MIDI DLS options

[Dr.Flay]

Could either the installer or the MIDI plugin have the ability to pull down alternative DLS files ?

Rationale:
In the early days of Winamp there was more chance that people were using a standalone sound card  (very likely from Creative Labs) that came with better instruments, or that users could go to the home page of their sound card and download them.
Now most people are using onboard sound, so stuck with the basic version in Windows.

Alternatively how about just including some useful links in the plugin ?
(This at least is a short term solution that could be done now)

[MarkRH]

I have a version of the in_midi.dll that would use SoundFonts with SoundBlaster cards:  https://www.markheadrick.com/download/in_midi-263b.zip

I haven't used it in a long time since I don't have one in the system.  Now, I use VirtualMIDISynth | CoolSoft to change the default SoundFont Windows uses.  XMPlay uses a MIDI plugin that works with SoundFonts that isn't dependent on the sound card: http://support.xmplay.com/files_view.php?file_id=500

[dro]

MIDI is an area I've got little real experience with so I'm not sure what to say about this. As MIDI has always felt niche even by normal standards & I'm not sure what solutions are out there that could be used to even attempt to make a replacement MIDI plug-in (as winamp's native one is old & has it's slew of issues).

-dro

[Dr.Flay]

Niche ?
Oh yeah, like tracker modules and chip-tunes ?
*ahem*

The current MIDI plugin supports extra DLS files just fine.
All that is needed is to point people at something to download, such as the Airfont or Fury soundbanks which support the reverb and chorus options (which the Windows version does not). An updated version of the DLS file was made but MS couldn't be arsed to update to it.

I can't remember where I originally got them, but you can get them here http://www.ronimusic.com/smp_ios_dls_files.htm

[dro]

Within the context of people talking about MIDI it isn't something that generally comes up. That's what I meant more by the use of 'niche'.

It also shows how much I don't know about the plug-in as I wouldn't know where to start with doing most things with it. If it's purely "here's where you can find the files" then it could probably be hacked into the existing plug-in.

-dro

[Dr.Flay]

On a related note I wonder if we are far enough along the road that we can assume that almost nobody will not be able to use DirectMusic.
The defaults could maybe be brought more up to date like the rest of the package.

Pre-selecting the last device option with winamp output plugins is probably a very safe thing now, same as we all can probably all support 44k DirectMusic now, as the 22k default is a DX5 era safety setting.