I haven’t even heard of Bechsteins and Petrofs, let alone played them! I find Yams to be less “clanky” and more “tonal” than Steinways. Maybe I haven’t played enough of each. Probably no more than a dozen or two, over the years.
I’ll have to post some recordings of the soundfonts I’ve tried, and see if they sound like you expect them. Really, these soundfonts stink compared to my Ensoniq.
Really, these soundfonts stink compared to my Ensoniq.
I will make some effort too, to convert your exceptical heart to a soundfont lover...:D
I will make some effort too, to convert your exceptical heart to a soundfont lover...:D
don’t know if you are aware, butPapelMedia do a free high quality soundfont every month.
Check out Here for what has gone on this year. This Month it’s a Concert Piano. I haven’t tried it yet… I’ve got pretty much all of them if anyone wants to hear them. - the flute wasn’t that great, but the classical guitar, violin and clarinet were great!
DSP
Hi Duncan. I have tryied the Papelmedia soundfonts (the free ones). Really, the voices the give (Irina and Pavel Brochin) singing aaahs are very pure and nice. About the other soundfonts they give, im not sure. By example, they give a Harpsichord for free a month. I download it thinking it was an original one, and i found that it was exactly the same soundfont that you can download for free at Hammersound.net, made from the guy called “Campbell”, the campbell harpsichord. It dont give the credit to campbell, but it was the same. I dont know their business about it, but im not sure they are posting original soundfonts in certain instruments.
thx marce - I didn’t know that!
| Quote (learjeff @ Oct. 07 2004,17:36) |
| I haven't even heard of Bechsteins and Petrofs, let alone played them! I find Yams to be less "clanky" and more "tonal" than Steinways. Maybe I haven't played enough of each. Probably no more than a dozen or two, over the years. I'll have to post some recordings of the soundfonts I've tried, and see if they sound like you expect them. Really, these soundfonts stink compared to my Ensoniq. |
Learjeff, forget me, I am a nerd. I used to sell pianos, so I care way more about stupid little things then I should. Anyway, Yamaha, a fine paino, but if I were to drop the change, I personally would look else where. If you want that new age piano virtuoso on PBS sound or piano in a dense pop mix, the Yamaha can't be beat.
As for SFs, yup, post some MPs with an accompaning MIDI file. I am just interested in what you get. It may just boil down to you don't like the freebies out there. But do be sure in SFZ you have the polyphony and quality settings set correctly. If you set it to draft mode with bad polyphony, I would expect cheese.
I found an 80MB Steinway Grand for $5 here.
I haven’t done much comparison, and I’m not a serious tone junky (no offense to those who are 
), but this seems to have a pretty decent sound.
You can try the free soundfont at bottom, to have a reference. The Warren Trachtman are nice ones.
“serious tone junky”
Edit: look what the guy says
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| Quote |
| If I feel that my future generation piano sound sample sets are sufficiently superior to other commercial piano sets, I may make them available to the public again |
Promising, isnt?
With all due respect to my fellow pianists here.
NOTHING compares to the REAL things
IMO, when I play sonatinas I can’t play them on Yamaha pianos period. Nothing wrong with Yamahas really…I play them on stage as a solo rock/pop singer and the aggresive tonalities of them I think really complements my voice.
But for different classical pieces, I’m used to softer hammer-action sounds and even various German pianos have different personalities. Classical peices are very musically expressive in nature completely depending on the instrument’s sound…so it’s a matter of personal taste.
My point is…since every piano even under the same usage categories have such different characters. aren’t such comparisons you guys making pretty moot? 
You may as well compare uprights to grands 
NOTHING compares to the REAL things
Is true. Beyond the piano soundfont of a steinway sounds nice, i prefer a real piano (a medium good one), the touch of it is for my taste, nicest, and you really have in front of you a sound mass with real harmonics humming inside you.
But i have found difficult record succesfully the sound of a real piano, and more easy use the sequencer.
it's a matter of personal taste
No, what im saying is the ABSOLUTE TRUE about pianos, and if you dont like how sweet i am playing in this Steinway soundfont, you can go ####
Seriously, about taste, you can discuss forever, but with luck, i thought we have covered some objective points.
Regards
Edit: Hey, first time the Censorship hits on me. It must have and "automatic" sense of humor ;)
Is true. Beyond the piano soundfont of a steinway sounds nice, i prefer a real piano (a medium good one), the touch of it is for my taste, nicest, and you really have in front of you a sound mass with real harmonics humming inside you.
But i have found difficult record succesfully the sound of a real piano, and more easy use the sequencer.
it's a matter of personal taste
No, what im saying is the ABSOLUTE TRUE about pianos, and if you dont like how sweet i am playing in this Steinway soundfont, you can go ####
Seriously, about taste, you can discuss forever, but with luck, i thought we have covered some objective points.
Regards
Edit: Hey, first time the Censorship hits on me. It must have and "automatic" sense of humor ;)
Well, I did a quick knock off sampling of my 1977 Rhodes Mark I Stage piano, to check out methodology and learn the tools.
I sampled every 4th white key, starting with F1. I didn’t use a key-thumper because the one I rigged up made too much noise, which came through on the recording (bam!). I started with three velocity layers, but added a 4th between the mezzo and forte layers, from middle C down, because it really needed it.
I recorded straight off the harp, bypassing the Rhodes’ tone controls. I scooped out in the bass, about 100 Hz, using the semi-parametric on my mixer, because that’s the sound I want (and what Scarbee, great as it is, isn’t).
I recorded each velocity layer in one file, in 24 bits, using a MOTU 828. I normalized and converted to 16 bits, and removed the noise using CoolEdit96 (which only handles 16-bit files). I then processed each file with a little Python program I wrote, which chops up the samples into separate files, naming the files according to the note name (based on the frequency using a simple autocorrelation algorithm). I created the instrument using GigaStudio32 (which I found on ebay for $30).
Here’s a short clip of me playing the results. Not too bad, considering how quickly it went together.
=> jrhodes.mp3
Please ignore the crappy timing. When I ran my DAW and Giga at the same time, the latency went up and it was hard to play well. Yet another little technical mystery to figure out. Isn’t computer-based music fun!
Now, if I can figure out how to convert the Giga instrument into a soundfont, I’ll post it. It takes about 45 MB, but could be shrunk considerably by shortening and looping the samples.
I was told that Vienna won’t work unless I have a soundblaster (which I don’t, it’s a laptop). I also tried “Translator Free”, but it just shows a splashscreen and hangs.
If anyone knows a good free or CHEAP prog to convert Giga instruments, or edit soundfonts, I’d sure like to know. But I did say CHEAP, right? I’m using a Rhodes I’ve had since 1977, a $30 copy of Gigastudio, a computer provided by my employer, a $70 DAW program (n-Track), a TASCAM mixer I’ve had since 1982, and a used MOTU I got for about $500 (ouch!) Well, I did pay good money for my Ensoniq back in 1997, but see the pattern here?
If I do another round, I probably won’t sample too many more keys – the Rhodes doesn’t seem to need it. Maybe every 3rd white key instead. What I will pay a lot more attention to is the velocities when sampling (of course). Unless I can design a reliable and QUIET thumper, that’ll be the hardest part.
Cheers!
Jeff
Hi Jeff. I want that soundfont!
Nice you can do this nice job. I dont have here a good monitor system, but appear you have done something good.
About
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| Quote |
| Now, if I can figure out how to convert the Giga instrument into a soundfont |
sorry that the translator dont works.
Here another options:
-You can use CDXtract a similar software that allows you to do this, the limited version do the job with some limitations, but it works.
-Also you can upload the Gigasound an let someone convert it for you
-Synthfont is able to load Giga sounds, and has a Soundfont editor, but i have not used it. Is FREE.
-About the MB size, dont worry too much. Beyond you can use .rar format, there are two freeware software, one called SFArkSFArk and another one called
SFPack that are specifically disegned compressors for Soundfonts. You can get very good compression ratios with them, better than with .rar or .zip files.(something like the-40-50%)
<!–QuoteBegin>
| Quote |
| a quiet Thumper |
a human finger?
Silicon is the more similar to the met of a finger, i guess
Jeff, read the previous topic. This is only to add the info that i have tryed the Synfont software i said before and the soundfont editor it have “Vienna clone” can open gig sounds and save like soundfonts.
luck
Hi Jeff,
yes nice job. I’m curious on the final result. Erm another good translator would be Chicken Systems (Chicken Sys) Translator. The full-version is a bit pricey (150 bucks) but there’s also a limited free-version. If I’m not wrong it can handle both sf2 and giga.
El
Right Marce, fingers are the best quiet thumpers!
Chicken Translate Free just hangs at the splashscreen.
CDXtract did the job, and solved another problem I have too – thanks!
Come and get it! Only 6 MB sfpacked, but 46MB expanded. It could be made a LOT smaller by looping the samples.
==> jRhodes1.sfpack
| Quote (duncanparsons @ Oct. 07 2004,18:27) |
| don't know if you are aware, butPapelMedia do a free high quality soundfont every month. Check out Here for what has gone on this year. This Month it's a Concert Piano. I haven't tried it yet.. I've got pretty much all of them if anyone wants to hear them. - the flute wasn't that great, but the classical guitar, violin and clarinet were great! DSP |
HEY DUNCAN!!
Please e-mail the soundonts from papel media or post them up! I looked for the clarinet, violin, flute and others but they took them down- wahhhhhh uwaaahh! I'm a cry baby and want my fonts now!!
Ok, I'm not a crybaby but I really could use those fonts.
Thanks
no cents
What is the easiest way to assemble or create a soundfont? (free utility?)
I was confused with Vienna.
Is it possible to make a vsti that is similar to a soundfont with something like synth edit?
Jeff’s Rhodes soundfont sounds good btw!
Where’s Duncan with those nice clarinet, guitar, and violin fonts?
If anyone else in here got those fonts, please let me know.
no cents
Vienna is a piece of cake once you get it. I woul dsuggest another 10-15 minutes with it. Load up a SF that is already made. The two main things to look at are the velocity window and the keymapping window. Once you understand this, the rest of the parameters are no big deal. Create a global template and the SF is done.
So do this:
1. Load your samples into the user pool and create a new bank and patch.
2. Assign each sample to a key or key range. SFs are smart and if you have a sample of C5 and spread it across B4 through D5 it will pitch shift automatically.
3. Assign what velocity levels you want each sample to trigger.
4. If using stereo samples, pan the samples correctly hard left and right. Vienna splits stereo samples into two mono samples… one for left and one for right.
5. Create a global parameter that sets the envelopes and modulation the way you want it. You can get more complex if you want weach sample treated differently, but for the most part it will be the same settings for the whole patch.
This is a very high level tutorial, but hopefully it will get you started. Again, disect an existing SF to see how it is done in Vienna.
Thanks, I’ll have another try.