KVR Audio

PaulG · Post by **PaulG** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 5:23 pm

Hi,

I write right now and don't produce for expert or other quality YET. I'm newish to PC/Music (but an expert in them separately) and want the lowest cost way to get a full orchestra - strings/brass/woods/perc/etc - doesn't have to be "full articulation" or any of that sutff. Just basic sounds.

I tried papelmedia.de but a 300MB soundfont is blowing my system and won't allow for multiple instances, obviously.

While I'm still getting acquainted, I'm willing to get Extreme Sample Converter and just use sfz in Tracktion like I am with some rock bass and drum sounds.

What can I do for a low cost (not that I don't want to pay, but just want to see what things do for now) way to get these sounds? Just get a samples CD and convert to sfz? Wait for HALion3 player for $90? Any other options?

Thanks a lot.

- Paul

torhan · Post by **torhan** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 5:39 pm

Maybe save up for something like GPO and the like. I've think that it may be best to get something of higher quality/price even though you may not use all of its features right away. Because you may end up spending $100 here, $50 there on 'mediocre' stuff, when in the end, it would've saved you time/money just to get the good stuff earlier. Judging from your background, I think you'd get your money's worth from an investment like this.

cptgone · Post by **cptgone** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 5:59 pm

Someone posted a free orchestral soundfont some time ago. I'm not sure if it covers the whole orchestra though.
A search for good soundfonts sites could help you out for free.

I like my GPO myself (haven't used it in a song yet though, in the past I used SW1000XG synth sounds and free samples for violins etc.)

Robomusic · Post by **Robomusic** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:23 pm

I do most of my work in Multitrack Studios MTS a reasonable low cost but powerful and i might add stable tracking system that does midi and audio very well, It has a built in sampler that works well for most sound fonts, it has a built in conversion program. Then i also use the free version of sfz player for the fonts that do not play well with the sampler, and i bought the jeskola sound font player as well between these i can find a solution for almost any sound I need, I have hundreds of sound fonts and some very good ones can be purchased at http://www.sonicimplants.com/GnDownload ... estral.htm sonic implants. If you liek tracktion, you will like MTS even better it has a cleaner GUI and is the easiest and most rock solid program I have used so far. One fantastic feature is the convolutor, it is a reverb program that uses impulses (don't ask me to explain, but these are great for gettin just the right sound for reverb. MTS also lets you place tracks and effect busses as you need them it is so easy all that is left is to make music.

Sepheritoh · Post by **Sepheritoh** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:35 pm

You can get away with downloading many free soundfonts for a while. For a good sound for a reasonable price I second GPO. The step from soundfont to GPO is huge in quality.

The Emu Proteus soundfont is pretty good and cheap. Great percusions included.

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:44 pm

GPO Lite is coming out soon, so this option might work even better for you.

jeffn1

amoebe · Post by **amoebe** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 9:04 pm

Someone posted a free orchestral soundfont some time ago. I'm not sure if it covers the whole orchestra though.

That would be squidfont orchestral or SJ orchestral. I have both and, although they sound nice and they cover quite a number of instruments, they are very restricted in their use. Squidfont is rather mellow and slow sounding, SJ Orchestral sounds extremely mellow. I find neither to be useful in fastpaced or funky music, neither can deliver a blow.
On the other hand, both are free and since they're soundfonts, you don't need a converter to use them with sfz.

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 12:14 am

PaulG wrote: I tried papelmedia.de but a 300MB soundfont is blowing my system and won't allow for multiple instances, obviously.

Maybe someone can break it into smaller soundfonts for you.

I wonder if there are legality issues with that.

It's a pity that sfz loads all of a soundfont into memory rather than just the patches assigned to a give midi channel.

You could choose DFD (Direct From Disk) as a sample load option, but unfortunately this seems like it will be the case for every individual soundfont in the entire bank.

Ooooh - I just had an idea.
I haven't used it myself - but download SynthFont for free and then I believe if you're clever you can break the soundfont into its original components for your own personal use (no legal issues) and then you can load individual instruments into sfz instead of the whole thing.

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1030.html

If you have trouble doing this and I feel in a really great mood I might even help you learn how to do this (although I'll have to teach myself first).

Caleb

PaulG · Post by **PaulG** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 3:32 am

Caleb,

Thanks x 1,000,000 - I'll try SynthFont. I tried Vienna but it doesn't seem to pull the sounds out into individual files.

Love you tag line, btw...

Anyway - that would be awesome - to get these sounds out just to see what they do w/o having to drop $250 for GPO just yet...

Any more ideas, feel free to drop a line.

Thanks, again,

- Paul

meroveus · Post by **meroveus** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:15 am

I believe there is a free E-Mu library editor with which you can mix/match instruments or presets from various soundfonts to create your own customised soundfont.
You can also do this with Alive (I think).

Least costly full orchestra?