Re: Bassoon Piano etc

Hi Graham,

> Are you sure they're using the same MIDI port? Last I remember,
> QuickTime used its own soft synth. Winamp does too, unless the
> SoundBlaster FM synth is a lot better than I remember it ...

Yes, pretty sure, because the port is unavailable to FTS while QuickTime is
running, and becomes available when it exits.

The older SBs used FM synths, as you say, but the modern SB Live!
is pretty good, with three synths, one of which is wave table (and
I'm not sure what the others are, not as good as the wave table
one).

When you change the default port in MIDI mapper, the relevant
port becomes unavailable to FTS.

The one I'm using is the QuickTime Plug-in 4.1.2 (as listed in Netscape
| Help | About Plug Ins)

-----------------
N.B. anyone know how to disable a plug in in Netscape? I don't always
want to use the QuickTime one, as it opens the midi clip into the same
window, so you lose the web page, unless you choose Open in new
window. But I want to keep it for testing, as many Netscape users must
have it.
-----------------

However, that's actually given a clue for how to find out what is happening.

I have ports LB1, LB2 etc installed using Hubi's Loopback, which can
be used to hook the MIDI out of any program to the MIDI in of another, and if i
select those in MIDI mapper, quicktime goes silent.

So what I'll do is send the MIDI out of Quicktime to LB1, and then use that
to make a commented hex dump of it in FTS.

Should then be able to work out what is happening exactly!

The modern SB Live! wave table synth has good relative pitch resolution,
of about 0.2 cents, and the possibility of using ones own sound fonts, with
default libraries of 4 and 8 Mb. It uses RAM of p.c. for the sound fonts,
but that isn't so much of a problem nowadays.

One can make ones own sound fonts for it (though I haven't yet gone
into that aspect), or download ones that other people have made.

It's a good example of a reasonable modern soundcard, though of course
not superlative quality. Doesn't support some of the controllers, for example.
But means I get a pretty good idea of what FTS will sound like to many
users. I've been pretty happy with it so far for my requirements, and can
always use a softsynth if necessary, for controllers it doesn't support,
via Hubi's loopback.

Thanks

Robert

Hi Graham,

Just discovered, Quicktime is configurable via the control panel.

You can choose to use its own synth, or General Midi.

I'd got GM selected. So that explains that...

Bassoon piano still sounds strange on its own synth though.

The way out of tune partials are a bit quieter, but still there.

Of course one is expecting slightly detuned partials as it is piano timbre,
but these are way out.

Anyway, will prob.find out exactly what is happening, once
I've done the hex dump and had a good look at it.

Robert