Exploded MIDI Files

[mojo69]

Disaster has occurred!

Opened Cubase started to play a saved MIDI arrangement (downloaded from Midinote Player) which was fine yesterday but now the tracks aligned to the GS wavetable are playing slower and also sound out of pitch! (All other saved arrangements are doing the same!)

When played back using VSTis they play ok.

Also, I noticed that when I play my MIDI keyboard live every note is delayed when playing via GS. However, when notes are played with VSTi there is no latency problem.

When I opened the saved arrangements in Cubase on my other PC - everything was okay?

Everything was fine yesterday - what could have gone wrong?

I intend to install the MIDI downloads you included in your last message - thanks - however, before doing so would like to solve this latest problem as it could be related to my MIDI settings in Cubase.

[garww]

Ya, don't worry about adding more programs when GS wavetable isn't working right !!

Most likely - what might have changed - it's in Cubase settings, but I would run through the system settings. Probably, your other MIDI players work OK.

[mojo69]

Yeah, but can't work out what could have happened over night! There must be something I can tweak in my settings - is there a 'restore' I could do either in Cubase or on my PC?

[garww]

I would try and figure it out, but it's possible you have a recent restore point in the OS. I disable many system house keeping things like restore, file indexing, and hibernate, etc.., but I think you can find restore points in control panel/system - somewhere - there is Windows Help to show you where it is.

[mojo69]

Okay - installed Timidity. It's shown up in Cubase but isn't playing music!!!
Checked everything and everything appears to be fine apart from in the MIDI SET-UP System of Cubase - I've tried to change the MIDI Output to Timidity++Driver Mapped To Timidity++Driver but when I exit and go back to MIDI SET-UP System of Cubase it's changed back to GS Wavetable on both counts!

I've allocated Timidity++Driver as the Default device in Sounds and audio devices on my PC.

I'm completely baffled by all this now and just want to start to create music again!

[garww]

How about Van Basco ?

You have Tim set as default MIDI in control panel/sounds.
You have a working soundfont enabled in Tim.
You can play MIDI in Basco (sounding much NOT like GS waves)? Tim has it's own player that should work as installed.

[mojo69]

Okay, I'm now getting Timidity to play sounds. Also installed Roland Virtual Sound Canvas and this too played sounds. HOWEVER, there was a delay when playing notes live on my keyboard when using either of the two. Microsoft GS Wavetable caused no latency problems.

Also, I'm unable to select patch names in the Cubase MIDI Inspector - this relates to ALL - GS Wavetable, Timidity and VSC. When I opened up the 'Set Up Instruments' box saw that 'Patchname Source' had 'No Source' next to it and 'Patchname Device' had 'No Device' beside it - this was for GS Wavetable, Timidity and VSC. I was unable to change 'Patchname Source' to anything other than 'No Source' and also unable to change 'No Device' to anything else.

[garww]

GS Wavetable is a tiny soundset and loads into memory easily. With larger sound sets, you will get some delay from the size, and also from the software and routing.

You can often config the MIDI sound device to load the whole sound set and disable effects, etc.. But, this is normal computer recording and you will have to fine tune things.

You do not have access to patch banks most likely as that's done in the soft MIDI device. You should be able to choose the GM instrument number.

These programs usually offer support for popular hardware MIDI devices, though. You can pick-up a old PCI soundblaster card (which is a MIDI device) for under $10 used and have all sorts of bank support (and bank/sample editing) along with a on-board chip synth. Well, maybe not for Vista - drivers issue.

My old MIDI machine has two MIDI devices installed it is pretty quick.

[mojo69]

I'm using a M-Audio 2496 Sound Card which doesn't have an onboard soft synth so I have to rely on others such as the GS Wavetable and VSTis.

Managed to locate sound fonts with the Roland VSC - has its own panel. Also been able to reduce latency in its performance panel.

However, I'd be interested to know where I can find the Timidity and GS Wavetable soft synth MIDI devices to enable me to locate their sound banks. Where can I find these on my PC?

[garww]

Gs you should forget about really. I think it's a .ecw file under windows/system ?

I keep all my ecw, sf2, arl, dls banks under my documents/banks, but the Tim bank is probably under the tim directory. One of the interfaces allows you file menu to navigate around and select your patches.

I often use a 12Mb Chaos bank and a 30Mb Merlin pro40 bank for .sf2. ultrasnd.dls 6Mb is pretty good for a smaller bank. Tons of banks are available on the web.