(e-mail address removed) (
[email protected]) in
(e-mail address removed):
Thanks for your generous response, Chris. I'm trying to understand how
the h/w and s/w components interact in WinXPProSP2. Why do I need a
sequencer, given that there must be a sequencer in Media Player, as it
can play MIDI files?
Sequencers are the MIDI equivalent of word processors. So if you don't
merely want to listen to MIDI files, but also want to record or edit MIDI,
you'll need a sequencer. (Or a notator. Originally sequencers didn't bother
too much about printing scores, and notators didn't bother too much about
non-printing elements of MIDI, but nowadays they tend to overlap to a great
extent.)
Is there a Web site or document that you can point me to so that I can
learn about this?
Probably too elementary for hasty people, but a great resource:
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/ Or the MIDI Manufacturers Association:
http://www.midi.org/.
A site I always forget: the FAQ of at
http://home.sc.rr.com/cosmogony/. And probably that newsgroup itself.
A great place for tutorials, but unfortunately victim of a disappeared web
host:
http://www.homesequencers.net/. It may take weeks or even months to
come back. (Murphy's laws apply...) And the Yahoo group of the same owner:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HOMESEQUENCERS/.
I've done some Windows coding in C (coursework only), C++ (using
Borland's OWL a few years ago), and Visual Basic, so I have a rudimentary
understanding, even if it's a bit rusty.
It is not of specific use, I'd think, but it may help in a more general way.
By the way, some MIDI software features a programming language.
My sound output device is the Realtek AC97 Audio device; I checked the
Realtek site as their driver updates are usually pretty regular, but
didn't see anything about ASIO.
That is exactly where ASIO4ALL comes in handy.
By the way, the ASIO audio driver model is a development of Steinberg, maker
of the rather famous Cubase software line. And so is that synthesizer
interface VST. The strictly Microsoft way is DirectX (DX) for synths and WDM
for audio.
And I don't understand your point about the GS wavetable thing being
embedded in a file player. In my system, it's the softsynth provided
by Microsoft.
The sounds are licensed from Roland (or their Edirol division). As far as I
can see, the Microsof thing is a "lite" version of Edirol's Virtual Sound
Canvas (stand-alone version). And the file name extension DLS identifies the
"GS Wavetable SW Synth" as a mere collection of sounds - so something must
be present to handle them.
(I just tested GM.DLS as just another sound font in SynthFont.)
But the answer to your original question may be simpler than I had been
thinking. Windows has a fundamental notion of handling outgoing MIDI
messages, but it doesn't bother at all about incoming MIDI messages.
