BASSMIDI Driver

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Raymond
Posts: 528

Post by Raymond »

That will be useful. I usually just kill the process. ;)
Sadly it's not on winXP.

Oh and just ctrl+shift+right-click works.
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RichNagel
Posts: 70

Post by RichNagel »

Raymond wrote:Restarting did fix the problem.
Glad to hear it :)

Nicholas wrote:... even a little off-topic, but it's a gem I found while solving some programming thing a while ago and I like sharing. :D
Thanks for that tip, Nicholas :) Heh, as a PC tech, I'm surprised I never knew that before <grin>!
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RichNagel
Posts: 70

Post by RichNagel »

@All,

P.S. Although, like I said before, I wasn't too impressed with the Titanic SoundFont v1.2, I did notice that all of the download links for both versions (1.1 and 1.2) were lacking the readme (as well as probably some other files that came with the original package)... they simply zipped up only the "SF2" SoundFont, *without* any of the other included docs (I'm assuming).

Anyhow, for anyone interested, I found the readme for v1.2 posted here -> http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3019215 (scroll down about a quarter of the way down that page to the message "Titanic SoundFont Info", posted by "Musical Gym", on Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:29am).
kiwi
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by kiwi »

Richnagel thx for yhe links i 'll try the sf that i don't know but for the titanic i just prefer the bass finger the piano and the drum kits (powerkit roomkit MJ kit Jazz kit etc...).
So it sounds balanced in pop style, in a classical contest maybe you're is better (or i 'll choose the papelmedia soundfont wich i buy 20 $).
But in fact i use my own soundfont combined with various instruments picked in others (so i can't share it :).

For those who want a very good sampler for to use with the soundfonts it's called Samplelord i think they're is a demo http://www.samplelord.com/ and the bundle is good for to make soundfonts.

Anyway Bass midi driver is really excellent thx for it it work great in my DAWS Guitar pro6 & Synthesia but crash with Vanbasko karaoké player :/.
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RichNagel
Posts: 70

Post by RichNagel »

Just a heads-up: Mudlord has uploaded a new version of the BASSMIDI Driver (currently version 2.0).

New web site for the BASSMIDI Driver is here -> https://github.com/mudlord/bassmididrv

Download is here -> https://github.com/downloads/mudlord/ba ... drv2.0.exe

Version History/ChangeLog is here -> https://github.com/mudlord/bassmididrv/ ... HANGES.txt
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DC64
Posts: 830

Post by DC64 »

Odd, its telling me to close everything including itself but for me that is tecnickley impossible.
Im stuck with the previous version. And silly me "accidently" deleated the config. driver/files,
but BASSMIDI still runs in Synthesia. :x Why?! I just want an update.
"And now for something completely different."
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RichNagel
Posts: 70

Post by RichNagel »

DC64 wrote:Odd, its telling me to close everything including itself but for me that is tecnickley impossible.
I'm not sure what you're refering to (?).

DC64 wrote:Im stuck with the previous version. And silly me "accidently" deleated the config. driver/files, but BASSMIDI still runs in Synthesia. :x Why?! I just want an update.
I dunno... if you've "accidently" deleted all of the BASSMIDI driver and DLL support files, I have no idea how it would work in Synthesia, or for that matter, and other Windows program (?).
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RichNagel
Posts: 70

Post by RichNagel »

P.S. A little note about the new version 2.0 of the BASSMIDI Driver:

Mudlord and Kode54 apparently recoded the core driver, and it now uses (interfaces) with DirectX's DirectMusic. From my experimentation; due to DirectMusic, there is currently a little bit of latency with the driver (approx. 0.105 seconds), so's it might not be too useful for real-time performance or real-time MIDI sequencing.

Anyhow, if you plan on doing any real-time stuff (e.g. Synthesia), you might want to stick with the older version of the driver (version 1.06, which has less than 0.05 seconds of latency) -> http://www.cmoo.com/snor/weeds/SoundFon ... _Setup.exe .
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DC64
Posts: 830

Post by DC64 »

For some reason I thought that I needed to delete the old version to download the new version.
When downloading, the screen says that I need to close certian items before restarting.
I can close everything but BASSMIDI's command handeling window (that will cancel instalation) and IE XCP.
So then I decided to manually dedete BASSMIDI by putting it in the trash,
now I can't open the driver window and other items in the BASSMIDI folder.
Oddly enough BASSMIDI still works in Synthesia. (probably because weeds is not erased) (I'm just lost)

Edit: Cancel my distress call, I fixed it @ 5/26
Last edited by DC64 on 05-26-11 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"And now for something completely different."
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RichNagel
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Post by RichNagel »

You could try posting a message to Mudlord over at http://www.vgmusic.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 16&t=13967 or http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/ind ... opic=87639 , but I myself have no idea of a fix.
Lemo
Posts: 313

Post by Lemo »

RichNagel wrote:it might not be too useful for real-time performance or real-time MIDI sequencing.
ow thx I almost installed this one

Btw I'm using Chorium now. I think titanic is slightly better, but because of its size and of my old comp, the sound get cut sometimes with very complex midis.
Chorium is all-terrain ^^

Also, I dunno if you noticed my lil' GRaMP project, for the "listen mode" I'm trying to implement the BASS Library with its midi plugin.
For the moment I'm using Autohotkey's base sound function, and this one is only able to launch a sound without any control over it.
Some guy has released tools to use BASS with Autohotkey, but there is no documentation and he apparently doesn't seem to be around anymore.
For example I can make it work with a simple wav or mp3, but the midi plugin just doesn't seem to produce any sound.
I checked the C++ examples and help files included with BASS, but I'd say the examples are too complex and the doc isn't enough. Also I'm not a dev and all of this is way out of my scope^^'.
All I would need I guess is a sample code (~20lines) of a very basic midi loader, that I may be able to translate to Autohotkey.
You can also check my posts at the end of that topic, or even modify GRaMP's code directly if your like :]
Stuff & experiments for Synthesia: Gramp v0.2SkinboxFireSynthVideoWebradio
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RichNagel
Posts: 70

Post by RichNagel »

Lemo wrote:ow thx I almost installed this one
No problem :) I'm still trying to push the developer (Mudlord) to see if he can do anything with the latency problem of the new version, but I dunno if he can (since they migrated the handling of the driver over to DirectMusic).

I really hope there will be a solution though (short of using the older version 1.06... MAN! I'm sure glad I snagged that older version before Mudlord removed it from his old web page; currently I archived it here -> http://www.cmoo.com/snor/weeds/SoundFon ... DI_Driver/ ), as the thing that attracted me to the dirver in the first place was it's extrememly low latency (unlike the other softsynth alternatives that are available).

Lemo wrote:All I would need I guess is a sample code (~20lines) of a very basic midi loader, that I may be able to translate to Autohotkey.
I'm no coder at all, but you might try to post a message over at the BASS section of Ian's message board here -> http://www.un4seen.com/forum/?board=1.0 :)
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stephenhazel
Posts: 223

Post by stephenhazel »

To DirectMusic??
That's wierd. DirectMusic is geared towards using the microsoft synth.
You'll get nothin but serious latency using DirectMusic.

Maybe mudlord meant DirectSound?
That'll still give you latency on Vista,Win7. (Just like the usual waveout API.)

I saw the forum mentions BASSWASAPI.
WASAPI is the new (Vista and Win7 only) sound API that gives you
approx 3 millisec latency. (About as good as you can get with software).

Once he gets to THAT, you should be set. That is, if you're on Vista or Win7 ;)

So, yeah, keep the previous version tucked away for XP.
Don't bother with the new one.
And once he gets to BASSWASAPI, use that on Vista,Win7.
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RichNagel
Posts: 70

Post by RichNagel »

stephenhazel wrote:To DirectMusic?? That's wierd. DirectMusic is geared towards using the microsoft synth. You'll get nothin but serious latency using DirectMusic. Maybe mudlord meant DirectSound? That'll still give you latency on Vista,Win7. (Just like the usual waveout API.)

Here is the initial reply to me by Mudlord explaining it:

mudlord wrote:
I'm no coder (by any sense of the term), but would this have anything to do with the "rewrote core driver to interface with DirectMusic" update mentioned in the changelog,
Yes, this is precisely the reason. Its due to the core rewrite.

DirectMusic (a API in DirectX) now controls the synth, not us like last time. So latency and sample buffering, and a whole lot of other crap is handled by the DirectMusic driver framework.

So really, we have no control over it, sorry. The basic guts is really now a WinMM wrapper around a DirectMusic based driver. And since its DirectMusic, you can blame Microsoft for said latency, since the system now handles such things anymore, not us.
stephenhazel wrote:So, yeah, keep the previous version tucked away for XP. Don't bother with the new one.
There were a few things fixed in the new version though, that would be handy for non-realtime usage (i.e. general MIDI playback in Windows, or for use with DOSBox or other games).

One in particular was the strange sounds that some folks were hearing when the driver was initially called and loaded; the strange sounds were the SoundFont samples being initially loaded. After the driver had loaded for any given app, and a few seconds of the MIDI had played, things were usually OK then.

Of couse, as soon as the driver was unloaded (when you close or terminate the app), the process would start all over again.

The new version 2.0 of the driver fixes that.
Lemo
Posts: 313

Post by Lemo »

RichNagel wrote:I'm no coder at all, but you might try to post a message over at the BASS section of Ian's message board
ow okay ^^, for some reason that XMPlay MIDI Plugin page on your website made me feel like you were the author or something
RichNagel wrote:The new version 2.0 of the driver fixes that.
hum I may actually give that a lil try, coz I often get those strange sounds at startup
Stuff & experiments for Synthesia: Gramp v0.2SkinboxFireSynthVideoWebradio
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RichNagel
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Post by RichNagel »

Lemo wrote:ow okay ^^, for some reason that XMPlay MIDI Plugin page on your website made me feel like you were the author or something
Nope, I'm not the author... although, with the way that I plug this thing you'ld think that I was LOL! Hehe, a short story (or maybe a longish one <grin>):

[ramble_mode=ON]

I've been a *MAJOR* fan of XMPlay for as long as I can remember, and a fan of the XMPlay MIDI Plugin since it's first incarnation several years back. The reason?

Simply because I **ALWAYS** wished that folks could get a rough recreation of my music on their PCs (which was either OPL2/3 FM synth, or Microsoft GS SW Synth based) the way that *I* heard it... back in the day, with several AWE32s, custom and retail SoundFonts; and today with my Sound Blaster Live and the same said SoundFonts.

The first incarnation of the XMPlay MIDI Plugin pretty much solved this! If they had the same SoundFont that I was using, they could have a fair recreation of my music the way that *I* heard it, and the way that it was _intended_ to be heard :)

Now, bear in mind, software MIDI synthesis will NEVER sound quite like hardware MIDI synthesis (e.g. EMU based hardware), but the XMPlay MIDI Plugin was definitely a close second :)

Anyhow, I had always been nagging Ian Luck (the single-man show of Un4seen Developments, that author of XMPlay/XMPlay MIDI Plugin, as well as the BASS and BASSMIDI Audio Libraries) that he should create a "global" Windows driver based upon the XMPlay MIDI Plugin. His response was to find someone to code it using his BASS and BASSMIDI Audio Libraries.

...and Mudlord and Kode54 did just that. Hehe, I went *NUTZ* when I first heard about their BASSMIDI Driver, and I probably "advertised" all over the Internet *WAY* more than they had wished for LOL!

I mean, folks can now finally play "Eternal DOOM"; circa 1996-1997; ( http://www.teamtnt.com/ixet.htm ) under DOSBox or using ZDOOM; and along with my own custom SoundFont, hear my Eternal DOOM MIDI soundtrack ( http://www.simpilot.net/~richnagel/#ete ... soundtrack ) that way that it SHOULD be heard <grin> :)

[ramble_mode=OFF]

Lemo wrote:hum I may actually give that a lil try, coz I often get those strange sounds at startup
Yeah, Mudlord and Kode54 fixed it with the new version 2.0. But like I said, you'll have some latency (probably wouldn't work as well with Synthesia now).

The thing is, I noticed that with that older verison 1.06 (at least on my PC); that once the BASSMIDI Driver "kicked in" (after two or three seconds), the sound would be just fine then. It then would sound fine for anything else that I listened to within that "session", until the driver was released (i.e. when you close down an application that is using it, such as Synthesia, or the Windows Media Player).

So (for me at least), it wasn't a big deal... e.g. run DOOM (or my MIDI sequencer), first few seconds are weird, then it sound fine for the rest of the session.

BTW, check the update to my main XMPlay/MIDI Plugin/BASSMIDI Driver "advertisment" page here -> http://www.cmoo.com/snor/weeds/SoundFon ... creenshots . More specifically, the BASSMIDI Driver latency pics; as the two pics compare the latency of v1.06 and v2.0 of the driver.
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Getting back to a topic I posted a very while ago;

Is there something like BASSMIDI softsynth for Mac or an alternate to stream Synthesia's MIDI OUT (sound output or MIDI) thru VLC?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

I don't know the answer to your question Aria... though the Mac synth is reasonably passable compared to the default Windows synth.


Also vaguely on-topic: everyone here seems to know a lot about the various sample packages out there, so maybe you guys can help...

Even with the introduction of CoreMIDI on Apple's iOS devices, they still haven't added samples or a synth to the devices themselves. So, if you don't have an external MIDI device making the sounds for you, you still have to solve the problem yourself. Does anyone know of a set of samples that is incredibly small, doesn't sound terrible, and is either free to distribute (MIT/BSD/public domain/etc.) or has a really affordable licensing fee?

WeedsGM3 is awesome, but I wanted to avoid making the iPad app so large (and I also don't know any of your licensing terms... or even if they exist).

I was thinking something more along the lines of 1 MB (is that completely unrealistic?). To reach something like that it might take going as far as only having one piano instrument and maybe a simple drum kit. If that were the case, the user would be given instructions that if they wanted anything more, their external MIDI device has to be the one providing it. :D

Anyway, if anyone can steer me in the right direction, we're actually approaching development of the iPad version of Synthesia, so this is something I'm going to have to solve sooner or later. ;)

... maybe my worries about size are unfounded. There are plenty of 500+ MB apps you can download. Anyway, any advice any of you had would be awesome. Thanks!
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RichNagel
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Post by RichNagel »

Nicholas wrote:WeedsGM3 is awesome, but I wanted to avoid making the iPad app so large (and I also don't know any of your licensing terms... or even if they exist).
If you wish to distribute WeedsGM3 with anything Nicholas, feel free to do so :) But like you said it's rather largish.

Nicholas wrote:I was thinking something more along the lines of 1 MB (is that completely unrealistic?). To reach something like that it might take going as far as only having one piano instrument and maybe a simple drum kit.
I dunno offhand of any freely distributable SF2s in that size, but I'm sure there's gotta be some somewhere. Nevertheless, there are several (that I don't know the licensing terms of) that would sound semi-presentable within that size.

One that comes to mind is EMU's ROM dump SF2 from the AWE32 sound cards ("1MGM.sf2" that is distributed with EMU's freeware "SoundFont Librarian" application -> http://www.emu.com/support/files/downlo ... Platform=1 -> http://www.emu.com/support/files/downlo ... 2&File=109 -> http://www.emu.com/support/files/storage/sflib10c.zip ). That one is an exact ROM dump of an AWE32 sound card in SoundFont format; and while not the greatest sounding thing, it's about the smallest full-GM SF2 that I've ever seen.
kiwi
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by kiwi »

Nicholas wrote: Does anyone know of a set of samples that is incredibly small, doesn't sound terrible, and is either free to distribute (MIT/BSD/public domain/etc.) or has a really affordable licensing fee?

WeedsGM3 is awesome, but I wanted to avoid making the iPad app so large (and I also don't know any of your licensing terms... or even if they exist).

I was thinking something more along the lines of 1 MB (is that completely unrealistic?). To reach something like that it might take going as far as only having one piano instrument and maybe a simple drum kit. If that were the case, the user would be given instructions that if they wanted anything more, their external MIDI device has to be the one providing it. :D
Hi Nicholas here u can see some soundfont with only one instrument:
http://www.sf2midi.com/soundfonts/
Like you can see some are really small and sounds good.
So 1MB is not unrealistic for just a piano and a drum but i really suggest you to add one bass a fender jazz bass more precisely because it's the most versatile sound for a bass i mean it can be used in many situation.(i think to the finger bass in the titanic soundfont for listen purpose).Bass is really needed for more pleasure on a pop/rock context.
So the minimum is : one drum one bass one piano ==>3 instrument with a 1.5 or 2 mo you can have a great sounding result.
But like RichNagel say: i 'll go on this direction a complete soundfont (with all the instrument).
The top 'll be to have a good quality drums piano and bass in it and other instruments an average quality.
i think with a 8 mo soundfont you can have a decent result and with 15 20 mo a great piano drum and bass in it.
Anyway if u found some free soundfont for to sell with i can make you're patch or maybe Rich Nagel too :)
But i think weeds can not be distribued in an IOS app because she contain various free soundfont not for commercial use.
For to be legal i think you need to find a good partner like papel media per eg good sounfont but too LARGE.
Feel free to ask about you're founded gems on the soundfont side.
ps:I hope my english can be read :)
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