LOSS OF SOUND

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LOSS OF SOUND

2010-04-03 09:40 pm

I have suddenly lost my playback sound. It doesn't affect any other program, so volume controls etc are all OK. I have also downloaded an up-to-date driver. When I check the Midi tab in the Tools menu, I am told that it can't open the device 'GS Wavetable SW Synth'. I cannot see any way in which I can install an alternative device such as MS Midi Mapper. Can anyone help please?

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #1 – 2010-04-03 10:25 pm

There appears to be some other software opening the synth (MS Wavetable...) You need to determine what software this is and close it. Perhaps Windows Media Player, or another music product, maybe WinAmp - lots of possibilities.\\

BTW, welcome to the forum

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #2 – 2010-04-04 05:00 am

Go to tools>options and click on the MIDI tab. You should see two boxes: the left box will be labeled "available play devices" and the right box will be labeled "devices used by playback." Between them you should see two arrows, one pointing left, the other pointing right. Highlight whatever is in the right-hand box and press the left-pointing arrow with the mouse. That should empty the right-hand box. Now highlight the device you want to use in the left-hand box and press the right-pointing arrow. The right-hand box should now contain your desired playback device. Try the sound again and see if it works.

FYI, there should normally be only one entry in the right-hand box. Having more than one device used by playback can potentially screw up the playback.

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #3 – 2010-04-04 08:14 am

Quote from: William Ashworth – 2010-04-04 05:00 am

FYI, there should normally be only one entry in the right-hand box. Having more than one device used by playback can potentially screw up the playback.

Most anything can "potentially screw up the playback", but it is not abnormal to use more than one playback device. Using more than one Play back device is how NWC supports > 16 MIDI channels and > 1 synth. NoteWorthy is good at warning that it cannot open playback devices, so if you don't get a warning the problem probably lies elsewhere.

mbale: If Noteworthy can't open the device 'GS Wavetable SW Synth' then the device is open in another app or is damaged. A reboot might help. Saying that other apps that produce sound are working does not always mean that the Volume control is not at fault. There is usually a separate control for MIDI and if it is zero, MIDI will not be heard. Movies, wav and mp3 files might sound just fine.

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #4 – 2010-04-04 03:01 pm

Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>Entertainment>Volume Control and check that the MIDI control is set at maximum.This often gets set to zero whilst you are not looking!

Tony

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #5 – 2010-04-04 06:43 pm

I know nothing, but I have experienced on my old computer that whenever
I play a midi file, the midi sound level is set to zero afterwards, and I have to
move the slider back up. On my XPcomputer, I do that by left-clicking on
the thing that looks like a speaker in the taskbar, which brings up a subscreen
with five sliders on it, one of which is "MIDI".

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #6 – 2010-04-05 12:56 pm

This is a "feature" of Windows Media Player on XP.

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #7 – 2010-04-05 01:09 pm

Umm guys,

Quote from: mbale – 2010-04-03 09:40 pm

...When I check the Midi tab in the Tools menu, I am told that it can't open the device 'GS Wavetable SW Synth'...

While WMP is renown for it's bad behaviour with MIDI, mbale's problems is that the synth NWC is configured to use is already open by another application. He needs to identify which application so he can close it...

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #8 – 2010-04-15 11:28 am

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have now tried them all, including re-installing and upgrading to NWC2.1, but still a deathly silence. Ihave uninstalled Windows Media Plyaer; is there any other application which might be interfering with NWC's use of the MIDI device?

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #9 – 2010-04-15 12:51 pm

Do you have any other MIDI player type applications running? Like vanBasco's Karaoke player or anything else you can think of?

Re: LOSS OF SOUND

Reply #10 – 2010-04-15 04:07 pm

G'day mbale,
I assume you are running Windows XP. Although, this could apply to other versions too.

Please check your C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers folder for a file called gm.dls

Does it exist? If not, see if you can extract it from your Windows install CD. This file contains the MS Wavetable Synth sound set and I have seen it disappear in the past.