It is default behavior because it is enabled by default.

Coolsoft Virtual MIDI Synth "takes over" as default MIDI device. So what vulchor suggested in the second post should work well, I tried this under Windows 10 :)

And yes, it's a personal choice what SoundFont you like.

I installed the virtualmidi software and now system shock crashes a few seconds after opening it. Is anybody else having this problem?

What OS are you using?

Do you have a Soundfont installed, or did you just install CoolSoft VirutalSynth?

I am using win7 and I have the ToH soundfront posted in this thread. I think my problem may be related to those in the other thread saying that it crashes after 2 seconds since I have similar symptoms. I installed virtualmidisynth and SS:EE on my laptop and it works perfectly, not sure why my desktop doesn't agree.

Edit:
When I uninstall virtualmidisynth on my desktop SS:EE no longer crashes. Can't figure out why they won't play nice on my desktop because my laptop has no issues.

How much RAM does your laptop have? As long as it's more than 2GB you should be good. Make sure that the Soundfont is selected in the VirtualSynth configuration, make sure that the mapper is set to VirtualSynth, try setting your output device from default to the output device you are using. Also, turn off the check for Increase Process Priority to REALTIME. That might be a big issue.

There could be an issue with the soundfont you downloaded, as in maybe it is corrupt. VirtualSynth will not tell you if it is, so it might cause crashing. Try with a very small soundfont first to make sure the driver is working. Here's a decent one, it's a rip of the SoundBlaster AWE64: [url=http://www.alsa-project.org/~james/sound-fonts/8MBGMSFX.SF2]http://www.alsa-project.org/~james/sound-fonts/8MBGMSFX.SF2[/url]

When using a small soundfont you can uncheck the option of having the whole soundfont pre-loaded just in case that is what's causing you problems.

Your audio set up might not be configured for 48000 Hz audio. If that's the case, you can tell VirtualSynth to output to a sample rate of 44100Hz (CD quality).

If you get sick of testing in VirtualSynth, you can always try BASSMIDI. VirtualSynth has worked a lot better for me every time, but if you can't figure it out, BASSMIDI is worth a shot.

Here's some advanced instructions about BASSMIDI from systemshock.net
https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=3188.0

I've encountered this issue on my Windows 8 machine. It started playing nicely after I have disabled "Preload the whole SoundFont into memory to improve play smoothness" in the options tab - works great now, and the music sounds soo much better. I always wondered why were people praising music in System Shock, I suppose I get it now

Is there any way to prevent soundfont mixer from taking over focus every time I launch the game? It's not really an issue, all I have to do is maximize System Shock, but it is kind of annoying. By the way, thank you for the links - music sounds smooth now.

Yeah, uncheck the option to "Automatically open MIDI Mixer while playing". That should do it.

Well I'm officially blind. Cool, all good, thank you!

Glad to help! It's nice having the mixer pop up when listening to MIDIs but not when launching a game. In case you still want access to the mixer while playing the game, it will still be running but minimized to the notification tray.

I'm very new to the whole sound font thing. After trying some of other sound fonts, only with SS1 mind you, I have to second the above. Out of the ones I could actually get working, Timbres of Heaven was the only one that had any sense of balance, didn't seem out of step like it was trying to outrun itself, wasn't too 'showy' (for want of a better word) and was just generally more pleasurable on the ears all round :)

*EDIT*. Sorry, turns out I was talking about Proteus GM. I was confused at the time with the way Virtual Midi Synth orders the sound fonts. To clarify: Proteus GM suits this game nicely (in my humble opinion), with a softer sound all-around compared with Timbres of Heaven, which, whilst having some nice instruments - and is probably great with other games - sounds much too 'abrasive' for SS1.