BASSMIDI Soundfont MIDI Synthesiser Driver for Windows XP/Vista/7

[DosFreak]

Hope someone still has the latest ver.

Never trust the cloud!

[HunterZ]

Rich Nagel (rfnagel) has an archive here: http://www.cmoo.com/snor/weeds/SoundFon ... DI_Driver/

(Rich: if you don't want me linking there, let me know and I will edit this post)

Update: Mudlord says he's migrating the code and releases to his own server.

Update 2:

Mudlord posted these links for the new official location of BASSMIDIDRV:

Source: http://svn.mudlord.info/bassmididrv/
Binaries: http://www.mudlord.info/crap/audio/

[xenoneo]

I just wanted to thank you, rfnagel, for posting about this subject here and many other places.
Thanks to you I know much more about midi than I did before.
It reeally sent me on a wild goose chase through google. ^^;
I also wanted to let you know that I linked to your installation guide in a topic I made for improving System Shock 1's audio.
http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?to ... 2#msg31402

I'm also very happy that researching this subject introduced me to these forums.
At times some of the info here goes over my head, but I'm certain I'll learn much here.

If for some reason you would like me to remove any of the links there, or moderators here would like me to remove this link to an external website, just let me know.
The intention is simply to thank rfnagel, to let him know where I linked to his website, and say hi to everyone on these forums.

-Xenoneo

[Jolaes76]

Could someone please post a link to the "OPL-3_FM_128M.sfpack" ?
The rapidshare link is dead...

[xenoneo]

I found a copy of opl-3 fm 128m at the bottom of this webpage:
http://woolyss.com/chipmusic-soundfonts.php
Just click the button that says zip next to it.
Hope that helps.

[Jolaes76]

Thanks a lot xenoneo,

I hope it did not take long to find this site... It certainly would have for me.

[franpa]

Anyone else get distortion when using some sound sets to play MIDI files?

[leileilol]

There's a weird 7 user rights error. The driver will only work for the currently logged-in user.

Also, consider naming "Configure BASSMIDI Driver" instead of "Configure Driver" for the shortcut so to clear confusion with your vst driver's identical shortcut and for 7's start search

[DosFreak]

http://bassmididrv.mudlord.info/

[HunterZ]

The SVN changelog lists a v2.03, but the latest binary available is still 2.02.

[fischkopf11]

I have some problems when using BASSMIDI in FL-Studio when editing midi files. Some instruments sound REALLY weird, and sliding notes don't sound right. But beyond FL-Studio, every .mid i play souds good.

The only thing i'm missing in BASSMIDI are some settings, like in this screenshot of timidity (i was using that before BASSMIDI): http://i.imgur.com/x7HlG.jpg

Otherwise your softsynth is great.

[franpa]

I get lots of distortion with some soundfonts rendering any advantages of this product moot.

[mudlord]

Define "distortion".

If you mean distortion like unclipped/normalized audio, then I don't experience it in the WinMM synth. Nor do I experience it in foo_midi, which uses the exact same synthesiser as the driver.

Or it could be you are still running Windows XP, which doesn't clip volume of output streams, while Windows Vista and up do when the sample format is floating point.

Or you are using the dmusic version, which is forced to used integer mixing for some retarded reason, and then on Windows Vista you get distortion.

leileilol: tried now? I noticed you made those points so the installer should fix those, and volume should be working again too. I think you know my Steam account to contact me on a more direct basis regarding such things.

And yes, this is far from dead. The new proper domain is bassmididrv.mudlord.info. main updates are still discussed at HA like usual.

[Artex]

Hey Mudlord. I have an older (1.06 version) but where can I get the latest? I can't seem to find a working link.

[mudlord]

http://www.mudlord.info/bassmididrv/

[franpa]

Define "distortion".

If you mean distortion like unclipped/normalized audio, then I don't experience it in the WinMM synth. Nor do I experience it in foo_midi, which uses the exact same synthesiser as the driver.

Or it could be you are still running Windows XP, which doesn't clip volume of output streams, while Windows Vista and up do when the sample format is floating point.

Or you are using the dmusic version, which is forced to used integer mixing for some retarded reason, and then on Windows Vista you get distortion.

Windows 7 and its been a while since I last used it, maybe it has improved since then. I just used the version listed at the Bassmidi website you link to, no clue what variation it was at the time. I believe it sounded like the various instruments weren't being clearly played back, instead conflicting with each other as well as crackle. (Mainly the OPL-3 FM 128M soundfont caused it)

Anyways, I'll give v3.00 a whirl.

[doomer]

Thank you for this BASSMIDI driver!

I've been playing with it for a while using the GS sound set (16 bit) that rfnagel recommended and I must say it is fantastic! Way better than using the same soundfont on my X-fi Titanium or the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas software.

I've been comparing various SC-55 recordings to real-time performances in dosbox using the BASSMIDI driver and that GS soundfont, and I must say that they are almost identical. I felt that I had actually got a real SC-55. Amazing! Also it was really obvious that all the games that I tried sounded perfectly balanced just as if they were meant to be played this way. I have never been able to achieve such a balance before. I tried many different soundfonts on various Creative cards, but most of the time one game would sound okay, but another would be really off. But BASSMIDI is something else entirely.

The only thing missing is some kind of a master reverb control in the BASSMIDI driver configuration. That was the only noticeable difference that I spotted on some of those SC-55 recordings. Some of these have the reverb turned up and sound much better whereas those games in dosbox sound a bit dry. It would be great if the author adds such a reverb control in the driver. I am also curious if those recordings had the reverb manually turned up on the actual SC-55 unit since it has been confirmed that some games simply do not transmit the reverb commands.

Thank you again for this wonderful driver!

[F2bnp]

Totally agree with doomer on the reverb thing. It begs to be a feature!

[valnar]

Has anyone tried Bassmidi with ykhwong's latest DOSBox build? When starting DOSBox, it freezes on detecting the MIDI. All my other MIDI drivers work fine.

[mudlord]

Updated BASSMIDI driver use sinc interpolation as a option, not sure whether to change reverb/chorus/whatever.
Updated VSTi MIDI to use the same framework as the current BASSMIDI driver.