no midi output

[digitalray]

i was trying to get some midi sound out of the games (just playing games, not coding yet), but couldn't accomplish that.

i got a creative sb aufigy 2 zs platinum in here and working drivers for win vista 64.

it doesn't matter if i set audio out to speakers of spdif (got spdif connected and i get all other sounds like sound fx in games when using spdif or speakers).

i read the beginners sticky and searched for midi, but couldn't find a clue on how to enable this.

i tried all settings in the winsetup.exe, like winwaveout or directout and also mci and win32 midi mapper.

could it be, that all of the games i played just don't have midi music, but only sound effects ? like the vacuum, 5 days a stranger and some others..

does a game only have midi music, when there is a .mid file in the game directory ?


i also tried using my mainboard soundchip from realtek (a good one, ALC1200 on the asus m4n82 deluxe board) but i don't get any midi music.


i tried downloading .mid files and play them with windows media player and irfan view on the sb audigy and on the realtek speaker out but i don't get any music either.


do i have to install some kind of midi sound banks and midi driver for vista 64 to hear music when playing .mid files ?

i also checked the MIDI VOLUME in the windows sound playback device - levels - settings, the slider at Midi Volume is on 86 and not muted.


i also checked the vista 64 driver information for my sb audigy 2 zs:

Supports all Audigy card with a Hardware EMU10K2 DSP chipset (OEM / Retail models):
- Audigy 2 ZS (including Platinum and Platinum Pro)

i also got a creative "Windows Vista MID Device Configuration Utiltity" and can select one of the following "Default Midi Device - Microsoft Midi Mapper" Settings:
- Microsoft Midi Mapper (was selected and is selected as default)
- SB AUDIGY 2 ZS MIDI IO 2 [B880]
- SB AUDIGY 2 ZS Synth A [B880]
- SB AUDIGY 2 ZS Synth B [B880]
- SB AUDIGY 2 ZS MIDI IO [B880]

this soundcard has hardware midi in and output, so this should refer to the MIDI IO.

i could try to select Synth A or Synth B, but normally the Microsoft MIDI Mapper should work ? i also searched my whole system for GM.DLS, which is the MIDI Soundbank for Windows Vista, and found even 6 files with that filename on my system, so i guess it "should" work, but it doesn't.


now i found a creative app called SoundFont Bank Manager.

i can play notes in there with the sb audigy MIDI IN (not needed for games) set to MIDI IO or MIDI IO 2 and the SoundFont Device set to Synth A or Synth B.

i then can select one of 9 Banks with 128 sounds each and additional DrumKit.

so i guess Midi works on my System and with my Aufigy card, just not with Windows Vista somehow.


what could i try to get music running in games and playing .mid files in vista 64 ?

[Snake]

Have you checked whether or not the MIDI in Window's volume control just isn't simply muted for some weird reason?

This reminds me of a problem I had years ago.

Try this:
For some reason when you start an AGS game (back when I was having the problem), the volume control in Windows sets the volume for MIDI Synth all the way down to zero. What I had to do was, after starting the game, quit and adjust the volume control and restart the game.

Hopefully this works for you. I haven't had this problem in a very long time so hopefully my solution is the correct way I went about solving it.

I hope this helps!

Also, you can try

\\--EDIT--//
oops! I forgot to finish what I was writing... phone rang

Also, you can try playing the games in windowed mode and see if that helps diagnose further. If there's still no volume while in windowed mode, while the game is still running, open up volume control and check the MIDI synth slider...

[Khris]

i tried downloading .mid files and play them with windows media player and irfan view on the sb audigy and on the realtek speaker out but i don't get any music either.

There's your problem. Make sure that in Windows' sound mixer Midi isn't muted, that's all I got.
I'm kind of wondering though why you started this post with "I can't get midi sound out of games" when you can't get it out of anything. This is obviously not an AGS problem.

AGS games with music use midis if there's no music.vox file in the game dir. 5DaysSE has midi music, starting on the very first screen.

[digitalray]

i tried downloading .mid files and play them with windows media player and irfan view on the sb audigy and on the realtek speaker out but i don't get any music either.

There's your problem. Make sure that in Windows' sound mixer Midi isn't muted, that's all I got.
I'm kind of wondering though why you started this post with "I can't get midi sound out of games" when you can't get it out of anything. This is obviously not an AGS problem.

AGS games with music use midis if there's no music.vox file in the game dir. 5DaysSE has midi music, starting on the very first screen.

thanks for answering, midi isn't muted,
i started this here, because i never tried to play midi files in vista before and therefore saw it as a AGS problem because i got no music from the games. maybe it is related to what i select in the winsetup.exe options and the windows media player is a different thing as i see i can get midi running with the creative midi app.
i don't see any .mid file or music.vox in the 5 days a stranger game dir. the only files in there are
5days.exe (4.3 MB)
5days_readme.txt
acsetup.cfg
winsetup.exe

[digitalray]

Have you checked whether or not the MIDI in Window's volume control just isn't simply muted for some weird reason?

This reminds me of a problem I had years ago.

Try this:
For some reason when you start an AGS game (back when I was having the problem), the volume control in Windows sets the volume for MIDI Synth all the way down to zero. What I had to do was, after starting the game, quit and adjust the volume control and restart the game.

Hopefully this works for you. I haven't had this problem in a very long time so hopefully my solution is the correct way I went about solving it.

I hope this helps!

Also, you can try

\\--EDIT--//
oops! I forgot to finish what I was writing... phone rang

Also, you can try playing the games in windowed mode and see if that helps diagnose further. If there's still no volume while in windowed mode, while the game is still running, open up volume control and check the MIDI synth slider...

thanks for your reply.

i now tried setting the mapper to Synth A and Synth B and to microsoft midi mapper again. the game wouldn't start in fullscreen mode anymore when using synth a or b.
running it windowed i don't get any sound still with any of the 3 selections, and the slider doesn't go to zero, the volume is not muted.

i tried both winsetup.exe settings for midi.

so the problem persists.

[digitalray]

ok, since i selected SYNTH A as MIDI Default Device, i can play .mid files in windows media player, so midi is working in windows.

but AGS MIDI Sound still doesn't work.

i also tried with "the vacuum" once again with both options for midi in winsetup.exe, and there is also a music.vox file in the game dir, but i don't get any midi music.

[digitalray]

so i guess no one is using an audigy 2 zs with hardware synth a or synth b ?

it seems the soundcard has its own hardware midi synths, and therefore ignores the standard mci device setting in winsetup.exe.

but i don't get it, why the win32 midi mapper doesn't route the midi track to the hardware midi synth on my card. maybe because i use vista 64 ?

i mean, since i selected synth a instead of MIDI IO out (front panel midi in/out) i can play .mid files with windows media player, but the ags engine doesn't work..

i still get no music in all ags games :/

does anyone know how i can maybe deselect the hardware synth from my soundcard and use the general midi sounds from windows ?

[Snarky]

I think I have a system a lot like that. I have some kind of Audigy 2 card in a Win7-64 machine, anyway. It works for me, though I don't remember what type of MIDI synth I'm set to.

As I recall, you can set the synth/general MIDI from the Windows soundcard settings or with the configuration app from Creative.

[digitalray]

yes, i did that. there is an app called Creative Midi Device Configuration Utility where i can Set the Midi Out to Synth A, Synth B, Midi I/O or MIDI I/O 2 (Front Panel).

i tried all settings, and when i set it to Synth A or Synth B i can play .mid files with Windows Media Player, but ags midi doesn't work.

I once realized i get midi fx though, like atmosphere (wind) or dull noises, that i didn't get before.

but no music.

i really think this must be related to the Hardware Synth in the creative audigy 2 zs card somehow.

who knows a way to set Windows' Midi NOT to use my soundcard's midi, but the general midi sounds fromo windows ?