KVR Audio

Frippertronix · Post by **Frippertronix** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 1:08 am

I'm getting together a library of freeware soundfonts because I need an easier way to work on composing in MIDI than ReWiring GS3 in Tracktion 2, which takes a huge CPU hit, so I'm going to work stuff out in SF's first and then render it through GS3.

Can you give me some suggestions of where to look for the best SF's you know of, just one in each category would be fine, or if you know of a site that has a lot of really quality ones.

The one I've tried so far that blew me away was Jeux pipe organ, which sounds better to me than the organ I have for GS.

I need:

Grand Piano

String section

Orchestral horn section

Choir or solo vocal.

A great analog synth lead sound would be great, too, if you know of any.

Thanks very much for any advice,
Dave

egarrard · Post by **egarrard** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 3:04 am

Soundfonts have been a real disappointment to me. I haven't heard any piano ones that beat "The Grand", at least among the free ones.

As to the synth, you might just get one of the free synth VSTis.

And for organ? Hauptwerk is greeeeaatt! Not VST-compatable though, but you can run the audio into a host fairly easily.

Frippertronix · Post by **Frippertronix** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 3:28 am

egarrard wrote:Soundfonts have been a real disappointment to me. I haven't heard any piano ones that beat "The Grand", at least among the free ones.

As to the synth, you might just get one of the free synth VSTis.

And for organ? Hauptwerk is greeeeaatt! Not VST-compatable though, but you can run the audio into a host fairly easily.

How much does Hauptwerk cost?

TheStorm · Post by **TheStorm** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 1:20 pm

I use the Sir James Orchestral SF2 quite a bit, although it can be hard to find (look on hammersound first). It contains nearly everything you're looking for, including fantastic strings and a choir that's unbelievably good. Unfortunately, I haven't found a very good brass section yet, although there's lots around. I just haven't written a piece featuring brass, so i have nothing to compare it to. Anyway, I'd suggest you get the SJ Orchestral soundfont to start, then keep adding to your collection. Every now and then I go on a SF2 expedition and download a bunch.

pHz · Post by **pHz** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 2:04 pm

(moved from instruments to samples etc ... )

Voidoid Surrealist · Post by **Voidoid Surrealist** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 1:27 am

TheStorm wrote:I use the Sir James Orchestral SF2 quite a bit, although it can be hard to find (look on hammersound first). It contains nearly everything you're looking for, including fantastic strings and a choir that's unbelievably good. Unfortunately, I haven't found a very good brass section yet, although there's lots around. I just haven't written a piece featuring brass, so i have nothing to compare it to. Anyway, I'd suggest you get the SJ Orchestral soundfont to start, then keep adding to your collection. Every now and then I go on a SF2 expedition and download a bunch.

So THAT's what SJ stands for!
/been wondering that for a while.

Anyway, don't forget about Papelmedia...nice free choir there, as well as some other goodies:
http://www.papelmedia.de/english/download/download.htm

winegums100 · Post by **winegums100** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 6:55 am

There have been some pretty good choir postings on SF2MIDI lately, along with some other orchestral stuff. I liked the 'REAL Choir Eehs' cos it's a bit different to the usual 'Ahh's!
http://www.sf2midi.com/index.php?page=sdet&id=6866

I found recently a free donwload demo page for the Notre Dame de Budapest organ, though it's in giga format. Sounds good though and might be worth a download (but it is over 300mb!

)
http://www.orgona.org/e_demo.php

Winegums100

Jeremy_NSL · Post by **Jeremy_NSL** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:00 am

egarrard wrote:Soundfonts have been a real disappointment to me. I haven't heard any piano ones that beat "The Grand", at least among the free ones.

And you were expecting free soundfonts to beat The Grand? Your expectations were set too high if thats the case.. Lots of great sf2s out there but lets keep it in perspective. The Grand is what, $200 and over 1gb of audio?

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:37 am

The Mjalmstroem piano SF2 can be downloaded at the Auditorium, and it's quite good for free. The same goes for the 256MB version of "splendid grand", but it seems that it's not free anymore (only the 70MB version is).
The SJO soundfont is really nice for free, but as there's been unlcear copyright conditions Spe3d didn't want to host it at the Auditorium (understandable).
The allready mentioned Papelmedia soundfonts are nice for choires. I'm not sure how much luck you'll have in finding good horns.
I'd like some good ones myself - but I got Kontakt 2, which is pretty much sorting out my orchestral needs... still, I'd love to have some horns suitable for pop and bigband styles. If anybody knows of a good free soundfont, please let me know.
So far it looks as if I'll have to wait for Garritans new library.

winegums100 · Post by **winegums100** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:18 am

Sascha Franck wrote:... still, I'd love to have some horns suitable for pop and bigband styles. If anybody knows of a good free soundfont, please let me know.
So far it looks as if I'll have to wait for Garritans new library.

Just downloaded a brass/horns soundfont from SF2MIDI - sounds good from the samples but haven't tried it out fully yet...
http://www.sf2midi.com/index.php?page=sdet&id=6901

Winegums100

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:15 am

winegums100 wrote: Just downloaded a brass/horns soundfont from SF2MIDI - sounds good from the samples but haven't tried it out fully yet...
http://www.sf2midi.com/index.php?page=sdet&id=6901

Hm, the samples are full of spikes, there's some more than questionable samples, looppoints are as bad as it could get and the mapping is shit too.
=> Trashbin.

Klemperer · Post by **Klemperer** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:57 pm

Frippertronix wrote:
How much does Hauptwerk cost?

70 Euros at the moment I think, plus some VAT.

Frippertronix · Post by **Frippertronix** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 1:33 am

Thanks to everyone for the replies. Sorry I posted this in the wrong place at first---I totally missed this forum. Looks likw I'll be back here in the future to check out a lot of good info.

Thanks again,
Dave

lawapa · Post by **lawapa** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 1:55 am

Major sound font list in the rgcaudio forum. These might not be recient. But the list is a great starting point.

Patrice Brousseau · Post by **Patrice Brousseau** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 2:55 am

Grand Piano: Maestro Grand or Iowa University Steinway (theses ones can be found on the Auditorium)

String section: SJO or Squidfont (http://soundfonts.darkesword.com/fonts/ ... ral.sfpack)

Orchestral horn section: Papelmedia or Squidfont

Choir or solo vocal: Papelmedia

Voilà...

Looking for tips on soundfonts---your faves in a few categor