Doesn’t recognize my SF2 Soundfonts
Is there a work around this? I’ve tried loading my soundfonts to the plug-in but it doesn’t seem to recognise the SF2 fonts … and doesn’t load them! 
Should be fine. Always works here. Dodgy SF file?
What happens when it “doesn’t recognise them”?
Captainstrat, what soundfonts are you using? The ones that came with your Live! card should be fine. I have had a couple of instances where soundfonts refused to load, but it turned out they had crc errors in them… - I dl’ed some soundfonts way back when I had dial-up. Not always easy to get files down in one piece from a hard-loaded server.
Does any of your soundfonts load OK? You may have an installation problem then…
The last possibility is the peculiar interface of sfz itself. Locate a soundfont you want to use, start up n-Track, load a midi file into it, open a VST instrument with sfz, and proceed as follows:
1) click the bar to the right of the word 'File’
2) select the soundfont you want to use, and click Open
3) Set Quality to 72 (click 8x on the word ‘draft’)
4) Set Mode to DFD (SF32 works for me, too - depends on the amount of RAM you have on your system)
5) Right-click on the first midi track you want to use. Select Output To… Instrument Plug-in: sfz
6) Make sure that any program changes can be reflected in sfz by the soundfont you have loaded. n-Track sends Program Change midi commands to the output by default when the track is started - sfz may get confused by this if a multitimbral soundfont is loaded and the program has no content. Try assigning None to the instrument channel in n-Track, reload the soundfont, and try starting the track again. (this one had me baffled for a great while in the beginning, too)
Hope this helps, but don’t hesitate to post the board again if you have further questions.
regards, Nils
| Quote (Nils K @ May 13 2006,06:52) |
| Captainstrat, what soundfonts are you using? The ones that came with your Live! card should be fine. I have had a couple of instances where soundfonts refused to load, but it turned out they had crc errors in them... - I dl'ed some soundfonts way back when I had dial-up. Not always easy to get files down in one piece from a hard-loaded server. Does any of your soundfonts load OK? You may have an installation problem then... The last possibility is the peculiar interface of sfz itself. Locate a soundfont you want to use, start up n-Track, load a midi file into it, open a VST instrument with sfz, and proceed as follows: 1) click the bar to the right of the word 'File' 2) select the soundfont you want to use, and click Open 3) Set Quality to 72 (click 8x on the word 'draft') 4) Set Mode to DFD (SF32 works for me, too - depends on the amount of RAM you have on your system) 5) Right-click on the first midi track you want to use. Select Output To... Instrument Plug-in: sfz 6) Make sure that any program changes can be reflected in sfz by the soundfont you have loaded. n-Track sends Program Change midi commands to the output by default when the track is started - sfz may get confused by this if a multitimbral soundfont is loaded and the program has no content. Try assigning None to the instrument channel in n-Track, reload the soundfont, and try starting the track again. (this one had me baffled for a great while in the beginning, too) Hope this helps, but don't hesitate to post the board again if you have further questions. regards, Nils |
D'oh! I'm the doof who was using the wrong option to open the Soundfonts - I was trying to load them from the "folder" icon
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| D’oh! I’m the doof who was using the wrong option to open the Soundfonts - I was trying to load them from the “folder” icon |
Well thanks for being brave enough to admit it! So often we get folks asking questions, to which we offer answers, and then never hear from them again.
Glad you got it sorted!
Mark
And I was feeling over-elaborate when I went through the procedure - but then I thought: ‘Well, it wont hurt…’ I have been stuck in some procedure myself many times just to discover I missed out on some minor detail I had to do to make things work.
Example: The DS-404 VSTi sampler (great, multitimbral, freeware sampler BTW - comes for free with the british mag Computer Music) had me completely confused once - I couldn’t figure out how to get the ¤&@@#%!! thing to change between the channel slots for loading different instruments into them. Suddenly (read by accident) I clicked on the channel number and dragged it - that was the ticket! In the manial it just said ‘change between different channel slots to load different instruments for multitimbral operation’ or something to that effect. I really hate undocumented, non-standard ways of operating things - especially for essential features. The standards are there for a reason.
regards, Nils
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| And I was feeling over-elaborate when I went through the procedure - but then I thought: ‘Well, it wont hurt…’ I have been stuck in some procedure myself many times just to discover I missed out on some minor detail I had to do to make things work. |
Yes. And thanks for taking the time to do that Nils.
Perhaps I’m feeling a little oversensitive at the moment, but it’s pretty naff to write a page full of stuff never to have any response!
Mark
Delete SFZ, and any other soundfont player you have.
Obtain Kontact 2, (or Halion or Sampletank or any other good sample engine), try it out, and I promise you, you’ll never go back to soundfonts ever again. (but any of those samplers can also play soundfonts too). 
| Quote (Gizmo @ May 15 2006,15:00) |
| Delete SFZ, and any other soundfont player you have. Obtain Kontact 2, (or Halion or Sampletank or any other good sample engine), try it out, and I promise you, you’ll never go back to soundfonts ever again. (but any of those samplers can also play soundfonts too).
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Well, is true that most of good sample librarys today dont came in sf2 format. But beyond that, dont believe that the fact that SFZ is free make it a bad sample engine. More, it´s one of the most accurate ones if you look it anti-aliasing engine (yes, better than some of the commercial sample engines you mentioned). The cakewalk new toy, Dimension Pro is based in this freebie, and use the same extension, sfz.
So, i recommend you to not delete SFZ. Is a good friend, and will play your soundfonts (or sfz fonts if you want) in a nice way.