DracoNihil wrote on 2023-03-30, 05:15:
Jo22 wrote on 2023-03-29, 18:11:Unfortunately, Windows Vista and later no longer have Direct Music.
That's why Windows XP is the last OS real soft synths can run on.
What does DirectMusic have to do with soft synths?
Nothing. Except that it relates to MIDI in a similar way like Direct Sound 3D relates to wave audio.
"Music can be synthesized either in hardware, in the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, or in a custom synthesizer. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectMusic
Using MCI API or an VSTi plug-in to play back MIDI data (*.MID) is similar to using Win 3x/95 MME API to play back wave audio (*.WAV).
Sure it works, but it's also a bit limited. In comparison to more modern technologies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_legacy_ … udio_components
Here's a little story for you guys, an analogy if you will:
Back in the late 90s/early 2000s, some people used Media Player with a command line parameter to play back all kind of sounds, including the Windows startup sound.
I knew a person which did that, instead of using the Windows dialog box and just changing the welcome sound.
If I remember correctly, he somehow disabled the startup sound in Windows, then added a shortcut of Media Player (w/ the command line option) to start up group.
I think that's not much unlike using a VST host + VSTi plug-in, a loop back cable and so on vs just using a native soft synth driver (VSC3, S-YXG50, etc) that's directly available.
I assume it's also possible writing computer games that rely on Media Player for their sound effects and music playback, rather than using specialized APIs.
Personally, I really wonder if there are any out there. 😀
Edit: Checked the VSC3 manual, but it wasn't very helpful. This one line gives an idea, though.
"VSC is compatible with DirectSound, thus allowing synchronization of game sound effects and other sounds with on-screen action (available only with applications compatible with DirectSound.)"
DirectMusic sits a top of DirectSound, as Wikipedia says "DirectMusic is a high-level set of objects, built on top of DirectSound [..]".
And some games, apparently, try to talk to a soft synth via this DirectX API rather than the old plain MCI API + MME API or an MPU-401 device in device manager.
Edit: My apologies for the bad wording here. It's way too much text, also. Long story short:
Stand alone MIDI soft synths were implemented as drivers - not too different from the OPL3 FM or AWE synth drivers that were popular before.
And in the Windows 95/98 and 2000/XP era, they had dependencies with DirectX/DirectMusic. And native DirectX API support, in addition to MME API.
Making them run on Windows Vista+ would either require a complete re-write or heavy modifications, since MIDI support in general had been de-evolved since.
There's no longer a MIDI applet, anymore, which allows selecting default MIDI-In/MIDI-Out. A third-party utility is required.
Second, the MIDI mapper was most functional in Windows 3.x. In Windows 95, it's merely a shadow of its former self.
As you can see, MIDI support in Windows as a whole has been on the decline since the 90s.
DirectX kind of was an exception here, since it allowed many technologies to sync with each others.
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