KVR Audio

JonathanAnon · Post by **JonathanAnon** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:18 pm

Hi guys,

I convert MIDI files into MP3 using an application that lets you choose any Soundfont bank (not single soundfonts). So far I've been using Fluid R3, RealFont, Crisis, UGM, SGM v2.01 and a number of other ones.

I was considering buying the Papelmedia SF2 XXL Final, but this is four years old, and didnt get great reviews. I've also seen a SoniVox 250MB GM Bank, but I am unsure how good this is either.

Can anyone recommend a commercial balanced GM bank that is of high quality?

regards,
J

dougsyo · Post by **dougsyo** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:13 pm

Almost every free (and some commercial) GM soundfont bank I've heard has deficiencies. On one, the Hammond Organ was awful. I think on another the brass instruments weren't that great.

Ntonyx has a free 32MB GM soundfont that could be worth the download.

Other than the Sonivox Retro Synth GM Wavetable, I've abandoned soundfonts for GM.

I have the Wusikstation GM set, Omnisynth (Sampletank format), and Omnisoundz 2 (Kontakt/SR Infinite Player) that I'd much rather use. I also have Forte DXI, TTS-1 (Cakewalk's license of Edirol Hypercanvas), and Edirol VSC-MP1, but they are pretty primitive by comparison.

Doug

Count_fuzzball · Post by **Count_fuzzball** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 7:53 pm

Maybe an idea, would be to combine the best of each of the GM banks so it suits your tastes?

timobrien · Post by **timobrien** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 9:40 pm

To add a couple more, I've used the free Unison and Cadenza as full GM banks.

Everybody's tastes are different....

Rathead · Post by **Rathead** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:05 pm

Yeah, there aren't really any GM sets that don't have a few dud sounds.

Best I have tried (the good sounds are VERY good) is proVitamin_full_GMSet.SF2
I can recommend you try this although I can't remember where I got it from but it is easy to find on Google. It is BIG though.

dhanjit · Post by **dhanjit** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:24 pm

Rathead wrote:Best I have tried (the good sounds are VERY good) is proVitamin_full_GMSet.SF2
I can recommend you try this although I can't remember where I got it from but it is easy to find on Google. It is BIG though.

http://www.reasonbanks.com/refill_proVitamin.html
Both Refill and SoundFont versions.

JonathanAnon · Post by **JonathanAnon** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:29 pm

Hi guys, thanks for your replies so far.

Count_fuzzball, I would rather just use the one Soundfont for simplicity, and to make it easily transferable to my friends computer. This is a big deal for me, as I used to use VSTs and I found it very awkward to move between PCs. I use it for putting together backing tracks (one man band) and play these back as mp3 on Creative Zen.

dhanjit, That pro Vitamin looks good, pity I cant use the demo (in Reason format). However, it's only 27 euro, so I would nearly risk it if I thought it was better than what I have. so any other opinions on the ProVitamin?

Rathead · Post by **Rathead** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 8:57 am

There are a couple of utilities (Soundfont Librarian comes to mind) that allow you to compile a soundfont set from bits pulled from other soundfont sets. You could, given enough patience, make your own GM set with instruments selected and culled from other GM sets. It's not really that hard when you look into it.

JonathanAnon · Post by **JonathanAnon** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 9:47 am

Rathead, thought I'm not sure if I'm comfortable addressing somebody as such

, I have thought about this. I looked up the Creative stuff about Soundfonts, but it seemed like it would be difficult to merge two sets. I will look into this also.

93143 · Post by **93143** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:29 am

Fluid R3 has some good sounds. A fair number of them, actually. Some duds too - the trumpet is FAR better than the trombone, for instance...

Rathead · Post by **Rathead** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:13 am

JonathanAnon wrote:Rathead, thought I'm not sure if I'm comfortable addressing somebody as such , I have thought about this. I looked up the Creative stuff about Soundfonts, but it seemed like it would be difficult to merge two sets. I will look into this also.

As for 'Rathead',

it just demonstrates the wisdom of not signing up to a forum late at night after a million drinks.

Pro vitamin is good and great for the money if you really need to do your work with GM soundfonts. Sometimes though better results can be had (for the expenditure of much effort sorting through the crap) by assembling one yourself using samples and soundfonts you may already have to hand.
It is not really very hard: see this site for excellent tools and tutorial info. Give it a bash. If you have already looked here and found it too confusing, my advice is either:

a) Get / buy a good GM soundont like those listed in the responses above and make do with it.

b) Bite the bullet and learn to hack soundfonts yourself. If you have one which is satisfactory apart from a lousy tuba, and you have a good tuba in another one, it is not too hard to cut and paste.

c) Give soundfonts away altogether and move on to something a bit further up the food chain. Soundfonts can give good results but after a while one craves the flexibilty and expression of instruments or 'articulated samples' like kontakt etc.

d) If you haven't already done so, try synthfont at http://www.synthfont.c om/ for another perspective on soundfonts.

http://connect.creativelabs.com/develop ... Items.aspx

Good luck!

fanfarecircuit · Post by **fanfarecircuit** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:19 am

you probably can't go wrong with the sonivox gm set. the papelmedia set SUCKS.

i really do like the wusik gm set... it's pretty decent sounding all the way around.

goldbaker · Post by **goldbaker** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 3:51 pm

I'm in the process of accumulating a few soundfonts now for use with the free musecsore notation program. A little buggy but fun.

For more advanced use with Sibelius, I bought Native Instruments' Bandstand a few months back for $99. This is a VST, and can also be used standalone. It is a GM soundset, responds to the standard GM midi commands, and sounds, in my opinion, very good. 2.5 GB. I think the sounds are better than Garritan GPO.

On the other hand, I have occasionally heard some awesome soundfonts for individual instruments. (e.g. the jeux organ, and the sonicmusicae (?) harpsicords.)

MIDIResurrection · Post by **MIDIResurrection** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:27 am

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For the best commercial soundfonts, try SONiVOX 250Mb. It's well worth it.

If you're going on the free side, all the sound fonts have major faults. A340 is great on percussions, okay on guitar, is not as good for Piano. Fluid R3 is better on orchestra except for a couple brass instruments. It just sucks for guitar and percussions. 084.0mg ALL In ONE GM V1.1 Bank.sf2 (A mysterious Japanese soundfont without a real English name) is better than FluidR3 IMHO.

Strangely enough, the smaller version, 057.9mg ALL In ONE Light GM Bank.sf2 is even better than the full one, for example the helicopter sounds in the Light version are SO real whereas the full version sounds like farts.

I highly recommend 057.9mg ALL In ONE Light GM Bank.sf2. A380 might be a really good one to try but I haven't tried it yet and it's a big 269Mb soundfont.

There is an entire list of free soundfonts in this pdf on page 17:
http://spider-player.com/wiki/_media/tu ... lities.pdf (http://spider-player.com/wiki/_media/tutorials:soundfont:sound_font_utilities.pdf)

Tribule · Post by **Tribule** » Sat May 18, 2013 1:22 pm

MIDIResurrection wrote:For the best commercial soundfonts, try SONiVOX 250Mb. It's well worth it.[/url]

I totally agree with that. I bought the SONiVOX 250MB General MIDI SoundFont and it's my favourite GM SoundFont set.

Best Full GM Soundfont Bank