Thanks, John. On my desktop system, equipped with a Creative SB Elite, I disabled hardware synthesizer and enabled VST. I then assigned VSTSynthFont as the default software synth.

I could not assign effects until I assigned the VSTSynthFont in slot 1 for the track itself (as you pointed out). However, unlike my laptop configuration, the desktop system simply clicks upon starting a song, and no sound is produced (even RealTracks) at all. I had to reassign Coyote as the default software synth, and then VSTSynthFont seemed to work fine assigned to the Melody track, and all the effects worked as well.

Unfortunately, this means that I would have to manually update every song to this configuration, or I will get vastly inferior results from Coyote.

I also was getting concerned about system stability. This configuration wasn't working all that reliably. Being that I develop tracks on the laptop, and place them on the desktop for live use by those who know only how to load and start a song...

I finally gave up on trying to do this altogether. It was several hours of frustration. End result: no effects on MIDI (except on the laptop, for some reason).


Joel