Recording MIDI XG to wave?
Recording MIDI XG to wave?
I like to rip my own game music and whilst Roland's bundled DLS soundfont in XP sounds awful I've come across the wonderful Yamaha XG synthplayer, which is a good-enough generic MIDI player and I don't need to hunt for soundfonts anymore. XG-specific music sounds wondeful too (FFVII, FFVIII). Trouble is I can only record using stereo mix, which takes too much time, and it seems the renderer is separate from MS' own MIDI synthesiser. Is there a better way to record MIDI XG to wave? I like to encode M4A's to make the music portable.
Thy ban hammer shalt strike 
Re: Recording MIDI XG to wave?
Hmm, I was thinking that using Winamp's disk writer plugin might allow recording of the WDM S-YXG50 driver's output, but I just tried and it doesn't.
Yamaha's Midradio player might be able to do it, but it's all Japanese so I don't know which settings might enable that type of thing.
The only other thing I can think of is the VSTi version of S-YXG50, or S-YXG2006LE. Using a VST rendering program like Fruity Loop Studio, or Cubase you could play a Midi file through the vst and record it.
I just did a test of this and it worked.
Here's the VSTi version of XG50
I made a webpage that explains a different way of running VSTs as realtime standalone midi devices. When I did the test recording I used a regular midi player, passed the midi through Midi Yoke, to Savihost running the XG50 VST to record it to a wav.
http://www3.telus.net/anapan8/oldscardemu.htm
It's kinda complicated, but it works.
Yamaha's Midradio player might be able to do it, but it's all Japanese so I don't know which settings might enable that type of thing.
The only other thing I can think of is the VSTi version of S-YXG50, or S-YXG2006LE. Using a VST rendering program like Fruity Loop Studio, or Cubase you could play a Midi file through the vst and record it.
I just did a test of this and it worked.
Here's the VSTi version of XG50
I made a webpage that explains a different way of running VSTs as realtime standalone midi devices. When I did the test recording I used a regular midi player, passed the midi through Midi Yoke, to Savihost running the XG50 VST to record it to a wav.
http://www3.telus.net/anapan8/oldscardemu.htm
It's kinda complicated, but it works.
Re: Recording MIDI XG to wave?
Thank you muchly! My music library is now greatly boosted 
So do you like XG as much as I do, or have you found a better all-around soundfont? dBpoweramp can encode from MIDI using Directmusic at incredible speeds.
So do you like XG as much as I do, or have you found a better all-around soundfont? dBpoweramp can encode from MIDI using Directmusic at incredible speeds.Thy ban hammer shalt strike
Re: Recording MIDI XG to wave?
Yeah, I love Yamaha's XG - It's my default midi output, but as you can tell by the webpage, I mostly like a lot of variety, and especially lo-fi sounding GM sets. My favorite Soundfont is the OPL3 FM set Zandro made, but for realistic Soundfonts to render a midi really well, I usually try these soundfonts out in roughly this order - Airfont, Titanic, Fluid, FF8 DLS, Silverspring, Utopia, Chaos, FF7, PersonalCopy, GeneralUser, Unison, Xioad, and then whatever else I have laying around. I also keep Virtual Sound Canvas and Wingroove installed.
Of course the best way to record a midi to waveform is to mix and match instruments on a per-song basis, but that is very time-consuming.
If you want to check out some more soundfonts, you can grab pretty much all of them from Zandro's torrent
http://zandro.freeunixhost.com/
Of course the best way to record a midi to waveform is to mix and match instruments on a per-song basis, but that is very time-consuming.
If you want to check out some more soundfonts, you can grab pretty much all of them from Zandro's torrent
http://zandro.freeunixhost.com/
Re: Recording MIDI XG to wave?
Would you happen to know where XG's VST stores its config? Using a registry monitor there's supposed to an INI file in windir but it's not there at all. I want to use Foobar2000 to record MIDIs since it supports VSTs but it doesn't allow me to configure them.
Thy ban hammer shalt strike
Re: Recording MIDI XG to wave?
I think VSTs store their settings in .FXB files, so you could do a search for that. A quick search inside the DLL turned up the text syxgvst.ini so that might be something to search for too tho it's not on my computer.
While searching for the INI file I just found another part of the VST that I didn't include in that download (the instrument table). oops. Currently uploading the previously linked zip file with the full installer.
While searching for the INI file I just found another part of the VST that I didn't include in that download (the instrument table). oops. Currently uploading the previously linked zip file with the full installer.
Re: Recording MIDI XG to wave?
I decided to do a test of some different soundfonts and GM romplers to see how they ranked against each other. I used a midi remix of the Gameboy Tetris B Song by Brian Kobashikawa of The Unofficial Gameboy Tetris Homepage since the real test of a GM set is it's orchestral instruments.
Results here:
ftp://mtst:[email protected]:6872/
The CustomMix one was done using the best/highest quality samples out of the other soundfonts tested, with a few non-gm soundfonts and samples too. I tried to use all real-sounding instruments, no synths.
A340 - Airfont 340 - High quality samples here. Good Drums. Good balance.
Crisis - CrisisGeneralMidi 1.8 - This is the second biggest GM soundfont I have. You can tell when you hear it. Certain Instruments are a little too quiet, and at least one seems a little out-of-tune.
FF8DLS - Samuel's Final Fantasy 8 DLS (FFTSF) - This is pretty good. A DLS using instruemnts extracted from FF8 PSX to replace the Yamaha sound set that came with the PC version.
Fluid - Fluid Release III GM Bank - A little unbalanced, but the instruments are high-quality. Nice full sound.
Genievoice - Genevoice GM64Pro Ver 2.0 - This one uses a lot of flange or something. kinda weird. I included it because I extracted the Orchestra Hit from it for my custom mix.
Mega145 - Mega Sound Bank V1.45 - This is pretty unbalanced and weak sounding, but the drum set would make for good techno.
MSDirectMusic - Microsoft DirectMusic DLS - Maybe I should've turned off the tin-can reverb. Yuck.
SYXG - Yamaha S-YXG50 VSTi - Sounds good, but I think Titanic, Crisis and Airfont have a bit more body to them.
Timber - Timber v 1.0 (FF8 soundfont) - A little unbalanced, but high quality.
Titanic - Titanic 200 GM/GS Rev. 1.2 - The biggest soundfont I have (too big to load into my soundcard). Drums are a little weak, but the rest is great.
VSC - Virtual Sound Canvas VSTi - Roland basically invented the GM instrument set, so this is really well balanced, the samples are showing some age tho.
Wingroove - Wingroove 0.A4 - This actually sounds pretty decent, tho a little weak.
ZetaLight - Zeta Soundfont Light Version - The least balanced of them all. yuck.
Results here:
ftp://mtst:[email protected]:6872/
The CustomMix one was done using the best/highest quality samples out of the other soundfonts tested, with a few non-gm soundfonts and samples too. I tried to use all real-sounding instruments, no synths.
A340 - Airfont 340 - High quality samples here. Good Drums. Good balance.
Crisis - CrisisGeneralMidi 1.8 - This is the second biggest GM soundfont I have. You can tell when you hear it. Certain Instruments are a little too quiet, and at least one seems a little out-of-tune.
FF8DLS - Samuel's Final Fantasy 8 DLS (FFTSF) - This is pretty good. A DLS using instruemnts extracted from FF8 PSX to replace the Yamaha sound set that came with the PC version.
Fluid - Fluid Release III GM Bank - A little unbalanced, but the instruments are high-quality. Nice full sound.
Genievoice - Genevoice GM64Pro Ver 2.0 - This one uses a lot of flange or something. kinda weird. I included it because I extracted the Orchestra Hit from it for my custom mix.
Mega145 - Mega Sound Bank V1.45 - This is pretty unbalanced and weak sounding, but the drum set would make for good techno.
MSDirectMusic - Microsoft DirectMusic DLS - Maybe I should've turned off the tin-can reverb. Yuck.
SYXG - Yamaha S-YXG50 VSTi - Sounds good, but I think Titanic, Crisis and Airfont have a bit more body to them.
Timber - Timber v 1.0 (FF8 soundfont) - A little unbalanced, but high quality.
Titanic - Titanic 200 GM/GS Rev. 1.2 - The biggest soundfont I have (too big to load into my soundcard). Drums are a little weak, but the rest is great.
VSC - Virtual Sound Canvas VSTi - Roland basically invented the GM instrument set, so this is really well balanced, the samples are showing some age tho.
Wingroove - Wingroove 0.A4 - This actually sounds pretty decent, tho a little weak.
ZetaLight - Zeta Soundfont Light Version - The least balanced of them all. yuck.
Re: Recording MIDI XG to wave?
Interesting test you did there. I liked Airfont 340's rendering the best, but as you mentioned you've replaced instruments which is a time-consuming process. I think I'll stick with SYXG for now. Btw I don't get what polyphony means. Yamaha's default value is 32. Isn't that the max for most MIDI files out there? Is there a 2nd gen MIDI format that I haven't come across yet? Maybe ringtones or advanced musician stuff?
Thy ban hammer shalt strike
Re: Recording MIDI XG to wave?
I only replaced instruments in the Custom Mix recording, the rest are just played with the regular/default instruments the midi had assigned. The only changes I did to the rest was cranking all the settings available in each plugin to the highest quality settings (+ reverb, chorus, variance and any other options built in) .
Max Polyphony is how many instruments it'll play at once before stopping the earliest played ones short to start a new one. It's there for instruments that keep making sound after they've been triggered. The option is there to make for faster real-time rendering, as some computers back then couldn't handle playing so many instruments at once without skipping/lag. It'd be safe to crank it up to full on any modern computer (Pentuim II or better). I remember my 486 DXII 66Mhz had trouble with more than 32 at once on some songs unless I turned reverb and chorus off.
The only different midi formats I know of are GM, GS and XG - the last 2 are just different instrument banks in addition to the GM set (extra drum kits, sound effects, alternate sounding instruments, etc)
Max Polyphony is how many instruments it'll play at once before stopping the earliest played ones short to start a new one. It's there for instruments that keep making sound after they've been triggered. The option is there to make for faster real-time rendering, as some computers back then couldn't handle playing so many instruments at once without skipping/lag. It'd be safe to crank it up to full on any modern computer (Pentuim II or better). I remember my 486 DXII 66Mhz had trouble with more than 32 at once on some songs unless I turned reverb and chorus off.
The only different midi formats I know of are GM, GS and XG - the last 2 are just different instrument banks in addition to the GM set (extra drum kits, sound effects, alternate sounding instruments, etc)