Sound Blaster

[fffcmad]

Hi there, if have a problem with this card. I solved it in some way, but maybe someone has got a hint for me. The problem: Creative Soundfont Synth only works with the original driver cd installation. The only working driver update, wich leaves the Creative soundfont Synth functional, ist the one available via Windows Update (Windows XP). If im using autoupdate from creative, and a newer driver like the 2_10_06 or the 2_18_0011 is installed, the creative soundfont synth is dead. No way to get it to work. (DXDIAG shows errormessages while testing, Synth cannot be initialised) I reinstalled the driver manually, i tryed to uninstall it, so many options i've tryed: no way! So i gave up, and now im staying with the latest drivers from windows update. The card is working fine, so its Ok for now. Is there someone else with the same problem? Question: Do someone know why the hardware synth on this card is disabled? Why is this sofware synth necessary? The card is a EMU10K2, so it has the Hardware Synth available theoeretically. This Software Synth- Installation is a pain!

[kirillov]

Yes, you're right, it seems that the driver update from creative suspends soundfont permanently. But the synth seems to be software, because the latency is about hundreds of milliseconds and suits only for playing midi-files, not for live performance. That's why i try to use alternative drivers from KXProject.com There are also a lot of issues with them, but they make hardware sf-synth available!

[fffcmad]

The KX-Drivers are not useable. I know that they are enabling the hardware-synth, but its not general-MIDI- compatible. Missing drumkits in your soundfont, and the stupid driver wont choose the standard-drumkit instead. Not useable for games and MIDI playback. The soundfont synth is not bad at all, im using timidity for windows, it is able to load greater soundfonts, and does not kill notes like the creative- synths. But the latency is ugly, my notebook has to use a 1 second buffer to play without dropping the beginning of the midi file playback... Because of testing and searchinf or alternatives, i have timidity, yamaha xg50, creative synth enabled, so i have the choice to pick up whats best for the situation. The newest driver has got a working creative synth (even it has to be manually installed)

[kirillov]

KX-drivers are 100% GM compatible. It's your response to load a proper sf-bank into synth.

[fffcmad]

A soundfont cannot contain alle drumkits, and it is not nessecary at all. I dont know a soundfont bank wich contains a complete set of drumkits, too. There are only some soundfonts like the crysis soundfont (to big for its "bad" quality) wich have some dummy-drumkits/ entrys or slightly modified sounds for each than usual. If all drumnkits would be stored in high-quality, the soundfont would be huge... Every synth i know uses the standard drumkit, if the chosen one is not existent. This is not optimal, but it will guarantee, that the the MIDI file or Program/ game will work. The KXDrivers wont do this. SO they are not useable for General MIDI. Only for MIDIs and soundfonts fitting together. But thats not the point of General MIDI. CMSS isnt working with these drivers, too. Dolby decoding/ encoding isnt possible with them, either. These drivers are not bad, but if you want a completely working card, KXdrivers are worthless.

[kirillov]

Hi again

GM standard assumes drums located at tenth channel. So, all the notes at the tenth channel are mapped to the bank #128 instrument #0 by default. This rule works in kx so all midi data transmitted to kx are played properly if sf-bank loaded into synth has gm-compatible instrument mapping.

A2ZSNB's hardware synth is a true sampler. It means it plays only sounds loaded into its memory. This is it's power, not the limitation. There're no "default" sounds or something like that - you manage everything you can hear.

KX are created for musicians. For gaming it's better to use a standard creative drivers, no doubt