Installing a Software Synthesizer

A software synthesizer is a MIDI device driver that produces sound using the computing powers of your computer, as opposed to using specialized sound-creation circuitry in a soundcard or external device. Soundcards that are pre-installed on computers, and soundcards that you can purchase and install yourself, usually include multiple MIDI device drivers. Some of these MIDI device drivers are for the soundcard's internal sound-creation circuitry. One or more software synthesizers, provided as additional MIDI device drivers, might be included with the soundcard.

Software synthesizers are also available as software products that can be purchased, or in some cases freely downloaded from the Internet, independently of which soundcard you have.

After you install a software synthesizer, Composer will automatically detect it as a new Windows MIDI output port the next time you run the program. The software synthesizer will automatically become available as a new device.

Many software synthesizers have a built-in delay between the time a software program (such as Composer) requests a note to be played, and the time that the sound is actually produced. This requires special attention on your part. See the next topic, Adjusting for the Delay of Some MIDI Output Devices.

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