VirtualMIDISynth 2.x alpha available for testing

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Posts: 26
Joined: March 12, 2013 - 16:35
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha10 released

Yup, I can confirm, PianoFromAbove and tmidi64 doesn't work.

I think I have found more bugs, soon I'll report with the details in private, as usual. ;-)

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

Alpha 11 is out, just a quick fix to x64 driver that stopped working in alpha10.

v.2.0.0-alpha11 - 2015-03-20
- FIX: x64 working again (alpha10 regression).

Please test it and report bugs here.

Posts: 59
Joined: April 19, 2014 - 06:23
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

I just found another bug.  If I were to get a MIDI Player to play a MIDI with the VMS driver requested, and the MIDI Player process is killed (manually or by crash), then I restart playback quickly enough (might take a few tries), I will get a 'Device "Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth" is already in use by process #[PID]' error.  The error will then persist every time I start midi playback using VMS, until VMS itself is closed (and therefore restarted on next playback).

- Main laptop: Sager NP4658, Intel i7-4810MQ, 2*8GB DDR3 (PC3-10700), 512GB+512GB SSDs, Intel HD4600/NVidia GT840M

Posts: 9
Joined: December 23, 2014 - 23:45
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

Installed today with some trepidation.  Immediatly after installing and with Encore Music Software version 5.04+ I was able to assign 32 different instruments into a full orchestra score from both 'channels' each with a different soundfont and play it through several times with interruptions, edits, volume and other modifications 'on the fly' without any problems.  I do now find that besides having to stop the VirtualMIDISynth task manually, I am unable to reopen the configurator unless I shutdown and reboot.  I may simply not know whatever other tasks I must terminate and so you are probably already familiar with this issue.  I am very pleased with your early success and look forward to more releases.

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1.7601 SP 1 Build 7601

Alienware Aurora 0R4 X64-based PC

Intel(R) Core(TM)i7-390K CPU @ 3.2GHz, 3201 Mhz, 6 Cores

Encore 5 Music Software

 

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

@Ray890: maybe something got wrong with the watchdog (a low-priority task which polls the MIDI client to see if it's still alive).

@wingo: maybe your issue is related to the one reported by Ray890, will investigate. But... why you needed to kill VMS process? Did it hang?

I was going to release Alpha12 with Bank and Preset selection features, but will wait trying to fix these bugs too...

Posts: 9
Joined: December 23, 2014 - 23:45
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

Now that it's installed and operating the only time I ever saw the configurator was when it first installed.  Now it is starting up I think on boot and so I can't start up Encore unless I kill the VMS first or it complains.  At this time it appears to be working with Encore just fine but I can't get back into the configurator with the only startup option being 'Open VirtualMIDISyntgh' and of course it's already open... Even after reboot and not starting Encore I can't get the configurator.  So now I can't seem to control when VMS starts.  I believe the previous version would start only with Encore and stop with it but I'm not certain about the stopping.  I'll reboot once again and try again.  I'll also later reinstall the release version and see when it's running or not.

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1.7601 SP 1 Build 7601

Alienware Aurora 0R4 X64-based PC

Intel(R) Core(TM)i7-390K CPU @ 3.2GHz, 3201 Mhz, 6 Cores

Encore 5 Music Software

 

Posts: 9
Joined: December 23, 2014 - 23:45
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

To confirm and clarify, the configurator starts immediatly after install to ask for soundfonts.  After that point, one cannot get the configurator to open again to, for example, change configuration settings or soundfonts.  VMS does not start at boot as I stated before, it starts as needed by Encore but it never exits.  If it is running (as if Encore is opened) and one requests to start VMS, the appropriate message is given to state an instance is already active.  Once it is opened, Encore can be opened and closed at will and all works well. 

 

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1.7601 SP 1 Build 7601

Alienware Aurora 0R4 X64-based PC

Intel(R) Core(TM)i7-390K CPU @ 3.2GHz, 3201 Mhz, 6 Cores

Encore 5 Music Software

 

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

@wingo: thanks for your tests.

VMS2 startup/terminate strategy one of the things that still needs to be done; I already asked for suggestions some posts ago.
Actually it only starts "on demand" when required by the first instance of the driver, in your case the one loaded by Encore.
An exception is the setup, where you have a checkbox that opens the configurator to make it easier the first configuration.
The same instance serves all of the virtual devices (actually 2), so no need to start more than one.
It won't (and never had) close automatically; to close it right click on systray icon (double check if the icon is not hidden) and choose Exit.

If the synth is already running another instance can't be started.
To check (or terminate) the running instance, open task manager and look for VirtualMIDISynth.exe.
To start an instance of the synth/configurator, you have an icon into start menu (under VirtualMIDISynth subfolder) or a tile over main screen in Windows 8.x.

That said, I found that the watchdog has some issues and sometimes it leaves the device "busy" when it's not, thus the message "device already in use".
Will fix for next alpha...

Posts: 9
Joined: December 23, 2014 - 23:45
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

Yes, it hadn't occurred to me to look for the tray icon to access the configurator and exit.  I must have missed that in the notes.  I will relay that today on the first opening of Encore I got the message Synth Server Error 2 (not running).  It must be a timing issue because VMS did appear in the task list.  Closing and restarting Encore was successful.

Opening on demand is absolutly (for this application) the best way to start VMS.  I might suggest that if VMS is running and one attempts to run it agan, the configurator might be queued instead.  As for shutting down, its not necessary for me with 8G of memeory.  I would imagine that at some point the memory used by VMS and several soundfonts might be a problem for someone if they were, for example working with MIDI for a while and then editing videos.

I'm sure you know this but I did not get a desktop icon upon install. 

Keep up the good work for sure, I would no more want to tell you how make VMS better than I would advise Shakespear to write prose or Picasso to paint.  Programming is an art and you seem to have it under control.

 

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1.7601 SP 1 Build 7601

Alienware Aurora 0R4 X64-based PC

Intel(R) Core(TM)i7-390K CPU @ 3.2GHz, 3201 Mhz, 6 Cores

Encore 5 Music Software

 

Posts: 26
Joined: March 12, 2013 - 16:35
Re: CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth 2.0.0-alpha11 released

VirtualMIDISynth Alpha11 - BUGS video submitted.

Ok, lets see/test alpha 13 :)

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