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Win7-64: I have to do a midi project, and I just realized my asus p5k motherboard has no midi device, just the ad1988b high def audio chip. There is no midi device listed in device manager. How then is windows media player playing .mid files? It is playing them ok, is this some kind of software simulation of midi?

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By default, WMP can play .mid files... ???? – r0ca Mar 17 '10 at 15:43
I want to understand how it is playing .mid files given the absence of any midi hardware. – P a u l Mar 17 '10 at 15:53
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3 Answers

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It's using the default software MIDI synthesizer (device 0). Device 0 used to be the MIDI mapper, which would choose your default MIDI device. There are several fixes, but not one of them claims 100% support. Just do a quick google for Windows 7 MIDI for some more information.

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I am just scratching the surface of this now. What a screw up by microsoft. It appears you have to get into registry hacks and 3rd party apps to see anything. There is nothing in control panel/sounds for midi. – P a u l Mar 17 '10 at 16:11
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up vote 0 down vote

Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth, deviceid = 0.

This project is a UI selector for the midi device on Windows 7:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/audio-video/MIDIOutSetter.aspx

Windows 7 doesn't seem to have any midi device selector, unlike XP.

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Windows includes a software MIDI synthesizer.

I'm not exactly sure how to view this in Windows 7 but in XP this is in the Sounds and Audio Devices control panel on the Audio tab

Sounds and Audio Devices

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This is Windows 7 and none of the expected devices are showing up. No midi devices, software synth, mapper, nothing. – P a u l Mar 17 '10 at 16:08
No no no no. This stuff is gone, vanished, vamoosed in Windows 7. I know all about XP and it's midi affordances. This post is for Windows 7 only. – P a u l Mar 17 '10 at 16:35
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