Sound font problem

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Sound font problem

2009-07-19 09:09 pm

As you may know, I am a carillonneur and publisher of music for carillon. I have a SoundblasterLiive card, so I recently replaced the tubular bells ln General Midi with carillon.sf2, a font created from wav files of each of the bells in the carillon in Gand (Ghent), Belgium. Some of the Noteworthy songs play correctly, others insist on the old tubular bells. As far as I can tell, all the settings are the same. If I copy the song to a new file, the problem is solved. What is happening?

Re: Sound font problem

Reply #1 – 2009-07-20 04:59 pm

This is a bit difficult to diagnose without knowing the patch/bank assignments in carillon.sf2

If you are not using Send Bank Select, and your synth is in GM mode, you should always get the same sound.

If you are using Bank Select, you should probably use it everywhere in the song. You should never send a Bank Select without also checking Send Patch. You may also need to put your synth into GS mode. Other synths may need XG mode.

I use MIDI-OX to set the synth mode (MIDI-Yoke is not needed). The attachment shows the minimum setup. Substitute your synth for 'Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth' in the Port Routing. From there, just select 'GM On', 'GS On' or 'XG On'. MIDI-Ox also supplies a number of ways to setup/reset your synth under: 'SysEx File ...'

Re: Sound font problem

Reply #2 – 2009-07-20 07:19 pm

In both files I am using send patch 14. I am not using bank select. In one file I hear tubular bells. In the other I hear the Ghent carillon. What is .png?

Re: Sound font problem

Reply #3 – 2009-07-20 07:44 pm

Quote from: Carl Bangs – 2009-07-20 07:19 pm

What is .png?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics

Quote from: Carl Bangs – 2009-07-20 07:19 pm

I am not using bank select.

Are you sure? One foolproof way to find out is:

Export the file as: 'NWC Text File'
Open the nwctxt file in WordPad
Search for: |Bank:

If it is found on a line beginning with: |StaffInstrument, you have a bank defined in Staff properties.
If it is found on a line beginning with: |Instrument, you have a bank defined in an Instrument object.

You might consider attaching the *.nwc files so that others could take a look at it.
I no longer use a SoundBlaster card but, when I used my SBAWE32 with SoundFonts, it was not erratic.

Re: Sound font problem

Reply #4 – 2009-07-20 09:43 pm

Rick,

I looked at the text files and didn't find bank. Here are twoversions of a fugue by Matthias van den Gheyn, an 18th century Belgian carillonneur.

Carl

Re: Sound font problem

Reply #5 – 2009-07-20 10:10 pm

In Van den Gheyn Fugue in g GAND.nwc, you have the Play back device set to the third device in Staff Properties

In Van den Gheyn Fugue in g.nwc, you have the Play back device set to the second device.

If these devices are configured differently, you may hear different sounds.

Re: Sound font problem

Reply #6 – 2009-07-20 11:24 pm

Thank you,

Carl