The information in this topic pertains only to applications written in Visual Basic. For C++ applications, see Overview of DirectMusic Objects and Interfaces.

The first step in playing music is to load data from a file or resource. An object of the DirectMusicLoader class is used for loading bands, collections, segments, and styles. All file input and output and parsing of the data is handled by DirectMusic.

Each of the DirectMusicLoader methods (other than SetSearchDirectory) returns an object representing the data. Other objects referred to by the primary object being loaded are also made available. For example, if you load a style by using DirectMusicLoader.LoadStyle and that style contains a reference to a band, the band object can be retrieved at any time by calling a method of the style object.