KVR Audio

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:51 pm

What are some good programs for creating soundfonts out of my own recorded samples?

raweber · Post by **raweber** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:40 am

There are two major players in soundfont creation: Vienna and Viena. That's right.

Vienna is the creation of E-mu/Creative, who started the whole soundfont spec. You can download it from the Creative website, but you can only run it if you have a Creative sound card, like Sound Blaster.

Viena is from the folks who wrote Synthfont, and is the one I use. Both allow you to build instruments and patches from individual .wav samples. I like Viena because it has a spreadsheet-style interface for editing paramaters.

Either way, there's not much information that I've found on the net about programming soundfonts, and it's a pretty powerful spec - nothing like Kontakt or Giga, but most soundfonts I don't think take advatange of what's available.

Good luck.

C00kie · Post by **C00kie** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:32 am

Apart from Vien(n)a you can also try out Awave Studio by FMJSoft. I found it's GUI a bit more pleasing than Viena.

Lagrange · Post by **Lagrange** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:43 am

A bit obscure but Vdumper will does this quick and easy!

L

raweber · Post by **raweber** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:28 pm

Well, Vdumper is not currently available (http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2363411), and I visited the Awave site. They make a big deal about being able to translate various sample formats, but don't say anything about building soundfonts from individual samples.

I'm not saying they don't do this, but it doesn't appear to be the core function. But, it has a free trial, so if you want to give it a try, at least you're not out anything but your time if it doesn't work out.

C00kie · Post by **C00kie** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:50 pm

raweber wrote:I visited the Awave site. They make a big deal about being able to translate various sample formats, but don't say anything about building soundfonts from individual samples.

To them it's just a simple "conversion": from .WAV to .SF2

raweber wrote:I'm not saying they don't do this, but it doesn't appear to be the core function.

I am saying from first-hand experience it can do that. You can build soundfonts from simple WAV files and edit all the extra parameters the SF2 format provides.

raweber wrote:But, it has a free trial, so if you want to give it a try, at least you're not out anything but your time if it doesn't work out.

The demo version allows you to save soundfont files (as long as they only have one instrument patch in them) so you can try out how it works for you.

I'm not saying FMJSoft's Awave Studio is the best soundfont editor around, just spreading the word it exists and it's an option to consider.

John Vulich · Post by **John Vulich** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:51 pm

MaliceX · Post by **MaliceX** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:55 pm

There was one good one... Audio Compositor.
Easy to use but a bit buggy at times. I think the author's site disappeared a while ago.

grymmjack · Post by **grymmjack** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:54 pm

memyselfandus wrote:What are some good programs for creating soundfonts out of my own recorded samples?

if you own extreme sample converter, you can use kontakt to create your multisamples (or even highlife to sample the vsti) then convert the nki/sfz file to sf2.

to combine more than one instrument there is a soundfont bank librarian program that is free.

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 2:15 am

Awesome, whats the deal with copywrite and sampling old keyboards and stuff?

MaliceX · Post by **MaliceX** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:10 am

The best thing is to keep it to yourself or in private...though with older stuff as long you're not selling them it should be good.

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:18 am

Im wondering because I see a lot of really cool sample collections you can buy online that are recorded from older drum machines and stuff and if I find an old
keyboard that is no longer made then if I sample it can I sell the sample sets
or no?

Ben H · Post by **Ben H** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 3:42 am

memyselfandus wrote:Im wondering because I see a lot of really cool sample collections you can buy online that are recorded from older drum machines and stuff and if I find an old
keyboard that is no longer made then if I sample it can I sell the sample sets
or no?

If it is analog - Yes.
If it contains samples - No

Just be sure ALSO not to infringe on a devs trademark by either using their name eg Roland, or their model eg JV1080, or you will find yourself in legal trouble.

And search the forums for the long discussions about this.

SoundFonts