KVR Audio

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 9:31 am

I seem to have stumbled on a possible bit of freelance work - polyphonic ringtones. I have a couple of days to learn the formats and what software I need to convert midi files. Can anyone tell me anything about this? As far as I know, the formats I need to be familiar with are SP-MIDI and SMAF.

isdjan · Post by **isdjan** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 9:36 am

chagzuki wrote:I seem to have stumbled on a possible bit of freelance work - polyphonic ringtones. I have a couple of days to learn the formats and what software I need to convert midi files. Can anyone tell me anything about this? As far as I know, the formats I need to be familiar with are SP-MIDI and SMAF.

nokia offers an audio suite with a vsti for these purposes - do a search for nokia, i posted it elsewhere

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:28 am

SMAF tools live here:

http://smaf-yamaha.com/

Can't tell you any more, I signed a NDA..

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:40 am

Cool, cheers. Though all this jargon is baffling.
Basically, does the GM standard convert fully to SP-midi/SMAF? Including percussive sounds?

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:44 am

The yamaha site explains SMAF clearly. Anyone got a link to an overview of sp-midi?

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 10:53 am

chagzuki wrote: Basically, does the GM standard convert fully to SP-midi/SMAF? Including percussive sounds?

Basically, yes.. but if you want the tones to sound good (relatively speaking

) you need to get your head around the differences.. this will largely depend on the target handset for sp-midi: as the phones get cheaper more patches are "mapped" to related sounds, so a nokia 3510 for example plays the same patch when asked for an acoustic guitar as it does when asked for overdrive.

SMAF is based on Yamaha's FM synth technology.. some people are scared of FM synths, but it's worth getting to grips with it as otherwise you are pretty limited timbrally..

Good luck!

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 11:24 am

I'm trying the Nokia SP-midi creator. I'm lost: instead of having instrument listings under 'program', there's just a list of mobile phone types. Midi channel 10 has drums - that's OK, but the only melodic sound I have is basic piano.

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 11:46 am

erm.. program change message?

dlr_cml · Post by **dlr_cml** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 11:46 am

chagzuki wrote:I'm trying the Nokia SP-midi creator. I'm lost: instead of having instrument listings under 'program', there's just a list of mobile phone types. Midi channel 10 has drums - that's OK, but the only melodic sound I have is basic piano.

You need to initialize each MIDI channel using Program Change + the number of the instrument you want to set. You'll find some pdf's dealing with MIDI commands and instruments on the Nokia site, I think.

isdjan · Post by **isdjan** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 4:51 pm

chagzuki wrote:I'm trying the Nokia SP-midi creator. I'm lost: instead of having instrument listings under 'program', there's just a list of mobile phone types. Midi channel 10 has drums - that's OK, but the only melodic sound I have is basic piano.

i used another gm-vsti first, so that i was able to use the cubase bnk and prg parameters, because you simply can't set the program changes there once the nokia plugin is in use.

i did all the arranging including program changes first, then i replaced the vsti.

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Tue Jun 08, 2004 6:47 pm

Ah, OK, that makes a lot of sense.
Thanks for the help guys.

Ringtones - formats and software