"Regular" MIDI Instruments...

Hello everybody! I have possibly a very dumb and simple question. I have a lot of VSTi plugins that are fairly fancy... but really, all I need to use is the regular "MIDI" sound. You know, the kind that you hear when you play a MIDI file. I have no idea how to find that "instrument" on my computer. Any help? I use Windows 7, 64-bit. Thanks!

Midi is just information, and has no "sound", of it's own. Perhaps your talking about a "General Midi" {GM) piano sound, or something. Why not use a similar sound from your "fairly fancy" VSTi plug ins?

Yes! a General MIDI sound. The issue I have is when I do "Export Project MIDI" - and then send the tracks to my bandmates. Some of them use Guitar Pro, others use other programs... the notes/sounds are just not translating across these different platforms... most of the time it's having trouble figuring out which octaves I'm in. I'd rather use the general MIDI sound from the get-go. How can I make that happen?

Do a Midi track with a VSTi and then, when it's perfect, right click on the midi item and scroll down to "Apply track FX to items as new take" and you'll have the "audio" to send your friend, instead of the midi.

I need to use MIDI files when sending them out to bandmates, they cannot be WAVs or MP3's. I don't think I'm being very clear: I would like to use a "General MIDI" instrument in Reaper when composing MIDI tracks, or something very close to it. What/where can I find this on my computer to use as FX? Is this even possible?

(edit: crosspost with DarkStar) You could use a General MIDI soundfont with a Soundfont player. Quick googling... GM soundfonts Players A bit more fancy (but not free) would be to use a GM-VSTi, eg:

I see! I need a VST instrument that is close to the General MIDI sounds, so I have a rough idea of how my project will sound when I send off the MIDI file to others. Googling.

Aw man, I really am a newb. I find stuff that seems simple enough, it's a VST, then I plug it into FX, and it shows a screen where I have to load other files. Man. What. I have Independence Free, and I'm really looking for something like that. Just one program where I can select different instruments to use. Within the program.

Independence Free came with a library of sounds, didn't it? The same applies for other VSTis - some come with a library, for others you get the library separately. I would still suggest SampleTank 2 Free and Sonic Reality's OmniSynth. Once installed, the instrument sounds are loaded within SampleTank. Here it is with 10 (16 at a time are possible) instruments loaded: Big pic: