Although its been in a couple of my videos, I’ve not made a video dedicated to it – so, this is a demonstration of a new program I’ve been working on since February 2010. It’s called BaWaMI (Basic Waveform MIDI Software-Synthesizer), because it’s a MIDI file player that makes sound using only basic waveforms and a low-pass filter (hey, at least I was able to think up a name for once!). When I gave up working on Bleeper Music Maker, it’s basically because I started dedicating my attention to Bawami. But don’t worry! Bawami can play on the PC speaker too. =D
Here, it’s playing ZUN’s MIDI of the stage 5 boss (Sakuya Izayoi) theme, from his game “Touhou 06: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil“. Actually, it’s a slightly modified version that uses a “Synth Bass” instrument instead of “Slap Bass”, as I haven’t coded the slap bass instrument yet. Bawami misinterprets the pitch-bend sensitivity in this video, and as a result, the pitch-bends are overly exaggerated. ^^;
By default, Bawami has 24 internal “sound channels”, meaning it can play up to 24 notes (or sounds) at once (after that, old notes will start being cut). There’s a setting to change this number, but I leave it at 24 in this video because the internal view (black window) can only show 24 sound channels at most. By the way, that internal view shows 2 tables – one shows information about each sound channel (such as the volume, panning, waveform, frequency), and the other shows information about each MIDI channel (pitch-bend, number of notes playing). Coloured lines appear between the 2 tables to show which sound channels are being used to play notes on which MIDI channel.
This program is the first one I’ve made where I focussed on trying to make it look nice from the start (although I took inspiration for the design from GASHISOFT’s “GXSCC” MIDI player).
The program is not quite ready to be released to the public yet, but I’m working on it! I’ll probably post more videos like this to show off new things that I add to the program, just as I did with Bleeper Music Maker. And, of course, I’ll record a video of it controlling the PC speaker, too. ;D