instrument settings-> device to microsoft gs wavetable synth-> put in some notes to trigger-> sound comes out but nothign shows on the volume meters, and is not affectable by effects.
what do i do
The Wavetable synth is treated as an external MIDI device by Windows itself. The audio is not routed through the wavemapper at all, that’s why you don’t see the VU meters respond and that’s why you also cannot affect the audio-signal by effects.
A pity Microsoft does it that way, but apparently this has never changed ever since that policy has been implemented that way.
… is there any way i can route this so i can use effects, or ever render it as a sample?
Well if you want to smuther with the options you can try to see how other DAWs offer advises or methods:
http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/FAQ/MIDI2Audio.aspx
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=372685
Or you can try to use a VSTI (i’ve seen Synthfont or VSampler 3 being mentioned) that can read the windows\system32\drivers\gm.dls (that is the Roland Canvas General Midi library that the Mixcrosoft GS wavetable uses) and not only be able to render it, but also not having the MIDI lag that comes along with it.
FL studio can handle this. yopu can load Fruity LSD plugin ttehn load the GM.DLS in your system folder … thats it
http://www.image-line.com/support/FLHelp/html/plugins/Fruity%20LSD.htm