Configuring with low latency and great sound

Trouble with Synthesia, your keyboard, or adapter? Think you found a bug?
When describing problems, always mention your OS and game version (shown at the bottom of the title screen).

If your keyboard has USB or MIDI ports, there is a tremendously high chance (>99%) it will work with Synthesia. See what you'll need on the keyboards page.
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Chaduke
Posts: 1

Post by Chaduke »

I just started using Synthesia yesterday but I regularly work with audio and recording on my system at home and have a semi-professional equipment setup.

By default my option for sound output would be choosing the Microsoft software synth, which to me doesn't sound very good and also has a small amount of latency. Here is the setup I plan on trying this afternoon when I get home. I'll report the results as soon as I test, but I'm thinking it will work well because I've used everything individually in the past:

1) Install Midi Yoke : http://www.midiox.com/ (should require a reboot)
2) Download MiniHost : http://www.tobybear.de/p_minihost.html (extract to a folder somewhere on your hard drive)
3) Run Minihost.exe and check the menu option ASIO->Driver. If there is no ASIO driver to pick for your soundcard then do step 4, if not goto step 5.
4) Install ASIO4ALL : http://asio4all.com/ (Some soundcards like my M-Audio interface come with an ASIO driver already).
5) Download the 4Front Piano module VSTi - http://www.4front-tech.com/proaudio-download.html (extract the files somewhere)

6) Run Minihost and under VST choose Load VST Plug-in, then browse to where you extracted the 4Front Piano files. Pick 4Front Piano.dll unless you are running a 64-bit system you can try the other one, but the regular one should work on any system.
7) Under MIDI choose Configure Midi ports, then under "Midi In" choose In From Midi Yoke : 1
8) Leave Minihost running, then Run Synthesia
9) under Keyboard Setup->Input Devices choose your midi Keyboard
10) under Output Devices choose Out to Midi Yoke:1

This setup should both sound great and have very low latency. I'll let you guys know what happens as soon as I test it.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

This looks like one of the shortest, easiest sets of instructions yet. I'm continually looking for low-latency solutions I can recommend... the nicer audio, the better. Thanks for sharing this!
Raymond
Posts: 528

Post by Raymond »

I have a question. My computer has a sound card with synth built-in. So I use sound fonts like Fluid.
Is that better than using ASIO?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: Your sound card is probably using ASIO. That is something different than ASIO4ALL. ASIO4ALL is a software ASIO driver. Your sound card most-likely has a hardware ASIO driver. The hardware will generally out-perform the software solution.
Raymond
Posts: 528

Post by Raymond »

Thanks
Oh ya it is. I just looked thru some of the settings and there is ASIO.
tommai78101
Posts: 766

Post by tommai78101 »

I'll add this to the FAQs once the test comes out alright.
Hardware Information: Dell Alienware 15 R4, Intel Core i7-8750H @ 2.20GHz / 2.21 GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070 / Nvidia GTX 1060 dual-GPU, Roland FP-10, MIDI-OX + LoopMIDI combo.
Sirhcnacnud
Posts: 6

Post by Sirhcnacnud »

Best tutorial I've seen yet! Not confusing, doesn't seem to be missing parts, and typed in proper grammar. I may try it out over my current set up to see if its any better. Thanks!
Kasper
Posts: 149

Post by Kasper »

I don't know if understand this well.

Is this for if you want to use your computer as output instead of your keyboard/
And this will solve the latency if you use your computer as output ?
English was my worst subject on school, so my language could be a bit awkward sometimes...
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Yeah, generally if you have a keyboard that you can use as your output device, go with that. It's very low latency.

If you don't (some keyboards are just MIDI controllers with no synth built in and some only have a few piano voices and can't play all songs), the Windows synth is really slow. An ASIO-based VST solution can sound great and be fast at the same time.
TonE
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by TonE »

Kasper wrote:Is this for if you want to use your computer as output instead of your keyboard
Yes, Chadukes idea is using VSTi plugins as sound generators, rather than any hardware keyboard or synthesizer. If you have a good latency system, good soundcard, good sounding VSTi instruments which sound output you prefer over your hardware sound output, then you might try this. If you like the sound of your hardware you can simply use that. With hardware sound output you also do not have the latency problems usually, except some minimal midi latency maybe.
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stephenhazel
Posts: 223

Post by stephenhazel »

Wow - that's the first time I've made ANY sense of the ASIO mumble jumble.

I tried it out (since soundfonts don't work on my new win7 machine - thanks a LOT Creative!!)
And, it's pretty decent.

But, mmmm, I wonder if anyone has found a better piano vsti (or whatever ya call em).

That one has nice samples, but they're NOT very velocity sensitive ;(____

Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?
TonE
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by TonE »

Chaduke wrote:5) Download the 4Front Piano module VSTi - http://www.4front-tech.com/proaudio-download.html (extract the files somewhere)
If you want to use instead a good sounding and powerful sampler, I can recommend this free one: Shortcircuit 1, v1.1.2, not Shortcircuit 2.

Here from its website the supported file formats:
Sample/Intrument import
RIFF wave-files (.wav) (8/16/24/32-bit & 32-bit float, mono/stereo at any sample rate)
AKAI S5000/S6000/Z4/Z8 .akp banks (partial)
NI battery kits (partial)
Soundfont 2.00 (partial)
Propellerhead Recycle 1 & 2
I can also mention there are tools which can even convert among various sample containing synthesizer sound formats. You might check for Kurzweil, Ensoniq ASR-10 formats for example and convert those to .sf2 for example and then use within shortcircuit. You want an example? Check those Christmas Tree Bells for K2000/K2500 instruments.

In the end with sounds it is up to your ears and having a certain "quality taste" for what is sounding good. No matter how few samples those are or how small the file size is, it is about quality, not quantity of used samples and precision of sound choosing and looping settings for example.
tommai78101
Posts: 766

Post by tommai78101 »

Alright, this looks like it could be added to the FAQs. Thanks for your tutorial, hopefully it will help out a lot of people.
Hardware Information: Dell Alienware 15 R4, Intel Core i7-8750H @ 2.20GHz / 2.21 GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070 / Nvidia GTX 1060 dual-GPU, Roland FP-10, MIDI-OX + LoopMIDI combo.
Oddi
Posts: 1

Post by Oddi »

Great guide! This removed all the delay I had when using my realtek onboard audio adapter.
You might want to update first post to include loopbe1 as an alternative to Midi Yoke. I found that this software works better with Windows 7.
WarttHog
Posts: 2

Post by WarttHog »

Mildly helpful.

I'm using a Yamaha PortaSound PSS-680 which is almost as old as I am (got it out of a garage sale I think) and while it's pretty full featured, it sounds TERRIBLE when the volume control isn't causing the speakers to hiss. Also, it can only handle 16 sounds simultaneously so sometimes on a full mini file (i.e. the Phantom of the Opera track I'm trying to learn) I get buffer overflow messages on the display. Because of all of this I would like to use a software synth. However, I can't find anything decent anywhere on the web. It seems that people gave up supporting MIDI around the time of Windows NT. I don't feel terribly comfortable installing a driver that's older than a person who's mature enough to carry on a political discussion.

I'm outputting to an amp via S/PDIF and that doesn't appear to play well with MiniHost. I downloaded a trial of Cantabile which doesn't crash EVERY time, so using Midi Yoke and 4Front Piano, I managed to play through the piece once without any crashing, with decent latency and only a few distortions. Unfortunately while it sounds like a decent piano, the MIDI file I'm using has like 10 different instruments. My keyboard at least ATTEMPTS to sounds like an organ at the right times! Also I seem to be getting WAY less polyphony out of the VST approach. Sounds like it's limited to about 8 notes concurrently.

Unfortunately this solution simply isn't good enough for my needs. :(
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