Windows 7 Can MS GS Wavetable Synth be deleted from Win 7 64?

[MrLH]

I have a very old midi sequencer program that I was just yesterday finally able to get working in Win 7 HP 64. The output ports available to use are:

A MS GS Wavetable synth (default)
B Delta AP Midi

Obviously I do not want to use the wavetable synth at all. In XP I could assign a default port for all midi traffic to use via the control panel and that was that. However MS decided that home recording musicians are not that important or prevalent enough to leave that bit of code in. So I google'd this and found some registry changes that supposedly switched the default port to whatever was installed besides the MS GS Wavetable crappola. This did not work at all. So is it possible to completely remove it from the OS? I'd think if it was completely gone that the default port would only be the Delta AP Midi which is exactly what I want. It's annoying to have to make sure all of your midi tracks are assigned to the right port and save the file only to have all of the tracks port data rerouted at the next operation of the program. I'm distantly hopeful that this could be done since all of my searches about removing the synth software brought only hits suggesting to disable it.

 

[Mike]

The audio stack has changed from XP. If its not properly compatible with Windows 7, Microsoft should have disallowed it in the upgrader instead of giving customers a hard time. You could try Revo Uninstaller using the maximum settings. I believe there is a trialware version with full functionality that may work for this specific problem, but be careful. I cannot guarantee results and I am unfamiliar with this software you are using. Usually if Revo can't uninstall something, its not going to work. This is just bad practice or a forgotten program that was never considered when Windows 7 was released, if you ask me.

 

[MrLH]

The sequencer program is old...meant for windows 95-98 and what I hear from most MS pros is that I should ditch it for a more up-to-the-times sequencer. It is working though and after a whole lot, and I mean A WHOLE LOT of trial with sequencer software of today, I do not want to stop using it. I simply want to remove something that comes with windows. Windows wavetable synth is a poor software synth and I do not want my creations being played through it. I'd much rather use external devices that will give me the sound I'm looking for. So what I was asking is if I were to somehow delete the windows software synth and any port information relating to it, would that automatically make the port that comes with the sound card I bought the new default? BTW the sequencer software is Midisoft Session 4.0. It took a little effort to make it work properly in Win 7 but well worth it. Today's sequencer/editing software is stupidly complicated and user un-friendly. In comparison Midisoft Session is a plain and easy to use interface for all of the processes involved. Not everything updated is better imo. While I like Win 7 in almost all other ways the decision by MS to make it difficult for musicians is making it easier for me to consider Apple for my next machine.

 

[zirkoni]

Have you tried Putzlowitsch's Vista MIDI Mapper? It can be used to change the default MIDI device.
http://sierrahelp.com/Utilities/SoundUtilities/PutzlowitschsVistaMIDI_Mapper.html

 

[MrLH]

I'm trying but it doesn't show up as an option in CP. Maybe in Vista there was an option to show 32 bit applets but I can't seem to find this in Win 7.

 

[MrLH]

Solved!
The site instructions said to place the applet in the windows/system32 folder then access it via control panel. After finding that didn't work I came across a German site that added that Win 7 64 users should put the file in the sysWOW64 folder. This added the applet to control panel. It is simple, a small window comes up with a choice for default midi device. Select the device you want as default and close out the applet and you're done. I had to reorder the devices my sequencer program detected to get the new default device as the first choice but after that all my midi files play through the port I want them to play through. What a chore. I hope you're reading this MS, you are losing your musician userbase for sure over this which I'm sure you don't care about but over a few small changes that could be corrected easily with a simple patch? Anyhow, hope this helps others out there that are having the same problem. And thanks zirkoni for providing me the answer.