ROG and rharv,
Thank you guys so much for your attention and trouble.

It is a werid one but I am a real newbie at all this- I can play grade 5 trumpet and am getting bored playing by myself!!So this is an extension for me, esp.the software stuff.

I have tried what you suggested and found that MSWavetable Synth as the MIDI out driver doesn't work at all but Midi Mapper does.

However using none of these as suggested works ok.I suspect therefore that it may be a conflict with my PC sound card although all tests are showing its ok.

I have downloaded Coyote Forte Softsynth from PG Music as a demo and guess what? Using it as my defalut synth solves the problem and sounds better. I can now megre to WAV although not mp3 - I will deal with this issue later direct with PG.

I am not happy that their bundled synths don't work , also the Roland VSC that I bought at the same time from them doesn't either. I am waiting for the CD to arrive as it may be a file download issue. I will try for a credit on the registering of the Coyote Forte after my time is up.

Cheers