Jolaes76 wrote:

The emulated MPU-401 at 300h cannot be selected in Winamp as output

Yes it can, and it must 😀 But not as output, but as input!

First, make sure you have the soundfont indeed loaded in AWE32 control panel. Also check the two checkboxes there "emulate MPU 401" and smth similar that lies right next to it. Save and exit.

Go to winamp (preferably an older version, I use 2.91c), setup, find "input" under plug ins, locate midi and select the correct MIDI device - NOT the AWE32 620h (thats the default AWE32 synth and not the GM/soundfont), but the external MIDI out (300 or 330h). That should do it 😉

Good luck and have fun! 😀

P.S. You can also skip the winamp settings (I pressume it uses the default MS device) and just set up the midi-out in control panel instead.

Hmmm... Winamp 5.x behaves differently, maybe it is Winamp itself or its midi plugin (ver. 3.01 or above). If I select midi mapper or external MIDI in Winamp, I get no sound at all. I will try older versions then.
So far I could only use DOS midi players (started from Win98 as well). Those work very well.
The other checkbox you referred to is an "AWE32 synth only" restriction, why should I tick that one in? But I will give it a try anyway when I get home.
Thanks for the hints!

Jolaes76 wrote:

Hmmm... Winamp 5.x behaves differently, maybe it is Winamp itself or its midi plugin (ver. 3.01 or above). If I select midi mapper or external MIDI in Winamp, I get no sound at all. !

I didnt know that winamp 5.x even works in Win98. I also presume you are using Win98, since I've yet to see a version of AWE32 control panel for WinXP+.

And why would you use winamp 5.x anyway - there is nothing a 2.91 cant run except for the newer interface 😀 Try it, if everything else fails. You can find it here:
http://www.oldversion.com/download_Winamp_2.91.html

Actually, there can be benefits of using newer versions but mostly only if you have at least a semi-modern PCI sound card and faster processor. Then you can use later effect etc. plugins without compatibilty issues.
BUT here is what I have just found out:

the last winamp version with its own soundfont contol interface is 2.82, MIDI plugin version 2.64.
I am experimenting with this right now.
I have lots of MIDI input choices here but none of these is the emulated MPU-401 I want to use.
I think it is because I am using Microsoft drivers, not the Creative ones. That is why I do not have a separate device under Device Manager / Sound, Video and game controllers. I should see an "AWE MPU-401 emulation" device there or sg similar. But I do not want to switch to the crappy Creative drivers just for that 🙁

Thats impossible, I also use the default windows 98 drivers. Can you make a screenshot of your MIDI devices from control panel, multimedia section?

OK, you made me start up my win98 rig. Under plugins of winamp 2.91 find
"Nullsoft MIDI player 3.01 [IN_MIDI.DLL]" and click configure. Select "midiOut / SB16 MIDI Out [300] (or 330, depending on your configuration)" and click OK. Load up a midi and try it out.
Also, in Control Panel, Multimedia, find MIDI tab.
For MIDI output select Single instrument and select SB16 MIDI Out [300] (or 330, depending on configuration).

If you do not have SB16 MIDI Out there then right click on My computer, click properties. Select Device Manager tab. Find Creative Sound Blaster 16 Plug and Play (or not P&P, depending on your AWE version). Click properties and select Resources Tab. Disable automatic settings and shuffle through the configurations until you make sure that there is:
Resource type "Input/Output Range", Setting "0330-0331" (or 300 eventually). Restart windows if needed and try to run midi again.

If your AWE32 is not PnP, set the card to use 330 address and try the same.

And lastly, why would you want modern plug-ins on a Win98 rig? 😜

One more thing, the two checkboxes I was referring to are "Allow Wavetable Synthesis only" and "Allow MPU401 Emulation on this device" under "Device" section of AWE control panel. Please, enable both.

Hello,
thanks for the hints,

I went through the steps you described (before your post) but now have double checked this.

AWE Control panel:
I disabled FM synth (1st checkbox) and ticked in the second (MPU-401 emu) as well.

Control Panel
My AWE32 midi out port is configured to 300h, because I also have a true MPU401 interface at 330h.
(My CT3900 is non PnP, so I manually selected resource config variant 6 and modded that to IRQ 7 DMA 1 and 5, FM 388, mpu401 300)

In Winamp I can select these three: midout sb16 midiout, mci midiout sb16 midiout and directsound sb16 mid out
(AND a lot of others (microsoft synth, Creative FM synth etc.)
The above three give silence.

A reboot will not solve the problem so I think it must be a driver issue.
DOS midi players set to mpu401 300h can work with the synth, I can hear the difference clearly between soundfonts.
Will look into the issue in the evening.

btw. I do not really need those extra plugins, would be happy with a working 2.82.

OK.

I found out that for some reason, directly selecting "midi out \ SB16 midi out" variants in Winamp does not work. That's why you said I'd better left it at "midi mapper", right ?

All in all, leaving it on the default "midi mapper" and selecting SB16 midi out (300h) as windows default works! 😎
Thanks!

Good job! Glad it worked out. Enjoy 😀