I'm now not sure that it is a resource issue. When I discovered that VirtualMIDISynth uses the same BASS and BASSMIDI audio libraries from Un4seen Developments as BASSMIDI and that a comment I read elsewhere stated that VirtualMIDISynth could suffer from situations where notes sounded a lot longer than expected, whereas BASSMIDI was apparently free of the problem, I decided to place a comment on the CoolSoft forum about it and Mr CoolSoft himself replied that there was a key combination feature in VirtualMIDISynth 1 which would immediately stop the offending note. However, he felt a better solution was to download version 2 (still in beta but now up to beta6) and try that out, which I have done. I had to register to be able to download it. My understanding is that, among other modifications, VMS2 has improved integration with 64-bit versions of Windows
I have played two of my compositions using VMS2 and they were both fine. One was the 23 minute work I'm mentioned above and the other was a work of about half that length. It is obviously too early to say if VMS2 has solved the problem but results are clearly encouraging so far. I also understand that the official release of VMS2 may appear soon and that there have been numerous enhancements making it quite different from the first version.
Windows always seems to have a lot of apps or utilities open at the same time - I guess it makes for speedier access if one is multitasking - but obviously resources usage increases accordingly. I used to know how to untick some of the apps selected at start-up when I was using Win XP but as yet I'm not sure where to look for that in Windows 10. I'll need to spend some time searching around to find it.
The piece that I've noticed giving me the most trouble is my longest work so far, over 23 minutes (aba structure, fast-slow-fast) and I think the stuck notes have always been in one of the outer sections.
I've just increased the output buffer size in VirtualMIDISnth to 500ms although I have noticed when I did that before it increased the latency quite markedly, which I'd rather do without. However, it may be a case of "beggars not being choosers".
It's interesting that someone else using VirtualMIDISynth has had the same problem. That doesn't necessarity mean that the app is causing the problem, of course. He may have a resources issue too, if that be a possible cause.
It looks like it's a problem that a few of us need to be looking into.
My system, which I have only had for a little over a month, comprises an ASUS motherboard with a quad-core Intel i5-6400 CPU @ 2.7GHz with 8GB of DD3 RAM and an ADATA 256GB SSD. I'm running 64-bit Windows 10 Pro.
However, I like your reasoning and feel it has considerable merit. The ideal solution would be to deactivate all processes that NWC and VirtualMIDISynth don't need and then reactivate them when NWC is not in use. However, I guess even Windows 10 isn't smart enough to enable me to set that up. Otherwise, there is probably going to be a lot of fiddling around, even experimenting, to get the best results. I guess that might sound rather 'negative' but the fact remains that I'm still finding my way around the finer points of Windows 10, having lived with Win XP for the last thirteen years. I never had the problem then (and I had discovered what actually caused stuck notes in NWC well before that) - but, of course, I wasn't dealing with sound fonts during that time either.
I haven't gone back to an earlier version yet, but I did play another of my pieces a short time ago that is over 13 minutes long and it didn't misbehave once (still using the Creative sound font). If there is a problem with NWC, and I'm certainly inclining that way for want of any other possible reason, I'm beginning to think it might be very difficult to solve.
I think I'll write to Beth and see what she has to say about it. I wonder if there are others who have noticed it?
Thanks for your comments, Flurmy. I'm beginning to wonder if it might be NWC. What version are you using?
As it stands, its presence and particularly its inconsistency is really spoiling my enjoyment at the moment.
I actually noticed it for the first time when I was playing one of my pieces and I was suddenly aware of a sound that I knew shouldn't have been there. When I pressed F6, there it was and I find I had to close NWC to stop it. It's happened three or four times now.
I might reinstall a slightly earlier version of NWC2 and check if that makes a difference.
I'll let you know if it disappears. That might require a fair bit of listening, though.
I've been playing around with various combinations of sound fonts but the best-sounding one remains the Creative 8MBGMSFX.SF2 on it's own.
However, recently, I've noticed something that disturbs me and I can't understand why it should be happening. I'm referring to the occasional "stuck note" that will appear "out of the blue" and it' is inconsistent in that I can return to the section of the composition where it occurred earlier and it won't be present when that same section is played again. I've been using NWC for long enough to know what causes stuck notes and how to avoid them, so these recent occurrences are really puzzling me. In the old days, I did encounter them occasionally but it was always a fault on my part with tied notes across bar lines and an accidental associated with the first of the notes but not the second, or vice versa, or a chord set up in the same way.. I'm currently using NWC 2.75 and assume that it wouldn't be the cause. Maybe there is a setting in VirtualMIDISynth that I've missed but as the problem only happens very occasionally I can't see that being an issue either.
It's obviously annoying so if anyone can think of a possible solution I would appreciate it. Thanks.
I think one of the problems is that the people who are responsible for answering questions for web customers either don't have the training or the experience to do the job justice. My question to Creative was, quite simply, the availability of sound fonts for the Audigy sound cards. I wasn't after any MIDI software/manager for utilising those fonts.
Sadly, I often find asking technical questions on websites an exasperating experience. Beth, here, was very helpful.
Those Creative sound fonts are amazing, especially the 8MB one, and I'm totally satisfied with the results when using it. I admit I haven't tried the 4MB one yet. I loaded then all into VirtualMIDISynth then selected the 2MB first and was very pleased with it, although I could still detect small differences at times between it and the Audigy sound card results. With the 8MB font, those differences have all but vanished. Indeed, there has even been one distinct positive. One of my compositions, in ABA form, has a slow middle section and during it there is a reflective motif in a diminuendo and when played back through the Audigy card, the dynamic would drop to mezzo forte and then, for some inexplicable reason, the high frequencies would suddenly disappear from the instrumental sound as it dropped down to piano. With a later change to forte, the highs were back again. That HF change in timbre no longer occurs and the diminuendo now sounds wonderful. Pad Polysynths now sound as they did with the old card - indeed, it's really hard to criticize what I am currently hearing with my pieces.
Incidentally, I have received a reply from Creative. I'm not sure if they are avoiding the issue, but the email mentioned a font manager that would not work with Windows 10 and therefore they felt they were unable to assist me. That wasn't the question I ask them, but never mind ...
So thanks again to everybody, especially Flurmy, for all their help.
I was taking a break from the jobs I'm doing to clear my emails and noticed another one from the Forum. Thanks, Flurmy, for the Audigy sound fonts. I will certainly be most interested in listening to them but it mightn't be for a day or two. However, I decided to download them while I had the opportunity.
I've received acknowledgement from Creative about my sound fonts query relating to the Audigy sound cards. Unfortunately, they say they are very busy at present but hope to reply within the next few days.
Once again, thank you for all your suggesstions. I'm starting to build up a collection of sound fonts and will add SyFonOne and BassMIDI Driver to it as well and try them out. The former sounds as if it might require a fair amount of experimentation to obtain specific results. .Sounds fonts are a totally now concept for me as I had a sound card and driver that satisfied my requirements so I had little need to look elsewhere. That was then, of course.
I'm going to be busy for a while so I may not have much time to experiment - at least, for the next three or four days. However, I'll do what I can.
Thank you both for your comments. I wrote to Creative last night but haven't received a reply as yet. I mentioned the Audigy driver that I have been using and which I am impressed with (SBAX_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0017.exe) - which I assume also contains the sound fonts - and I also did a Google search on the file and found that it is used by the entire Audigy range of sound cards from the original Audigy, whch I have, up to the Audigy4. Would I be correct in assuming therefore that their MIDI playback would be similar?
One thing puzzles me. The sound fonts you refer to seem tiny, occupying 2MB, 4MB and 8MB. whereas both the Arachno and the Fluid fonts I've downloaded are files over 140MB in size. I wonder why there is such a large difference in size, if the smaller files do equally well?
I'll wait until I have received an email from Creative but if the response isn't helpful I shall take up your offer, Flurmy, so thank you for that. I'll keep you informed.
Thank you one and all for your various suggestions. I tried increasing the audio buffer in VirtualMIDISynth, firstly to 500 ms - it was set to 250 ms - and then all the way to 1000 ms and, as anticipated, there was a considerable delay with the largest setting. There was a small improvement in some areas, but the Polysynth pad still burbled badly. I also tried a few other settings but none of them made much of an improvement.
As for your suggestion. Lawrie, I had earlier downloaded another sound font 'set' called Arachno soundfont and the sound it produces via VirtualMIDISynth with the polysiynth pad is quite different from the Fluid and is an improvement but still not as good as I used to hear. As far as your other suggestion is concerned, I could probably get my other computer working again but I was never aware that the Audigy One used soundfonts as I always imagined it was all hardware-related. Perhaps I am wrong about that and you might have the answer. I will write to Creative about that and see what it has to say on the matter.
HMMueller, I set up NWC to accept both the VirtualMIDISynth and the Microsoft GS Waveform Synth, the only alternative I seem to have, but it's MIDI sound for the polysynth is really uninteretsing, even though it is perfectly steady.
Thank you all again for your interest in my problem.
Sorry, Flurmy, I don't understand - or is it that I didn't make the situation as clear as I could have? To put it in perspective, one of my compositions uses Pad 4 (Choir) on Channel 5 and Pad 3 (Polysynth) on Channel 11 playing at the same time, in conjunction with a variety of percussion sounds on Channel 10. I sometimes have numerous channels operating at the same time. The two Pads mentioned above both warble/burble badly, sounding as if the instruments are playing under water. I hope that description offers a clearer explanation of the situation.
Well, I've listened to three of my compositions and it's a bit of a curate's egg. The percussion on channel 10 is dramatically improved, much more like I used to hear. However, some of the synth instruments now have what I can only term a warbling/burbling sound that is quite unlike the sound I used to hear. I have checked those instruments with the Microsoft GS Waveform Synth and that produces a significantly more acceptable result. If I can somehow get a more even sound from those synth instruments I'd almost be happy with it, even though there would still be small differences from what I used to hear with the Audigy sound card. I wonder if there is a setting in NWC that might improve matters?
I had actually downloaded fluid-soundfont.tar.gz earlier but wasn't sure if that was the recommended fluid file. I have now decompressed it (using 7-zip) but I've ended up with a TAR file and VirtualMIDISynth doesn't seem to accept that sort of file (only sf2 and sfz types).
I was going to send the above but I then had another idea and I've just found out that TAR file types are compressed types as well, so I've used 7-zip again and - at long last - I've ended up with a FluidR3-GM2.SF2 file, among others, which will import nicely into VirtualMIDISynth.
I'll try it out with one or two of my compositions and let you know my reaction.
I found a source for the FluidR3 soundfont but the file has a sfARK extension and nothing on my system will decompress it. I eventually found what is termed an sfARK Utilities pack and it comprises files that will decompress soundfont files for Windows, Mac and Linux to SF2 files so I downloaded it. I opened the Windows option, which is a plain ZIP file, and was about to decompress it when a message appeared informing me that Windows couldn't find the file. As I had just been looking at it, I realised that the only possible explanation for that situation was that my antivirus software had in the meantime decided the file was suspicious and had quarantined it - and that's exactly what had happened.
The question now is 'Do I assume that it's actually OK, retrieve it and carry on - or not?'
I'm a long-time user of NoteWorthy Composer, having first come across it when it was available on a 3.5" diskette. I still love it and enjoy using it now as much as ever. The majority of my compositions are electronic/synth or new age in nature with percussion often to the fore, I have also attempted to write a string quartet and a symphony.
Recently I was forced to consider buying a new computer, as my thirteen-year-old XP machine was starting to misbehave badly. That system utilised a Creative Soundblaster Audigy One sound card (the Audigy Two was just appearing on the marketplace at that time) and I eventually became familiar with the sounds it would produce and made extensive use of the electronic instruments in NWC.. Channel 10 often got a workout.
The new computer I've bought, running 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, has an onboard Realtek system, described as 'Realtek High Definition Audio', The sound quailty from CDs, FLAC, WAV and DSF files is excellent but the MIDI quality via NWC leaves a great deal to be desired. When I first checked the MIDI playback devices I had available in NWC I thoiught there were two: Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth and Microsoft MIDI Mapper, although I don't see the latter there now. (I have just updated NWC to version 2.75 so maybe that's not supported in this latest version). After searching through Google, I also found information about VirtualMIDISynth from Coolsoft and how one could use it with sound fonts. So that has become another MIDI playback option in NWC. I have downloaded some sound fonts but none of them impress me so far, particularly when it come to percussion sounds.
What I would obviously like would be sound fonts that replicate those that were produced by the Audigy One sound card but I guess obtaining them is a virtual (no pun intended) impossibility. I could use the Audigy card in my new computer but I personally feel that would be a backward step.
Any suggestions would be most welcome and thank you in advance.
I'm a long-time user of NoteWorthy Composer, having first come across it when it was available on a 3.5" diskette. I still love it and enjoy using it now as much as ever. The majority of my compositions are electronic/synth or new age in nature with percussion often to the fore, I have also attempted to write a string quartet and a symphony.