VirtualMIDISynth 2.x - Release Candidate 2 released

serosis wrote:

I got a bug report for you:

In Guitar Pro 5.2 only quarter, half, and whole notes are played back while editing at 180bpm.
If you go to a lower tempo, say 60 bpm, you can hear 16th notes played back while editing but they are cut off.
When using the MSGS Wave Synth everything works normally, the notes ring out as long as they should.

The software and synth has no problem playing normally, just during the editing process.

That's strange because MIDI has no information regarding note duration.
MIDI device receives 2 different messages: a NOTEON and a NOTEOFF; the delay between these 2 messages gives the note length.

That said, it could be really hard to test it on my side because:

• there's no Guitar Pro 5.2 trial available
• the 6.0 version trial is limited and requires a registration process to get through
• I suppose it will expire in some days and I don't know how much time I'll need to fix the bug
• MOST IMPORTANT: it could require a lot of time to me to get used to Guitar Pro...

Could you try the trial of version 6.0, just to see if it has the same bug?
This way you'll avoid me registering/downloading/installing GuitarPro 6.0 in a VM uselessly.

coolsoft wrote:

That's strange because MIDI has no information regarding note duration.
MIDI device receives 2 different messages: a NOTEON and a NOTEOFF; the delay between these 2 messages gives the note length.

That said, it could be really hard to test it on my side because:

• there's no Guitar Pro 5.2 trial available
• the 6.0 version trial is limited and requires a registration process to get through
• I suppose it will expire in some days and I don't know how much time I'll need to fix the bug
• MOST IMPORTANT: it could require a lot of time to me to get used to Guitar Pro...

Could you try the trial of version 6.0, just to see if it has the same bug?
This way you'll avoid me registering/downloading/installing GuitarPro 6.0 in a VM uselessly.

Doesn't seem to do it with 6, but then again when I use 6 I exclusively use the RSE system that uses Arobas' custom VST and not MIDI (wish it could do both).
I compose in 5.2 simply because it is faster to do so and I do not have to learn notation to sequence percussion. Hoping that when 7 is released they will have dealt with the optimization issues 6 has and their drum notation hinderance model.

I was hoping it would be an easy fix because your very early builds of VMS did not have this issue. I would say which build was the last one but you do not have an any of the old versions available.

If you'd like I could loan you my registration key and a copy of the full version of 5.2 for testing. Or if you have the early builds of 1.0 laying around I could tell you which one the issue started with.

I know it is a very nitpicky issue, but I thought I would throw it out there in case it might lead up to bigger issues or for others that haven't spoken up yet.

Johnno wrote:

Device "VirtualMIDISynth #1'' is already in use by process ''C:\Program Files (x86)\Noteworthy Software\NoteWorthy Composer 2\NWC2.exe'', PID #5080

It seems that NoteWorthy is not properly closing the MIDI port or, maybe, it was hang and you were starting a second instance.

• close all NoteWorthy instances
• check that all VirtualMIDISynth devices are free: open VirtualMIDISynth Configurator and go to About tab, then check if any process is using one of then active VMS devices
• if yes, open the Task Manager then Details tab, find that "zombie" process by its PID and terminate it
• keeb the About tab open and start NoteWorthy again, now you should see it listed as active MIDI client
• if the error still comes than NoteWorthy is doing something wrong with device open/close calls

I don't know if there's a demo/trial version of NoteWorthy; if so I'll test it on my side.

Johnno wrote:

I have visited the VMS "About" before and noticed that VMS #1 was already being used by NoteWorthy Composer when the problem occurred. However, I am currently being informed that VMS#1 is "Free" - so I can now again use NWC with VMS. If I do strike trouble again I shall follow your instructions.

Right, when the bug happens open the Taskmanager and check if NoteWorthy is still running with the PID shown in the error MessageBox.

Johnno wrote:

Incidentally, I have just checked the Windows Task Manager and note that VirtualMIDISynth is running with a PID number 424.

PID stands for Process IDentifier, so each instance of a process have its own.

Johnno wrote:

I remain puzzled as to why this problem started in the first place because all was working well until then?

Sadly this is a kind of issues that is difficult to sort out, because not always reproducible on the system where it first appeared (yours) and poseven less reproducible on other ones (say mine)...

coolsoft wrote:

notator wrote:

But I'm also thinking that VMS#2 could, by default, simply inherit all VMS#1's settings, including the soundFont(s). That's what I originally assumed was going to happen...

Thanks for pointing it out.

I would love to see this feature.  It would save a good chunk of memory if multiple synth devices could be configured to share SoundFont data.  I am running two devices and both have exactly the same SoundFont chains, but the font data is thus duplicated in memory.  I would run three or four devices if I could (optionally) configure them to share SoundFont data in memory.  If the SoundFont chains can't be explicitly linked, then perhaps VSM can recognize when the same SoundFont file is used by more than one synth device and use the memory instance of the existing font.  Or something.

For the record, I'm still testing Beta 6 and have had absoultely zero problems.... I love it!