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have you followed Andrew's suggestion to play Listen.mgu?




The audio plays fine from this file. Looking inside shows that the audio file connected with Listen.mgu is a wav, rather than an wma like all the regular RT files. Another clue!

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You're using the 2496 ASIO driver, right? Try playing Listen with all midi parts muted, and the 2496 interface open. The mixer shows a signal, right?




I normally use ASIO, and yes, the 2496 mixer shows a signal playing Listen.

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What happens if you double click on one of the raw .wma RT files and your default audio player fires up - does it sound?




Aha! Default audio player is MediaMonkey. Although wma is selected as one of my MediaMonkey filetype associations, turns out the RT wma's won't play here either. Looking like a codec problem.

I then discover that the RT wma's play fine with VLC, and with Media Player Classic, both of which which I also have installed but never use. A little googling suggests that the codecs for wma's have many versions and some seem to be application-specific.

I try re-installing Media Player Classic, as it was developed originally as a direct Windows Media Player subsititute, figuring that this might sort out the driver/codec issues.

Retry BIAB and load a song with RT parts. BINGO!

Conclusion - somehow between old BIAB install and new one, access to the proper codec or driver for wma's was broken. This problem may or may not have been connected with difficulties with missing GM.DLS or my early efforts to fix that. At any rate, back in business.

Thanks to everyone who offered ideas and help here!