How to install and set up Timidity++ driver

[Never_Again]

TiMidity++ Windows Synthesizer (TWSYNTH) is an extended version of Timidity++ by Keishi Suenaga. The original Timidity and Timidity++ have to be configured for every program you want to use it with. TWSYNTH, on the other hand, needs to be installed and configured just once; after that any MIDI-aware program can use it. That's because it installs a driver that serves as an alternative to Windoze's default Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synthesizer.


Here is a step-by-step TWSYNTH installation tutorial.

01) Download the Setup file file (22.1 MB). If the link doesn't work for you, go to the project's Japanese Sourceforge site http://en.sourceforge.jp/projects/twsynth/ and download the latest version. Note that the TWSYNTH version hosted on US-based sourceforge.net is old, no longer updated and missing the setup utility - do not install it.








02) Run the downloaded file TiMidity-CVS081206_setup_ENG.exe. A Welcome button pops up




03) Accept the License Agreement (otherwise the Setup exits)




04) Pick the components to be installed. You can go with the Typical install, although the only components we really need here are Timidity++ Driver and Windrive Configurator setwindrv




05) Pick the installation directory/folder. The default is C:\timidity. The Typical install also creates a Musix sub-directory under it. This is where you should copy the soundfonts you want TWSYNTH to load




06) Click on the Install button. You may have to restart the computer once the install is complete. You may also be prompted if you want to install the driver for all users of the computer or just your account:






07) At the end of the install a dialog box comes up with a Run Timidity++ check box. That just starts a MIDI player program that is not necessary to use the driver, so you can clear the check box and click on the Finish button:

[Never_Again]

08) Win2000/WinXP: after the reboot go into Control Panel and open the Sounds and Audio Devices applet:



Vista/Win 7 users should skip this step and the next, and use Putzlowitsch's Vista MIDI Mapper Control Panel applet (info courtesy of Dragonsbrethren)



Those proficient in registry editing may consult this article instead. (thank you, HackNeyed)


09) On the Audio tab select "Timidity++ Driver" in the MIDI music playback drop-down box and click on the OK button.




10) Go to Start Menu -> Programs -> TiMidity++ and click on the setwindrv icon:




11) The TWSYNTH setup utility's main screen comes up. At the top there is a list of directories where TWSYNTH looks for soundfonts. By default the list has the Musix subdirectory of the install directory. In this example, the setup scanned C:\Timidity\Musix and found three soundfonts in it. (Soundfonts are files with .sf2 extension, you can ignore the .cfg files in the list). Of these, A320U.sf2 and piano-mgg.sf2 are loaded by default.
In this example these default soundfonts have been removed, and Weeds SoundFont has been loaded instead.



Note that you can load multiple soundfonts. The sounfonts lower in the list have the precedence. In other words, if two soundfonts have samples for Piano, the Piano from the lower soundfont will be heard.


12) When using TWSYNTH as the Windoze MIDI driver, the MIDI volume slider in the mixer and most programs has no effect. The volume must be set via timidity.cfg. The install puts this file into the Windoze directory, it can be opened with any text editor (e.g. Notepad). You can also access it from the TWSYNTH setup (see the previous step).
The command to set the volume is
#extension opt -Axx
where xx is the percentage of full volume. For example, "#extension opt -A30" sets the volume to 30%. You can go above 100% too, but unless the source MIDI is unusually quiet the sound will be distorted.

[DeletedUser]

Thank you very much for compiling a consise and thorough solution to my dilema, I was in dire need of some informed documentation on the nature of installing soundfonts and the manner in which Timidity works. Perhaps not so surprisingly I actually anticipated a response from yourself, primarily due to the strong passion you hold for the inner layers of the DOOM engine along with exploring vintage material.

I say this is certainly worthy of a sticky, I've yet to come across a well written procedure elsewhere.

[HackNeyed]

Very nice How To however it is not as simple to change the midi device on Vista/7 as it is on XP. After a quick search just now I was able to find a good looking How To for changing midi device on Vista/7.

http://pcaudiohelp.com/how-to-change-the-default-midi-device-in-vista-and-window-7

I can't vouch for it though since I never got TWSYNTH to work on Vista before I downgraded to XP where I have gotten it to work many times in the past.

Thanks for posting the info. I might add this to my sig if you don't mind.

[Maes]

Excellent guide, I must say :-o

Before that I couldn't be assed to install Timitidy++ in any form (too much hassle and indirection). This was like drinking a glass of water in comparison.

[Never_Again]

Thank you for the support, guys. The tutorial was meant to be as clear and easy to follow as possible. Initially the title was going to be "Timidity++ Driver for Dummies" (heh), but the danged thing was getting so long that it had to be be split in two posts; and in the end I decided against explaining the more basic notions like "driver" and "directory".
Thank you for the Vista\Win 7 headsup, HackNeyed. I updated the tutorial to include your link. Perhaps someone on Vista or Win7 could post a few screenshots to better illustrate the procedure? E.g., starting the registry editor, locating the required keys and entries, creating new ones if necessary and assigning them appropriate values. These could be incorporated (with the proper credit) into the above tutorial, and we could then dispense with external links.

[Dragonsbrethren]

I use this for switching the midi device on Vista/7, rather than editing the registry manually:

http://akkordwechsel.de/15-windows-vista-und-der-midi-mapper/

The page is in German, I could've sworn there was also an English copy, but I can't find it now. It's simple enough though, just download it, unzip to %windir%/system32 on 32-bit or %windir%/syswow64 on 64-bit, restart, and it'll show up in the control panel. It gives a nice little minimalist interface for switching:

[Bucket]

From time to time, I'm inclined to "upgrade" from General MIDI because the music I compose sounds inadequate. Then I realize that I wrote and mixed the songs specifically for MIDI and new instrument sets make them sound worse.

[Never_Again]

Thank you for the info, Dragonbrethren. A Control Panel applet would certainly be easier and safer than editing the registry manually. I found an English-language page about it and incorporated it and your PNG into the tutorial. HackNeyed's link is retained for those who prefer to manipulate the nuts and bolts directly. ;)

@Bucket: I see what you mean; but I think you meant "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synthesizer", not "General MIDI".

[Dragonsbrethren]

Cool. I uploaded a new copy of the png that actually shows the Timidity driver selected, but I just noticed you uploaded your own copy. Grab the new one when you have a chance, same url as before.

[Ralphis]

My problem has always been that no matter what I do, the Timidity++ Driver -never- shows up in the midi devices regardless of reboots, reinstallations, or anything. XP here

[Never_Again]

@Db: done, thank you.

@Ralphis:
- have you tried following the steps of this tutorial exactly?
- are you installing as the admin?
- is there a timiditydrv.dll in your \WINDOWS\system32 and what's its MD5?
- is timiditydrv.dll listed under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 key in the registry?
- open a command prompt window (not Start Menu/Run) and try running this - what happens?

rundll32.exe syssetup.dll,SetupInfObjectInstallAction timiditydrv.NT 132 C:\TIMIDITY\timiditydrv\timiditydrv.INF

(change "C:\TIMIDITY" to the directory you installed Timidity++ driver into, if necessary)

[Stygian]

Awesome. I posted a thread a while back asking for instructions on how to do this.

[Ralphis]

It was the registry entry, which I fixed! You're the man!

[Texas Libra]

Hmmm, I'm using Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit, followed the instructions for installing the control panel applet and it still won't show up. Help?

[Dragonsbrethren]

Did you put it in system32? You need to put it in SysWOW64. As counter-intuitive as it is, 64-bit apps go in system32, 32-bit go in SysWOW64. (WOW64 = Windows on Windows x64)

[AveryMaurice]

Very useful and helpful tutorial, thanks!

[xepop]

Sup. I tried to get my korg working as a midi playback device or something and it failed. I thought I should get some new drivers for it from korgs website. It didn't work but instead somehow fucked up something. I uninstalled that piece of shit and now I can't see any devices in that Putzlowitschs midimapper, neither MS or timidity.

"- is timiditydrv.dll listed under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 key in the registry?"
No
"- open a command prompt window (not Start Menu/Run) and try running this - what happens?"
Some stuff popups and goes away before I can see anything.

Windows 7 64bit

So I guess I should edit some registry stuff, but what exactly?

[ReFracture]

I too am having problems here on 7 64. I installed the program, installed the midi switcher applet and now that works, but the Timidity++ driver isn't showing up.

And as xepop mentioned, I too do not have timiditydrv.dll listed in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32.

Hm. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the guide though, sounds like XP users are having no problems. I might try this out on my old XP machine just to check it out.

[40oz]

I'm just showing up to say that using this guide, I was able to switch to Timidity as my default midi playback device, and it ultimately cured the problem I was experiencing in this thread at the expense of lesser quality sound. Thank you, Never_Again.

[CacoCaddy]

Never_Again will I have to use general midi. AHHAH

[sheeple]

I use Linux, so I don't get General MIDI. I installed and configured Timidity for Linux with several soundfonts - A full MIDI soundfont named "ChoriumRevA.SF2", a "death metal" guitar soundfont named "Dethmetal.SF2" or something to the effect, and a nice drumkit soundfont named "SJDrums.SF2".

[Bashe]

While I really do enjoy using the Timidity driver, there is one slight issue I've been noticing, at least when using EAWpats - the left and right channels sometimes get messed up. When I play a song for the first time using Winamp, it will be fine, but sometimes I'll play a different song, then go back to that first song I played or another one and the instrument volumes or panning will be messed up for some reason, and it will stay that way until I close Winamp and play a midi again.

It also happens in-game when I use like Zdoom with the Timidity driver, except there, I can't just close out Winamp to fix everything. It's basically stuck that way until I exit Zdoom or play a midi that somehow "resets" the channels.

Weird.

[40oz]

sheeple said:

a "death metal" guitar soundfont named "Dethmetal.SF2" or something to the effect,

Is it any good? I found a cool overdriven guitar effect that I like a lot but I've been hoping to get a new clean electric guitar and distortion guitar because it sounds very different when accompanied by it.

[SonicIce]

weedsgm3 sounds great but it sounds slightly different in every program i try it with. when i play the same file the timidity++ player, windows media player, and xmplay all sound slightly different :\

[Never_Again]

To those with problems on Vista/Win7 - sorry, folks, I cannot help you right now as I don't currently have access to either OS. Perhaps someone who managed to get it working there could share his success story?

@Bashe: yes, I observed some irregularities with TWSynth as well. For example, when playing back a multi-level demo in prBoom-plus tracks tend to mess up on later levels. Sometimes it sounds like the instruments get out of tune, other times it's like completely wrong instruments are loaded. The accompanying "windrv.txt" has an extensive list of switches you could try adding to timidity.cfg (found in your Windoze directory). See if something like
#extension opt -U
helps. In ZDoom you could try changing the MIDI driver or using the Restart Sound function in the Sounds Options menu.

[Bashe]

Another problem is that the Timidity driver sometimes simply fails to start up when I start Windows, and I cannot get it to come up at all until I restart. It won't show up under midi devices in Winamp or Zdoom (but strangely it will under MidiPicker - this does nothing). Everything is in the right folders and reinstalling it does not help. The only thing I can do is restart and it will return.

Not sure why that happens. I'm using Windows 7.

[Arrinao]

Hi Never_again.
I'm currently experiencing similar problem with the useres of the WIN7/Vista though i'm XP owner so there shouldn't be any trouble. I followed your guide step by step and yet get no choice in selecting other MIDI playback device than Microsoft GS Wavetable synth and Yamaha XG driver (which I downloaded and got to work a month ago). I checked the registry and there too wasn't any "timiditydrv.dll" so I created one myself and gave it a data value (C:\Windows\system32\timiditydrv.dll
- see the picture http://rapidshare.com/files/418444092/Untitled-1.jpg). still it isn't working. There Is timiditydrv.dll in system32 folder, if I type what you mentioned in the command prompt, it just installs the program again. Check the jpg, I think it might be problem with the registry though i don't know what I'm doing wrong. I checked the timiditydrv.Inf and found this value
[timiditydrv.NT]
AddReg=timiditydrv.AddReg
CopyFiles=timiditydrv.CopyFiles
so I tried renaming timiditydrv.dll to just timidity... but still no change and I'm now completely out of ideas... any ideas on what I should do?

[Never_Again]

Arrinao, under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 key in the registry you should have several Strings:

- Midi - the current MIDI driver
- midi1 - the default MIDI driver (Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synthesizer), its value is wdmaud.drv.

followed by one or more Strings named midi2, midi3 etc. - their number is the same as the number of MIDI drivers you have installed. In my case, there is only MIDI2 and it's value is timiditydrv.dll. Note that the value is the filename without the path. In your case MIDI2 may be already taken by the Yamaha XG driver, so just pick the first available number (midi3 or midi4), then change the first String's value (Midi) to timiditydrv.dll.

Normally, you shouldn't have to do this manually. Did you reboot? ;)

[Arrinao]

wow it works! thanks a lot mate!
however take a look here http://rapidshare.com/files/418532562/Untitled-1.jpg strange I had 9 midis and each of them with the wdmaud.drv value. What I really don't understand here is that I didn't experience this problem with yamaha xg - it showed up in the list after reboot normally. Shouldn't it be listed as a value for "midi2"? anyway thank you again for your help. I'm now experiencing another problem with DJ tony Roland Sc-55 soundfont. it doesn't show up in the list of the setwindrv - i choosed musix as the directory with sounfonts and there are the three default soundfonts visible, but not this one (it's in the same directory of course). I should mention i downloaded it as .sfpack, and then change it's extension to .sf2 as i saw written on the webpage i downloaded it from that it's safe... or is it not? what can i do with sfpack?
edit: or else... do you know any soundfont that sounds like Roland Sound Canvas SC-55? On my old machine I was experiencing absolutely marvelous midi playback quality thanks to this sound card (i'm rather a fan of medieval music like some from Warcraft 2 and this midi environment had excellent orchestra fonts). Basically this is the reason I started looking for a replacement for Microsoft GS wavetable. I heard on some website that this card can be emulated. On another website I also found how (using Timidity:-). And now I just need the right sound font:-)