I was doing some research for a Fan Fiction I plan on writing set in the Wing Commander Universe, so, I decided to replay Wing Commanders 1 through 4. I had to buy another copy of WC4 on GOG.com however, because my disks had broke and that was the cheapest option, anyway to the point.
I don't know how but I stumbled upon a thread on the Dosbox Forums where a few of it's members were talking about Bassmidi Driver, a freeware midi driver for Windows XP, Vista, and Seven. It reminded me why I had stopped playing Wing Commander (1, 2, & 3), because of Windows 7s not so great synthesis when it came to midi files in Dosbox and standalone players.
I tell you though this thing does great to be freeware and it's very simple to use aswell, it enables you to use .sf2 sound fonts more easily even on Windows 7, and I can say I was recently thinking of moving over to Linux for this very reason. (Again, Because of Windows 7s inherently spotty Midi Synthesis.)
I wouldn't have posted this but the quality I got out of it and a few freely available sound fonts really surprised me, I have a few examples I recorded but don't know If it's ok to post them or not...I can also write a tutorial for exactly how to get it working if there is anyone that can't figure it out, it's really simple though, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Here's a list of the sound fonts I am currently using (All of which are freely available on the net):
1. Music Man GM GS v1.0.sf2
2. OPL-3_FM_128M.sf2
3. Roland MT-32.sf2
4. Roland SC-55.sf2
5. SGM-V2.01.sf2
6. Weeds GM3.sf2
This is a link to the thread on Dosboxs Vogons forum: BASSMIDI Soundfont MIDI Synthesiser Driver for Windows XP/Vista/7
And last but not least, this is the link to the drivers main page: BASSMIDI Driver
I don't know how but I stumbled upon a thread on the Dosbox Forums where a few of it's members were talking about Bassmidi Driver, a freeware midi driver for Windows XP, Vista, and Seven. It reminded me why I had stopped playing Wing Commander (1, 2, & 3), because of Windows 7s not so great synthesis when it came to midi files in Dosbox and standalone players.
I tell you though this thing does great to be freeware and it's very simple to use aswell, it enables you to use .sf2 sound fonts more easily even on Windows 7, and I can say I was recently thinking of moving over to Linux for this very reason. (Again, Because of Windows 7s inherently spotty Midi Synthesis.)
I wouldn't have posted this but the quality I got out of it and a few freely available sound fonts really surprised me, I have a few examples I recorded but don't know If it's ok to post them or not...I can also write a tutorial for exactly how to get it working if there is anyone that can't figure it out, it's really simple though, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Here's a list of the sound fonts I am currently using (All of which are freely available on the net):
1. Music Man GM GS v1.0.sf2
2. OPL-3_FM_128M.sf2
3. Roland MT-32.sf2
4. Roland SC-55.sf2
5. SGM-V2.01.sf2
6. Weeds GM3.sf2
This is a link to the thread on Dosboxs Vogons forum: BASSMIDI Soundfont MIDI Synthesiser Driver for Windows XP/Vista/7
And last but not least, this is the link to the drivers main page: BASSMIDI Driver