MIDI decoder codec

[ChristinaS]

WOW! I'm so very happy you got this going Spoon.

It's also extraordinarily fast. I reconverted about 25 midi pieces (a good 75 minutes) in about 2-3 minutes now.

I find the sound excellent. I understand it's limited by my own pc's midi rendering capabilities.

One thing however I find is that the sound of the resulting wav file isn't identical to the sound of the original midi file when I play both on the same pc in WMP 10.

The wav is a bit softer in volume and doesn't sound as crisp as the original midi. It's good though, only not quite the same. I think I found that I should boost the midi volume a bit in Control panel.


My soundcard is Creative SB Audigy LS

In Control panel > Sounds and audio devices for MIDI I have 3 choices:
1) Microsoft GS Wavetable SW SYnthetizer
2) Creative Soundfont Synth
3) Creative External MIDI

I am using 1) - perhaps for historical reasons, but I also think that sometimes MIDI doesnt' sound so good with any othe other choices (I'd have to retest them to see if Im not just imagining things though). It does seem to me that the first choice gives the most sparkling sound for midi, plus the timings are better (with the Creative soundfont I have some instruments (e.g. guitars) playing to a totally different beat, much slower, very weird).

I'm just wondering if the midi codec is using the same device as WMP is using.

[Spoon]

Re: MIDI decoder codec

You would think so as it uses DirectX. The rendering should be constant across windows versions, replacing the .dls file mentioned in the help file with a better one will give better results. The Volume adjust (if you were talking about this one) is in dBpowerAMP COnfiguration >> Codecs >> Advanced.

[ChristinaS]

Re: MIDI decoder codec

Well I adjusted the volume up to 1.0 - still no actual change (louder yes, but still a bit muffled).

I noticed the same thing when using dMC Auxuliary Inout, so I don't expect miracles. I actually got a miracle in the speed and the fact I dont; have to tweak the output volume to prevent clipping. It's coming out fine even at 1.0.

But I am puzzled by the difference in audio quality between the midi and the resulting wav.

Another thing I noticed is that the instruement separation isn't pronounced after the conversion. So what happens is that certain sounds meant to be softer, in the background end up pretty much in the foreground.

Might be a weird way the midi files are coded themselves. They were made using Anvil Studio (a free midi composition program from www.anvilstudio.com).