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Topic: Guitar Soundfont snooping (Read 5965 times) previous topic - next topic

Guitar Soundfont snooping

I own an SB64Gold w/t 8MB ram. I use an very good soundfont of this size for the purpose of score composing. However, its' guitar samples are relally poor. If ne1 has or knows were to find decent guitar (classic, clean, distorted, overdriven and overdriven palm muted) samples (prefferably in .SF2 format) I will be much obliged.

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #1 –
Sterghios:

Please visit http://listen.to/sblive and look for the soundfont page. You'll find there some guitar soundfonts and links for other sites hosting more of them.

I think it's a good start point.

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #3 –
I ordered the EMU soundfont CD right off the sb live page. It only costs about $10 which is outrageously low priced for a sample cd. Some of the guitar samples on it are quite good (if used properly). But if you're patient enough they do rotate the samples on their website once a week, and eventually they will post the guitar samples.

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #4 –
If its the cd they had for the SB64, it is rather crappy,I have found. I just cant find some good way to reproduce guitars in a realistic way I am afraid.

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #5 –
Perhaps the problem is not so much the sound patch itself, as the way it's sequenced. Guitar music relies heavily on notes being held over, especially in arpeggios. If you sequence them as single notes, it sounds more like a piano with the sustain pedal off. I posted a user tip some time ago with a suggestion that might help. Also I've put a couple sample files using this technique on the Scriptorium (Sor studies and Beethoven Adagio).

HTH

Fred

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #6 –
Similar problems with securing an acceptable guitar sound. Fred's sample did a nice job. I suspect that a nylon guitar with a lot of reverb (if offered by the soundcard) might also "help".

I have tended to use an Ensoniq over the years(one of the real ones, not the clones) because I like its wavetables. For guitar, I use "Atmosphere" (patch 100).

Not sure what the Soundblaster "live" is like, but the Awe 64 Gold Guitar (and Atmosphere) samples were horrible. Tried the card, tried some downloads, gave up, and went back to the old trusty Ensoniq PCI 1370. If you happen to have a spare PCI slot, etc., might give it a try. The cards are pretty cheap on ebay. (P.S. Curiously enough, I prefer the 2mb wavetables over the 8 mb downloadable tables)

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #7 –
In answer to Sterhgios:

No, its not the one with Awe64, its a relatively new collection made in the past year directed at SB Live users.
Comes with 500 soundfonts.. the nylon strings soundfont is 8mb in size with almost all the notes sampled. Also, depending on the velocity, you get a sharp pluck sound or a smoother fingered sound. But, like I mentioned, it only _sounds good if used properly_ ... cant have it play like a piano or harpsichord. :-)

You can get MIDI guitars too, we have one at my college studio. Great for people who want more accurate guitar "strums" and pitch bends. I think they cost almost as much as a keyboard though, which is a disadvantage if you're short on cashola.

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #8 –
Yes I know. I also suffer from the fact that the only music I can play on the guitar is the intro to "smoke on the water" and... that's about it really. So a midi guitar is not a healthy idea for me pocket. As for proper playing? You should have a look in the refining I do on my pieces so that they do not sound like Lt. Commander Data of the Starship Enterprise is playing them, i.e. completely colourless. The bad thing is I don't own a midi keyboard either, and, yes, it takes ages to write a song 100% on NWC.
But it can be done.

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #9 –
Well, you play guitar better than me already :-) As you can guess I am limited merely to the keyboard. Which is all right, its just hard to get a realistic guitar... strum.. heheh.

I know exactly where you're coming from.. for the first few years when I got into midi I didn't have a keyboard.. positioning the notes one by one takes so long. The best thing I ever got was a keyboard last year.
 

Re: Guitar Soundfont snooping

Reply #10 –
Ladies and Gentleman!

First please excuse me for my not-too-good english
Just a tip on guitar sampling.
The most samles I tried at higher sounds had a strange noise.
Perhaps sampling higher sounds (one-two octave higher) can help.
And one more tip. If you play on a real guitar, not only one string sounds, you can hear the harmonics of the just played note on the other strings, too, and, the whole guitar housing resonates. This is very hardly modellable.
Perhaps with using multiple samples, and a special eax preset...

If you know good guitar fonts or gm/gs banks, please email me.