Free new Rhodes soundfont

[Haghi]

Thanks! Awesome!

Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you

[Voidoid Surrealist]

That sullivang.net site absolutely will NOT work. Cannot find server. Server dead, report 210 code 6EA. Error reading index file. Index file missing or corrupt. 552 Error. 550 Error. Internal Error.

Please...puh-lease help me!

Damn, that's really weird! Just to make sure, I clicked on the link I gave and everything seems to be fine now, and it was ok when I first posted it, too. Works fine in Firefox and IE, so I don't think it's a browser problem. Anyone else here can't get to it?

[madvibe]

I can't seem to open the sfarkxt website. If any could unstuff this it would be great.

[TrekStar]

wow...what a generous gift...thank ya sir!

that rhodes sounds *very* organic!

[waiting man]

very cool font, thnx...

[griels]

The next version of my 1977 Rhodes Mark I Stage Piano 73 soundfont is available. Only one preset at this time, just the basics. It's a 65-sample, 5 velocity layer sampling, with the intent of getting a sound I particularly like (deep bass and clear bell-like tones when played softly, but with a nice bark when laid into).

For more info, go HERE, where you'll find a short MP3 demo, the soundfont in sfArk format, and all the details.

The sfArk file is 21MB, and expands to a 75MB soundfont that plays well in sfz.

I wrote my own program to build the soundfont automatically from the samples and a little text-based control info. Once I got past the errors in the soundfont spec, the rest wasn't too hard. This'll make it a lot easier for me to build soundfonts more quickly in the future! Now all I need is a nice big grand piano -- anyone got one they don't need?

Enjoy, and don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

A million thanks! It sounds amazing.

The only thing missing is release samples but I guess SF2 doesn't do that? Still, I prefer the sound to that of a Rhodes gigasample I bought (release samples and all). Has a much rawer sound.

It's weird, no two Rhodes seem to sound alike, so another addition to the collection is always welcome

It's always handy to have great free tools like this for collaborating on projects with people. So thanks once again... Hopefully the community can reciprocate somehow

[tERMoBLUe]

hey, many thanx...good stuffed font of sound *more*...ciao

tro

[ZioKiller]

this is with no doubt the best Rhodes sampleset i've heard so far

[_niko_]

Thanks a lot

It's excellent

Niko

[Midiworks]

Oooooh! I just noticed jStereoPiano.sfArk (52MB) on your site, but didn't see any info. What's the story behind that one?

I also would be interested in any info about it !

Downloading your Rhodes at the moment.

Thanks a lot !!!

[learjeff]

Wow, guys -- thanks!

A couple things I should have noted on the webpage:

I haven't diddled with the soundfont parameters yet; this is just the pretty raw samples. The only parameter I set was the release time, which is the same for all notes (though it shouldn't really be).

There is no looping, and many samples end after 8 to 12 seconds (by my quietly lifting the key), to keep the soundfont from being well over 100MB.

If someone who's good at soundfont editiing would program the loops, create presets, and do any parameter touchup, I'd be grateful if you'd post the updates. If anyone wants to do this, I can write a program to share the presets and parameters without resending the samples. (Or is there one available already? Haven't seen it. But it's a trivial program to write.)

My responses to select comments below.

[pljones]

If anyone wants to do this, I can write a program to share the presets and parameters without resending the samples. (Or is there one available already? Haven't seen it. But it's a trivial program to write.)

sf2comp would be a good way to do this: use the decompiler to get the "source" (samples, presets, parameters), work out where the loop points need to be and adjust, then recompile to test; once happy, share the text file.

(Of course, with looping, it might be possible to shorten the samples enormously...)

(Oh, and before anyone gets surprised by me not mentioning sfz format, there's the mention. sfz won't stream from disk for sfz format yet, so it's not appropriate here, unfortunately...)

[Paul G]

Learjeff:

Thanks so much for the Rhodes Soundfont. I've imported it into VSampler and it sounds GREAT! The mid volocities have a very nice bell tone and the higher ones get a little more raw and edgy. I really like it!

Great job and thank you for sharing!

Paul

[learjeff]

ZioKiller: Yeah, splendid 136 is one of my very favorite free piano soundfonts. (So far, I only have free ones.) I'm still messing around with a handful -- different ones seem better for different styles.

Voidoid: I'll have to give Sullivan's a try -- haven't seen it before. I've never heard a good Wurlie sf. So far, Mr. Ray is the best Wurlie, by far, and it's quite good for that. I don't particularly care for its Rhodes sounds, though. I donated my CP70 to a church a couple years ago, after it being my main piano for over 20 years, and I miss it. No piano has sustain that loud -- a problem for classical and complex jazz music, but just superb for classic rock piano playing in styles like Lennon, McCartney, Levell (Allman bros), the piano part at the end of Layla (who played that? Clapton?), stuff like that, that I love to play. I'll be really happy if the CP80 sf does it justice!

The sullivang site is working for me -- downloading now.

AD80, eman8ions, did you try right-click and "Save as"? I suppose I should put instructions on the webpage. I guess I figured that most soundfont users are also pretty serious nerds -- no offense, friends!

Madvibe, it seems the sfArk site was down earlier, but it's up right now. Try again.

Hagi, I like the kowtow smiley! I'm snatching that, if you don't mind.

Griels, I've been doing a lot of studying of the SF spec, and I don't remember seeing anything about release samples per-se. It has a feature for a second loop in a sample, which amounts to almost the same thing, if someone was clever enough to juggle the sample data to make it work. I haven't worked with release samples, though, and generally don't find them very important -- I'm more interested in good sounding music than authentic sounding instruments. Authenticity is cool, it's just not my bag. I'm sure there are folks who think the authenticity is important musically too, and I can't argue that!

It's true that no two Rhodes sound exactly alike, but I find a lot of Mark I's do sound a lot like mine. What varies more is how the Rhodes owners use them. In this case, I'm EQing very significantly to get the sound I want, rather than trying to capture the bare beast, and I think that's a big factor here. Of course, there are a lot of other factors, such as straight vs. stretched tuning (mine is factory tuning, presumably straight), tine/pickup alignment, and the condition (or replacement of) the hammer tips -- mine are "medium worn" due to 25 years of sporadic use but hard playing. And the wear pattern shows what keys I tend to play in.

And to all who said "thanks", ... You're welcome!

[learjeff]

pljones, when I run sf2comp I get an error. Yes, it finds the necessary DLL (it even registered it in the Win registry, apparently!) Runtime error 3 or something like that. I emailed the author about it but received no reply.

Otherwise, sf2comp would work great. However, there's an even easier way to share presets and parameters that doesn't require unpacking the samples into files -- just omitting everything from the file except the last LIST riff chunk.

Where can I learn more about sfz format?

Thanks,
Jeff