VirtualMIDISynth.exe not closing

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Posts: 1
Joined: March 4, 2022 - 09:23
VirtualMIDISynth.exe not closing

When I close software that uses Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth, VirtualMIDISynth does not close.

I have to open my task manager and manually close VirtualMIDISynth.exe or my PC won't open anything that uses audio.

Plus, task manager shows VirtualMIDISynth.exe being 392,716 K! I know it's much smaller than that!!!

I can't open another editor, or even the SAME editor I just closed.

YouTube won't start a video.

I get a prompt saying I need to restart my device. Same with Netflix, Hulu, etc.

Is there a setting that changed? I've been using VirtualMIDISynth for several years with no issues.

A couple revisions ago I ran the revision and all software using coolsoft took a dump!
It took me 4 hours to reset everything and get my SFs working again! And one of the editors I use wouldn't allow me to use my SFs!
A year later I still can't use VirtualMIDISynth in that editor.
So I haven't done any revisions since.

Once I got the 2 editors working again they have been fine until recently when this "VirtualMIDISynth not closing" issue started.

Any ideas welcome!

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VirtualMIDISynth.exe not closing

You're reporting two issues here but, AFAICS, one is not and the other one should be checked after the first... 😉

Let's proceed in order.

wayne reed wrote:
When I close software that uses Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth, VirtualMIDISynth does not close.

It works as expected, no bugs here, at least in version 2.x.
VirtualMIDISynth 1.x had that behavior just because it was an in-process DLL, so it automatically terminates once the "hosting" process (your MIDI editor) terminates.
It was the only good thing of that architecture, which had a lot of other issues (DLL injection, BASS versioning conflicts, multiple systray icons, startup delay, mixer available only when playing, un-shareable memory usage, ...).
Further details here: https://coolsoft.altervista.org/forum/thread/222

VirtualMIDISynth 2.x is a separate process so it can be started at Windows start and it will stay running after the MIDI clients close.
It has its systray icon (if it got hidden in the "hidden icons" panel on your systray you can drag it outside, on the systray visible panel) which can be used to configure it, set mixers and close it properly.
The actual only drawback is that... it doesn't close automatically (yet 🙄).
I'm still trying to find a safe way to close it (timeout after last client...) and be able to restart when needed, but I'm still not satisfied of the results; so IMHO it's actually better (or less-worst) to leave it open for now.

wayne reed wrote:
I have to open my task manager and manually close VirtualMIDISynth.exe

Don't do it, use the "Exit" menu item of the systray icon.
This will close VMS properly, releasing all of its resources (including output audio devices).

wayne reed wrote:
...or my PC won't open anything that uses audio

Once you click on Exit, VMS will warn you if any client is still connected.
This way we can check if anything is still connected to VMS once it closes or is not releasing resources properly 😉.

Once you've tried to close it with the Exit menu item, please report if the other issues are still there...

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VirtualMIDISynth.exe not closing

I forgot an answer...

wayne reed wrote:
Plus, task manager shows VirtualMIDISynth.exe being 392,716 K! I know it's much smaller than that!!!

Don't worry, the memory usage you see includes the SF2 file you've configured on your VMS virtual devices (unless you've unchecked the preload option in SF2 configuration dialog).