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First post, by xtreger

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I'm using Walter's awesome HDADRV to get sound in Win3.1 out of the onboard ALC888. I wanted to play Chip's Challenge with MIDI, so I went ahead and installed WinGroove. After that .mid files play via the WinGroove player, but not the default media player (it just says no midi device is specified).

So then I installed Walter's wmidids on a backup copy of Win3.1 I made just before installing WinGroove (of course I renamed the backup to "WINDOWS" so it's equivalent to removing WinGroove and installing wmidids). When I play a midi file (e.g. canyon.mid), media player doesn't give any error and the playback is happening (the playback slider moves), BUT there is no sound. The usual wav sounds are still perfectly audible (e.g. chord.wav).

I followed all the instructions - installed new driver via the given oemsetup.inf, added wave1=wmidi.dll to system.ini (since wave=hda2.dll already exists there, but I also tried adding wave=wmidi.dll), and I set wmidrun.exe to autostart.

I'd be really grateful if anyone can help me here. Has anyone been able to get both the HDADRV wave output and wmidids midi output working at once in a Win 3.1 session? Thanks

Reply 1 of 5, by Falcosoft

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I do not know what wmidids exactly is but it is definitely not needed in order to use MIDI with Wingroove together with the HD Audio driver.
In order other Midi software to use Wingroove you have to set a new preset in Win 3.1 Midi mapper for Wingroove and set it as default.
As you can see in my test video Midisoft Recording Session can use Wingroove without problems. Default Win 3.1 media player also uses Wingroove as default Midi out this way.
https://youtu.be/KWqJo5-6hnQ

The attachment midimapper.png is no longer available

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Reply 2 of 5, by xtreger

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Falcosoft wrote on 2025-11-08, 22:27:
I do not know what wmidids exactly is but it is definitely not needed in order to use MIDI with Wingroove together with the HD A […]
Show full quote

I do not know what wmidids exactly is but it is definitely not needed in order to use MIDI with Wingroove together with the HD Audio driver.
In order other Midi software to use Wingroove you have to set a new preset in Win 3.1 Midi mapper for Wingroove and set it as default.
As you can see in my test video Midisoft Recording Session can use Wingroove without problems. Default Win 3.1 media player also uses Wingroove as default Midi out this way.
https://youtu.be/KWqJo5-6hnQ

The attachment midimapper.png is no longer available

Thank you very much. I reinstalled WinGroove, and it automatically creates a preset in which all midi channels are mapped to "WinGroove". Now the MIDI files play properly via windows media player, but on starting Chip's Challenge and enabling music, it shows this error:

"MIDI Error on file chip02.mid: The specified MIDI device is already in use. Wait until it is free, and then try again."

And once I close the game and double-click chip02.mid, it plays normally via windows media player. It's a bit confusing - do you have an idea what's going on? Do you get the same error (in case you get the chance to test Chip's Challenge on your end)?

Reply 3 of 5, by Falcosoft

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xtreger wrote on 2025-11-09, 17:06:
Thank you very much. I reinstalled WinGroove, and it automatically creates a preset in which all midi channels are mapped to "Wi […]
Show full quote
Falcosoft wrote on 2025-11-08, 22:27:
I do not know what wmidids exactly is but it is definitely not needed in order to use MIDI with Wingroove together with the HD A […]
Show full quote

I do not know what wmidids exactly is but it is definitely not needed in order to use MIDI with Wingroove together with the HD Audio driver.
In order other Midi software to use Wingroove you have to set a new preset in Win 3.1 Midi mapper for Wingroove and set it as default.
As you can see in my test video Midisoft Recording Session can use Wingroove without problems. Default Win 3.1 media player also uses Wingroove as default Midi out this way.
https://youtu.be/KWqJo5-6hnQ

The attachment midimapper.png is no longer available

Thank you very much. I reinstalled WinGroove, and it automatically creates a preset in which all midi channels are mapped to "WinGroove". Now the MIDI files play properly via windows media player, but on starting Chip's Challenge and enabling music, it shows this error:

"MIDI Error on file chip02.mid: The specified MIDI device is already in use. Wait until it is free, and then try again."

And once I close the game and double-click chip02.mid, it plays normally via windows media player. It's a bit confusing - do you have an idea what's going on? Do you get the same error (in case you get the chance to test Chip's Challenge on your end)?

Hi,
Check system.ini in your Win31 folder. In the 'driver' section you should have something like this:

[drivers]
...
wave=hda2.dll
...
Midi1=C:\WINGROOV\WGMMDRVR.DRV
Wave1=C:\WINGROOV\WGMMDRVR.DRV

That is you have to have 2 Wave devices referenced. Then in your Control panel -> Sound Mapper section you should check that you have both 'WinGroove WaveOut' and 'HDA Sound'.
Also check the Wingroove help file and make sure that you read carefully the Always able to play/Always active section:

The attachment AlwaysActive.png is no longer available

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Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi
VST Midi Driver Midi Mapper
x86 microarchitecture benchmark (MandelX)

Reply 4 of 5, by xtreger

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Falcosoft wrote on 2025-11-09, 17:47:
Hi, Check system.ini in your Win31 folder. In the 'driver' section you should have something like this: […]
Show full quote
xtreger wrote on 2025-11-09, 17:06:
Thank you very much. I reinstalled WinGroove, and it automatically creates a preset in which all midi channels are mapped to "Wi […]
Show full quote
Falcosoft wrote on 2025-11-08, 22:27:
I do not know what wmidids exactly is but it is definitely not needed in order to use MIDI with Wingroove together with the HD A […]
Show full quote

I do not know what wmidids exactly is but it is definitely not needed in order to use MIDI with Wingroove together with the HD Audio driver.
In order other Midi software to use Wingroove you have to set a new preset in Win 3.1 Midi mapper for Wingroove and set it as default.
As you can see in my test video Midisoft Recording Session can use Wingroove without problems. Default Win 3.1 media player also uses Wingroove as default Midi out this way.
https://youtu.be/KWqJo5-6hnQ

The attachment midimapper.png is no longer available

Thank you very much. I reinstalled WinGroove, and it automatically creates a preset in which all midi channels are mapped to "WinGroove". Now the MIDI files play properly via windows media player, but on starting Chip's Challenge and enabling music, it shows this error:

"MIDI Error on file chip02.mid: The specified MIDI device is already in use. Wait until it is free, and then try again."

And once I close the game and double-click chip02.mid, it plays normally via windows media player. It's a bit confusing - do you have an idea what's going on? Do you get the same error (in case you get the chance to test Chip's Challenge on your end)?

Hi,
Check system.ini in your Win31 folder. In the 'driver' section you should have something like this:

[drivers]
...
wave=hda2.dll
...
Midi1=C:\WINGROOV\WGMMDRVR.DRV
Wave1=C:\WINGROOV\WGMMDRVR.DRV

That is you have to have 2 Wave devices referenced. Then in your Control panel -> Sound Mapper section you should check that you have both 'WinGroove WaveOut' and 'HDA Sound'.
Also check the Wingroove help file and make sure that you read carefully the Always able to play/Always active section:

The attachment AlwaysActive.png is no longer available

Thank you very much! I subbed to your channel (also good song for WinPlay3 test). So now I can play Chip's Challenge with both midi and sound effects. In your video I can see you have extremely low latency in that "Slam!" game. But when I set a low latency in WinGroove setup, the sound starts breaking and popping. The minimum non-problematic latency I could see was 250 ms. Did you follow any specific procedure to get an even lower latency?

Reply 5 of 5, by Falcosoft

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xtreger wrote on 2025-11-09, 19:06:
Falcosoft wrote on 2025-11-09, 17:47:
Hi, Check system.ini in your Win31 folder. In the 'driver' section you should have something like this: […]
Show full quote
xtreger wrote on 2025-11-09, 17:06:

Thank you very much. I reinstalled WinGroove, and it automatically creates a preset in which all midi channels are mapped to "WinGroove". Now the MIDI files play properly via windows media player, but on starting Chip's Challenge and enabling music, it shows this error:

"MIDI Error on file chip02.mid: The specified MIDI device is already in use. Wait until it is free, and then try again."

And once I close the game and double-click chip02.mid, it plays normally via windows media player. It's a bit confusing - do you have an idea what's going on? Do you get the same error (in case you get the chance to test Chip's Challenge on your end)?

Hi,
Check system.ini in your Win31 folder. In the 'driver' section you should have something like this:

[drivers]
...
wave=hda2.dll
...
Midi1=C:\WINGROOV\WGMMDRVR.DRV
Wave1=C:\WINGROOV\WGMMDRVR.DRV

That is you have to have 2 Wave devices referenced. Then in your Control panel -> Sound Mapper section you should check that you have both 'WinGroove WaveOut' and 'HDA Sound'.
Also check the Wingroove help file and make sure that you read carefully the Always able to play/Always active section:

The attachment AlwaysActive.png is no longer available

Thank you very much! I subbed to your channel (also good song for WinPlay3 test). So now I can play Chip's Challenge with both midi and sound effects. In your video I can see you have extremely low latency in that "Slam!" game. But when I set a low latency in WinGroove setup, the sound starts breaking and popping. The minimum non-problematic latency I could see was 250 ms. Did you follow any specific procedure to get an even lower latency?

You're welcome!
Latency setting in Wingroove only affects Midi playback. It has nothing to do with wave playback ( and thus the Slam game).
The only specific setting I use is related to startup wait times. You can read about it in this thread:
Re: HDA Audio driver for Windows 3.1x

Website, Youtube
Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi
VST Midi Driver Midi Mapper
x86 microarchitecture benchmark (MandelX)