KVR Audio

brainburner · Post by **brainburner** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:10 pm

Thank Sarcyan

Edit:

SFpack don' t works with sFark-files

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 4:41 pm

Sarcyan wrote:Yes 4GB is more than enough. Use the BassMIDI driver in the description of the file and also use Synthfont, it works fine with both.

Yes, thanks, with Synthfont VST I managed to load the big SF2 set, even on a lower spec computer

But is it possible to play more than 1 channel at once with Synthfont? I would like to layer sounds and play them with my midi keyboard.

Sarcyan · Post by **Sarcyan** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 7:19 pm

brainburner wrote:Thank Sarcyan

Edit:

SFpack don' t works with sFark-files

The final version is compressed in SFpack format. It has multiple improvements.

I deleted all the files related to the previous version, which was compressed in sfArk format, so if you managed to download the previous file... between today and tomorrow I am going to share the new links to download the final version, which is in SFPack format.

Numanoid wrote:
Sarcyan wrote:Yes 4GB is more than enough. Use the BassMIDI driver in the description of the file and also use Synthfont, it works fine with both.
Yes, thanks, with Synthfont VST I managed to load the big SF2 set, even on a lower spec computer

But is it possible to play more than 1 channel at once with Synthfont? I would like to layer sounds and play them with my midi keyboard.

I am not familiar with Synthfont VSTi, I just tried it a couple of times.

But the full program itself, Synthfont 1, lets you change and use different Soundfont files at once within various channels. It's an incredible program, you can download it here:

http://synthfont.com/Downloads.html

You can also play your files using a MIDI keyboard. Afaik, recording what you play is not possible now, though, it's a feature aimed to be included in Synthfont 2, according to the author.

Crackbaby · Post by **Crackbaby** » Sat Jun 16, 2012 8:56 pm

Could anyone please make this into SFZ?

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 2:34 pm

Sarcyan wrote:I am not familiar with Synthfont VSTi, I just tried it a couple of times.

But the full program itself, Synthfont 1, lets you change and use different Soundfont files at once within various channels. It's an incredible program, you can download it here:

http://synthfont.com/Downloads.html

Yes, that is the link: "VSTSynthFont (V1.073) installation package. Install into the folder where you keep your VST files. You may then need to update your sequencer's list of plugins after installing the plugin file."

Can one play multiple channels all at once, with one keyboard? I mean: stacking/layering sounds.

Sarcyan · Post by **Sarcyan** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 4:24 pm

Numanoid wrote:
Sarcyan wrote:I am not familiar with Synthfont VSTi, I just tried it a couple of times.

But the full program itself, Synthfont 1, lets you change and use different Soundfont files at once within various channels. It's an incredible program, you can download it here:

http://synthfont.com/Downloads.html

Yes, that is the link: "VSTSynthFont (V1.073) installation package. Install into the folder where you keep your VST files. You may then need to update your sequencer's list of plugins after installing the plugin file."

Can one play multiple channels all at once, with one keyboard? I mean: stacking/layering sounds.

Ah okay. Now you got me. I can't tell you to be honest, I barely tried the VST instrument. I mentioned Synthfont itself, the whole program. It features a built-in virtual MIDI keyboard. I have a MIDI keyboard and drum kit but they are *taking dust* now and I discovered Synthfont almost 3 months ago --barely used it at the beginning because I was interested in the Viena soundfont editor first.

I will have to test myself the keyboard support then, because I am not so sure now, not having tested it.

These two links might be useful for you anyways:

http://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/virtualmidisynth

http://www.softpianola.co.uk/midi4.html

If you still don't find a solution I could contact the author of Synthfont and ask him directly.

Sarcyan · Post by **Sarcyan** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 9:46 pm

Numanoid wrote:
Sarcyan wrote:I am not familiar with Synthfont VSTi, I just tried it a couple of times.

But the full program itself, Synthfont 1, lets you change and use different Soundfont files at once within various channels. It's an incredible program, you can download it here:

http://synthfont.com/Downloads.html

Yes, that is the link: "VSTSynthFont (V1.073) installation package. Install into the folder where you keep your VST files. You may then need to update your sequencer's list of plugins after installing the plugin file."

Can one play multiple channels all at once, with one keyboard? I mean: stacking/layering sounds.

Regarding your two questions the author of VSTSynthfont told me this;

"Unfortunately there is no way of adding layers in VSTSynthFont. If the keyboard can be configured to send midi notes for several midi channels and not only one when you strike a key, then the guy is in luck. But, if not - then - no luck."

Sarcyan · Post by **Sarcyan** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 10:01 pm

COPY OF THE README FILE

This Musica 7 bank is mostly a mix and compilation or editing from different sources and collections from different people, to all of you many, many THANKS! for making this possible (I would love to list all those people there are so many people to name...) and of course my own work, personal additions, and thus you may not use it for commercial purposes, it's just for your personal use.

The Musica 7 sound bank features 5.580 samples, 128 General MIDI melodic presets -and an extra melocid preset with a beautiful voice choir, as seen in this video, a marvellous, melancholic voice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaOhPqmNDXU - adding to this 21 drum kits, weighing over 1,85GB. It has been created to be a fine all-around sound bank.

The drum kits have almost completely independent samples between them. There is an excellent and enfolding Room drum kit for when you need some more punch in the drums, a superb Orchestra drum kit, and a very balanced Standard kit, a fine Techno kit... and many different choices.

It is my second attempt to create a General MIDI sound bank. It was much more difficult the first time, back in 2001. I spent almost 2 years fine tuning a 64MB soundfont, but then I lost all the files because I accidentally formatted my hard drive and I hand't made a backup.

Finally, the soundfont has been compressed with the Soundfont compression utility SFPACK, which you can download in the original webpage here:

http://www.personalcopy.com/sfpack.htm

If you downloaded the Soundfont files in the Internet then you might need a program like WinRAR to uncompress the 4 split RAR files where the Soundfont is compressed to merge them later. The original homepage of Winrar is this one:

http://www.rarlab.com/

Links updated in the first page of the thread with the new version.

Enjoy the 2GB MegaSound!

BEGINNER'S TUTORIAL TO SET UP MIDI AT ITS BEST QUALITY

To start with, you'll most likely need the following:

Synthfont (thanks Kenneth!) http://www.synthfont.com/

A must have utility to change the default Windows midi handling setup for MIDI playback -Windows uses the very average "GS Wavetable Synth- and switch to the top quality Soundfont you like, is this fantastic one:

http://www.mudlord.info/bassmididrv/#ba ... rdownloads

Unfortunately I don't own a Mac to test it myself but it should be 100% compatible with Mac, as any other Soundfont out there.

Note: If you are going to edit the Soundfont yourself, make sure the Number of instrument generators NEVER surpasses 65536 (at 63357 generators itself as it is, the Soundfont is almost there already!) or you can render the Soundfont completely useless.

Limits

I am a firm believer of the theory that with some fine tuning and overweighing brute force with smartness then an amazing General MIDI soundfont could be created using around 700-1000MB of memory. Heck, even small soundfonts like the Roland SC-55 sounds absolutely incredible for its size -10MB-, it's so well fine tuned by professionals... I could never make it alone without it dazzling my mind.

The goal with this Soundfont in particular is using the best possible instruments available without going overboard, irregardless of the sacrifices needed to be made.

The Soundfont format seems to be almost at its limit with this Soundfont or Crisis 3.01, for instance.

It's very difficult to add even more complex instruments or samples. It's not the size of the file but things like the instruments generators that impose a limit. The more quality the samples and the instruments themselves, the more it will be over cluttered and getting close to its limit. Once you surpass that limit you render the soundfont useless except in a program like Synthfont --and even so the author told me it can have unpredictable consequences. Different players, Windows drivers, etc, won't *understand* the format at all if you go over that limit.

However, sometimes more samples don't mean more quality. In fact I had a 100+MB Town Church Organ instrument that sounded just okay, but someone who helped me a lot recommended me the soundfont of a church organ weighing *just* 800Kb and it sounds better than the 100+MB one. I mean.... mind over matter, smartness over full force.

The instrument where I find absolutely essential to have great samples no matter what is the piano.

Why I decided to make this?

This is my second experience with soundfonts. 11 years ago I wanted to create a General MIDI soundfont after I purchased the great -in its time, it's still good nowadays- Sound Blaster Live! soundcard.

I spent more than a year and a half working on it, sometimes working hard, experiencing sleepless nights and all.

I didn't have a stable internet connection then, it was also very expensive, and not to mention really slow (dial-up). So basically sharing knowledge with other people in the internet was a no-no for me.

I manually ripped off samples from CDs, sometimes I recorded them in the middle of a song when I thought I had caught the samples *alone*, to then realize in the WAV editor that there was another sound in the background of the sample, and having to rule it out afterwards.

Those were fun times indeed. I also wanted to cram everything into 64MB of memory. Back then it seemed a lot, but with so many samples I was adding, every single byte was important. There were many times I deleted parts of the samples that appeared to be flat and mute in the WAV editor to then notice that after the changes the instrument sounded lifeless. Also looping the samples was/is quite difficult, really.

Over time though I improved my methods and I was creating an ok soundfont. Still below average now that I listened and compared to others because some instruments were slightly off, but in my mind they sounded wonderful after all the time I had spent working on them.
To make a long story short, after a year and a half editing it I accidentally formatted the entire hard drive when experimenting things. I hadn't made a backup of the file, so out of desolation and discouragement I decided to leave that idea and soundfonts for a long time.

The means are better nowadays and after being smarting from the disappointment of having lost all that work, I wanted to go back to it to fulfill that little dream I was so thrilled about then.

It was much, much easier this time around. It took me almost 3 months gathering the instruments and fine tuning some details here and there, also making it sound even, which is very important to me.

Samples

One of the instruments that takes up more memory is the piano, which you can find here; http://zenvoid.org/audio/ There is another really good piano in it, but it only takes up 22MB of memory. Another one of my favourite instruments is the Protrax Nylon Guitar. The recorder... etc. There are so many to list.

I read somewhere that there is big "super computer" called Echelon that spies on everything you type online, or say on the phone. But I am human and it was impossible for me to know if a sample is from a propietary source. All I have downloaded was public domain -thus I thanked all the people around the world, some that helped me directly, and most that I have never contacted-.

In general I can't indentify the source of all of the soundfont files that I have. This is made more complicated by the fact that quite a few of the soundfont collection sites have fallen into disrepair since some soundfonts were published, with the general shift in interest towards more current files.

If you find any commercial sample in it just tell me and I would gladly delete it and upload a new version, disabling the download link in the process. Most of the samples seem to be from the past decade or so... also included in free soundfonts. I assume they are considered public domain and free to use.

Recommended Full GM soundfonts.

Soundfonts seem to have a personality and a style of their own. Each one sounds so different that recommending just one would be unfair. Even some that require little memory are pretty good.

I religiously paid for 3 Full GM soundfonts, but I will only list one of those that I paid for -one was too expensive for what it offers, I won't list it, the other isn't as expensive but it has its flaws also-, and some others which are free.

My favourite General MIDI commercial soundfont is Merlin Symphony 1.21. People can get it for free obtaining 10 credits (if you purchase it, it costs 10$, 1$ for each credit) uploading their MP3s for the composition contest Merlin have in one of their homepages.

It sounds really special, fantastic and great to me, it's really worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCNwwPSmwWg&hd=1 ( a video featuring how it sounds, although I was a bit of a newbie with the program I used when I recorded it, it still manages to sound fine despite of my extreme newbie-ness).

Like I said, GM soundfonts have a very different sound to them that they are worth a try.

In past playing around with soundfonts, I have run across situations where one General MIDI soundfont will not play well an instrument in particular in a midi, while a different GM soundfont will not play fine a different instrument.

For best results, I would recommend a few soundfonts;

SGM V2.01
Fluid R3 GM
Airfont 340GS / Airfont 380 GM
Arachno Soundfont
RealFont 2.1
Crisis 3.01
Titanic
Giant 5.5
PC51d

And a few others I couldn't list...

From the ones featuring 32MB or less memory some notable ones are.... Aspirin 160 has a very special sound, so does Fanta32GM, General User FluidSynth, bennetng, 32 GM Stereo soundfont by NTONYX, and the legendary Roland SC-55 soundfont -only 10MB in size but it's prefectly balanced and has a great sound for its size-.

I hope you enjoy this soundfont.

[/b]

Sarcyan · Post by **Sarcyan** » Sun Jun 17, 2012 10:09 pm

It's going to be bedtime for me soon and I promised to share the download links today at the very latest, so here they are -the 1st post of the thread has been also updated with them-:

Links updated in the first page with the last version.

Remember that you will need WinRAR or similar to merge the files into a single file. You can get WinRAR here:

http://www.rarlab.com/

Also remember that the file itself is compressed in SFPACK format, from 1,85GB to 654MB, not bad. To uncompress it you can download SFPACK here:

http://www.personalcopy.com/sfpack.htm

Sarcyan · Post by **Sarcyan** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:02 pm

The author behind the fabulous Synthfont added the links to download in his webpage:

http://www.synthfont.com/soundfonts.html

If someone is watching my Myspace account, they must be very bored right now.

But anyways, just to mention it, my name is Cose. Cheers;

http://www.myspace.com/cosevidal

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:06 pm

Sarcyan wrote:Regarding your two questions the author of VSTSynthfont told me this;

"Unfortunately there is no way of adding layers in VSTSynthFont. If the keyboard can be configured to send midi notes for several midi channels and not only one when you strike a key, then the guy is in luck. But, if not - then - no luck."

Thanks for following this up.

One way of dealing with it is loading up two or more instances of VSTSynthFont and playing them all at once, that will also provide layering by proxy.

RTF · Post by **RTF** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:52 pm

I took some time to audition this on old PC game MIDIs, which tend to really push GM, and found that it had unbalanced levels on many of them - a common problem with mega-sized GM soundfonts - but when it works it works very well.

Sarcyan · Post by **Sarcyan** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:15 pm

RTF wrote:I took some time to audition this on old PC game MIDIs, which tend to really push GM, and found that it had unbalanced levels on many of them - a common problem with mega-sized GM soundfonts - but when it works it works very well.

Thanks for your comments. I have been working on the balance of some instruments these last days and while it wasn't a big issue before, it is a lot less of an issue now.

The main problem with such a large file is that, even if your computer is fast, it takes a while to save, then you have to test if it's 100% compatible so you haven't surpassed the limits of the format and it works with every program out there, tweak and fix things, listen to midis to make sure everything works fine....

If not, then again; save -> test -> tweak -> listen songs... rinse and repeat.

Saving such a file takes its time, and also you have to take into consideration the fact that I listen to the midi files using Synthfont mostly.

But you can find a different unbalance with other programs too, which is made more complicated by the fact that those programs normally have their own Chorus and Reverb settings, so the music sounds slightly different.

I have updated the soundfont just to make it as perfect as possible. It is the last update I will ever make, I am pretty sure of it. But it was worth it, I think.

Cheers

Sarcyan · Post by **Sarcyan** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:21 pm

Version 1.7. Last update of this soundfont I will ever make.

New features:

- Hugely improved Violin, especially the low notes.

- New improved Overdriven guitar.

- New arrangements for the Distortion Guitar (I am very proud of this one, it's based on the Uber Guitar V soundfont) and some output volume tweaks.

- Lots of tweaks regarding the volume of the instruments, drum kits, etc, based on the feedback --thanks.

- Changed Gunshot instrument.

- Improved high notes of the Recorder following the guidelines of the amazing 10 MB Roland SC-55 Soundfont.

- Little fixes concerning the name of some instruments.

Links to download the new and FINAL version:

Musical Box 2GB full GM Soundfont - Part 1 (177 mb)

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?saiddz8eqaw1s3o

Musical Box 2GB full GM Soundfont - Part 2 (177 mb)

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ibbsgz5c02j3v8k

Musical Box 2GB full GM Soundfont - Part 3 (177 mb)

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?a509qqhelvoankh

Musical Box 2GB full GM Soundfont - Part 4 (119 mb)

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oghp4syvoeuvpkj

The soundfont has been compressed with the Soundfont compression utility SFPACK, which you can download here:

http://www.personalcopy.com/sfpack.htm

If you downloaded the Soundfont files in the Internet then you might need a program like WinRAR to uncompress the 4 split RAR files where the Soundfont is compressed to merge them later. The original homepage of Winrar is this one:

http://www.rarlab.com/

Enjoy. :harp:

audiojunkie · Post by **audiojunkie** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 5:07 am

Thank you for this!!! I'll try to re-download this again in the next day or so.

--Sean

Musyng Kite 990MB GM/GS soundfont. Former Evanessence overhaul! 2011-2014 June 21st 2014