Program to Play My downloaded Midi songs.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 8 May 2006 5:40 pm

What programs are recommended to play Midi and wav songs. Usualy downloaded files. Some I did on Cassette tape and recorded on the computer.
My old computer had a trusty Winamp program that did not get transferred. So I got on Nullsoft and downloade Winamp 5 version and it still hangs up and wont respond. I also have Music Match and it wont play my songs either. I can't hear Scottys Steel Radio or Bobbe Seymoure"s either now. So, maybe one of you members can help me out. Thanks..al

------------------
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 9 May 2006 2:16 am

The Windows Media Player should play the wav, mp3 and wma files without problems. It should also play MIDI files. However, MIDI files require a MIDI "Synth" (synthesizer), however all Windows XP PC's come with the Microsoft "software" synth (not very good but it is a MIDI synth).

It sounds like you have some other type of audio problem if WinAmp won't play anything either. It's not a media player problem.

Do you have any type of audio at all on the PC? e.g. can you hear Windows system sounds? Can you hear CD audio?. In the Volume Control Panel there are separate volume controls and a mute option for each type of sound - check the Volume Control for each type. The volume control slider should not be in the down (off) position and nothing should be muted.

There are other things but check these first.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 9 May 2006 8:35 pm

Jack-Thanks for you response and post. I can hear the audio, I have band in a box songs and they all play great in band in a box. And BB will also play my Midi files. Some of my old programs that transferred over are blocked for some reason. Then I get a question to tell them "What Program created the song", I don't know, some of them were downloaded and I dont have the CD To install. The funny thing is that with my old Pentium 4 and XP, I never had this problem, everything worked. I should have kept it. This system has a lot of security built into it and really is too secure and slow. I guess it is the loaded bloated Norton. My winamp will play a song at times then it hangs up.It is very frustrating after My older one worked so well. I don't call that progress, I dont think this new one "Media Canter" is as goo as my old one or any faster either. If anyone has any ideas out there, I would sure apreciate it...Thanks ...al

------------------
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 10 May 2006 2:13 am

Al, it sounds like the new PC was not configured or "loaded" from the old PC correctly. You can't just "transfer" programs from one PC to another, programs must be installed on the new PC using the program's installation program. Data and files (e.g. music files) can be just copied over to the new PC, but not programs. From your description and what I remember from when you first got the PC, whoever "copied" the old stuff over to your new PC may have not done everything correctly.

If you have audio files, whatever type, and they do not have a "program association" then Windows will tell you no program is associate. The Windows Media Player 10 (which is what you probably have) will play all types of music files, wav, mp3, wma, midi, etc and if you have it set as the default player for all the media types you shouldn't get any message that a program is not associated, unless it is some special proprietary format.

The more I think about it and write about it, I'm convinced that what I said above about whoever set up your new PC didn't do it right sticks in my mind as the root of your problems.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 10 May 2006 7:57 pm

Jack-Thanks again. I think you are right on that. I paid two different firms to copy over the files. Neither one got them all. but the one person came back and spent 3 hours getting me set up to even run normally. He did say that he didnt get all the Programs. Usually you have a CD for them and jut re-install them. But I dont have CD's on programs that I had previously downloaded. Nullsoft's new Winamp 5 , now owned by AOL is not working right for me. I liked the old Winanp company vers 2.3. Windows Media Player asked me lif I wanted to make it the default program, I sad NO. I been through that before. It didn't say ASSOCIATE .
I gave gthe old XP pentium 4 to my Son and I can always go over there and maybe copy a CD off it to get the old programs. Would that be feasable? Thanks again...al

------------------
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 May 2006 2:07 am

Al you can't just "copy" programs that are installed on one PC to a different PC. They need to be "installed" using the program's installation "program". e.g. if the program originally came on a CD you will need that install CD to install the program on the new PC. There are some exceptions but those programs are very few and mostly older programs originally written for older Operating Systems or DOS.

As far as Winamp, I have the latest version and there are no problems. You need the latest version as there are some security issues that have been fixed.

Gordy Hall · Post by **Gordy Hall** » 11 May 2006 8:30 am

I highly recommend a free download called 'audacity' for sound. Very versitile, and free!
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 May 2006 11:17 am

Audacity is a good free "recording" program but it's really not a Media player in the class of WinAmp, MusicMatch Jukebox, Windows Media Player 10 or even the Creative media player.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 11 May 2006 12:55 pm

Jack and Gordy.-Thanks for your input, I apreciate it.
Jack, I downloaded latest Winamp from Nullsoft, and it still did not work corectly.
I associated Band in a box with windows and it will play , even my old cassette tapes that were recorded into the computer. Winamp will , but after playing one tune , hangs up and I get "program not responding, do you want to end now. I do and it comes back several times before it exits.I think there is something fishy going on as I wouldn't let Windows Media or Music Match be the default player. So there might be a bug in there to stop any other one? Music Match has my files and song listed but will not play any of them.Why? I don't understand all this, I have had 2 computer before this one all HP"S for 9 years and have never had the trouble this new Media Center and Norton has caused me. McAffee used to give me touble and I got rid of it.
I had Norton 2002 and 2004 , and the 2004 was so slow that I went back to 2002 on my last computer, and it workded just perfect and faster too.I now have a trial period for 60 days on the new computer for Norton 2006 and it is slow and may be blocking some of my prgrams. I don't think I will sign up for it when the trial period is over. It's $69.95 and Circuit City has the same one for $19.95 with rebates now...al

------------------
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 May 2006 3:30 pm

Al, uninstall Winamp, restart Windows XP and then reinstall it. See if that helps.

Many times, if you are having a problem with a program and you just install over the existing program you can wind up with the same problem. Same way if you uninstall a program and do not restart Windows XP - the same way you can wind up with the same problem.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 11 May 2006 3:33 pm

Al;
It sounds like you may have corruption in some system files, or in the drivers for your sound card, or because of having installed several audio playback applications.

If you have your official Windows XP CD you might try inserting it, then go to Start > Run and type in SFC /SCANNOW to see if an corrupted system files can be replaced.

As regards audio drivers, visit the sound card manufacturer's website and look for Support > Drivers and see if they have newer drivers for you sound device. If so, download the new drivers, set a System Restore Point, then using an administrator level account uninstall the existing sound driver then install the new one you downloaded. This may require a reboot in between and after.

------------------
Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
or my Webmaster Services webpage.
Learn about current computer virus and security threats here.
Read Wiz's Blog for security news and update notices

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 May 2006 2:41 am

One caution on the sound drivers. If this is a Dell PC, Dell uses custom versions of sound cards and the Dell provided sound cards or on-board sound modules must use the Dell drivers, only. Even the SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS that Dell is currently providing needs Dell drivers as they are a custom version made only for Dell.

ADDED: The same way with the Dell integrated (on the motherboard) audio. Dell uses proprietary motherboards (even the Intel boards that Dell once used were a custom version) that are not ATX or BTX "standard".

Usually, on a Dell, if you try to install the Retail SoundBlaster drivers they will tell you it can't find a SoundBlaster product on the PC.[This message was edited by Jack Stoner on 12 May 2006 at 03:44 AM.]

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 12 May 2006 8:15 pm

Wiz-Thanks, that is something new I can check out. I have a HP XP windows Media center edition.

Here is what I did, I UNINSTALLED my old Winamp that was hanging up and Installed the new 5.1 Winamp from Nullsoft. It is working good right now, but some a few songs that I downloaded years ago, wont play.
My Music Match wont still play any of my downloaded or home brewed tunes. Next I will UNisntall it and load up Music Match from the old CD I have.
I do not have a windows Xp CD, on this computer, they Saved?? me a lot of work, they SAY, by putting it all on the Hard Disc, so nice of them to not send any CD's now with a new computer.
They do say I can make my ownCD"s if I wish for backup. I didn't yet. I never had to do this with the 4 year old HP computer, that 's progress for you...al

------------------
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/

[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 12 May 2006 at 09:19 PM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 13 May 2006 2:13 am

Al, Make the Backup CD's ASAP. It's not "if you will need them" but for "when you need them".

Although they have the "restore partition" on the hard drive and you can restore it to the new Power up condition if you have a hard drive failure and don't have the backup CD's to reload you are totally lost.

BTW, all the major PC vendors do the same thing now. I know Gateway and Dell also do basically the same thing. However, I installed a new Gateway for a customer about a year ago and Gateway did supply the blank CD's needed to make the backups. The backup program on the Gateway was a "run once" program - that is it would allow you to make one copy for backup use.

Al Marcus · Post by **Al Marcus** » 13 May 2006 3:01 pm

Jack-I guess I better do that. I'll see if I have a backup progarm on this thing. Thanks...al

------------------
My Website..... www.cmedic.net/~almarcus/