Newbie: soundfonts, vsti's

n-Track Studio Discussion Forum
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Looking to get some new sounds

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Hey guys,
I’m looking to experiment with some some different sounds beyond the 127 instruments offered in n-track (or is that 127 a standard?) - what’s the best way to go about this? I’ve read things about downloading soundfonts and vsti’s and it seems like that’s a common way for expanding your audio options, but I don’t know really know much about either one. Additionally, if I am supposed to download something, is their somewhere specific (file folder) I need to save it to, and how do I load it into n-track after downloading? Thanks.
-HwyDave

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Addition:
I just downloaded a “Classic Phaser” VST and copied the .dll file to my vstplugin folder - yet I still don’t seem able to access it. I looked in the output section where I normally find ntrack drums. Thanks.
-HwyDave

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Open the Menu Settings and check out Settings > Paths there is a button at the botom of the box - “Set VST folder in Effect Settings dialog box” You can see what effects are listed and rescan, etc. You did not say where on the drive you have the VST folder located. Is it under the nTrack 6 directory?

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As Bax said, just rescan your folder after adding any effects, VSTi’s or what not.

I personally keep separate folder in my music files for VST’s and separate folder for VSTi’s. Since I use both 32bit and 64bit programs on my x64 machine I keep separate folders on all 64bit plugs also. Just a simple way to keep up with everything.

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Quote:

I'm looking to experiment with some some different sounds beyond the 127 instruments offered in n-track (or is that 127 a standard?)


I assume you mean MIDI sounds. One way is to download sfz (soundfont player) at:
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/project5/sfz.aspx

Put the .dll in your plugin folder. Re-scan your plugin folder when you open N.
Open a MIDI track and for output channel select New Intrument/VSTi/sfz.
Then load a .sf2 file into sfz (select a midi controller i.e. keyboard under MIDI preferences in N) and you will have access to a lot of different sounds beyond the standard 127.
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Cool. I’ve managed to download and play with a soundfont player as well as a vsti sythesizer called “adonis” which has definately given me more sounds. As to the chorus effect, when I checked the paths it said that I’ve got it, so I think my problem with that is not knowing how to apply effects to midi tracks rather than not having them at all. Thanks a lot for everyone’s help.
-HwyDave

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Quote:

so I think my problem with that is not knowing how to apply effects to midi tracks


You can open track mixer - right click on an open space and make sure 'show intruments' is checked. (This will show your synth) Then you can right click under the synth in the grey area, and add an effect like N-chorus.