Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

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Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

2011-02-21 01:13 pm

I use a Dell Latitude laptop and Audigy 2 ZS card to play music form NWC. I have a collection of sound fonts and I really liked the way it played. This was in Windows XP.

However, I have upgraded to Windows 7 (64bit) and lost MIDI device and sound font ability. I have installed the most recent card driver ver. 2.18.0017, Audio Console ver. 1.20.09 and SoundFont Bank Manager 3.21.02. The driver is sort-of working, I can redirect sound to Audigy card and to speaker, but can't get MIDI with sound fonts working. Audio Console shows that MIDI output is not available, and SoundFont Manager can't see it either.

I looked at Creative support forum and some people reported a similar issue, but there was no answer: http://tinyurl.com/audigy-no-midi

Can I do anything to get my Audigy 2 ZS working with sound fonts again? Or do I need to get a more recent sound card. Any recommendations?

Re: Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

Reply #1 – 2011-02-21 06:14 pm

Unfortunately, Creative seems to have pretty much stopped supporting sound fonts. See the account of my own Dell laptop/Audigy 2 ZS odyssey here.

The solution I recounted there isn't perfect, and I'm still exploring alternatives. The most promising at this point seems to be a program called SyFonOne, from the same folks that gave us VSTSynthFont - it's a VST instrument that doesn't require a host to operate. It really requires an ASIO driver to function properly, but ASIO4all seems to work OK with Win7. The principal drawback is that you need to kill the ASIO driver after you're through using it, or normal sound (i.e., from YouTube) won't come through at all.

HTH -

Bill

Re: Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

Reply #2 – 2011-02-21 08:28 pm

You could try running Virtual PC - there's even a special XP version - this could possibly let you use all your old stuff.

MusicJohn, 21/Feb/11

Re: Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

Reply #3 – 2011-02-21 08:59 pm

Quote from: MusicJohn – 2011-02-21 08:28 pm

You could try running Virtual PC - there's even a special XP version - this could possibly let you use all your old stuff.

The host OS needs to properly recognise and drive the hardware for this. The client OS cannot "see" the hardware directly as the host OS's HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) insulates it.

Re: Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

Reply #4 – 2011-02-22 01:58 pm

Thank you very much for your help.

I will try Virtual XP first. The card is recognized by Windows 7 correctly, it is the new driver that doesn't support MIDI. So, with some luck, I might be able to deploy everything in a VM.

If this fails, I'll try software solution. William, thanks a lot for the very detailed description. It looks very helpful and might be the way of doing MIDI in the future.

I'm really disappointed Creative decided to ditch sound fonts. Does it mean that their new products (e.g. X-Fi series) do not support sound fonts? Shame...

Is there any other hardware solution (for a laptop), which wouldn't drain my wallet? Any other external card/device with sound fonts that would work with NWC?

Re: Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

Reply #5 – 2011-02-22 02:21 pm

The Xi-Fi series of cards DOES support soundfonts, excluding the "eXtreme Music" card. The lowest end card that supports soundfonts is the "eXtreme Gamer".

Re: Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

Reply #6 – 2011-02-22 03:56 pm

Quote from: Lawrie Pardy – 2011-02-22 02:21 pm

The Xi-Fi series of cards DOES support soundfonts, excluding the "eXtreme Music" card. The lowest end card that supports soundfonts is the "eXtreme Gamer".

Ah... I can't put it in a laptop. What about USB devices: "X-Fi Surround 1.5 Pro2", "X-Fi Go! Pro" or "X-Fi HD"? I need something I can connect to a laptop.

Re: Lost MIDI (and sound fonts) in Audigy 2 ZS in Windows 7

Reply #7 – 2011-02-22 10:25 pm

Quote from: felisek – 2011-02-22 03:56 pm

Ah... I can't put it in a laptop. What about USB devices: "X-Fi Surround 1.5 Pro2", "X-Fi Go! Pro" or "X-Fi HD"? I need something I can connect to a laptop.

I haven't really bothered with following hardware synths for notebooks so I don't know. From my point of view a good softsynth is easier on a notebook than messing with something that has to be plugged in to an external port.

I'd suggest you consider Bill's alternative or even have a look at my own VST intro: http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful/vstfdum.pdf

Note that my guide was built around a 32 bit version of vista so may not have suitable software selections/suggestions for 64 bit Win7. There are alternatives out there and the guide will give you enough basics to understand the choices you need to make.