Output devices only list Microsoft wave

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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pjsme
Posts: 2

Post by pjsme »

Hi,

I've been playing with this app. Like it, buut sounds awful so I decided to install virtualmidisynth. At first I thought it was not working as it does not show in the list of output devices in synthesia, but since uninstalling re-installing, checking everything and it looks OK. I also downloaded Vanbascos karaoke player and it allows selection of any of the installed midi devices as well as play midi file through them. The sound difference is quite large!

How do I get synthesia to show the additional midi devices that are usable. This is I think a synthesia issue as other apps are able to see and use them OK.Snthesia only lists the microsoft one. Nothing else.

Thanks,


Windows 10, btw, via USB and keyboard.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

I'm guessing you just recently downloaded the latest (10.4) release of Synthesia.

By default (and on Windows 10), the new version uses Microsoft's newer MIDI infrastructure that they updated for the first time in ~25 years. This makes the built-in synth much lower latency and also lets you do things like connect Bluetooth MIDI devices.

I don't think VirtualMIDISynth supports the new infrastructure yet, which is why it's not showing up in the list. (This is a good feature request to make on their website!)

In the meantime, you can tell Synthesia to use the older/legacy MIDI infrastructure by doing the following:
1. Hold your Shift key while launching Synthesia to open the configuration window.
2. Find the "Midi.UseWinRTMidi" entry in the list.
3. Remove the check from the box to disable that setting.

That should be it. Once you close the configuration window and start Synthesia normally, VirtualMIDISynth should appear in your list of devices.
pjsme
Posts: 2

Post by pjsme »

Thank you. that did the trick. I'd never have found that without your response.
KaleidonKep99
Posts: 58

Post by KaleidonKep99 »

If only I knew where to get the required info, I could add WinRT MIDI support to my driver.
Do you know about anything that could help me, Nicholas?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Some Microsoft employee made a wrapper DLL (for typical MIDI clients): winrtmidi.

It won't be directly usable for your purposes, but it should have all the documentation pointers you need to get started. :D
KaleidonKep99
Posts: 58

Post by KaleidonKep99 »

This is taking longer than expected.

I've been trying to find documentation about how to create a UWP-ready MIDI driver, but Microsoft only gives me documentation about how to create a MIDI output port to a device, which is not what I need. :shock:
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