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Messages - Mark Keller

1
General Discussion / Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks
Thanks folks, you're right - bank management (and cache resizing) is controlled from within AudioHQ.  I was just hoping it would have a pretty, intuitive app like Audigy did. :)

And now . . . are there any good soundfont banks available that are well suited for orchestral works, that any of you can recommend?
2
General Discussion / Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks
Actually, I just got MIDI working with MegaFont - I had merely been using the wrong input device in NWC, previously.  There are some drawbacks, though: it usually skips the first couple notes the first time a piece is played, since it has to load the soundfont into memory (something the SF Bank Manager would do quicker, perhaps?), and larger orchestral pieces won't play, because "One of requested presets don't fit in memory" (the error messages were evidently written by hillbillies).  It appears I have to increase the Soundfont cache size . . . which must be done from Soundfont Bank Manager!

So it appears I'm still going to need it after all.  :)


EDIT:  Thanks for the link, Rick!  I had actually already looked at that page, but took another glance after you posted the link and saw the Sound Blaster Live! LiveDrvUni-Pack, and installed it.  It includes updated drivers and some handy apps like AudioHQ - but not, unfortunately, Soundfont Bank Manager itself.
3
General Discussion / Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks
Mine is the older, PCI SB Live! Value 24bit.  My computer is a homebuilt that I bought off of eBay, and while the maker included CDs for the mouse, the motherboard and the graphics card, the sound card CD did not come with.  I do have the CD for my Audigy card (which is not currently installed on any computer) and tried installing the Bank Manager from there once, but it didn't work (perhaps it's got some Audigy-only algorithms or something).  If you could find it on your CDs it would be handy, since it doesn't look like they have it available on Soundblaster's website.
4
General Discussion / Using Multiple Soundfont Banks
Howdy folks!  I'm a long time NWC user, but this is, I think, my first post here on these forums.

One thing that's always bugged me is the quality of the instruments on my computer.  I've got a SB Live! soundcard, so I figured I'd install some soundfonts to improve that.  I used to use a computer that had an Audigy card, and came with a program called Soundfont Bank Manager, that was extremely handy for that sort of thing.  However, this card didn't, so I'm at the mercy of the internet as far as figuring out how to make my computer use extra soundfonts I throw at it.

I've installed a program called Soundfont Librarian, as well as Vienna Soundfont Editor.  The first of those looks like it could be used to add extra patches to the default .sf2 file Windows uses, but I'd really not like to mess the file up.  Is there some way to load soundfonts without actually appending them to the default file?  And Vienna is only for creating soundfonts, right?  Or could it be useful for this sort of thing?

And then I'd also like to just replace the whole bank of sounds with another, sometimes.  After searching around, I found that a program called MegaFont is useful for that, so I installed it, and it seems to work nicely.  NWC doesn't like it, though.  Whenever I've got MegaFont on, managing my banks, I can't playback MIDI in NWC - instead I get a message "One or more of your selected MIDI devices are failing to open."  However, someone in an older post on these forums recommended the use of MegaFont, so it ought to work with NWC somehow; but I'm not sure what to do.

So . . . can anyone give me advice?  Am I going about this entirely the wrong way, or am I just a little bit off track?  Basically, I want to be able to use soundfonts, and don't really care what programs I have to use to do so - so if you've got another recommendation, feel free to give that, too.

Thanks!


Mark