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

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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...

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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!

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-04-04T18:32:02+00:00

    Well, that's not actually what I need. See, all I need midi playback for is for a program called Guitar Pro (a guitar tabbing software) which I use to compose music. It uses the microsoft GS Wavetable synth to play back different GM instruments. This was fine with the XP one, but the W 7 one is TERRIBLE. It sounds completely bad, for some reason. I have an external firewire audio interface which is of course not the cause for this. So I wanted to see if there was an alternative to Window 7's GS wavetable synth or even to use the XP one.

    Thanks for your approach, though

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-04-04T16:27:53+00:00

    While this doesn't help me with my original problem (i.e. please don't mark this as an answer), as I need a synth that is accessible from multiple programs, I may have a solotuion for you if you're simply looking for MIDI playback.

    As much as I hate Apple software (no, I'm not going to get into details here. No flame wars.), their QuickTime application has a built-in MIDI generator that sounds a bit different from the MS wavetable. The only catch is that it only works from inside QuickTime itsself.

    Another option I've found from scouring the web is if you need an actual MIDI input (ie live device playback), there's a beautiful little freeware program called VMPK that will give you an on-screen keyboard and both a Yamaha and Roland synth in addtion to the MS one. The downside is they all sound so 90s.

    Also, check your sound card/chip's manufacturer's website to see if their 64-bit drivers include a wavetable generator. Unfortuantely, my SB Audigy doesn't have one, but yours might.

    I hope this is helpful, Dexter. Meanwhile, I'm not expecting a response to my original problem anytime soon.

    ~IAmTheDonut

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-04-04T14:59:14+00:00

    I'm also looking for a non-generic response that can help me find one. I was a Windows XP user and switched to Windows 7 two days ago. But my god is the Windows 7 GS Wavetable Synth TERRIBLE compared to the one on XP, it sounds so awful...

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