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        General >> 3rd Party >> MIDI Ox/Yoke and Synthfont (synthesizer)
        
(Message started by: dnewhous on Feb 7^th, 2004, 12:45pm)

Title: MIDI Ox/Yoke and Synthfont (synthesizer)
Post by dnewhous on Feb 7^th, 2004, 12:45pm

I am trying to find out if MIXI Ox and/or MIDI Yoke will enable to map Synthfont (a freeware MIDI synthesizer) to the Windows MIDI mapper. I.e., choose Synthfont as the default MIDI output device in the Windows multimedia control panel.

My first thought was to just download everything and see if it works but I realize now there will be quite a learning curve in understanding all the settings.

I am using WindowsXP.

Is a MIDI port the same as a MIDI channel?

Title: Re: MIDI Ox/Yoke and Synthfont (synthesizer)
Post by Peter L Jones on Feb 8^th, 2004, 5:14am

SynthFont, from memory, only renders from Standard MIDI Files (.mid), not from live MIDI input. If it'll read live input, all to the good!

If not, check out rgc:audio's sfz. Remember, you'll need plenty of CPU power to get good results with any soft-synth.

Whatever, you'll need a softsynth that will run standalone and read a MIDI input port. Preferably, you want ASIO audio out (if you have a good ASIO driver) for live use.

But, in essence, yes. I have the MIDI Mapper set up to write to MIDI Yoke NT junction 8. I then use MIDI OX to route that to whatever output I want (for onboard/hardware) or hook up a softsynth to read from J8. Works well.

Title: Re: MIDI Ox/Yoke and Synthfont (synthesizer)
Post by Peter L Jones on Feb 8^th, 2004, 5:18am

on 02/07/04 at 12:45:38, dnewhous wrote:

Is a MIDI port the same as a MIDI channel?

No.

Each MIDI message contains 4 bits indicating the MIDI channel number it applies to. So you can have only 16 MIDI channels.

A MIDI port is like a printer port - it's what you plug a MIDI device into. Or a virtual MIDI port lets you "virtually" plug in devices (remember, the device driver in your computer isn't the actual hardware - it's a software program that lets other programs access the hardware... if there is any hardware...).

You can have any number of MIDI ports, each carrying MIDI messages (so up to 16 channels each) in one direction. So you have MIDI In ports (for messages arriving somewhere) and MIDI Out ports (for messages being sent off somewhere). You always connect from a MIDI Out to a MIDI In.

Title: Re: MIDI Ox/Yoke and Synthfont (synthesizer)
Post by dnewhous on Feb 8^th, 2004, 1:22pm

on 02/08/04 at 05:14:00, Peter L Jones wrote:

SynthFont, from memory, only renders from Standard MIDI Files (.mid), not from live MIDI input. If it'll read live input, all to the good!

It has a setting for MIDI input port where you can select any entry that's in the Windows MIDI mapper, but it doesn't work on my system. I have clearly got MIDI-Ox figured out because I played something back(through an IE plugin) and saw all the MIDI data being displayed.

Quote:

If not, check out rgc:audio's sfz. Remember, you'll need plenty of CPU power to get good results with any soft-synth.

Whatever, you'll need a softsynth that will run standalone and read a MIDI input port.

Is sfz standalone? From the description it looks like a VST plugin only.
Can it be made to run in the background when not in use?

Title: Re: MIDI Ox/Yoke and Synthfont (synthesizer)
Post by Peter L Jones on Feb 10^th, 2004, 4:28pm

on 02/08/04 at 13:22:29, dnewhous wrote:

Is sfz standalone? From the description it looks like a VST plugin only.
Can it be made to run in the background when not in use?

The VST comes with a "microhost" .exe wrapper that's really handy if you only want to play with soundfonts "live". It runs in a normal window, so you do have to be careful not to close it accidentally. (I did have it running as another user under XP but that seemed to produce some strange effects - although that was as a VST plugin, it might work fine in the microhost.)

Another alternative - if you've got CPU to burn - is TiMidity++. This used to be my favourite SF2 player - but I was running Linux at the time. The windows version sucks CPU in gallons compared with the Linux one (I couldn't even use it on my AMD XP2800+ without glitching unacceptably). Try here for TiMidity++: http://onefreehost.com/saxguru/Links.html - you want the My Timidity++ link (but the site's not working for me in Mozilla Firefox).

Title: Re: MIDI Ox/Yoke and Synthfont (synthesizer)
Post by dnewhous on Feb 10^th, 2004, 6:21pm

Does Timidity have a reverb? It's tiny (in size).

Title: Re: MIDI Ox/Yoke and Synthfont (synthesizer)
Post by Peter L Jones on Feb 11^th, 2004, 2:09pm

Sorry, I don't remember - it's Open Source but the docs are hard going (the core team is Japenese).