Sound Quality

1997-08-03 04:00 am

Andrew

How naive can one be?

I do not know what MIDI device I am using; I shall have to go back to a textbook

The same applies to the drivers!

I am operating on Windows 95.

It is clear that I have a lot to learn.

However, I realise that the sound qualities are produced by Fourier synthesis. I presume that NWC carries the code for such synthesis but the actual work is carried out in the drivers.

So, where are the drivers?

Best regards

Leonard

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #1 – 1997-08-03 04:00 am

I'll comment on some of Cyril's points here as well. CAVEAT 1: I am not a GURU of any sort, and also hope to be corrected for any misunderstandings I may have, especially any I may propagate!

CAVEAT 2: I've tries to be careful in wording the following steps, so it looks longer than it should.

Leonard said << How naive can one be? >>

Well... :-)

<<< I do not know what MIDI device I am using; I shall have to go back to a textbook >>>

Nah! Not a text book. Whoever supplied you with your computer should know what sound card they put in (often the system itself won't tell you 'cos there are generic drivers for Soundblaster and SB-like cards). Otherwise, if you are good at opening up computers and rummaging around, then you'll REALLY know.

<<<The same applies to the drivers!>>>

Okay. To find your MIDI drivers in Win 95:

1. Go to the Control Panel (off Settings on the Start Menu), and open Multimedia. ("Sounds" is for linking sounds to Windows events.

2. Click on the "MIDI" tab and see which alternatives you have to choose from for Single Instrument. (Probably just one, Internal Synthesis or something like that, from the sounds of it.) Remember the description of which driver you are using (the highlighted one).

3. Click on the "Advanced" tab (that's right, but you won't break anything. ;-) and open Midi Devices and Instruments. So far so good. You will probably find one (maybe two) drivers. Double click on the one that was highlighted in the Midi Tab.

4. Now depending on the driver, you may get some information (try the settings button if they have one). If you have a driver like mine, it will only tell you something like "Internal OPL2/OPL3 Synthesis"

5. The end.

<<<It is clear that I have a lot to learn.>>>

Sounds like you want to improve your sound quality. One way is to take it back to your supplier and say "Make it better". The other is to learn so that you know how.

<<<However, I realise that the sound qualities are produced by Fourier synthesis. >>>

Not exactly. Again, it depends on the sound card. There are two main types being used now (the old additive synthesis, using Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs) etc going out of fashion about fifteen years ago).

1. FM Synthesis. This uses modulation of the frequencies generated on the card (adding harmonics etc) to produce sounds closer to reality than the old VCOs. Most good FM synths use at least 4 operators (modulators) to get a good, rich, more natural sound. Most SB cards use 2 or 3 operators, and sound, as you say like comb-and-paper.

2. Most General MIDI devices have now gone digital, using Wavetables (samples) to generate the tone. Cyril, the better cards will model changes in timbre according to velocity, either by gradually mixing in a sample of a note being played hard, or bending the pitch a bit, there a lots of cutes you can do. The pitch thing is probably only on the big workstation synths.

<<<I presume that NWC carries the code for such synthesis but the actual work is carried out in the drivers. >>> I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) that NWC only tells the driver (more or less) what note to play on what channel and at what velocity.

Hope this helps. It may need a few readings to digest.

Andrew

Re: Sound Quality

Reply #2 – 1997-08-03 04:00 am

Not really--FM synthesis uses a Fourier anaylsis, but the better cards use so-called wave tables. These may be digitalized samples of real instraments, or made up out of wholecloth. I'm not enought of a hardware person to understand how pitch, attack and decay are modelled for different pitches and durations, so I'll leave that for one of the real Gurus to expositate on. With the exception of some special drives (such as the Yamaha XG software synthesiser mentioned in my previous post), all the wave generation is done on the card. The MIDI stream just tells the card which "voice" to use, how load and when to start it and when to stop it. NWC translates its propriatary data into MIDI, and ships that off to whatever MIDI driver you tell it to use.

I trust that if I have muddled any of the details (not impossible), that I will be gently but firmly corrected.

Cyril N. Alberga