Using SW Synth as simple standalone MIDI sound module

[tnhe]

I hope this is the right place to ask this question, sorry if not.

My DAW is a dual purpose machine, one boot partition for the DAW and one boot partition for general use. None of the music software is loaded to the general partition and none of the general software is loaded on the DAW partition.

I've been trying to figure out a way that, when using the general partition, I can use my USB/MIDI keyboard to play sounds from the onboard Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth (or some other SW synth?).

I don't need to do anything fancy with it, I would just like to be able to use any old piano/organ/whatever sound to work out melodies or chord progressions etc. without having to shut down and boot up the DAW.

Sometimes I'm in the middle of something entirely non-musical with tons of stuff open and I have an idea for a melody, and it's a real pain to have to shut down/start up before I can get to playing, and then it's a pain to have to shut down/start up to get back into work mode.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[persentio]

Then just install your sequencer in your general partition? If you DAW comes with some built in VIs, you can use them to generate the MIDI tracks and all and then save it so you can open it in your DAW partition later. I believe you can change where your project files are saved so simply point it to the folder that it would normally go to on your DAW partition.

[tnhe]

Thanks for the suggestion, i did think about doing this and it's still an option.

The reason I didn't just go with this idea is because I don't need the funtionality or clutter of the sequencer, I just want to be able to play sounds. It occured to me that there might be a way to use the inbuilt MS soft synth and my midi controller, so no need to clutter the windows installation up with unnecessary software.

If that's not possible then installing the sequencer is probably the way to go, just trying to find the simplest way I can.

Thanks again.

[Mimonot]

I use very small freeware programm Savihost.exe, that allows to run almost any VSTi.

http://www.hermannseib.com/english/default.htm

Enjoy!