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Best Midi Player For Dos And Windows

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First post, by vkcpolice

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Hi all im looking for a really nice easy to use midi player for both dos win 3x and win 98
im looking for something that lets me choose to output to a Roland SC-88VL
i would like some software that show the keyboard and notes that are being played.

what do you guys use?

thankyou and have a great day 😀

Reply 1 of 38, by Falcosoft

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vkcpolice wrote on 2021-04-19, 12:32:
Hi all im looking for a really nice easy to use midi player for both dos win 3x and win 98 im looking for something that lets me […]
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Hi all im looking for a really nice easy to use midi player for both dos win 3x and win 98
im looking for something that lets me choose to output to a Roland SC-88VL
i would like some software that show the keyboard and notes that are being played.

what do you guys use?

thankyou and have a great day 😀

For DOS:
Megamid
ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/sound/megam166.zip

DOSMid:
DOSMid - an open-source MIDI player for DOS

For Windows:
FSMP
Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi

Van Basco
http://www.vanbasco.com/karaokeplayer/

DOSMid and FSMP have the advantage that they are both actively developed and have the support forum here on Vogons.

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Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi
VST Midi Driver Midi Mapper

Reply 2 of 38, by zapbuzz

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for win9x I'd recommend Yamaha softsynth XG100plus installs a software driver and provides a player including mixer and an instrument changing feature that can change on - the-fly as music plays; haven't seen a live instrument changer ever that didn't lag and yamaha nailed it nicely!

Reply 3 of 38, by Falcosoft

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zapbuzz wrote on 2021-04-19, 12:56:

for win9x I'd recommend Yamaha softsynth XG100plus installs a software driver and provides a player including mixer and an instrument changing feature that can change on - the-fly as music plays; haven't seen a live instrument changer ever that didn't lag and yamaha nailed it nicely!

FSMP can also change instruments and controllers real time (among others) and also works on Win9x.
https://youtu.be/8lSB9qZIIJk

On DOS Megamid can also change instruments and controllers. DosMid unfortunately can not.

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Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi
VST Midi Driver Midi Mapper

Reply 4 of 38, by mothergoose729

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FSMP is great. I used it as a midi emulator for DOSBox and my real DOS machine.

In real DOS I use the roland UM One midi interface on a modern machine with FSMP and run the midi playback through the line in port on my sound card. For windows 98 I just use the built in software synth on my Audigy 2 or Vortex 2 because midi in windows games is pretty uncommon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRyPjvbDkvg

Reply 5 of 38, by Laaca

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For DOS is an interresting option also Cubic player. It emulates the MIDI interface via PCM audio and samples stored in .PAT files. The same approach is used also in player Timidity.
Unfortunately MPXplay still does not have such feature for playing MIDI files.

Reply 8 of 38, by vkcpolice

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Hi all i got FSMP working in win 98 very nice interface but i cant work out how to change all the intruments for every ch at once.
i was using midplay and that used to let me select to change all chs to one instrument is there a way to do this with FSMP?
sorry im still playing around with it.

Reply 9 of 38, by appiah4

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vkcpolice wrote on 2021-04-20, 04:46:

Hi all i got FSMP working in win 98 very nice interface but i cant work out how to change all the intruments for every ch at once.
i was using midplay and that used to let me select to change all chs to one instrument is there a way to do this with FSMP?
sorry im still playing around with it.

There is a very long thread with Falcosoft (the author of FSMP) being very active at answering questions you may want to post there.

Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 10 of 38, by vkcpolice

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thanks i will move over there to post some questions. in the mean time if anyone has any more players please let me know as i would like to try them all out till i find one that im happy with cheers

Reply 11 of 38, by Falcosoft

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vkcpolice wrote on 2021-04-20, 03:48:

i could not get dosmid to even start just came up with some command line error when i tryed to start it.
thanks though i will give the others a try

Have you read the error message? It most likely said that you needed a Midi file as an argument.
E.g.: "dosmid. exe mymidi.mid"

Your FSMP related question is answered here:
Re: Falcosoft Soundfont Midi Player + Munt VSTi + BassMidi VSTi

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Reply 12 of 38, by vkcpolice

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Hi all have had no luck with any of the dos midi players dosmid dos nothing when you launch it and megamid launches but i get no sound i think its a sound card/driver issue
anyone know any other dos midi players also looking for a good one for win 3.1

Reply 13 of 38, by Kamerat

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vkcpolice wrote on 2021-04-20, 10:13:

Hi all have had no luck with any of the dos midi players dosmid dos nothing when you launch it and megamid launches but i get no sound i think its a sound card/driver issue
anyone know any other dos midi players also looking for a good one for win 3.1

You have to tell us about your setup and what you're trying to achieve. Most important is your choice of synth like OPL2/3 (AdLib, Sound Blaster), AWE32, GUS or one thats connected to an MPU-401 compatible interface. But first have a look in the documentation of the program your trying to use, you might have to edit the configuration file or use command line parameters to configure the correct synth.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
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Reply 14 of 38, by vkcpolice

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im not really into music production as such i just like messing around and having fun i have a roland sc88 on the way and im just after easy to use software for midi file playback and a easy way i can change the different ch instruments and really just have some fun.
current setup is just a Pentium mmx 200mhz with win98 running a sound blaster vibra cant remember the model it was a very early card.

really just after playback at this point and software that shows the notes being played on a keyboard as i want to get a keyboard and try and reproduce soundtracks from a lot of early 90's dos games. but that will be a future project as at this stage im really just learning the ins and outs of midi excuse the pun.

Reply 16 of 38, by vkcpolice

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Hi i cant get dosmid working.
everytime i launch it it says needs a path to a playlist
the help file does not tell you how to use the program.
i have tried typing in the path ect. to the midi file but the software says command not reckonised
any help would be great.
also those download links dont seem to work.

Reply 17 of 38, by vkcpolice

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ok so i got the program to finnaly launch and play a file but there is no sound just a clicking noise
ive tried all the commands and nothing i either get bad command or file name or a dosmid error message
i have a soundblaster vibra.
i have tried dosmid c:\jazz.mid
i get nothing no sound

Reply 18 of 38, by Falcosoft

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vkcpolice wrote on 2021-06-05, 14:40:
ok so i got the program to finnaly launch and play a file but there is no sound just a clicking noise ive tried all the command […]
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ok so i got the program to finnaly launch and play a file but there is no sound just a clicking noise
ive tried all the commands and nothing i either get bad command or file name or a dosmid error message
i have a soundblaster vibra.
i have tried dosmid c:\jazz.mid
i get nothing no sound

SB 16 Vibra has no builtin MPU-401 compatible softsynth so unless you attached a Waveblaster compatible card to its waveblaster port or you attached a real HW synth through the joystick port you will get no sound with '/mpu' option. But you can use the vibra's FM synth by adding '/opl' to DOSMID.CFG or to command line. Eg: Dosmid.exe /opl c:\jazz.mid.
What kind of Midi synth do you want to use?

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Reply 19 of 38, by vkcpolice

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hi i just want to use the inbuilt synth on the soundcard
im a little confused on what command to type and where to put the spaces and if you have to type the port numbers ect.
could i type dosmid /opl c:\jazz.mid or dosmid.exe /opl c:\jazz.mid