FWIW back around 2011 you could still tinker with the actual samples used in GM.dls .. not so much these days.
citation: http://wiki.spheredev.org/Changing_soundfonts

Also, used to be that windows update with MediaPlayer set to be the default .mid file player would cause it to be updated/downloaded. Not sure if that would work with 10 though!

I've never had an issue copying and pasting that file. See link above on how to stop the error. It is owned by Roland, not Windows; they just license it. Open the file in Notepad and about the only thing you can read is "Copyright 1996 Roland Corporation U.S"

smile

At one point I replaced the GM.dls file with the Chaos soundfont as described here - http://www.tipidpc.com/viewtopic.php?tid=242963
This was back in XP, but supposedly W7 could use it also.
It ends up being about a 12 meg soundbank compared to the regular 4 meg collection. Most instruments sound better, but as always you are stuck with that set.
To get even more in-depth, I went as far as to modify the chaos bank and recreate the dls file trying to improve it, but it was a lot of work for very little return once softsynths came on the scene.


Last edited by rharv; 10/04/14 08:35 AM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!