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AudioPCI MIDI synth quality, VXD vs WDM

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First post, by MrKsoft

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I never see this mentioned about the AudioPCI so I thought I would make a thread about it. I've noticed that using an ES1371 with the VXD drivers results in very crisp and clear MIDI, whereas the WDM driver results in a more compressed/filtered sound as if it's downsampled to 22050hz or something.

I've recorded a MIDI from Sonic & Knuckles collection to demonstrate the difference. Both from the same machine but with VXD vs WDM:

VXD
WDM

The WDM driver also seems to default to having reverb on the MIDI synth which muddies things up even more (above recording is with that disabled in the mixer to rule out the reverb as the cause of the quality loss). I do like the sound of the ECW instrument sets, so it would be nice to be able to use them more. The cards are decent enough for builds where you either don't have ISA slots or are using a separate sound card for legacy support -- but being able to use the WDM drivers without sacrificing MIDI quality would be beneficial since you could use Win2K if desired, and under 98/ME can ditch the legacy support and have improved CD audio support for virtual drives in Daemon Tools (the VXDs are especially annoying to work with for that)

Anyone know if there is a configuration fix perhaps, or maybe a specific version that works better... or are the WDM drivers just crap? I find it hard to believe this has never come up.

Wafflenet OPL Archive - Preserving MS-DOS music in a unified format!

Reply 1 of 3, by Falcosoft

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MrKsoft wrote on 2020-07-08, 18:56:

I never see this mentioned about the AudioPCI so I thought I would make a thread about it. I've noticed that using an ES1371 with the VXD drivers results in very crisp and clear MIDI, whereas the WDM driver results in a more compressed/filtered sound as if it's downsampled to 22050hz or something.
....

Have you checked the default Midi out device on Control Panel -> Multimedia -> Midi tab? The main difference between Vxd and WDM drivers as far as Midi is concerned (regardless of what soundcard you use) is that with WDM drivers the MS GM/GS soft synth is installed as Midi out port. Most likely it is set as default since all the symptoms you described fit perfectly for MS GM/GS softsynth.

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Reply 2 of 3, by MrKsoft

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While you are correct that it brings that up as the default, it is definitely not the MS GM/GS Synth. Listen to the audio clips I provided, it is the AudioPCI ECW sound set which is quite different. 😀 I have the selection changed to "SB PCI Synthesizer" (All the WDM drivers are post-Creative acquisition so it sees the card as an SB PCI).

Wafflenet OPL Archive - Preserving MS-DOS music in a unified format!

Reply 3 of 3, by Wanderer

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Hello @MrKsoft,
it was known that AudioPCI's synth is 22 kHz only. See, for example, this page: https://web.archive.org/web/20140912044040/ht … technology/ecw/
VxD and WDM drivers seem to use different algorithms of resampling from 22 to 48 kHz. VxD version allows aliasing but sounds subjectively better.

Apart from software processing, probably the only way to get "crisp" sound with WDM drivers is to use Creative SB Live! or Audigy 1. Their drivers include the same Ensoniq synth (called "SB Live! / Audigy Sw Synth") with aliased resampling similar to your VxD example. Just be aware that this synth bypasses the card's DSP so you can't apply hardware effects such as chorus or reverb to it (unless you connect it another card or effects processor, or use a software loopback).

Hope this helps.

P.S. If you point me at the source midi file, I can record it on Audigy 1 and upload here for comparison.

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