# Sound Card for MIDI



## Red_Machine (Jan 3, 2012)

I play a lot of old games that use MIDI and Microsoft's MIDI Mapper was never great.  I'm looking for a sound card that produces good MIDI playback and has drivers compatible with 64-bit Vista/7 (I believe drivers designed for 64-bit XP would work fine, as the same is true for 32-bit).

Buying used isn't a problem.  Not sure if there are any cards with hardware MIDI synthesis that work with 64-vit WIndows.


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## TheLaughingMan (Jan 3, 2012)

Ummm I don't think you will find such a thing. And while some drivers from XP work in Windows 7, that is actually more rare than you think.

I see in your System Specs you have a secondary rig of some age, why not just play the games on that system as it should have less compatibility issues?


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## Red_Machine (Jan 3, 2012)

This is purely for convenience's sake, and the laptop uses Microsoft's MIDI Mapper as well so I still get the same issue as on my desktop.


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## TheLaughingMan (Jan 3, 2012)

Well I think you are out of luck. As far as I remember, MIDI formated died around 2000 because it was inconsistent in reproducing low quality sound. The difference in the sound I assume you are getting when you attempt to play this game on your desktop is because the desktop has different hardware. That is one of the primary reasons everyone stopped using it.

In this case, you may be SOL and have to accept your current way is the only way to play the game the way you intend. From what little I found in the net, software drivers to produce MIDI sound hasn't been done since Windows 2000 and those drivers will not function on Windows current design (aka Vista, Win7, or Win8).


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## lemonadesoda (Jan 3, 2012)

Here, http://www.polyhedric.com/software/mn/index.html, let me know if you find this better


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## BumbleBee (Jan 3, 2012)

Red_Machine said:


> I play a lot of old games that use MIDI and Microsoft's MIDI Mapper was never great.  I'm looking for a sound card that produces good MIDI playback and has drivers compatible with 64-bit Vista/7 (I believe drivers designed for 64-bit XP would work fine, as the same is true for 32-bit).
> 
> Buying used isn't a problem.  Not sure if there are any cards with hardware MIDI synthesis that work with 64-vit WIndows.



http://us.store.creative.com/category/25660134781/1/EMUCreative-Professional.htm


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## Lazzer408 (Jan 5, 2012)

Red_Machine said:


> I play a lot of old games that use MIDI and Microsoft's MIDI Mapper was never great.  I'm looking for a sound card that produces good MIDI playback and has drivers compatible with 64-bit Vista/7 (I believe drivers designed for 64-bit XP would work fine, as the same is true for 32-bit).
> 
> Buying used isn't a problem.  Not sure if there are any cards with hardware MIDI synthesis that work with 64-vit WIndows.



Are you playing games (like the old Sierra games) that used FM synthesis? Or are you playing games that use a wavetable/soundfont?


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## Red_Machine (Jan 6, 2012)

I have no clue, but I've discovered that my old Audigy 2 has a hardware MIDI synthesiser chip on it with SoundFont support, so I'll try that once I rebuild my desktop.


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