This tutorial pertains only to applications written in C++. See DirectMusic Visual Basic Tutorials.

Before exiting, the program must unload the instruments, release all the objects that have been created, and dereference COM (remember, every call to CoInitialize must have a matching call to CoUninitialize).

The following function performs the necessary cleanup:

HRESULT FreeDirectMusic()
{
    // If there is any music playing, stop it. This is 
    // not really necessary, because the music will stop when
    // the instruments are unloaded or the performance is
    // closed down.
    g_pPerf->Stop( NULL, NULL, 0, 0 );
 
    // Unload instruments – this will cause silence.
    // CloseDown unloads all instruments, so this call is also not 
    // strictly necessary.
    g_pMIDISeg->SetParam(GUID_Unload, -1, 0, 0, (void*)g_pPerf);
 
    // Release the segment.
    g_pMIDISeg->Release();
 
    // CloseDown and Release the performance object.
    g_pPerf->CloseDown();
    g_pPerf->Release();
 
    // Release the loader object.
    g_pLoader->Release();
 
    // Release COM.
    CoUninitialize();
 
    return S_OK;
}