Free General GM Set?

Sampler and Sampling discussion (techniques, tips and tricks, etc.)
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There is a cool idea on another thread for a company to make a very nice GM with 128 high quality instruments and sell it. That got me thinking, can you find all 128 sounds for free? In general I'm leaning toward Kontakt and trying to list only one or two of each instrument. So my slowly building, somewhat selfish list.

Piano
0 Acoustic Grand Piano
Maestro Concert Grand Giga
City Piano Kontakt
1 Bright Acoustic Piano
Amore Grand Piano Kontakt
Salamander Piano Kontakt
2 Electric Grand Piano
Yamaha CP80 Electric Grand Piano Giga
3 Honky-tonk Piano
Shoot the Piano Kontakt
4 Electric Piano 1
Wurlitzer 200A Kontakt
5 Electric Piano 2
Hohner Pianet T Electric Piano Giga
6 Harpsichord
The Small Italian Kontakt
The Blanchet 1720 Kontakt
7 Clavinet
Hispasonic Sampled Series Kontakt part of Vintage Keys

Chromatic Percussion
8 Celesta
Necromare Celesta Vsti
9 Glockenspiel
soundcloud.com/today-i-will/sets/jonathans-glockenspiel-demos (copy and paste the url)
Jonathans Glockenspiel Kontakt
Xylophon Studio 49 Royal Percussion Kontakt
10 Music Box
Bolder Sounds Music Box Kontakt
W-MusicBox Kontakt
11 Vibraphone
Xoxos Phybes Vsti
12 Marimba
Bolder Sounds Toy and African Marimbas Kontakt
13 Xylophone
dmihammer Vsti
14 Tubular Bells -
TCO Orchestra Kontakt has a set of Orchestral Chimes
Bell and Chime Simulator Carillon Vsti
Church Bells The Ghent Carillon SF2
15 Dulcimer
Boulder Sounds Music Maker V4 Kontakt Kid's Hammer Dulcimer
DSK World StringZ Vsti

Organ (Drawbar, Percussive and Rock are basically lumped together here)
16 Drawbar Organ
Pettinhouse Vinyl Hammond Kontakt (mute the scratch)
AZR3 Vsti
17 Percussive Organ
S3O and Morphiza Mk2 Vsti
18 Rock Organ
Combo Model F Vsti
NuBi LE Vsti
19 Church Organ
Waves Factory 1850 Pipe Organ Kontakt
House Pipe Organ Orgue de Salon Kontakt
20 Reed Organ
Magnus Chord Organ Kontakt
Supertone Vsti
21 Accordion
Diato : a diatonic accordion Kontakt
Bolder Sounds Button Accordion Kontakt
22 Harmonica
Bolder Sounds Harmonica Kontakt
Boulder Sounds Harmonica Riffs Kontakt
23 Tango Accordion
Concertina Mac only soundfont How to use in Windows

Guitar
24 Acoustic Guitar (nylon)
Pettinhouse ClassicGuitarFREE Kontakt
Natural Concert Guitar SFZ
25 Acoustic Guitar (steel)
Pettinhouse AcousticGuitarFREE Kontakt
Flamestudios Seagull and Ibanez Kontakt
26 Electric Guitar (jazz)
Pettinhouse WarmJazzFREE Kontakt
27 Electric Guitar (clean)
Pettinhouse DirectGuitar 2.0 FREE Kontakt
Hephaestus Clean Guitar Kontakt
28 Electric Guitar (muted)
Waves Factory Power Guitars - Free Kontakt
29 Overdriven Guitar
Pettinhouse HumbuckerFREE Kontakt
Junk Guitar Kontakt
30 Distortion Guitar
Thrash DI Kontakt
NI Guitar Rig Free to distort all these guitars
31 Guitar Harmonics
Suburban Guitarist by Greg Jazz has Harmonics Vsti

Here are 10 more guitars Flame Studios Guitars Giga

Bass
32 Acoustic Bass
Chad's Double Bass Kontakt
Flamestudios Washburn Kontakt
33 Electric Bass (finger)
Pettinhouse DirectBass 2.0 FREE Kontakt
Greg Jazz XMas Bass
34 Electric Bass (pick)
Turtle Sounds Bass SFZ fingered and picked
35 Fretless Bass
EZ Fretless SF2
36 Slap Bass 1
Precission E-Bass SFZ fingered and slapped
37 Slap Bass 2
Rickenbacker 4001 by Project 16 Kontakt slapped, picked and fingered non-mute and mute
38 Synth Bass 1
OMB1 Vsti
EVM Bassline Vsti
39 Synth Bass 2
DSK BassZ Vsti

Complete Free Orchestras are available that contain many of the instruments in the following five categories.
Total Composure Orchestra Kontakt
Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra SFZ
Sasje's Orchestra One Part One Kontakt
Sasje's Orchestra One Part Two Kontakt

Strings
40 Violin
Depone Violin Kontakt
41 Viola
DSK Strings Vst
Not a Viola Sasje's Viola Da Gamba Kontakt
42 Cello
pocketBlakus Cello Kontakt
43 Contrabass
D. Smolken's multi-sampled double bass SFZ or now for Kontakt
44 Tremolo Strings 45 Pizzicato Strings
Orchestral Strings One Vsti Does Tremolo, Pizzicato, Staccato, Glissando, Vibrato
Staccato Strings Cornucopia: Strings freebie Kontakt, halfway down page
46 Orchestral Harp
Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra
DIY Harp? M Theory Vst that emulates plucked string type instruments
Celtic Harp DSK World Strings Vsti
47 Timpani
Total Composure Orchestra
Samsara Cycle Audio Kettle Drum VSTi

Ensemble
48 String Ensemble 1
Embertone Intimate Strings Lite Kontakt
49 String Ensemble 2
DSK Strings Vsti
50 Synth Strings 1
Hollowsun Freebies Kontakt including Novachord, PolyMoog Strings and SQ Strings
Analogue Orchestra Lite Kontakt
Crazy Diamonds Vsti
51 Synth Strings 2
String Synth Vsti
Elektrostudio eSLine Vsti
52 Choir Aahs
Mihai Sorohan Vowel Ensemble Kontakt
53 Voice Oohs
Hephaestus Female Solo Kontakt
bigcat Betsy Kontakt
54 Synth Choir
DSK ChoirZ
55 Orchestra Hit
Proteus VX Vsti, lots of good old sounds including Orchestra Hits
Softrave presents Orch Hit VSTi Do you trust exe instrument files? Still its listed on KVR so...

Brass
56 Trumpet
Sasje's The Trumpet Kontakt
Solo Trumpet Kontakt
Fortissimo Trumpet Ensemble
57 Trombone
Solo Trombone Kontakt
Fortissimo Trombone Ensemble Kontakt
58 Tuba
DSK Brass Vsti
59 Muted Trumpet
Mihai Sorohan Muted Trumpet SF2
60 French Horn
Solo French Horn Kontakt
Fortissimo Horn Ensemble Kontakt
61 Brass Section
Noisecrux Brass Ensemble Sampler SFZ
62 Synth Brass 1
Rticul8R Vsti
63 Synth Brass 2
polyIblit Vsti

Reed
64 Soprano Sax 65 Alto Sax 66 Tenor Sax
Iowa Soprano & Alto Sax, Club Alto & Tenor Sax Kontakt
HS Saxotopia - Soprano, Alto and Tenor Kontakt
DSK Saxophone - Soprano, Alto and Tenor Vsti
DVS Sax Vsti
Anthony's Philharmonic Alto Sax SFZ
67 Baritone Sax
Club Baritone Sax Kontakt
68 Oboe
Hephaestus Oboe Kontakt
Anthony's Philharmonic Oboe SFZ
69 English Horn
DSK Overture Vsti
70 Bassoon
Anthony's Philharmonic Bassoon SFZ
71 Clarinet
Hephaestus Clarinet Kontakt
Philharmonia Clarinet Kontakt
Anthony's Philharmonic Clarinet SFZ

Pipe
72 Piccolo
DSK Virtuoso Vsti
73 Flute
Anthony's Philharmonic Flute SFZ
WooFlute Kontakt Bamboo Flute
74 Recorder
RECsoprano Kontakt
Feroyn's Flute Kontakt (note he says he sampled from a Recorder)
75 Pan Flute
The Panflute Gift Kontakt
76 Blown bottle
Beer Bottle Kontakt
77 Shakuhachi
Mini DiZi Vsti Chinese rather than Japanese flute
Varazuvi Indian Flute Vsti
78 Whistle
The Shepherd Vsti Whistling Simulator
Alto Tin Flute Kontakt
79 Ocarina
PrecisionSound Peruvian Ocarina Kontakt

I just put a ton of freeware synths in the different slots so go download them all and you'll surely find many versions of every GM Synth sound plus 12.376 trillion more.

Synth Lead
80 Lead 1 (square)
Fender Chroma Polaris Kontakt
81 Lead 2 (sawtooth)
Synth One Vst
82 Lead 3 (calliope)
Akia AH80 Kontakt
83 Lead 4 (chiff)
u-he TyrellN6 Vst
84 Lead 5 (charang)
Oatmeal Vst
85 Lead 6 (voice)
BPB Commodore 64 Synthesizer Sessions Kontakt
86 Lead 7 (fifths)
AZ SimSyn Part 3 Kontakt
87 Lead 8 (bass + lead)
Hollowsun Bass Station Kontakt

Synth Pad
88 Pad 1 (new age)
Ohm Force Symptohm Vst
89 Pad 2 (warm)
de la Mancha FMMF Vst
90 Pad 3 (polysynth)
Julian Ray Pad A Day Kontakt
91 Pad 4 (choir)
Hollowsun Aah Kontakt
92 Pad 5 (bowed)
Kosmonaut Kontakt
93 Pad 6 (metallic)
u-he Zebralette Vst
94 Pad 7 (halo)
Morfiki MassTurboTar Vst
95 Pad 8 (sweep)
AZ SimSyn Part 6 Kontakt

Synth Effects
96 FX 1 (rain)
Jeremy Evers Atlantis Vst
97 FX 2 (soundtrack)
Krog MS-20 Kontakt
98 FX 3 (crystal)
Green Oak Crystal Vst
99 FX 4 (atmosphere)
KX-Synth-X16-V3 Vst
100 FX 5 (brightness)
Elektrostudio Or2v Vst
101 FX 6 (goblins)
Crazy Sounds 1, Crazy Sounds 2 and Crazy Sounds 3 Kontakt
102 FX 7 (echoes)
Cakewalk Synths Vst
103 FX 8 (sci-fi)
Space and Time Kontakt

Ethnic
104 Sitar
Bolder Sounds Electric Sitar Loops Kontakt
Impact Soundworks Trial Pack Kontakt include Sitar Nation Instrument and tons more.
105 Banjo
Flame Studios Kay 5 String Banjo Kontakt
DIY harm banjo Kontakt
106 Shamisen
yukinisuzume Shamisen Kontakt
107 Koto
yukinisuzume Koto Kontakt
108 Kalimba
Bolder Sounds Thumb Piano Kontakt
109 Bagpipe (suggestion just use the ones included in Kontakt)
Crazy Diamonds Vst use Braveheart Patch
Bagpipes 1 Soundfont or Sf2Midi type Bagpipes Soundfonts
110 Fiddle
MSLP Folk Violin Lofberg Kontakt
111 Shanai

Percussive
112 Tinkle Bell
113 Agogo
114 Steel Drums
Lead Steel Drum Kontakt
Hang Drum Kontakt
115 Woodblock
Flame Studios FS Percussion Giga
116 Taiko Drum
117 Melodic Tom
118 Synth Drum
Wave Alchemy Synth Drums Taster Kontakt
119 Reverse Cymbal

Sound effects
120 Guitar Fret Noise
Flame Studios Acoustic Guitars Kontakt Both guitars contain guitar effects that can be loaded separately.
121 Breath Noise
122 Seashore
123 Bird Tweet
XoXos Sounds of Nature Vst
Atom Hub Cuckoo Kontakt
Kinda Klose bigcat Goose Kontakt
124 Telephone Ring
125 Helicopter
Cobra 1 Vst
bigcat Helicopter Kontakt
126 Applause
FXpansion ClapOMatic Vst. I think free if you sign up for an account. I bought BFD Eco so can't test free account.
127 Gunshot



Thanks to Bedroom Producer Blog, Rekkard and akingsmercury for their many links to free instruments.
Last edited by bigcat1969 on Mon Apr 14, 2014 4:49 pm, edited 124 times in total.
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You'll never find a good multisampled helicopter :D

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bigcat: Do you plan to build it and announce in this thread?

I vote Kontakt. Is there another alternative?

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You are generous to share what you've done in this worthy endeavour... thanks!

Would be useful -- if it's not too much hassle -- to add in others' contributions to your master list

My contributions:

-- Oboe (Kontakt)

http://www.hephaestussounds.com/

(under Products / Sample Libraries / For N.I. Kontakt /Try)
(Haven't tried myself, but dev says it's free)

-- String section (Kontakt)
http://embertone.com/freebies/intstrings-lite.php

-- Cello (Kontakt, Halion)
http://www.asinusadlyram.com/pocketBlakus/

-- Dog bark (Kontakt)
http://www.atomhub.net/Free_Barking_Buddy.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tDj_Van ... uNbgY-4qFK

I'm not the Messiah. I'm not the Messiah!

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Lol, Nasenmann I think you may be right. I only barely found a concertina type instrument as it is.

Musical Gym, let me quickly qualify. I'm just trying to find all 128 sounds I'm not trying to build them myself. Though if I can find good public domain samples of something that isn't in an instrument form already, I might try to make that instrument. In general if there is a Kontakt version and a non-Kontakt version that are similar I'll pick the Kontakt version.

Thanks Lingyai. I will use those when I get up to those instruments on the list. If anyone has good suggestions for instruments, thinks there are better ones than the ones I've found, notices I've got the wrong instruments slotted somewhere, etc... Please add in your contributions I'll add them in to the list.
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I'm sure I saw a list like this somewhere recently...

Any of the GM Soundfonts (Arachno - http://www.arachnosoft.com/main/soundfont.php )
(Christian Collins - http://www.schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php )
(FluidSynth or others - try this link: http://www.synthfont.com/links_to_soundfonts.html )
to name a few (Google is our friend) can be converted to sfz and imported to Kontakt, with relative success.

A number of people were raving about the SONiVOX GM Soundset a few years ago. So I spent the $100 for it. It's 250 meg - and while it's not useless, it's not really worth all that expense (for me).

As I'm sure you know, hephaestus sounds are building their "General Midi Flagship" product, but it's FAR more than just 128 "sounds"

Anyway, I'm sure it wouldn't take long - I tried it a while ago, and while the conversion wasn't bad, it sort of seemed like a waste to load each one in Kontakt, when I could just use Sforzando to load the entire bank...

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Yeah I the Hephaestus thread is what made me start wondering if you could do a version based on freebies. Their version should be orders of magnitude better than mixing and matching freebie instruments and shoving them in whether they fit or not. I certainly didn't mean to imply otherwise. Its a great project I hope they can complete it and make it affordable.

While there is variance (fretless bass on this list is awful) and that will grow in this list, I think many of the instruments included are significantly better than any sound font collection. The 11 instruments in the pianos category are several gigs by themselves and reasonably high quality. The guitars are likewise better than any basic GM collection I've ever heard. Thanks Pettinhouse. So I think it might be worth doing, but mostly it seemed like a fun challenge to see what I could find and how close i could come to all of the 'classic' GM sounds that are so important in the history of the electronic music biz.
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We still need FREE multi-sampled stereophonic psychoacoustic helicopters on this list. Surely *someone* has a spare Huey in their backyard...

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A list like this could be quite valuable - downloading some horn ensembles now...

Btw if you want bowed bass for program 43, you could use mine (link in sig) - it's SFZ but if somebody wants to convert it to Kontakt they're welcome to. Then you could use the current bass for channel 32. I think that's how most of the 90s General MIDI keyboards were configured, 32 was a plucked double bass (though an acoustic bass guitar is also a good alternative) and 43 was bowed.

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DSmolken wrote:A list like this could be quite valuable - downloading some horn ensembles now...

Btw if you want bowed bass for program 43, you could use mine (link in sig) - it's SFZ but if somebody wants to convert it to Kontakt they're welcome to.
Thanks! Unless I'm losing my mind, someone's already done that - since I downloaded it on 7 March. All attributions intact, and appreciated. It's a great library!

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Thanks DSmolken. I put your instrument in there as SFZ. I've got work and such today, but I can work on that as a Kontakt instrument unless Hueynym can find where he got a Kontakt version from, which would be cool.

Anyone know of good Fretless Bass, Tango Accordion / Concertina or Orchestra Stabs? Those seem to be our greatest weaknesses at the moment.
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lol about the helicopters :D

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bigcat1969 wrote:Thanks DSmolken. I put your instrument in there as SFZ. I've got work and such today, but I can work on that as a Kontakt instrument unless Hueynym can find where he got a Kontakt version from, which would be cool.
Either way it would be cool - it will make the bass useful to more people, which is the whole reason I put it out there in the first place. Though I think that it might have been Chad's pizz bass that got converted to Kontakt by somebody - possibly yourself?

Good orchestra stabs would be fun... I had a friend back in the day who had a nice MIDI keyboard (and a home electric organ), the "orchestra hit" program was our favorite to mess with.

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NO GM soundset is complete without Soundtrack :(

(it's the fifth pad in I think the Synth category).

Quite easy to make, two squarewaves a fifth apart, with a pad filter envelope. But it's been so long since I heard a *real* Soundtrack patch, I'm going from memory.

Ice Rain was another cool one
http://sendy.bandcamp.com/releases < My new album at Bandcamp! Now pay what you like!

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DSmolken, yeah I did do that. So many things happening I almost forgot. Let try to convert yours to Kontakt if I'm clever enough. Thanks for the permission.

Interesting mp3s of D-50 on this page if you want to hear the Soundtrack pad again. Actually if you were careful you could likely take those mp3 samples and create pads from them, though you couldn't distribute them or Roland would have a heart attack with your heart.
http://www.synthmania.com/d-50.htm
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