MS GS Wavetable Synth is the only soundfont I'm hearing

I feel like I must be missing something simple, but I've followed the steps and can't get Windows Media Player or ScummVM to use the soundfont that I want, it always has the MS GS Wavetable sound. I know the soundfont should sound differently from the MS one because I can get the combination of soundfont and midi file (Quest For Glory 4 soundtrack) to work in VLC with the FluidSynth codec.

As far as the basic setup, I have VirtualMIDISynth and MIDI Mapper running, with VirtualMIDISynth #1 set for Default MIDI Out device, Windows Media Player default device and (in MIDIMapper) Default MIDI device. I also have tried setting the green box for both of those soundfonts on the Soundfont tab.

Info:

MSI Katana GF76
Windows 10 64bit v 22H2
11th Gen Intel i7-11800H @2.3GHz
32GB RAM

VirtualMidiSynth version 2.13.8
Windows Media Player and/or ScummVM with SC55_zzdenis_v0.5.sf2 or GeneralUser GS v 1.471.sf2

I'm not sure of my Sound Card, it's onboard. Device manager reports Realtek(R) Audio, Nahemic Easy Surround and Mirroring device and a bunch of other stuff under the Sound, video and game controllers dropdown.

Thanks!

Greg

Thanks for attaching the debug log file.

As far as I can see in it, the setting for default midi device (the last item in debug file) is wrong.

64-bit available devices list is:

MIDI Devices (x64)
==================
[0]: Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth
[1]: VirtualMIDISynth #1

and the corresponding 64-bit default device setting is

*** HKCU\Software\Microsoft\ActiveMovie\devenum 64-bit\{4EFE2452-168A-11D1-BC76-00C04FB9453B}\Default MidiOut Device ***
MidiOutId: 0

while it should read like this:

MidiOutId: 1

You should try to change that registry value to 1 (using Regedit).
If you don't feel comfortable with Regedit, I've attached a zipped .reg file to set it; dowload the attached .zip file, extract the contained .reg file then double click it to import.

If it works, then we'll go deeper to find why MIDIMapper is setting the wrong value.

I made the changes, but it is still playing the GS soundfont.
The MIDIMapper is version 2.1.2.
Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Greg

My plan was actually to use Windows Media Player with VirtualMIDISyth to debug problems getting VirtualMIDISynth, or soundfonts in general to work with ScummVM.  My latest attempt to fix the issue was replacing all the midi entries in the registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32) with VirtualMIDISynth.dll, except of course for the MIDIMapper.dll.  Still no luck with ScummVM or Windows Media Player.

This current setup looks right I think, but it is still playing the MS GS Soundfont.  If I switch between the two soundfonts and apply, it just mutes for a brief period and starts again sounding exactly the same.

If this is more trouble than you want to deal with I understand, it seems like the issue is more adjacent to some general MIDI issues I'm having on this PC than VirtualMIDISynth specific, but any info you can provide could help me root cause the problem. Are there other places I could look to see what is taking over my MIDI settings?

Thanks again!

coolsoft wrote:

If you open VMS MIDI Mixer do you see any activity in there?

If yes, could you please try FluidR3_GM soundfont (it's the first in the soundfonts list here).
It's a well-known SF2, featuring all GM patches…