Unable to play midi (.mid) files

[Mickyd]

My dad has a new (to him) laptop Windows 7 64bit - He wants to play midi files on it like he did with his old XP machine but all he gets is the message "unable to play because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be one installed on your computer. it might be in use by another programme or it might not be functioning correctly" he is using windows media player - there is a device sound card which is working he also has a USB soundcard "soundblaster x-fi audio" But has never been able to play midi files since he has had the laptop - I have played midi`s successfully on my own laptop same Specs - Any help gratefully received

 

[fireberd]

I have a recording studio. MIDI files are not the same as standard wave/mp3 audio files. They are data and require a MIDI Synth to be able to play them and the appropriate CODEC. The Microsoft GS Wavetable MIDI synth is included with Win 7 (or normally is) thus it sounds like a CODEC is missing.

The K lite Codec pack has been popular for a long time. You may want to give it a try. Be careful when downloading or installing as most "free" downloads want to install a browser toolbar and/or a different browser and/or make some other page your home page. Make sure you uncheck these options. K-Lite Codec Pack Full

 

[Mickyd]

Hi thanks for your reply - i have done what you suggested - but it still unable to play midi - any more suggestiions?

 

[fireberd]

Download and install the free (and popular) VLC player. It is supposed to play midi files.

VideoLAN - VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS!

 

[Mickyd]

installed that get the following message
[FONT=&quot]MIDI synthesis not set up:[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A sound font file (.SF2) is required for MIDI synthesis.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Please install a sound font and configure it from the VLC preferences (Input / Codecs > Audio codecs > FluidSynth).[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]No suitable decoder module:[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]VLC does not support the audio or video format "MIDI". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this.[/FONT]

 

[fireberd]

To my surprise, it looks like Win 7 64 bit will require a separate MIDI player/synthesizer. What MIDI I use is either in the Band in a Box program which comes with its own MIDI synth, or within my recording studio program (Sonar X2) which has several MIDI synths that I can choose from. Thus, not using MIDI outside of these programs, I didn't realize it was this big of an issue.

See this thread: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...le-synth/aa82cecc-20ab-4ea4-a52a-bfaf890b0286