gives me an idea. If someone could make a loopback device to send all MIDI data to the MS DLS synth, that'd be awesome ;)
 
I think the GS synth really relies on the .idf file. Anyone know exactly what it does?
Click to expand...

I have somewhat of an idea of its function.  From what I know, Windows refers to that file when sending information to a MIDI device.  Appearantly, back in the days when GM was totally new, and having 16 channels was hi-tech, there were other modes, called "Extended MIDI" and "Basic MIDI" (I'm foggy on whether or not "Basic MIDI" is the correct term), that determined what channels the synth had available.  "Extended MIDI" used channels 1-10 only, and "Basic MIDI" used even fewer channels, like only 4 or 5.

Anyway, it is also used when clicking the "Add New Instrument..." button in the MIDI tab of Multimedia properties.  After you tell windows what port the MIDI instrument (its really supposed to be for when you need to manually tell windows that you've got an electronic keyboard hooked up) is connected to, and then it asks you for the .idf file, and in that case, the General.idf should work fine unless the keyboard came with its own custom ".idf" file that windows should use.
 
Ah. alright.
Nope, I have Awave full. It just keeps crashing...I usueally have to hope and pray it won't corrupt my work on it.
 
If we could get someone to program a MIDI loopback device that goes to DirectMusic, then we could use the Microsoft DLS Synth. We'd get more than the sucky 64 notes of polyphony that GS provides, and level 2 support! I couldn't find any loopback devices that supported output through DirectMusic. However, I've no idea how hard it'll be to create such a program/driver, though, with my great 6 months of TI-83 calculator programming experience.

Anyone?
 
:lol: TI-83. Better than my early DOS BASIC or my TRS-80 beep-tone generation!

Ok, extra programmer will be added to roster.
 
If you're just trying to casually listen to MIDI files thru DirectMusic in a normal Windows desktop environment (read: No in-game or DOS situations), then any recent version of Winamp (except Winamp3) should work.

Another perk of using Winamp to do that, is that the DirectMusic playback it does is a native function to the plugin, plus you can select which DLS file you want it to use for playback, in the plugin's configuration dialog box.

Also, be aware that the M$ DLS Synthesizer is only capable of doing Reverb effects.  Why?  My guess is M$ got lazy and decided not to code in the ability to do Chorus.

But.......the M$ DLS Synthesizer is the only one that can handle DLS-Level2 files, as of DirectX 8/8.1.
 
I believe the purpose is to allow any MIDI application to use the DLS synth, making MIDI playback in general (not for any specific application) better sounding. Don't care about chorus, nobody uses it :).
 
Interestingly, with DirectX 9 and the latest version of my Audigy drivers, I get a Hardware DLS compatible Synthesister (not the MS one), and it sounds good. Thus Winamp is  agood choice for me to listen to Midi
 
Yeah, my SBLive! seems able to do hardware DLS.  I've played FF8 with it, seems just about the same as using MS's synthesizer.

I still like Yamaha's the most for just listening to MIDI files, though.
 
Good news, I may be getting some excellent drum samples soon. My old Physics teacher has a wicked home-made drum set that he does_not_move. I may be getting some samples from it.
 
Sure, why not?  I know for certain that (on my system at least), the M$ DLS Synthesizer can handle it, because of the support that was added in DX8 (and 9, I can surmise)
 
Hmm, I wonder if DX9 can add true-hardware level DLS to my system?
 
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