PHENOME VSTi | BEST FREE SF2 PLAYER | v1.70 released!

[audiojunkie]

I'm currently updating Phenome to v1.5, with the following changes:

-all "LCD" controls will be changed to popup-menu instead of mouse up/down.
-add textfields for program/multi name
and author
-add patch/bank (FXP/FXB) buttons
-effect returns are now "on" at default
-add filter drive/distort
-add note-off trigger mode
-might change the echo effect to a built-in reverb...

numerical value readout will follow later!

Sounds Excellent!!! Any plans on adding the ability to unload a soundfont as well?

--Sean

oh, yes, sure! i'm thinking of a small "x" button in each layer

Excellent!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!

--Sean

[b4serenity]

First of all, thanks for all your hard work Sonicfire refining this, and it's only one of your free ones too!

To all, what are the advantages to using this player for soundfonts over other programs already out there? What does it do that others don't already? This isn't a put-down on the program or Sonicfire's generosity at all, but I just figure someone here will know more about this stuff than I do! Thanks in advance!

[SciFiArtMan]

what are the advantages to using this player for soundfonts over other programs already out there?

Do the others have this (from original post):
- 8 part/layer multitimbral
- selectable MIDI channels for each layer
- layering of soundfonts for multisetups
- supports standard patch/bank selection
- various interpolation methods
- highquality 8x oversampling
- volume/panning for each layer
- selectable keysplit for each layer
- fine- and semi-tuning
- built in phrase arpeggiator with step/gate mode
- built in multimode filter
- built in unison/widener
- built in stereodelay, monodelay and chorus
- flexible polyphonic note-stealing
- 8 stereo (16 mono) audio outputs!
- 256 voice polyphony (8x 32 voices)
- fully automatable
- MIDI learn for any knob/fader/dial
- total recall
- VST2.0 compliant
- low CPU usage / low RAM overhead

Well there you go then!


SciFiArtMan

[b4serenity]

Thanks for the reply, but you answered my question with a question. ; )I'm asking because I don't know all the feature sets of other players and I thought someone else would know how this stacks up to the others.

I remember reading that some SF players don't actually use all the info within the SFs and that SFZ does utilize all this info. Does this one?

For those of you that switched from other SF players ...why? Which features of this program do you find so much better than your old one?

Again, this isn't to disrespect this program at all...in fact it could verify it's superiority!

[sonicfire]

@b4serenity: This sf2 layer thing is something i still have to find out. Didn't had much time for testing the last days since there was my birthday, besides this i'm a bit ill (have a cold since 5 days now) - but things are moving

I'm currently updating Phenome with the features i posted some threads ago here. I still have to find a way to "unload" soundfonts (as stupid as it may sound) but this shouldn't be hard once i'll find the route.

Besides this the next release (v1.5) will feature preset saving and loading!
This means you can now save individual channel (layer)-presets and easily load them back on any free layer. This means you can also sort of copy and paste layers. (Through saving to disk).

Also if soundfonts are missing or aren't at their expected location, Phenome will tell you this.

Last but not least a new "Layer Lock"-feature has been added. So you cant accidentally overwrite a layer's setting when browsing through presets. Might be handy sometimes.

To be continued...

[sonicfire]

[crisis-at-music]

A browser, a browser!

What's about the question of SF2 parameter interpretation? Some older SF2 players made with SynthEdit sound very different compared to the "godfather of players" SFZ/SFZ+. How does Phenome compare?

[Nahkranoth]

What's about the question of SF2 parameter interpretation? Some older SF2 players made with SynthEdit sound very different compared to the "godfather of players" SFZ/SFZ+. How does Phenome compare?

Even that "godfather" sometimes fails miserably on some soundfonts like molecula.sf2 (I guess that's how it is called) or was it analog.sf2?

[Fortune]

A browser, a browser!

What's about the question of SF2 parameter interpretation? Some older SF2 players made with SynthEdit sound very different compared to the "godfather of players" SFZ/SFZ+. How does Phenome compare?

While SFZ emulates (kind of) a whole SB Live system with it's filter and other settings like EG, LFO etc. stored in an SF2 file as well as supporting multi instrument layered SF2 presets SE basically does use only the wavefiles in an SF2 file with info for looppoints, rootkey etc. SE does not support multi instrument layered SF2 presets except for velocity switching layers thus with SE you'll just have one wave playing at a time. That explains the major differences in sound between both systems.

Also this might explain why some SF2 files don't work properly in SFZ for if some settings like VCA EG ADSR or Cutoff have been set to 0 nothing will sound. Such settings in an SF2 files are not needed for it's usage within e.g. an SE project.

hth
HG

[crisis-at-music]

Thanks for the info! I was not aware that SFZ "emulates" the SB live system. Very interesting.

[MRT]

I'm finding this to be a nice tool for soundfonts adding new life to old sounds.
One option I'd like to see would be a layer reset, to zero/initialize all setting on a layer. I like being able to change the sound font and demo the sound with your tweaked setting, but sometimes I'd like to change the sound and start from scratch.

[sonicfire]

A browser, a browser!

What's about the question of SF2 parameter interpretation? Some older SF2 players made with SynthEdit sound very different compared to the "godfather of players" SFZ/SFZ+. How does Phenome compare?

Have yet to find that out. I know its way better now, but i will talk to Jeff, who made Synthedit!

[sonicfire]

I'm finding this to be a nice tool for soundfonts adding new life to old sounds.
One option I'd like to see would be a layer reset, to zero/initialize all setting on a layer. I like being able to change the sound font and demo the sound with your tweaked setting, but sometimes I'd like to change the sound and start from scratch.

Thats a good idea, guess i will implement that later on. For now you could easily have an "init" preset or something that you can load for that purpose.

[barrybitter]

I'm finding this to be a nice tool for soundfonts adding new life to old sounds.
One option I'd like to see would be a layer reset, to zero/initialize all setting on a layer. I like being able to change the sound font and demo the sound with your tweaked setting, but sometimes I'd like to change the sound and start from scratch.

Thats a good idea, guess i will implement that later on. For now you could easily have an "init" preset or something that you can load for that purpose.

Sonicfire, can you please make your site accessible to non flash users, or at least make your vsti availble without the need to have flash plugin installed. I recently uninstalled Flash player, as I got sick of all the security exploits with Adobe products, mainly Flash player, and adobe reader, and I generally prefer to avoid flash sites as they can be a real danger. I tried an earlier version of your plugin and it looked really promising, but I would really like to see if some of the issues I was having have been fixed. Many thanks.

[sonicfire]

I'm finding this to be a nice tool for soundfonts adding new life to old sounds.
One option I'd like to see would be a layer reset, to zero/initialize all setting on a layer. I like being able to change the sound font and demo the sound with your tweaked setting, but sometimes I'd like to change the sound and start from scratch.

Thats a good idea, guess i will implement that later on. For now you could easily have an "init" preset or something that you can load for that purpose.

Sonicfire, can you please make your site accessible to non flash users, or at least make your vsti availble without the need to have flash plugin installed. I recently uninstalled Flash player, as I got sick of all the security exploits with Adobe products, mainly Flash player, and adobe reader, and I generally prefer to avoid flash sites as they can be a real danger. I tried an earlier version of your plugin and it looked really promising, but I would really like to see if some of the issues I was having have been fixed. Many thanks.

Oh...erm. What i can offer you is a mail-delivery of that plugin? Which plugin are you talking about? Thanks.