Software for midi emulation?

I think want you want is called a VSTi.

They're plugins for most multi-track studio software.

They can emulate all different types of sounds.

And a lot of them are free.

Check out http://www.kvr-vst.com/ lots of good info there and listings for all the free vsti downloads.

Keep in mind most of the free ones are made by some joe shmoe and aren't that great, but there are some really nice ones if you hunt around.

Oh and since these are plugins you'll need a host, theres some free ones at kvr too.

In my view, VSTis won't help him too much, as VSTs are a pro-level spec, I don't think it's likely that there are VSTs out there that have good sounding General MIDI banks. (Few, if any, pros use General MIDI; there's no real market for it.)

I think what he needs is a version of DirectMusic Producer. DirectX (widely supported on many chipsets) includes DirectMusic, which can act as a host for MIDI devices, and also supports DLS, a system for creating the instruments that the General MIDI host uses to play back the MIDI data.

As Jesper said, the Audigy does it (through a standard called SoundFont that they developed) because SoundBlaster is big in the consumer/hobbyist market. But there might be a way to get a decent MIDI bank without having to purchase a SoundBlaster card.

What is the audio chipset on your laptop, Jesper?

I looked a the VST site, it's not really for General MIDI banks, which is what you want. I've found a solution for you.

What we're doing here is finding a piece of software that will play MIDI, and use custom sounds for the instruments. The software is something you may already have, WinAmp 5. This format, as I said, is the 'DLS' (Downloadable Sounds') format, an industry wide standard.

The instructions:

1) Download a DLS file that subscribes to the General MIDI specs. I found some that people made themselves for Final Fantasy MIDI files. Try this one:
http://aaronserv.dyndns.org/hosting/...f8dls_v139.zip

Inside there are a bunch of other files, but you're looking for 'FF8DLS.exe'. Run it to extract the ff8.dls file, and put it somewhere like C:\DLS\ (doesn't really matter where, as long as you know where it is.)

2) Download Winamp 5 (or whatever the latest free version is) and install it.

3) Run Winamp, and hit control-P to get to the preferences. Now reference the below image

4) Click Plugins, Input, then Nullsoft MIDI player.

5) Click the DirectMusic tab, then Use custom DLS file, then browse for the ff8.dls file I had you download.

6) Click on the Device tab, and select a Directsound output...probably to the name of your laptop's soundchip.

7) Click OK, then Close, then load up your MIDI file with Winamp. And it should now be playing your MIDI with the custom FF8.DLS sound bank.



To get other DLS banks, just search online for them. There are many good free ones. The site that FF8.DLS came from, http://aaronserv.dyndns.org/hosting/...ownload_8.html, had other versions of DLS sounds, I believe, but I havent tested them for you.

This took a bit of time to put together, but I'd rather you used free ones than pay Creative Labs their outrageous fees for GMIDI sound banks that you can get for free. Hope it helps.


-K. H.

I checked out that PowerTab software (nice find BTW) and I think I know what your
talking about.

Under MIDI>Setup>Output Device you want to add a new device right?

This menu shows a list of installed hardware devices so you need to go about it a
little differently.

You can either go out a buy a USB-MIDI adapter and a MIDI synth (which will probably
sound the best)

or......

Download MIDI Yoke follow the directions on how to install and configure it, this
will install a 8 fake MIDI hardware drivers that enable multiple MIDI programs to
talk to each other.

http://www.midiox.com


Then download a Wuschel's ASIO4ALL and install it. This is a yet another fake driver
execpt for ASIO audio output, this handles the load of VSTi on your system better.

http://www.asio4all.com


Next download a VST host like Tobybears MiniHost.

http://www.tobybear.de/p_minihost.html


Finnally download a VST instrument, if you want a guitar-like one, String Thing is a
nice one.

http://www.simple-media.co.uk/music/...tm#stringthing

Again check out KVR-VST.com they have 100's of free VSTi's to download with all
different types of sounds.

When you've finished dowloading and installing everything run PowerTab and choose the MIDI Yoke Output port, then run the VST host and make sure the MIDI Yoke input port is the the same. You should be able to click play from PT and the MIDI will re-route to your VST host and use the VSTi you've loaded as the sound source.

Now I've got a question for you, in PowerTab how do you enter in chords simply.
I want to just click on a chord from the chord dictionary and have it insert into the staff.

As an addedum to F11's suggestion for MIDI routing, for General MIDI, you'll still need the custom DLSs that I mentioned in my (halfway erroneous -- i obviously misread!) post. If you replace F11's suggestion of String Thing with 'Livesynth' (a DLS/Soundfont sampler) and load up the DLS I described, you should be able to then route Powertab's all MIDI output into LiveSynth. This is useful if you are going to be mocking up a 'band' or something inside your software, which it seems like you were looking for.