Possible method for improving MIDI sampling rate in Windows?

[Galahad]

After tinkering around with the Control Panel settings for "Sounds and Multimedia" on my classic gaming/MIDI PC running Windows ME, I think I found a way to manually improve the MIDI sampling rate in Windows on my setup.  However, due to my limited PC multimedia knowledge, thought I'd check this with the QuestStudio experts to verify if this is a valid technique or not, since there did seem to be a noticeable improvement between the default and altered settings.  Here are the steps I took, with directions that should be good for Windows ME and Windows XP:

1.  Opened Control Panel and double-clicked "Sounds and Multimedia".  ("Sounds and Audio Devices" for Windows XP)
2.  Clicked the "Devices" tab. ("Hardware" tab in Windows XP)
3.  Expanded the "Audio Compression Codecs" menu.  (In Windows XP, double-click the "Audio Codecs" option)
4.  Double-clicked on "Microsoft IMA ADPCM CODEC" and clicked the "Settings" button.  (For Windows XP, click the "Properties" tab, double-click on "IMA ADPCM Audio CODEC, and then click "Settings")
5.  Changed both the "Compression" and "Decompression" options to "44100 Hz mono / 22050 Hz stereo".
6.  Clicked "OK" button 3 times to apply new settings.

[Great Hierophant]

I don't know what you mean by "MIDI sampling rate."  The MIDI transmission rate is 31,250 bits per second, and that's the speed an external device will expect to receive and transmit midi data at.  Devices that support a serial MIDI connection (in Windows) can safely transmit at 38,400 bits per second.  MIDI data is comprised of commands and is not compressed, what you describe only affects recorded digital audio. 

[Galahad]

My bad, thanks for the corrected info there GH -- sorry for the confusion.  (Please ignore my original post to this thread everyone, since it is based on my earlier inorrect assumption.)

I don't know what you mean by "MIDI sampling rate."  The MIDI transmission rate is 31,250 bits per second, and that's the speed an external device will expect to receive and transmit midi data at.  Devices that support a serial MIDI connection (in Windows) can safely transmit at 38,400 bits per second.  MIDI data is comprised of commands and is not compressed, what you describe only affects recorded digital audio. 

[jbltecnicspro]

I think I know what you're talking about Galahad.  You're trying to improve the quality of the samples in the Microsoft GS soundset.  I don't think there's a direct way to do this, unless you have a Sound Blaster card that supports soundfonts.  Just load up the GS.dls file (found somewhere in the WINDOWS directory), and it should sound *MUCH* cleaner than with the regular system.

EDIT:  It also makes your software-based MIDI more GS compatible.  For some reason the Microsoft GS system has extra GS banks that never get used.  Bank controllers do nothing to the Microsoft GS sound system, yet when loaded in the sound blaster, other instruments like "sine wave synth" are available.

[Galahad]

Thanks for the neat info about the Microsoft GS software synth jbltecnicspro -- very interesting!   

I think I know what you're talking about Galahad.  You're trying to improve the quality of the samples in the Microsoft GS soundset.  I don't think there's a direct way to do this, unless you have a Sound Blaster card that supports soundfonts.  Just load up the GS.dls file (found somewhere in the WINDOWS directory), and it should sound *MUCH* cleaner than with the regular system.

EDIT:  It also makes your software-based MIDI more GS compatible.  For some reason the Microsoft GS system has extra GS banks that never get used.  Bank controllers do nothing to the Microsoft GS sound system, yet when loaded in the sound blaster, other instruments like "sine wave synth" are available.