Plenty questions some silly some not
I’ve been using the unregistered N-track on and off for a while now, but since upgrading my soundcard to a E-MU 0404, and since the version of Cubasis that came bundled with it left me unimpressed and since my old Version of Cakewalk doesn’t support ASIO drivers …
N-Track is the most affordable solution! And I’m glad I decided to register my copy!
My equipment:
P4 Celeron at 2.4GHz
Windows XP Service pack 2
1G of SDRAM
Quantum Fireball Hard Drive dedicated for audio recording purposes
E-MU 0404 digital soundcard
SB Live! Value card for regular sound card uses & for the Sowftwave synth & soundfonts
I’m not clear on how to use and assign Soundfonts in N-Track, before rendering MIDI tracks to audio?
So far creating drum loops is straightforward enough, and recording guitars, & bass DI is a synch using my J-Station (gotta love that S/Pdif connector!) and I’ve come up to a vocal sound I can live with using my EV RE510 condensor mic though my Behringer mixer.
So far so good, I like what I see and hear, anyone know the solution to adding the soundfonts before rendering MIDI to Wave? Thanks! 
Forget about your SB Live as far as SoundFonts go… - The way to use soundfonts in n-Track is to use a VST instrument plugin (VSTi) capable of loading and playing soundfonts. I recommend The free sfz found here. It even comes bundled with a standalone version for playing soundfonts outside of n-Track - great for trying out things.
Set up your midi channels in n-Track, load a single instance of sfz as a VSTi (use the Add VST Instrument option in n-Track - see the manual for more info about how to do this) and route each midi channel to sfz (by default it is routed to the standard midi out). If you use a soundfont containing more than one instrument, you may also take advantage of sfz’s multitimbral capabilities. Read the manual that comes along with it, and experiment with the settings to find one that suits your system specs. YMMV, as you probably know…
Good luck n-trackin’!! 
regards, Nils
EDIT the VSTi has its own mixer channel, created when the VSTi is loaded. It renders to a stereo audio track (mute all the other audio tracks when you do this).
Yep. Another vote for what Nils says. Ditch the SB for soundfonts (by all means keep it for midi out/in).
One other note, use SFZ and then FREEZE the track once you have it how you want it. This takes a lot of load off of the CPU and HD, especially when dealing with large SFs.
Do you still lose the original MIDI track when N-Track renders to WAV? I use 3.3. so I don’t know if the newer versions delete the MIDI or not. If so, there is a workaround if needed. Solo the MIDI and “record what you hear”. That will create a wav of the MIDI , right?
cliff
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| Do you still lose the original MIDI track when N-Track renders to WAV? I use 3.3. so I don’t know if the newer versions delete the MIDI or not. If so, there is a workaround if needed. Solo the MIDI and “record what you hear”. That will create a wav of the MIDI , right? |
If you are using a Vsti to play the MIDI, then the output of the Vsti is automatically included in any mixdown. So if you want to convert the MIDI/VSTi track to wav (to save CPU horses), just solo the track and do a mixdown, then import the new wav. Then mute the MIDI/Vsti or delete it.
Be wary of the “convert MIDI track” wizard. It’s not needed unless you are using MIDI sounds built into a soundcard (eg SB Live soundfonts), and it DELETES the MIDI track at the end!!
HTH
Mark
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| …and it DELETES the MIDI track at the end!! |
Abso–lutely. This is a horrendous bug (yes, bug, there’s no way to think this is by-design since there is major data loss at a time the user wouldn’t expect it…no way to avoid it…not asked if it’s ok…etc) that has never been addressed through many versions.
| Quote (Nils K @ May 11 2006,02:12) |
| Forget about your SB Live as far as SoundFonts go... - The way to use soundfonts in n-Track is to use a VST instrument plugin (VSTi) capable of loading and playing soundfonts. I recommend The free sfz found here. It even comes bundled with a standalone version for playing soundfonts outside of n-Track - great for trying out things. Set up your midi channels in n-Track, load a single instance of sfz as a VSTi (use the Add VST Instrument option in n-Track - see the manual for more info about how to do this) and route each midi channel to sfz (by default it is routed to the standard midi out). If you use a soundfont containing more than one instrument, you may also take advantage of sfz's multitimbral capabilities. Read the manual that comes along with it, and experiment with the settings to find one that suits your system specs. YMMV, as you probably know... Good luck n-trackin'!! regards, Nils *EDIT* the VSTi has its own mixer channel, created when the VSTi is loaded. It renders to a stereo audio track (mute all the other audio tracks when you do this). |
Say Nils, does that plug-in work with SF2 sound fonts? I've tried loading my soundfonts to the plug-in but it doesn't seem to recognise the SF2 fonts ...
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| Say Nils, does that plug-in work with SF2 sound fonts? |
regards, Nils