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Topic: Piano Tonality (Read 4864 times) previous topic - next topic

Piano Tonality

is there anyway to modify what a insturment patch sounds like? (ex. decreasing decay rate or sympathetic string effect)

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #1 –
Hi Christian,
I can think of a couple of things...

a) If your sound card uses sound fonts then it is possible to either select a font that suits your needs or, provided you have or are willing to learn the skills required you could edit a piano font/patch.

b) A technique was described some time ago by another user (I forget who and where -I cannot find it on the forum or the NG) whereby the piano used 4 staves.

You had your normal left and right hands, each panned slightly left and right as appropriate.  You then had the staves duplicated onto an additional left and right staff which were octave shifted (left octave down and right octave up if I remember correctly), panned further away and with quieter dynamics.

I wish I could find the post.  It was quite detailed and when I tried it, very effective.  Unfortunately I have been unable to find an example to demonstrate.

Perhaps the method's author will see this post and "own up"

Lawrie

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #2 –
Is this what you're looking for?
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=3596
When I tried it, everything was MUCH LOUDER.
If Stereo Pan is at center, music sounds normal.
If Stereo Pan is left and right, each side is MUCH LOUDER.
Now I send music to a friend - he says opposite!
If Stereo Pan is left and right, each side is much softer.
What is the normal thing to have?
Does pan away from center make music louder or softer on most systems?

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #3 –
Thanks Eccamar,
that's exactly what I was looking for (wonder why my search didn't turn it up, I used a term that is in the thread...)

As for the volume phenomenon you experienced I cannot say...  I can thing of several technical reasons why panning something _may_ result in a change in volume even though it shouldn't.  You should only perceive a change in the spatial relationships of the sounds but some sound cards may not provide the increase in level or the correct increase in level needed to compensate for the loss on the other side.

The real thing I was looking for was the "harmonic" staves as I think this will help Christian in his search for a better piano sound...

Lawrie

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #4 –
Thanks much for the help. sounds great

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #5 –
But how do I do the soundfont thing?

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #6 –
Hi Christian,

But how do I do the soundfont thing?

That depends on your soundcard/synth.

For example there are many Sound Blaster cards that allow you to modify the sound produced by the inbuilt synthesizer by using "sound fonts".

A sound font is basically a collection of sounds that are stored in a file in such a way that your (compatible) sound card/softsynth can reproduce them.

A "softsynth" is a software synthesizer which then must be "connected" to your sound card in some way.  Some softsynths will connect internally, others need a logical "cable" like midiyoke - this whole thing can get complicated fairly quickly.

If you have a sound font compatible sound card then seeking the "perfect" sound font can be quite an excercise.

I suggest you do a search of the NWC forum and the user tips.

As a starter you could look at the following:
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=3640,
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=2337,
http://www.soundfont.com/faqs.html,
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=3581,
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=4320,
https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=4479,
http://www.hammersound.net - this is a great sound font resource...

I should ask, just what sound card _do_ you have?

Lawrie

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #7 –
i Have the standard microsoft sound card, and sound blaster live! 24 bit

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #8 –
Hi Christian,
SB Live! - thats good, I had one of those before my Audigy and it works fine.

To manage your sound fonts goto:
Start | Programs | Creative | "Soundfont Bank Manager"

Or al least that's where my current one is, you may need to check under "Sound Blaster Live! Value"

From there you can click on the "Bank" button and load/replace fonts.  One thing though... Identify your current font so you can go back to it.

There is a "General User GS" font from S. Christian Collins that is quite good.  This is a link to the latest beta of it.  (Thankyou Ertugrul for the link)

One thing to make sure of, in NWC Tools | Options | Midi tab ensure you have the sound blaster synth selected and not the MS one.  I find it best to normally have only _one_ selection in the "Devices used by playback" list.

Don't forget your reading list either...  :)

Lawrie

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #9 –
thank you very, very much Lawrie, you have been very helpful
 

Re: Piano Tonality

Reply #10 –
a pleasure my friend