FF8 Music on Vista broken?

[protoss1210]

Hello everyone, i have been struggling to fix the music for FF8 on my new vista computer. I had previously been using my Windows XP computer with Samuel Slight's Final Fantasy VIII DLS, and it worked flawlessly. Now that i have moved to Vista, i believe there are issues regarding the inability to properly customize the midi mapper or some similar issue. I tried deleting the GM.dls file from the system32/drivers folder, but it had no effect. the Microsoft GS Software Wavetable SW Synth seems like the source of the problem, i am just wondering if any has vista and is having any luck with this issue?
Thanks for your time

[auxili160]

Hmm, not sure. Just please, don't anyone come in here and say something like "Vista sucks, get XP" cause it's very annoying.

[Onigami]

Hello everyone, i have been struggling to fix the music for FF8 on my new vista computer. I had previously been using my Windows XP computer with Samuel Slight's Final Fantasy VIII DLS, and it worked flawlessly. Now that i have moved to Vista, i believe there are issues regarding the inability to properly customize the midi mapper or some similar issue. I tried deleting the GM.dls file from the system32/drivers folder, but it had no effect. the Microsoft GS Software Wavetable SW Synth seems like the source of the problem, i am just wondering if any has vista and is having any luck with this issue?
Thanks for your time

Odd... I use a Vista comp as well and have had no real issues playing the game. Music runs fine as well as sound and everything, only issues I've suffered is more on the graphical side.

Have you tried uninstalling/reinstalling? Mayhap looking at the sound setup in the configuration program for the game. Might give you a heads up if everything is working ok or not, if the music still doesn't work, it might be sound card issue or something else. If you could, provide more detail on what's going on with your comp.

[protoss1210]

Sure, ill elaborate on the issue.

First of all, im using Vista Premium with Conexant High Definition Audio.
My main problem is that, when replaying music either in-game or using the Enhanced FF8 config. program, the music replayed appears to differ greatly from the original songs, sounding more like the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth. I select Microsoft Synthesizer, and its some songs sound almost exactly like the original songs(like Battle1), but they seem to be missing a few instruments, which causes some of the song to be quiet. Its really quite odd. The microsoft Synthesizer sounds better than the MS GS wavetable, but is not up to par to the sound experience i heard on XP(Not bashing Vista of course,  )

Now, when using the FF8 config, i see 3 midi devices
1, Microsoft Midi Mapper[emulated]
2. Microsoft GS Wavetable SYnth[emulated]
3. Microsoft Synthesizer

1&2, sound both pretty bad, and three seems to be closer to the original, but the instruments seem really off(or absent), and it seems more emulated(like the previous 2) than it should be.
I have the 44.2MB FF8.dls in my dmusic directory for FF8, removing this dls disallows me from playing any music in-game, as expected.

One of my favorite songs, The Battle2(boss battle) song sounds horrible on all 3, so theres no way you can get excited for boss battles now. 

Graphics-wise, graphics seemed to be fixed once i started using the FF8_Loader found here in the forums.(no longer did it crash for no reason)

Any ideas? thanks for the help

[Anther]

I had the same problem too, but I figured out that some soundfonts don't work with the installation of Windows Vista SP1. I was able to play tweaked FF8 perfectly fine before I installed SP1. But after the SP1 updates, world map music wasn't playing and instruments during battle were missing... I even had the black boxes problem. it is really unfortunate because I can't play such a classic game on my vista without loosing updates to correct the operating system. I guess if the soundfonts can't be updated to be compatible, I'm going to have to switch to the PSX emulator (can't get certain items in the emulator). I don't think the soundfont is going to be updated either, because the majority is using XP.

[Thycian]

I tried some things out. The best solution is to install a new Software Synth - I used timidity++. It comes with a tool which lets you decide which soundfont (compilation of instruments) to use. I played with some soundfonts and found the unison soundfont to e the best. In FF8config (works for FF7 as well) you can choose now the timidity++ device.

Here is a good guide with links: http://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?t=5346

I have nice music now without ff7music (I still like ff7music though).
Thycian

[ViagraPolice]

Hi, I know this topic is very old, but I'm having the exact same problem described in this topic. Now I've already downloaded and installed timidity and followed all the instructions. Problem is, the "Putzlowischts Vista MIDI-Mapper" doesn't work. It doesn't show up in the control panel at all. I also have the other midi mappers as well but none of the midi playback devices even show up in the drop down box.

[Jamers]

I created a guide to running FF7Music on Vista a while back. Here it is:

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8245.0

[Vehek]

Isn't the question about FF8?

Does this help (for using DLS)?

You're not hearing all the instruments because of Vista's sound system.
You probably noticed that instruments are missing when you use "Microsoft Synthesizer" as a music device..which you have to use in order to get any good sound at all and for Samuel's DLS.

Soooo...to the point,you can fix it!
You have to place an "older" dmsynth.dll in the folder where your game is installed and that's it.
I uploaded the file here.

I have Vista 64bit and it works great.

[ViagraPolice]

Thanks for the quick reply. I just got a new laptop with vista pre-installed  and was just getting frustrated with trying to get it to work properly.

[Jamers]

Isn't the question about FF8?

Oops, so it is. My mistake!