Sound fonts

2009-12-21 07:23 pm

I'm back with a new and probably very silly question

I was using a MIDI to MP3 converter online and discovered that the instruments sounded a million times better than the ones I'm stuck with. It said it was using "SGM-V2.01".

This means about as much to me as "astrophysics" or "conditional fifths". Can anyone tell me whether I can get these great sounds onto my PC?

Thanks!

Jenny.

Re: Sound fonts

Reply #1 – 2009-12-21 10:00 pm

G'day Jenny,
it seems to me that "SGM-V2.01" is indeed the name of a soundfont. It can be downloaded from any number of sources (I just did a quick google search and found a heap of them). In order to use a soundfont you need either:

a) a soundfont capable sound card I.E. a Creative card (though not all of them will)
b) a soundfont capable softsynth, like Synthfont
c) a VST solution that uses soundfonts.

The first is hardware, the second can be downloaded fron the net, the third can also be downloaded from the net but needs some setting up - I created a "dummies guide" a while back as an intro into basic VST that might interest you (available from the Scripto): http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful/vstfdum.pdf