MIDI plugin/jukebox

Does anyone know of any free midi players which come with built in sounds? I no longer have any midi sounds on my PC after replacing all my old gear (and specifically my soundblaster with its built in midi sounds) with sample libraries. I've only just realised that I can't listen to MIDI files online like I used to!

I'd like to hear some of the pieces you guys have been posting but the only way I can do it at the moment is to save the midi, open up sonar and faff around setting up my sound libraries to play it back. And tbh, that takes far to much time; I'd like to just click on the link and be able to hear it there and then.

Thanks for your help!

I would check your control panel under Sounds / Audio... there should be a setting for your MIDI playback device. Usually this is set to Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth.

If you don't have the GS Synth, then you could try to see if it is downloadable from Microsoft's site or if it's on the Windows setup CD. Or maybe it is included with your sound card drivers (not 100% sure). Try reinstalling them.

Another option might be getting a media player which can play midi files - like WinAmp or Windows Media Player. Not sure if these go through the GS Wavetable synth or not though. Also I don't think you could see the notes on a staff using these.

No, that won't work. My soundcard has no MIDI sounds built in and I'm not changing my default MIDI device to Microsoft's synth as it will muck up all the settings for composing.

WinAmp and WMP are great for listening to MP3s but neither have a softsynth for MIDI built in. I seem to remember some years ago Yamaha made a MIDI player for playing MIDIs on the internet which had its own onboard soundset. Something like that'd be great!

Found a solution: Quicktime player has its own built in soundset so I'll use that in future!

Also, I've noticed most of you guys tend to post MP3s of your work anyway; it just happens that the first piece I clicked on on this forum had a midi attached!

Look forward to hearing your work anyhow.