i'm having a problem in win98se that i think i've isolated to midiplayer6. first, i use midiplayer6 extensively with midiyoke/midiox and roland/yamaha serial drivers as a central hub for all my midi interconnections as well as being my defacto vst/sf2 engine. i've never had a problem except when it comes to connecting 2 softsynths: invision cybersynth 3.0 and seer systems reality v1.55 (vsc, s-yxg50/100, munt, timidity, sw-10, wingroove, wavecube, websynth d77, fpd98 all give no issues).

seer systems reality is probably the easier of the 2 to tackle. it publishes its own entry in the windows midi mapper and also can be configured to accept input on a midi-in port. when i try to play a mid file in midiplayer6 using reality all i get is a smeared mess of gibberish for output. it doesn't matter if i connect using the windows midi mapper or via midiyoke.

here is the interesting part...if i use dosbox to connect to reality using the windows midi mapper or via midiyoke--playback is normal. additionally, i can use vdmsound for win9x and get the same normal playback i get in dosbox. when i go back to midiplayer6 it's unintelligible. so that's 2 independent midi clients that can interface successfully with reality.

midiplayer6 is very well authored. with all the use cases i throw at it i can't imagine it's doing something non-standard protocol-wise. i surmise that reality is expecting input that adheres to a non-conventional format that apparently dosbox and vdmsound are able to squeak by with. there is next to nothing to re-configure in reality...what can i try to fix this from the midiplayer6 end of things?

stanwebber wrote on Today, 14:24:

i'm having a problem in win98se that i think i've isolated to midiplayer6. first, i use midiplayer6 extensively with midiyoke/mi […]
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i'm having a problem in win98se that i think i've isolated to midiplayer6. first, i use midiplayer6 extensively with midiyoke/midiox and roland/yamaha serial drivers as a central hub for all my midi interconnections as well as being my defacto vst/sf2 engine. i've never had a problem except when it comes to connecting 2 softsynths: invision cybersynth 3.0 and seer systems reality v1.55 (vsc, s-yxg50/100, munt, timidity, sw-10, wingroove, wavecube, websynth d77, fpd98 all give no issues).

seer systems reality is probably the easier of the 2 to tackle. it publishes its own entry in the windows midi mapper and also can be configured to accept input on a midi-in port. when i try to play a mid file in midiplayer6 using reality all i get is a smeared mess of gibberish for output. it doesn't matter if i connect using the windows midi mapper or via midiyoke.

here is the interesting part...if i use dosbox to connect to reality using the windows midi mapper or via midiyoke--playback is normal. additionally, i can use vdmsound for win9x and get the same normal playback i get in dosbox. when i go back to midiplayer6 it's unintelligible. so that's 2 independent midi clients that can interface successfully with reality.

midiplayer6 is very well authored. with all the use cases i throw at it i can't imagine it's doing something non-standard protocol-wise. i surmise that reality is expecting input that adheres to a non-conventional format that apparently dosbox and vdmsound are able to squeak by with. there is next to nothing to re-configure in reality...what can i try to fix this from the midiplayer6 end of things?

Hi,
I do not have Seer Systems Reality v1.55 so I could only test the still available v1.56 demo version that I could download from here:
https://seersystems.com/products/downloads/
According to my tests there is no problem with Midi player. The problem is that the default bank of Seer Systems Reality is absolutely NOT a GM/GS/XG compatible bank but a rather custom one. You should also test other Midi players that can select the Midi Out port explicitly such as Van Basco Karaoke Player. They should sound the same. Here is my test video how Grabbag.mid from Duke Nukem 3d sounds with MidiPlayer and Van basco when Seer's Reality is used so you can compare to yours:
https://youtu.be/vcdU62In6TQ

The real question is how it sounded good with yours DosBox. I do not know the answer since it should not. But I suspect that in reality they did not use Reality at all 😀.
Most likely they used another Midi output port.

reality has gm banksets available. on that same download page as the reality demo you can obtain the surreal demo which uses reality as a backend (folder structure almost identical and overlapping so it might overwrite). the surreal demo has 2 gm banksets located in program files\...\banksets\ that you can plug into reality.

i have all the demo banksets (both reality & surreal) and have tried them without any change in outcome. obviously, the gm banksets will sound correct, but even with the reality demo bankset the sounds may be incorrect, but at least they should still sound like instruments. when i say a smeared mess of gibberish i really mean it. it's nigh impossible to pick out any individual notes or identify any musical instruments known to man.

the fact that you got the reality demo to play and could at least recognize the instruments were wrong is disheartening as it probably means something localized on my system. midiplayer6 is flawless in every other regard on my system...i can't for the life of me figure out what could be wrong. i will try the install on some alternate hardware and see what happens.

stanwebber wrote on Today, 17:19:

reality has gm banksets available. on that same download page as the reality demo you can obtain the surreal demo which uses reality as a backend (folder structure almost identical and overlapping so it might overwrite). the surreal demo has 2 gm banksets located in program files\...\banksets\ that you can plug into reality.

i have all the demo banksets (both reality & surreal) and have tried them without any change in outcome. obviously, the gm banksets will sound correct, but even with the reality demo bankset the sounds may be incorrect, but at least they should still sound like instruments. when i say a smeared mess of gibberish i really mean it. it's nigh impossible to pick out any individual notes or identify any musical instruments known to man.

the fact that you got the reality demo to play and could at least recognize the instruments were wrong is disheartening as it probably means something localized on my system. midiplayer6 is flawless in every other regard on my system...i can't for the life of me figure out what could be wrong. i will try the install on some alternate hardware and see what happens.

Do you get the wrong sound also when you play notes on the virtual keyboard of Midi Player with your mouse? Or only when you playback Midi files?

stanwebber wrote on Today, 17:19:

... I will try the install on some alternate hardware and see what happens.

You have not even mentioned what hardware you use so it's hard to tell what the problem can be.
BTW, the only thing that Midi Player does that other Midi software usually do not that can effect wave out quality on old hardware is that it starts a Directsound capture thread in order Volume meter an wave recording capabilities to work.
You can try to disable this by opening the Device Settings dialog and press the minus sign (-) next to the 'Input Port' label at the 'Recording Source' section.