VirtualMIDISynth 2.8.0 released 2019-10-29
VirtualMIDISynth is a free software MIDI synthesizer implemented as a Windows multimedia user driver, accessible as a standard MIDI Out device. It works on Windows XP (SP3) / Vista (SP1) / 7 (SP1) / 8.x / 10 (both x86 and x64), and is based on the great BASS library from un4seen.
Author introduction:
Playing a MIDI (o karaoke) file on Windows has always been a poor-quality experience, because the well known bundled "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth" synth is just... ehm... simple: poor samples, mono sound, no effects (reverb, chorus) support.
Software synts deeply improve quality, but sometimes they're difficult to install or limited to specific uses, like the ones integrated in some DAWs or karaoke players.
Till Windows XP some virtual devices existed on 32bits systems, like the well-known YAMAHA XG SoftSynthetizer S-YXG50 and Cakewalk-sfz+ (both unsupported now).
Nowadays, on x64 systems, we're out of luck: none of them works anymore.
One day Ian Luck (un4seen) added to his BASSMidi library a great feature: the possibility to render a live MIDI stream, including SysEx messages. I quickly realized that, if only I could intercept that MIDI stream and drive it through Ian's library, well, we would have got a great MIDI Synth.
The challenge was to create a good quality synth and keep the end user away from complicated virtual MIDI chains (ever tried VanBasco -> MIDI Yoke/LoopBe1 -> SynthFont chain ?).
User only needs a new virtual MIDI Out device, select it as output on his preferred player settings and... start playing, nothing more.
Here we are, VirtualMIDISynth is the answer: an user mode multimedia x86/x64 driver that works on Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 (both x86 and x64), implemented as a MIDI Out virtual device.
Main features:
- User mode multimedia driver, no reboots, no BSOD
- Directly accessible as MIDI Out device, no need for virtual MIDI cables (like MIDI Yoke, LoopBe1)
- Supports up to 4 virtual devices, each with its own soundfont configuration (new in version 2.x)
- Virtually unlimited polyphony (limited only by available CPU power)
- MIDI mixer to set track mute/volume, accessible through systray icon
- Integrated MIDI converter to easily convert your MIDI files to WAV/MP3/FLAC
- Lightweight setup (~1.2 MBytes)
- No DLL cluttering, everything is self contained installation folder (except for MIDI device driver) (new in version 2.x)
- Clean installer, won't affect other MIDI devices
- Efficient RAM usage (allows using large SoundFonts, > 1GByte)
- Load soundFonts (up to available memory), enable/disable/chain them at your will; native 64bit version (on x64 OS) is not limited to 4GByte (new in version 2.x)
- Configure MIDI Mapper default device (this feature is already available in XP, but missing in Vista / Windows 7)
- Windows 8/10 users can also install CoolSoft MIDIMapper and configure it straight from VirtualMIDISynth configurator to get the well-known MIDI Mapper back to their systems
- Multilanguage dialogs.
what's new
v.2.8.0 - 2019-10-29
| NEW | MIDI converter feature to skip initial silence. |
| NEW | Generated MP3 and FLAC files now include default tags (Title and Comment). |
| NEW | Updated BASS libraries: BASS 2.4.14, BASSMIDI 2.4.12.1, BASSENC 2.4.14. |
| NEW | Added new hi-res icon (256px) to VirtualMIDISynth executable. |
| NEW | Configurator dialog is now compliant with Windows "high contrast" themes. |
| NEW | Updated translations (Chinese simplified, Chinese Taiwan, Danish, Deutsch, Greek, Finnish, French, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Thai). |
| FIX | Added missing Open/SaveDialog titles and translated file filters. |
| FIX | MIDI converter now sends 24bit floating point data to MP3 encoder (lame.exe) like it already does with FLAC (flac.exe). |
| FIX | Silent crash if opening Configurator dialog (with About tab selected) while playing. |
| FIX | Soundfonts configuration was applied instantly to new MIDI clients (but not stored to config) even if not confirmed with configurator dialog Apply/Ok buttons. |
v.2.7.3 - 2019-08-10
| FIX | Clear "Update" INI section when a new version is installed to ensure restart suspended checking. |
v.2.7.2 - 2019-07-23
| NEW | Updated translations (Czech, Danish, Deutsch, Magyar, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Turkish, Indonesian, Ukrainian, Simplified Chinese). |
v.2.7.1 - 2019-06-19
| FIX | VirtualMIDISynth dialogs (configurator, Mixer and MIDI Converter) now work and snap correctly on High-DPI screens. |
| FIX | Unneeded error message is shown when installing/upgrading on Windows 7 on certain conditions. |
| FIX | MIDIMapper and ActiveMovie default devices were set to default during upgrade. |
v.2.7.0 - 2019-06-07
| NEW | Added driver check/installation/repair features to synth. VirtualMIDISynth now checks at startup if driver is correctly installed and configured; if not, it allows the user to fix it without reinstalling. |
version history : http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth#versionhistory
Home: http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth
Download: CoolSoft_VirtualMIDISynth_2.8.0.exe
Well, having a better MIDI experience, after installation:
Download a SoundFont (*.sf2; e.g. see at http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth#soundfonts), save it locally on your computer and add it to VirtualMIDISynth
Run your favourite MIDI application and configure it to use VirtualMIDISynth (or set VirtualMIDISynth as your default MIDI Out device)