64-bit Alternative to Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth MIDI Generator?

Anonymous
2010-03-16T09:40:24+00:00

I'm trying to find an alternative to the MIDI synth driver built into Windows 7 64-bit - namely the MS GS Wavetable Synth.

I have a Creative X-Fi card (64-bit drivers of course) but to my woe I discovered that the very nice Creative MIDI synth supports 32-bit systems only.

I do a lot of work with MIDI files and am supremely dissapointed with the Microsoft Synth - it sounds like the instruments haven't been updated since Win 3.11, which is probably true. I'm trying to find a better-sounding alternative that is compatible with a 64-bit operating system, but hours of searching have yielded nothing useful.

Does anybody have any reccommendations?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2011-06-05T20:03:20+00:00

What I do, is I use this card for my music, games, movies, etc. but for MIDIs, I have an old Pentium III computer with an ISA SoundBlaster AWE64gold sound card. It's a much older card and is not as good with games and media, but it actually has a better synthesizer than the SB X-FI HD.

Yes, all of the AWE32/64 cards *had* near professional quality synthsizers [1], but they are a bit old now.   The super awesome synth of the AWE32 was a benefit Creative Labs got when they bought the professional synth company EMU out years ago.  If you are a professional and you are willing to use a standalone synthesizer, then you can consider getting a rack module for a few hundred dollars off of ebay:

http://www.vintagesynth.com/emu/emuxl1.php   [2]

or you can get the highly recommended EmulatorX3.  EmulatorX3 is without a doubt absolutely awseome and it can run on your main computer or a standalone separate computer:

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=501&subcategory=168&product=17681

Also recommended is the kx project that Poidude mentioned.  If your emu10kX based sound card/OS is supported by the kx project, then you can do almost anything with it...

[1] - The Wave Table synthesis of the AWE Cards was near awesome, but the cards were a bit lacking in real time filters that are available in the more recent and expensive EmulatorX and stand along rack products for professionals.

[2] - While these stand alone rack modules work well for pro-audio, they probaby won't work that great for gaming because they don't tend to come with a General MIDI bank.  You would have to find such and expansion card and that might be difficult . On the other hand, EmulatorX3 does come with a General MIDI bank if I remember correctly, but it is a software only solution.

Best,

Shawn

Lastly, this whole dicussion is a bit on the silly side since I don't think most modern games actually use MIDI and SoundFonts/Wavetable/SoundBanks anymore.  Instead, I think game writters tend to compress their sound tracks into variations of MP3/OGGs files which are then decompressed by by main CPU and send straight to the Digital to Analog chip on the sound card thereby completely voiding the need for Wavetable or MIDI.  If I understand this correctly, mostly only professional musicians use MIDI these days. 

Note: I am a professional *.NET programmer and hobiest musician.  While I don't know much about writing video games, I do know a bit about music and Creative Labs...

Was this answer helpful?

4 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2011-05-28T07:20:02+00:00

I don't know if you still need help (your post is really old) but I'm having the same problem with my SB X-FI HD card. I have searched high and I have searched low and, sadly, I don't think there's any solution to this. What I do, is I use this card for my music, games, movies, etc. but for MIDIs, I have an old Pentium III computer with an ISA SoundBlaster AWE64gold sound card. It's a much older card and is not as good with games and media, but it actually has a better synthesizer than the SB X-FI HD. You can buy this card on ebay for like $7.00 it's really cheap. I know this doesn't really help at all, but it is a very good synthesizer, and I highly recommend trying it!

Was this answer helpful?

3 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

43 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2010-07-10T04:54:26+00:00

    both of the repeater programs and the soundfont software is incompatible with 64-bit OSes

    1. VieSFM_PCApp_LB_2_40_60.exe is compatible with XP64 should it should work on Windows 7 64 Bit
    2. There is a 64 Bit Virtual MIDI cable here http://www.avianwaves.com/Blog/default.aspx?id=85

    I think you should call Creative Labs. If you get the right person, you should get a satisfactory answer. I don't know how Creative Works anymore, but Tech Support is organized into Tiers and Sections. Finding the right Tier/Section for a given problemcan be time consuming but worth the effort

    MIDI is a (mostly) dead technology

    MIDI has plenty of bandwidth for its intended purpose of communicating pitch/velocity on/off events with some expression. I will admit that only having 127 levels of volume is quite annoying, but this can be overcome with MIDI SysEX Events. You can't use MIDI to send an audio stream, but you can still use MIDI to control a VSTi that generates an audio stream.  

    Top of the line Sound Cards still use MIDI:

    http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/M-Audio-Delta-1010-PCI-Digital-Audio-System?sku=701340

    http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/RME-Fireface-UC-Compact-36Channel-FireWire-Interface?sku=703646

    http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/E-Mu-1616M-PCIe-Digital-Audio-System?sku=584005

    The Creative EMU cards are the best buy and it's not just because I'm biased  :-)

    BTW:

    I just bought Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade 64 Bit and I don't anticipate any major problems.  I plan on running:

    1. Cubase 5 (64 Bit)
    2. Emulator X2 (32 Bit VSTi DLL running in a 64 to 32 Bit Cubase VSTi Bridge)
    3. EMU 1212M (no audio dock with Windows 7 64 Bit Beta Drivers)

    I am not a professional musician, but I doubt I will have any show stoppers.

    Best,

    Shawn

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2010-07-09T17:39:53+00:00

    Ok, so I've given your soloution a shot, and I ran into one major problem: 64-bit.

    I updated my drivers, found a MIDI yoke program (in fact, I found two), and found the soundfont software. Unfortunately, both of the repeater programs and the soundfont software is incompatible with 64-bit OSes, even after tweaking the compatibility settings.

    That was the original problem sparking this thread... nothing supports 64-bit. It's a pain in the ____ because the manufacturers are too lazy to invest in a technology that relatively few people use.

    I've found I can simply use XP mode (ie XP in a virtual machine) to work around this entire soloution, but that's not what I'm looking for.

    I appreciate the help, but I've pretty much given up at this point. MIDI is a (mostly) dead technology, and no one puts much thought into 64-bit.

    Thanks anyways.

    ~IAmTheDonut

    P.S. My sound card is the Audigy classic. No MIDI support to speak of.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2010-07-09T02:20:38+00:00

    That's why I'm using Synthfront. My audio interface does not come with a synth (no professional audio interface does). 

    I think Dexter_prog is right in stating that professional audio interfaces don't come with synths anymore.  Back in the day, the EMU-APS still had an on board synth, but the newer line of EMU's cards are focus on having a super low-latency DSP with effects.   An exception to this is the Audigy sound cards which should still have an AWE (Advanced Wave Effects) hardware synth on board.   All "IAmTheDonut" should need is Vienna Sound Font Studio

    http://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=9371

    which should already be on the CDs that came with his Audigy.  The Vienna Sound Found Studio should have an option where it can listen to the MIDI in events comming into his Audigy Card.  The only problem is that he will need to use the MIDI Yoke program that Dextor_prog mentioned or buy a MIDI adapter.  If "IAmTheDonut" has an  for his Audigy ZS card, he can look for a very rare but discontinued Audigy MIDI bracket, but if he has an Audigy SE then he is out of luck.  The Audigy SE does not have any MIDI ports. 

    He can, however, pick up a really cheap EMU MIDI adapters here:

    http://us.store.creative.com/EMU-Xmidi-2x2-USB-MIDI/M/B002VDHMNM.htm   (I got this free with Emulator X2 and it works pretty well but the lights can be a little annoying)

    or he can try the cheaper $30 EMU X-MIDI 1x1

    http://us.store.creative.com/EMU-Xmidi-1x1-Tab/M/B002VDJQOA.htm

    which I haven't tried.  

    The best solution, however, it for "IAmTheDonut" to try and use the MIDIYoke program suggested by Dexter_Prog to send MIDI events straight to Vienna Sound Font Studio which should be free for users of the Creative Labs Audigy. He should then be able to load one of the SoundFonts that came with his card.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments