I am using Windows 10. When using Media center to play MIDI files, they always play on the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth.
It used to be that Windows provided a MIDI mapper application to select the default MIDI device globally at the OS level. Microsoft got rid of the MIDI mapper application in Windows 8, though one could still get the old binary to run.
In Windows 10, Microsoft rewrote the MIDI stack, and there is no longer any possibility of selecting the default MIDI device, unfortunately. It is now solely the responsibility of applications to select the MIDI device. And the default is always the Microsoft GS Wavetable. Sadly, even Microsoft's own Windows Media Player does not expose a setting for selecting the MIDI device. In fact, I spent the last couple of hours trying a whole bunch of programs. The only one that allowed selecting the MIDI device is one called MIDI-Ox, that was originally designed for Win95 and last updated in 2010. Its UI looks more like it's would fit well Windows 3.1, though. And to top it off, the website for the download was insecure.
I have a particular interest in using MUNT, a Roland MT-32 synthesizer emulator. It is not General MIDI compatible. It has the ability to load MIDI files and play them. There is no catalog management, obviously. However, I also have a Roland VK-88 and Roland Fantom XR connected to a Roland UM-880 8-port MIDI interface, and for those MIDI-Ox is currently the only option.
I was wondering if there was any chance a selection dropdown for the MIDI device could be added to Media Center.
Anyone with MIDI hardware, or using a MIDI synth emulator like Munt, would run into this.
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Topic: Selecting MIDI device for playing MIDI files (Read 4 times)