Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Gong? (Read 4338 times) previous topic - next topic

Gong?

I am sure the answer to this is apparant, but how exactly does one make a gong (tam-tam) sound?

Re: Gong?

Reply #1 –
This doesn't seem to be a standard MIDI sound. I have one sound font (27.3mg Symphony Hall Bank.sf2) that has a gong on Channel 10 at the lowest C# on the piano keyboard. This However, other sound fonts I have don't contain it.

If you have a card capable of playing soundfonts, you might look around (following the links from www.ntworthy.com) for one you like that contains this sound. Otherwise I don't know what to suggest.

If you do find a solution, please let us know. Good luck.

Re: Gong?

Reply #2 –
Unfortunatly I only have the buggy Wingroove at my disposal (laptops aren't known for their excellent sound cards). I believe I remember reading somewhere where someone had come up with a marginal solution by combining the sound of a couple intruments (or playing something else at a very low tone).

Re: Gong?

Reply #3 –
For about $40 U.S., you can get Audio Compositor. This can take .mid files and translate them into .wav files, bypassing your sound card entirely. It will read E-mu SoundFont 2.0 (.sf2) files as well as Kurzweil instrument files (.krz) and a couple of other types, then use the sounds contained therein to generate the .wav. Even if you then play this through your crappy old sound card, it'll probably sound a lot better than using the card to render the MIDI stream into sound directly.

There are probably other programs around that do this too. I got A.C. basically on Fred Nachbaur's suggestion. If you're interested you can find it at http://home.att.net/~audiocompositor/

See https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=850.msg6274#msg6274 for Fred's comments.

Re: Gong?

Reply #4 –
The tubular bells sound at low pitches makes a believable gong on my sound card.

Re: Gong?

Reply #5 –
Perfect! Thank you Fred, I'll try this out.
 

Re: Gong?

Reply #6 –
The tubular bells sound at low pitches makes a believable gong on my sound card.
But what about a tam-tam?
There is a difference in sound between the two.
A gong has more of a ringing pitched sound, while a tam-tam has no pitch (except hi/mid/lo) with a sort of whoosh to it (like a cymbal).