This solution offered increased flexibility, and was actually rather reminiscent of module music, a format which contained samples and instrument instructions in the one file (and which I happen to have a bit of a soft spot for, see my article on MOD music.) In order to extend the format’s potential and facilitate better results, several organisations worked on developing file formats that would allow composers to create their own custom soundbanks, which could then be loaded by MIDI synthesisers, to ensure the end user heard exactly what the composer had intended.
The final sound depended on the soundbanks (collections of pre-recorded samples) that the user’s synthesiser or sound card used for playback, which were often low-quality and rarely sounded the same as those used by the composer. However, the nature of MIDI somewhat limited the potential of the format, since composers had no control over what end users actually heard. The format was favoured due to its relatively low computational overhead, which suited the limited hardware of the day, as well as the small filesizes that made it ideal for transferring over the internet. Windows-only Solution #2: Sound Card-specific Utilitiesīack in the 90’s, MIDI was at the peak of its popularity.Windows-only Solution #1: Winamp MIDI Plugin and DirectSound.Cross-Platform Solution for SoundFont files.Methods of playing MIDI files using custom soundbanks, without the use of a music sequencing application. Article: Playing MIDI files using custom soundfonts
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