SoundFont Midi Player is a powerful midi player and real time midi synth combo, specially useful for Soundblaster (Live,Audigy, X-fi) users, who can load soundfonts automatically and real time. Bandstand has a built-in MIDI player. In terms of performance, it's not very good. Bandstand takes quite a while to load the samples for the instruments, and this causes it to be problematic when playing MIDIs that use patch change commands.
One of Native Instruments newer releases Bandstand is a little different take on a very standard General Midi Synth. Having spent several year's authoring way to many GM sequences to count for several different companies I found this to be a tool I would have liked back then. If you are familiar with the GM sound set you know it was related to game sounds and the like for many years. This app takes those bog standard sound's and goes a step further with some nifty tool's not commonly found in a GM application or hardware synth. The sound's as well have been updated with some very good sample's from 9 different sample developer's including Big Fish Audio, modo bierkamp and Native Instruments to name a few.
The application works as a Stand-alone, VST, Audio Units, RTAS, DXi, ASIO, Core Audio or DirectSound application on Windows or Mac computers.
- For use on Windows systems it requires Windows XP, 512 MB of Ram and at least a 1.4 Ghz processor but NI recommends at least 768 MB Ram and a 2 Ghz processor.
- For use on a Mac it requires Mac 10.3.x, a 1.5 Ghz G4 with 512 MB Ram but recommends a 2 Ghz G5 or better with 768 MB Ram.
Installation
I think most of us are getting used to the size of some of these install's for software synth's and the like so it should come as no surprise that even this GM synth software is on a DVD. This is due to the 2+ gig sound library included. It is a single disk install and really didn't take too long at all. As with most software synth's using separate libraries for there sound file's Bandstand as well offer's to let you install the sound library to another disk or folder of your choosing. An absolute must for those of us who run separate drives for samples and the like. This synth can be installed as one or all of the following. Stand alone, VSTi, DXi, AU, and RTAS plugins.
As with all Native Instruments software you will need to run the registration tool, which sends a finger print of your system to NI for registration and in turn sends you the authorization key via email. The process this time took only a matter of minutes as I am already a registered NI user and doesn't really take much longer if you have never registered before. The authorization key was in my email box in about 2 minutes.
They also included a sheet in the package to let me know there was already an update which added some features discussed later, as well as updating the soundbanks. I strongly suggest getting the update as soon as you register the application.
Interface and controls
Running on the already proven Kontakt 2 synth engine NI once again have built a very straight forward and user friendly GUI. Everything is available from one of the two views. You will have access to either of these views whether in stand alone or instrument mode. The default view is the play view. From here you can do the majority of your setting up for playing back your midi files. Along the top are the buttons to choose a preset, which is an assortment of instruments as well as the settings you may have saved with them. The new preset clears the instrument and starts with an empty slate. Save which will save the chosen instruments and settings to a file you name or choose. Delete preset, which is self explanatory. Buttons to choose the play view or mix view. And the options button which allows you to set up your solo mode, velocity curve, library path, program change or mixer settings ignore buttons, and the DFD (direct from disc) streaming buffer size. DFD is the way NI streams the samples from the hard drive without scarfing up all your ram to supply the sample sounds. Also in the options is the receive midi automation selection page which allows you to change certain parameters that Bandstand follows.
Below are the channels cell's which in normal mode show you the instrument, its channel and have their own mute and solo buttons. These cell's as well have icons to show you what instrument category you are using at a quick glance. Now here is were Bandstand takes the GM synth up a notch with some extra control you won't find on many other GM softsynths, or even hardware GM synths for that matter. The channels cells will also change function for adjusting several other parameters as well with the buttons just below them. Pitch for normal transposition and fine tuning. Tune for selecting the base note as well as Tuning temperament. Scale, which again shows the base note as well as allowing the scale to be chosen from about 25 different scales. Slide, which allows adjustment of portamento time as well as the pitchbend sensitivity. Humanize which allows adjustment of Time, Velocity, Tune and Volume to give the sequence a more human feel. Quantize, which can bring a tweaky sequence back into a more even time. And lastly Midi Input which allows you to select the midi input channel the cell will listen to as well as setting the mode of the channel to poly or mono. There are 2 other buttons next to these which let you select to edit either a single cell on its own or all cells at the same time with one movement in one cell.
Below this you will find the patch browser containing all the instruments and drum sets. The instruments are broken into the usual 16 groups common to GM. You can view them in 2 different groups 1-8 and 9-16 with the simple click of a button. You can audition a sound by simply pressing the play button to the left of the window, or by selecting auto play they will play automatically when you click on them. This trigger is a short sequence that was designed for that particular instrument. Then when you've found the instrument you want, simply drag it into the cell you wish it be in. I guess I would like to have seen a double click to send it to the choosen cell, but this works just fine as well. The drum kits as well are chosen this way. Simply press the drumkits button and you have the nine kits to choose from. Standard, Room, Power, Electric, Analog, Jazz, Brush, Orchestra and the SFX kit. I found the Electric and Analog sets by Sonic Reality to be very good renditions of these 2 kits.
At the bottom you will find the obligatory virtual keyboard complete with pitch and mod wheel, as well as a transpose switch which will raise or lower a full 3 octave's 1 octave at a time.
On to the mix view; the mix view has the 16 channels laid out much like a typical mixer. The basic controls starting from the left side are like this. The channel and instrument, here you can still choose a different instrument via a drop down menu. Next over is the channel EQ which gives each separate channel its own set of EQ presets. There are 9 of them which give a pretty good selection for tweaking each channel just a little bit. I suggest if you're using them to leave yourself a little headroom in your levels as some can cut the channel level a little bit so you will want to make that up with a little increase in volume. Next over is the chorus knob followed by the reverb knob; these are both per channel effects, and worked pretty much as expected. Next in line are the volume slider and the pan knob, and lastly a mute and solo button for each channel appear here as well.
The Master section is available in both the play and mix view. This is where Bandstand really shines over the other GM synths, especially the soft synth variety. Although it isn't stated in their manual, it appears that the chorus and reverb in the master section are actually the master control for what I would call the chorus and reverb sends in each channel strip. This adds some really great control, which again are not found in most other GM synths. At the top is the Master chorus, there are 6 different types from mild chorus to a flange effect. Each type can be edited using 3 usual parameters found in this LFO effect. Rate, Depth, and Mix which blends the dry and wet signal to what ever level you need. The chorus effects, if used sparingly will add just a bit more depth to the overall mix. The flange effect was not overboard at all, but you can get a pretty outlandish effect with it when it's cranked up. Next in line is the Master reverb with 6 types of reverb, small, medium, and large room, medium, large hall and plate. This effect also has 3 parameters, mix, time and a choice to make here between basic and real reverb. Now this is a convolution reverb, not a cheesy low budget DSP by any means. Choosing basic will save on RAM use, and it still sounds very good. Switch it to real and I was shocked at how good it really was. It is however going to suck up a lot of RAM. Again, I haven't heard a reverb this good on any other GM type synth, software or hardware. Next it just keeps getting better, a very nice master EQ which operates separately for the master output section for the overall mix. It is a 3 band paragraphic with 9 well done presets. You can create your own EQ with the 3 parameters available, frequency, Q and gain. As well as adjusting it via the 3 knob's you can actually grab any of the 3 point's in the graphic interface and move them about to adjust the EQ. I found this really aided in giving Bandstand a much nicer final sound in the end. Next is the Limiter, yes a limiter on a GM synth. A very nice touch indeed to let you push that midi mix to it's maximum. There are again presets 5 of them which are of course, soft, medium and hard limiting but as well there are gentle boost and push. You have 3 controls, Input level, Release and Output level. I found this worked very well on everything I threw at it, and it's a welcome addition on a GM synth.
The master volume is as you would think just that, the master volume. As well in its upper left corner there is a panic/reset button if you ever encounter stuck or overloaded voice's in the synth. Click the edit button for a few more goodies as well.
- Master Transpose will allow you to transpose the entire Bandstand up or down 24 semitones.
- Master tune allows for finer adjustments.
- As well there are monitors there for CPU usage, Hard Disc usage/access, Number of voice's being used, and this can be adjusted up or down with a maximum of 256. Lowering those will ease the load on the CPU.
- A display as well for memory usage. There is also a button to optimize memory, click it then hit play and click again and it will remove all unused samples from memory to save RAM usage.
And just below that you will find the midi file player with some pretty simple and straight forward controls. Here is a great feature you won't find on any other GM softsynth, let alone a hardware synth. Press the Render to Audio icon and it will mix down your loaded sequence with all the effects and EQ you have applied. It will render in 16 bit wav or aiff audio to the destination you choose. I was impressed with the quality of the audio that it rendered, considering you start with a very simple GM file. As well there are control's to shut off program change and mixer automation, tempo adjustment, play, rewind and loop function as well and it also displays the file name and time. They also added in the update (which I highly recommend you download and install before starting the app.) a nice playlist editor which I found very complete as well as useful.
Performance
Overall Bandstand performed without a flaw, and I say that as I did manage to overload the synth with a midi sequence that was intended to do just that. However, I must add that to my surprise it didn't take much to bring it back to 100% performance without error. Years ago I wrote a sequence of Hall of the Mountain King specifically for pushing a synth, both hardware and software to their maximum. For almost all softsynths of this category I end up dropping at least 4 or 5 tracks out to get the synth back to a number of voices it can handle. I was absolutely amazed that I only needed to drop one simple track which consisted of Pizzicato Strings to get the synth to play the entire sequence without choking out or freezing voices on full.
I found playing this app live was a treat as well. Very simple and quick, and all the instruments responded as well or better then some softsynths at twice the price of this. Again you are dealing with a very good sound set, even though it is targeted at mainly General Midi sound's I would not be afraid to use most, if not all these instruments somewhere in mainstream work. It responds to all the control's you will find in the GM, GM2, GS, XG and Hyper Canvas systems, and it also has some extra controls added for its own interface.
Hidden Features
I was impressed to find that along with all the control you already have there is more. These parameters are not visible on the Bandstand interface, but they are there for you to use. I am talking about control of the Envelopes and Filters. You have control over most of the these parameters jsut as you would on a more dedicated plugin synth. There are also many other parameters not commonly found on a GM type synth.
Conclusion and Opinions
Pros: I found this app to be far and above most of the GM type software synths I have used, as well as most of the hardware type. Its basic GM sound set definately does not lack in quality, and make quick work when used as a pluggin for quickly sequencing out an idea for later use. A quick palette of sounds at the ready in one easy to use interface.
Cons: The dragging of the instrument to the cell, instead of a double click to send it to the assigned cell. But maybe I am just being picky here.
What is MIDI? MIDI, standing for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, is the technical music format with .mid or .midi file extension. MIDI is one of the most original formats of digital media. Different with MP3 or WAV audio format, MIDI contains no actual audio data, but it powerfully needs much smaller in size, as a song in MIDI format can be coded using only a few kilobytes and lines. However, you may find out that some popular media tools like VideoLAN, Audacity and more cannot support MIDI playback. Where to find MIDI player to play MIDI?
Part 1: MIDI Player for Windows 10/8/7
1. Windows Media Player - Native MIDI player for Windows
Windows Media Player is a native player for Windows computer, which can support playing MIDI files. However, many users respond that Windows Media Player cannot play MIDI audio file smoothly, as the Microsoft program frequently sent message of sound card error during MIDI playback. Besides sound card issue, the MIDI files not playing issue may cause by not installing MIDI driver or incorrectly setting MIDI Mapper. Before attempting the troubleshooting, you can try to restart your Windows first and try to do the MIDI playback first.
Download Bandstand Midi Player
2. Sweet MIDI Player - A MIDI player for both Windows and Mac
Sweet MIDI Player is a MIDI audio player that can not only audition all types of MIDI files, but also modify MIDI files themselves. It can help you easily edit the control messages, transpose the music, change the tempo, mute desired MIDI channels and save the end results to disk. With its Jukebox function, Sweet MIDI Player can let you create playlists with up to 500 songs.
Besides the above MIDI players, MIDI files can be playable with WildMidi, Winamp, NoteWorthy Composer, TiMidity++, Synthesia, Amarok as well as some other media players.
Part 2: MIDI Player for Mac (macOS High Sierra included)
1. QuickTime Pro - MIDI Player on Mac
Bandstand Midi Player
QuickTime Pro Player can import MIDI (Karaoke MIDI, Standard MIDI and General MIDI) formats. It uses its built-in synthesizer to play MIDI files. You can also set QuickTime to use an external synthesizer instead of the built-in one. In order to play MIDI audio on QuickTime, you just need to choose the MIDI file to add in the QuickTime Pro with choose File > Open File and select the MIDI file you want to play.
2. Apple's Logic Pro - More than a MIDI Player
You can also use Apple's Logic Pro to play MIDI files. Logic Pro X is more than a basic player, it is a comprehensive music production software to let you create, edit and deliver your best music. Logic Pro can open or import Standard MIDI files by allowing you to work with MIDI data from almost any other application. You can either open MIDI file as a new project or import it into an existing Logic project to bring Standard MIDI file into Logic.
Part 3: Play MIDI files online
If you do not want to download or buy a MIDI player software, you can also choose playing MIDI online. There are lots of websites that can be considered as online MIDI players. Just take onlinesequencer.net for example, you can easily click 'Choose File' button to select MIDI file on your computer and click 'Continue', then you can enjoy MIDI file playback online. But please not that sequencer does not support all MIDI files, like MIDI files using features. It can work well with the simple ones.
Part 4: MIDI Player for Android and iOS 15/14/13/12/11/10/9/8
Want to play MIDI music on portable Android device or iOS devices? You can check the following MIDI player apps.
1. MIDI Sheet Music - MIDI Player for Android
Midi Sheet Music, which is able to play MIDI files. Also, this app enables you to convert the MIDI file to sheet music for printing or saving in the format of PDF or PNG. This MIDI player for Android can support adjusting the speed of MIDI music, muting or hiding tracks, displaying the note letters and more.
2. Sweet MIDI Player - MIDI Player for iPhone/iPad/iPod
Sweet MIDI Player is a MIDI player for not only auditioning all types of MIDI files, but for modifying the MIDI files themselves. It can view lyrics synchronized with the music (MIDI Karaoke files) and has built in MIDI sound library with support for DLS/SF2 files. It also includes a playlist function which allows you to create and manage playlists.
Extended Reading: MIDI Player Q & A
1. Why VLC and Audacity cannot play MIDI?
MIDI is not an audio. It is believed to be related whith the primitive nature of MIDI. VLC playback needs sf2 (SoundFont) files, while MIDI file contain no actual audio but only contains tempo, volume, velocity, control signal parameters, pitch and some other data.
The latest version of Audacity current provides support for MIDI. However, such feature is still buggy, and there is no MIDI playback available on Audacity. But Audacity can speak MIDI's 'language' to standard keystrokes through Bome's MIDI Translator.
2. How to convert MIDI file to more playable audio formats?
Difficult to play MIDI file? Alternatively, converting MIDI to MP3/WMA/M4A/OGG/AAC and other audio format is another way. There are many free online MIDI converters for you to choose from, such as Zamzar, Bear File Converter, FileZigZag and so on. Bear File Converter is also able to convert MP3 to MIDI.
If you want to record MIDI or convert MIDI to MP3/M4A/WMA/AAC, you are recommended with a reputable and flexible MIDI Recorder. With this program, you are able to grab the .midi audio with perfect quality and save the recording as MP3/WMA/M4A/AAC.
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Rating: 4.8 / 5 (based on 85 ratings)
August 15, 2018 10:13 / Updated by Jenny Ryan to Player