VOGONS


Reply 780 of 1675, by furan

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Bit of a delicate ask, but is the source code available if I want to change the look and feel? I'm looking to make a virtual MIDI PC doing this, and I've built an LCD into a full height drive bay, and I've been hoping to display midiplayer/VSTs/VSTi there.
Thanks again for writing this app!

Reply 781 of 1675, by Falcosoft

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Bit of a delicate ask, but is the source code available if I want to change the look and feel?

Sorry but no, the source code is not available.

Thanks again for writing this app!

You're welcome.

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Reply 782 of 1675, by gdjacobs

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To be clear, I believe what you do with your own creation is absolutely your own choice even though I really love what Free Software makes possible. However, from a structural point of view does FSMP include any libraries or code snippets that impose licensing restrictions?

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 783 of 1675, by Falcosoft

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gdjacobs wrote:

To be clear, I believe what you do with your own creation is absolutely your own choice even though I really love what Free Software makes possible. However, from a structural point of view does FSMP include any libraries or code snippets that impose licensing restrictions?

Unfortunately yes. The problem is twofold. It uses some third party non-open source copyrighted components, but this is the smaller problem. The bigger problem is it also uses heavily modified Borland/Inprise Delphi(5!) VCL source codes. Some modifications are compatibility/bug fixes, some are necessary hacks to add new features (and Borland's code of course cannot be distributed)...
FSMP started as a hobby project for myself (and for my SB Live 😀 ) more than 10 years ago. Multi-platform/open source compatibility was not an concern then.

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Reply 784 of 1675, by furan

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In my case I can get by - I wrote a lot of the Windows compositor and I can redirect the backbuffer for the VSTi window to an external display, live. So I'll still get that tidbit of output that I want for my "Virtual Midi Box" - thanks again for this program and all the hard work!

Reply 785 of 1675, by Kaminari

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Hello Zoltan,

I noticed that MT-32 files with very small external SysEx files (to set reverb for example) tend to "choke up" the first few notes. I wonder if there's an option in FSMP to force a small delay (one second for example) before the MIDI file starts playing, in order to prevent that sort of congestion and let the SysEx properly upload to the synth.

[Edit] Talking about physical synths of course (CM-64 in my case). FSMP with Munt doesn't have this problem.

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Reply 786 of 1675, by Falcosoft

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Kaminari wrote:

Hello Zoltan,

I noticed that MT-32 files with very small external SysEx files (to set reverb for example) tend to "choke up" the first few notes. I wonder if there's an option in FSMP to force a small delay (one second for example) before the MIDI file starts playing, in order to prevent that sort of congestion and let the SysEx properly upload to the synth.

[Edit] Talking about physical synths of course (CM-64 in my case). FSMP with Munt doesn't have this problem.

Hi,
Of course there is. Maybe it's not obvious at first but the 'Maximum SysEx chunk size' and 'Delay between SysEx chunks' settings in Main menu -> SysEx Options -> Select/Send Custom SysEx dialog also apply to external SysEx files. Since you have talked about small SysEx files maybe the Maximum chunks size is not relevant here but the Delay between SysEx chunks definitely is. Try to set the value e.g. to 100 ms. It means after every sent SysEx chunk FSMP waits for 100 ms. I think this value will be enough but if not you can increase the value further (but I do think 1000 ms delay would be unnecessarily too much).

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Reply 787 of 1675, by Kaminari

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Thanks! The Delay option did the trick.

Those SysEx files are small indeed, less than 100 bytes. The default 40 ms value was too short for my synth (or maybe my Midisport Uno), but setting it at 150 ms got rid of the congestion during playback startup.

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Reply 789 of 1675, by Falcosoft

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Is there any way of having the LCD display module of the MT-32 show up in the display. Only thing that I really miss. Would go perfect with MidiPlayer.

I'm not really sure I understand what you want. I have 3 interpretations of your request:
1. You are talking about showing the LCD display module of an external MT-32/Munt on MidiPlayer's interface while an external MT-32/Munt is selected as output. This is not possible since Midiplayer itself is not an MT-32 emulator so it cannot interpret e.g. MT-32 specific SysEx messages. It can only send messages to output. But this also would not have much sense since external MT-32 and Munt driver display their own LCD.
2. You are talking about the display of the internal Munt VSTi plugin and not Midiplayer itself. Munt VSTi itself can display and actually already displays all the information that can be displayed on the MT-32 LCD (even more) only the aesthetics is different. If this is the case then the the answer is maybe later. To tell you the truth more info/functionality is more important for me than copying the exact aesthetics.
3. You are simply talking about the aesthetics of the LCD and you want an MT-32 like display on Midi player instead of the current one. The problem with this approach is that an MT-32 like display is very restricted regarding display area for all the information that currently have to be displayed on Midiplayer's display.

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Reply 790 of 1675, by brad86

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Yeah, I meant something that can work with the plugin and MidiPlayer to show information like the original MT-32 would do.

Some game will show the song title or other game information on the display and I always found it pretty cool.

Would look something like this...

eQed.png

Reply 791 of 1675, by Falcosoft

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Yeah, I meant something that can work with the plugin.

OK, then the solution of the puzzle seems to be number 2 😀.

Some game will show the song title or other game information on the display and I always found it pretty cool.

As I have said all that information is already displayed by the plugin, only differently in a more readable form:

mntvsti_syx_string.jpg
Filename
mntvsti_syx_string.jpg
File size
75.04 KiB
Views
2135 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

By the way the original LCD is only capable of displaying so many characters at once:

orig_mt32LCD.jpg
Filename
orig_mt32LCD.jpg
File size
7.48 KiB
Views
2135 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

@Edit:
As I have said above it cannot be a a new MidiPlayer display per se since Midiplayer does not have the necessary information. It has to be connected to Munt VSTi and in case of VSTi plugins multiple dialog boxes/editor windows are not the best choices. So the best place to display such information is still inside the existing editor window of Munt VSTi. To give it more emphasis I have thought about something like this:

mpfull.jpg
Filename
mpfull.jpg
File size
366.94 KiB
Views
2131 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

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Reply 793 of 1675, by red_avatar

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So, I saw Phil's Computer Lab Youtube vid on Falcosoft, bought a gameport-to-midi cable as well as a midi-to-USB cable and today the gameport-to-midi cable finally arrived. I installed the Midi Player on my old Vista laptop, the USB cable was successfully detected as MIDI device, I activated the MUNT dll to get the menu, ... and that's about how far I got without running into problems. I've spent about an hour and a half Googling and looking through the topic but I can't seem to find the solution.

To summarize, here's the steps I took:
- I got all cables hooked up to my AWE64 on my old Pentium 233 (socket 7) PC
- USB device is detected just fine by Windows
- latest MIDI Player (5.5 without BASS Midi) installed
- MIDI Out - "Use Bass" turned on
- Munt plugin loaded with included DLL MuntVsti.dll
- MIDI In = active + "USB MIDI Device" selected
- Sample rate = 32000

Here's my problem:

- I started Space Quest 3 with Roland music: it crashes. Turns out this may be a speed issue according to posts on this forum.
- I tried Doom with General Midi: I got some music but it's entirely unrecognisable from the typical Doom music.
- I tried Space Quest 4: I also get some music but again, it sounds all wrong. I can see the software receiving data and it plays back some weird music but I get the impression it's not using the right instruments. Also, normally Sierra games send a message on startup - no such message appears in the Munt menu

Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong? I got the feeling it's something simple I'm neglecting to do.

Retro game fanatic.
IBM PS1 386SX25 - 4MB
IBM Aptiva 486SX33 - 8MB - 2GB CF - SB16
IBM PC350 P233MMX - 64MB - 32GB SSD - AWE64 - Voodoo2
PIII600 - 320MB - 480GB SSD - SB Live! - GF4 Ti 4200
i5-2500k - 3GB - SB Audigy 2 - HD 4870

Reply 794 of 1675, by Falcosoft

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You should determine where your problem is. For proper troubleshooting:
1. First try to play some MT-32 midi files locally with the player. This way you can make sure that you configured the Player + Munt VSTi part correctly. E.g. try this:

Filename
SQ1MT.zip
File size
159.73 KiB
Downloads
81 downloads
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

It should sound correct and at the beginning it should also display : 'Quest Studios - Space Quest 1' at the location you find in my last post above.
2. If the above works correctly you should test the midi input locally. Install LoopMidi, add a virtual Midi Port and give it a name (e.g. FSMP). Then use PLWMidiMap to set the default midi out port to this new virtual midi port.
download/file.php?id=39182
In FSMP select this virtual Midi port as Midi input. Then set DOSBOX to use default Midi out port of Windows and in DOSBOX try to play your games and see if you get correct results in FSMP.
3. If the above tests show that local playback has no problems then the problem must be your cable or the drivers of your cable.

Ps: To play general Midi sounds with Munt VSTi first you should select 'Reset Mode' as GM on the plugin's interface an press 'Reset Synths'. But do not expect SC-55 like sound, MT-32 sounds very differently even in GM mode. Doom should sound like this in GM mode with Munt VSTi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CdJ7sEt8UM&t=2m20s
But for GM/GS mode other VSTi plugins such as SV-VA or S-YXG50 or SF2 soundfons with the integrated Bassmidi synth are recommended.

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Reply 795 of 1675, by red_avatar

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Thanks for the help. The MIDI file plays perfectly as I expected. I wanted to try the steps you suggested but the very first step requires Windows 7 or above and my laptop runs Windows Vista so I'm not sure that would give the right result.

I also have to add, this is the MIDI-USB device I bought:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01487ZA3C/r … 0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Oddly enough, the minute I bought it, the negative reviews started to poor in! It was 4/5 stars before, with the Roland USB device actually receiving worse scores. Of course, I had to wait so long for the MIDI-to-Gameport cable to arrive, it's too late to return it. So yeah, It's possible it's just a dodgy USB device. Oddly enough the older reviews are very positive so I got the feeling they changed something which causes it to no longer work properly.

In the mean time, I decided to try my IBM Aptiva instead. Same problem there. I also tried my main rig to host the software but I had to use an USB extension cable and now the MIDI player won't receive any data (on my laptop, when I booted up SQ4, I saw tons of activity in the software).

Now, I got two female-to-female MIDI devices and I swapped them in case one was bad but had no difference. Now if the software can't be the cause and I did nothing wrong, it must be either the USB device or the gameport-to-MIDI cable. That gameport cable took 5 weeks to arrive so if I order another, it might take just as long so that's not a fast option. I might just buy the Roland USB device - not cheap but it seems the best way to test it. If it gives the same result, I can just return it and get my money back.

Retro game fanatic.
IBM PS1 386SX25 - 4MB
IBM Aptiva 486SX33 - 8MB - 2GB CF - SB16
IBM PC350 P233MMX - 64MB - 32GB SSD - AWE64 - Voodoo2
PIII600 - 320MB - 480GB SSD - SB Live! - GF4 Ti 4200
i5-2500k - 3GB - SB Audigy 2 - HD 4870

Reply 796 of 1675, by Falcosoft

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I wanted to try the steps you suggested but the very first step requires Windows 7 or above and my laptop runs Windows Vista so I'm not sure that would give the right result.

Then you can try Midi Yoke instead (If I remember right you should disable UAC to install this properly) :
http://www.midiox.com/zip/MidiYokeSetup.msi
Before buying anything else make sure you have a working configuration that works at least with DOSBOX.

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Reply 797 of 1675, by red_avatar

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I'll try it tomorrow - I ordered the Roland USB to make it easier in case I can't find the solution. I also tried it on my Mame arcade machine running Windows 7 and again, exactly the same problem so I really doubt it's related to Windows itself.

If the Roland USB device doesn't fix it, I'll have to wager it's the gameport-to-midi cable - it doesn't look as sturdy as I'd like and while I ordered a plastic cable, I received one with metal plugs and experience tells me, metal plugs indicate cables that were put together by hand so there's always a margin of error there.

dJ5lDHY.jpg

A review posted just a few days ago complains the cable is not the one ordered and is faulty so it might be that as well. Thing is, it takes AGES for a cable to get here - I wish I knew where to get one locally.

EDIT:

Sometimes I'm an idiot ... SERDASHOP has a device that should work perfectly and I don't even need a f-f connector. SERDASHOP is like 20km from where I live too >.<

https://www.serdashop.com/DB15MIDI

Retro game fanatic.
IBM PS1 386SX25 - 4MB
IBM Aptiva 486SX33 - 8MB - 2GB CF - SB16
IBM PC350 P233MMX - 64MB - 32GB SSD - AWE64 - Voodoo2
PIII600 - 320MB - 480GB SSD - SB Live! - GF4 Ti 4200
i5-2500k - 3GB - SB Audigy 2 - HD 4870

Reply 798 of 1675, by Falcosoft

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Hi,
version 5.6 of FSMP (together with MuntVsti 2.4 and OPL3Vsti 2.0) is released. The test zips are no longer available.
http://falcosoft.hu/softwares.html#midiplayer

MuntVsti 2.4
1. Modified status area for displaying SysEx LCD messages and selected ROM information to be a little more emphasized.
2. Fixed RPN (0,0) pitch bend range settings in GM mode to behave according to GM specification (MT-32 devices reset pitch bend range to default when program change message is received but GM devices should not).
3. Modified stereo panning in GM mode to behave according to GM specification. MT-32 and GM panning is reversed if we compare them to each other according to specification. So far you had to manually select the 'Reverse Stereo' checkbox to get proper GM panning. Now selecting 'Reverse Stereo' results in reversed stereo effect in both MT-32 and GM mode and without selecting 'Reverse Stereo' both mode sounds according to specification.
4. New version of mt32emu4v.dll with latest enhancements.

OPL3Vsti 2.0

1. Added Dual Synth mode. If this mode is activated then 2 OPL3 synth instances are initialized to double maximum voice polyphony. This is achieved by channel interleaving meaning even Midi channels are played by the 1st synth and odd Midi channels are played by the 2nd synth.
2. Added bank customization option. So besides the earlier introduced single SBI instruments now full IBK banks containing 128 instruments are also supported.
OPL3 FM Bank Editor supports this bank format.
A new selectable bank is added to user interface called 'Custom ibk files'. This bank always uses the 2 IBK format files that are placed next to the plugin and named to 'Custom_Instruments.ibk' and 'Custom_Drums.ibk'. There are 2 example banks included in the package as starting point.
Notice that the drum bank does not use percussion mode of OPL3 either so you have to place the percussion instruments in the melodic pool at the position the drum note refers to. Namely place bass drum at position 35 since note 35 on channel 10 refers to bass drum.

FSMP 5.6
1. Added DMX mus (*.mus) and MS midi stream format (*.mds, *.mids) file support.
2. Improved GM2, XG and NX system defaults and bank handling.
3. Added 'Preload Referenced Instruments' Soundfont loading strategy to Bassmidi mode.
4. Added Start With Windows option to Main menu.
5. Added Loop points filter to Event Viewer/Debugger.
6. Added explicit 'No recording device' selection button to Device Settings dialog's Recording Source part.
7. Added CapsLock and Right Click mouse button as Sustain padal emulation Hotkeys.
8. Added Export Playlist Info to csv file option to right click context menu of playlist.
9. Added new versions of MuntVsti and OPL3Vsti.
10. Other minor fixes and enhancements.

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