converting old to new

Topic: converting old to new (Read 3844 times) previous topic - next topic

converting old to new

2005-07-31 02:29 am

Hey I wrote a song long time ago using a soundblaster 16's midi sound. Ofcourse the 16's midi sounds funny compared to the midi sounds of Live and newer.
The problem is I wrote that song using sounds for what they were, rather than what they were named. The new soundfonts don't contain the old midi sounds of the 16. I need a soundfont that will matche exactly the old soundblaster 16's midis and sound so that my song will sound like it did when I wrote it.
Does anyone know where I can get such a soundfont?
Email me, I may not come back here to check the forum.
noblockage@[domain-removed].com
Thanks.

Re: converting old to new

Reply #1 – 2005-08-01 07:46 am

A good way to find soundfonts and other software resources is through the use of a search engine. If you get no better replies, you might start by searching for something like "classic soundfont" in a search engine.

Re: converting old to new

Reply #2 – 2005-08-01 08:44 pm

You might try changing the playback device using:

&Tools->&Options->Midi

Remove the current device and substitute another.
With my Sound Blaster Awe32 card, replacing:
SB AWE MIDI Synth [640]
with:
Creative Music Synth [240]
takes me back to 'sounds' that I haven't heard since I used Windows 3.1 on a '286

You should be able to find a SB16 for about a buck on eBay.
If you still have an ISA slot on your machine ...

Re: converting old to new

Reply #3 – 2005-08-03 12:19 am

Brilliant suggestions, both of them, Rick. What a smart cookie!

btw: I just upgraded one system to a newer 'puter. Fortunately, it still has an ISA slot, so I could keep my awe64. But in going to Windows XP, I've lost the ability to use soundfonts with my old AWE64 Gold. No big deal, I still use my AWE Live on my main computer for most of my midi work anyway.

Re: converting old to new

Reply #4 – 2005-08-03 04:46 am

Yes, Andrew, I saw you post in the newsgroup. I have an Awe32 and can dual boot into '98 or XP.

I feel (some of) your pain. I couldn't get a soundfont to load with XP. I spent a couple hours trying some utilities that came up on Google. None of them worked with XP. It is a shame that Creative doesn't offer a scriptable ActiveX component.

If I find anything that works, I'll let you know, but this is not a high priority for me. I use NW mainly to create sheet music for live performance. Playback just needs to be close enough to give me a feel for the piece.

Re: converting old to new

Reply #5 – 2005-08-27 11:58 pm

Thanks for the search suggestion. I've been looking so far so not good.

As for the other suggestions thanks for wanting to help but they don't help at all. If I want that old sound I know I can get it by going to what originally made it. What I'm looking for is the old sound in a NEW soundfont. Maybe some one discovered a way to extract the old midi sounds as they were.

But anyway, I've recently learned how to make my own soundfonts instead of just loading waves into the wav table. Why is a soundfont better? Because if things go wrong, you don't have to load each sample back into the table one by one again. You just load the entire soundfont. However, this only partly solves my original problem. I can record the old sounds into waves and then into a new soundfont. But things like release times, and attack and stuff like that, you can't really record. So then it will never have quite the same neuance.

The soundfont I'm working on now is mostly because I needed a real LIVE sounding accoustic drum kit. Eventually when I have it done and songs I've made using it, they will be posted on my website if anyone is interested.

http://ca.geocities.com/noblockage/