Thursday, January 26, 2017: Suppose I should mention that since my latest system in 2012, I haven't had a Sound Blaster installed. I do still have the Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro; however, it's not in anything.
Finally getting around to updating this page. I decided to just call this my Sound Blaster page since the particular model of Sound Blaster I have changes over time. I've had the Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16ASP w/ Wave Blaster, Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold, Sound Blaster Live!, Sound Blaster Audigy (Ok, well technically Gateway's Sound Blaster Audigy card but it's the same thing really), and now a Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro!
This page will be devoted to the Sound Blaster cards which allow you to load your own SoundFont banks into RAM on the cards and/or system memory. I will only put MIDI files on this page which require a SoundFont to be loaded to sound correct. Any General MIDI files which do not require a SoundFont will be placed on my MIDI page.
Converted MOD Files
To try and learn more about SoundFonts, the AWE64, and the Vienna SF Studio 2.1 software, I have converted a few MOD files into MIDI files. I took the samples in the MOD files and converted them to SoundFonts. Obviously, using a MOD player which supported loading the samples into the AWE's memory directly would be better; however, the only one I've found so far gives an Err 09 and then closes. So, if you have a Windows MOD player designed for an AWE, let me know!
File | ZIP size | RAM Required | Description |
Axel-F Theme | 51 KB | 110 KB | Since the MOD file did not have any special effects, this sounds pretty much exactly like the MOD file. |
Courtouchka! | 154 KB | 317 KB | This is one of my most favorite MOD files. I decided to convert this to learn how to make SoundFonts. This has some very good heavy metal sounding guitar samples. Update 1/1/2006: The X-Fi pointed out some flaws in the instrument samples which caused crackling and pops. I have corrected the sound samples so that it plays properly on the X-Fi and have uploaded the corrected version. |
Humanoid | 85 KB | 172 KB | This contains HUMANOID.MID, which uses the SoundFont and HUMANGM.MID, which uses General MIDI instruments. Shows you how the two different MOD to MIDI converters I've located convert a file. |
Major Tom | 68 KB | 131 KB |
Programs
File | Size | Description |
WACUP (WinAmp Community Update Project) | ||
---|---|---|
8.175 MB |
The 32-bit version of WACUP will play MIDI and MOD files just fine and is what I use now. |
|
Winamp MIDI Plugin | ||
65 KB |
This is an older Winamp in_midi.dll plugin file which supports auto-loading of SoundFont files. First, make a backup copy or rename the current in_midi.dll file in your Winamp\Plugins folder and then copy this DLL file into your Winamp\Plugins directory. Next, in Winamp, go to the Input Plug-in preferences and select the Winamp2 MIDI plug-in v2.63b and click Configure. In the Device tab, set the Device to something like midiOut / SB Audigy Synth A [DF80]. In the SoundFont tab, make sure Disable SoundFont Support is NOT checked and that Autoload SF2 files is checked with the Bank set to 1. Bank 1 seems to the be the most popular setting. Dec 31, 2009: As of Winamp version 5.571, this plug-in still works with a Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro in Windows XP. Jul 10, 2013: As of Winamp version 5.64, this plug-in still works as far as playing MIDI files in Windows 7. Apr 4, 2020: Thought I should mention that I have been running Windows 10 for a few months and mostly use the WACUP (WinAmp Community Update Project) player now. Actually, never installed Winamp itself into it. I never bothered with the version Radionomy made. I should also mention that the auto-loading SoundFont ability of this plug-in will only work with Sound Blaster and compatible cards. I have only used it up to the Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro in Windows XP. Anything beyond that I can't say with any certainty. |
|
MOD to MIDI Converters | ||
130 KB |
This is a DOS program which will convert 4-channel MOD file into 4-track MIDI files. Thus, each track contains many patch changes. So far, I have had to transpose each track up by 8 semi-tones for it to sound correct. Of these two converters, this yields the best results; however, since each track has many patch changes, it's difficult to change them to General MIDI instruments (if you didn't want to use a SoundFont). |
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222 KB |
This is an old Windows 3.X program which uses VBRUN200.DLL (included). It separates each sample of a 4-channel MOD file to be on it's own track in the MIDI file. Thus, only one Patch Change is needed per track. This makes it easier to assign General MIDI instruments if so desired and for transposing the percussion tracks to match the right notes. However, it doesn't seem to convert some files correctly. It will create a track for an instrument, but won't have any note information to go along with it. Also, seems to be more work involved transposing the tracks. |
Page last modified: Monday, February 21, 2022 5:25:51 PM CST