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Let's start at the beginning.
I have always been put off playing MIDI files, due to my SoundBlaster 16 (
) Midi synthesiser being unable to make "realistic" sounds. A piano is not meant to sound like an organ, though the SoundBlaster 16 makes it sound that way.
But a couple of weeks ago, I was playing around in my Age of Empires Program Files folder and came across the .MID files it uses for background music. Since the background music doesn't work during the game, I decided to load it into Winamp and have a listen.
Now — I like to customize every program and plugin to it's full extent, so, while listening to the clicks, beeps and tones that these .MIDs attempted to make sound like drums, flutes and violins, I opened up the settings panel for the Winamp2 Midi Input plugin (v 2.64, the one that comes with Winamp).
Upon opening the device drop down box, I saw that there were five or so devices to choose from; all but one I had already seen in the Windows Multimedia Control Panel. This new one I forget the name of, but it was something like "RC/RM Synthesizer" or the like.
I chose this one, restarted the Midi playback, and lo and behold, there came the music out of my speakers sounding like a full orchestra recorded on MP3. I tried all the other .MID files on my computer, and they al sounded realistic too — so realistic that no-one I asked could tell the difference between a .MID file and an MP3. I guessed that this was probably a software sythesizer, since it was playing out of my wave channel.
Then the Internet stopped working.
After trying everything I could think of, I finally re-installed Windows (98), to find the the Net now worked, but the Sythnesizer that I so loved was now gone, and I had to go back to listening to the dry schreeching and scratching of beeps and clicks with my SB16 hardware sythensizer.
I re-installed Winamp, searched the whole Winamp forums, and stayed up to 3:30 am trying to find a site on the net where I could download a synthesizer to work with Winamp that would give me back my perfect sound.
I still haven't found anything.
Does anyone know how to fix this? (And don't tell me, 'Get a new sound-card.' I had great sound with this one, I want it back.)
I have always been put off playing MIDI files, due to my SoundBlaster 16 (
) Midi synthesiser being unable to make "realistic" sounds. A piano is not meant to sound like an organ, though the SoundBlaster 16 makes it sound that way.But a couple of weeks ago, I was playing around in my Age of Empires Program Files folder and came across the .MID files it uses for background music. Since the background music doesn't work during the game, I decided to load it into Winamp and have a listen.
Now — I like to customize every program and plugin to it's full extent, so, while listening to the clicks, beeps and tones that these .MIDs attempted to make sound like drums, flutes and violins, I opened up the settings panel for the Winamp2 Midi Input plugin (v 2.64, the one that comes with Winamp).
Upon opening the device drop down box, I saw that there were five or so devices to choose from; all but one I had already seen in the Windows Multimedia Control Panel. This new one I forget the name of, but it was something like "RC/RM Synthesizer" or the like.
I chose this one, restarted the Midi playback, and lo and behold, there came the music out of my speakers sounding like a full orchestra recorded on MP3. I tried all the other .MID files on my computer, and they al sounded realistic too — so realistic that no-one I asked could tell the difference between a .MID file and an MP3. I guessed that this was probably a software sythesizer, since it was playing out of my wave channel.
Then the Internet stopped working.
After trying everything I could think of, I finally re-installed Windows (98), to find the the Net now worked, but the Sythnesizer that I so loved was now gone, and I had to go back to listening to the dry schreeching and scratching of beeps and clicks with my SB16 hardware sythensizer.
I re-installed Winamp, searched the whole Winamp forums, and stayed up to 3:30 am trying to find a site on the net where I could download a synthesizer to work with Winamp that would give me back my perfect sound.
I still haven't found anything.
Does anyone know how to fix this? (And don't tell me, 'Get a new sound-card.' I had great sound with this one, I want it back.)
.
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