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Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Howdy folks!  I'm a long time NWC user, but this is, I think, my first post here on these forums.

One thing that's always bugged me is the quality of the instruments on my computer.  I've got a SB Live! soundcard, so I figured I'd install some soundfonts to improve that.  I used to use a computer that had an Audigy card, and came with a program called Soundfont Bank Manager, that was extremely handy for that sort of thing.  However, this card didn't, so I'm at the mercy of the internet as far as figuring out how to make my computer use extra soundfonts I throw at it.

I've installed a program called Soundfont Librarian, as well as Vienna Soundfont Editor.  The first of those looks like it could be used to add extra patches to the default .sf2 file Windows uses, but I'd really not like to mess the file up.  Is there some way to load soundfonts without actually appending them to the default file?  And Vienna is only for creating soundfonts, right?  Or could it be useful for this sort of thing?

And then I'd also like to just replace the whole bank of sounds with another, sometimes.  After searching around, I found that a program called MegaFont is useful for that, so I installed it, and it seems to work nicely.  NWC doesn't like it, though.  Whenever I've got MegaFont on, managing my banks, I can't playback MIDI in NWC - instead I get a message "One or more of your selected MIDI devices are failing to open."  However, someone in an older post on these forums recommended the use of MegaFont, so it ought to work with NWC somehow; but I'm not sure what to do.

So . . . can anyone give me advice?  Am I going about this entirely the wrong way, or am I just a little bit off track?  Basically, I want to be able to use soundfonts, and don't really care what programs I have to use to do so - so if you've got another recommendation, feel free to give that, too.

Thanks!


Mark

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #1 –
G'day Mark,
it's a while since I had a Live! card so I'm not completely sure of the name but you should have a Soundfont Bank Manager or whatever it was called with it.

It will be on the driver/software CD that came with the card.  If you don't have the CD then a look on the Creative site should let you download the drivers etc..

Unless...  just had a quick look at the Creative site looking for drivers and saw that they've reused the "Live!" brand on an external USB device which does not appear to support soundfonts.  If that is the device you have then you need a different solution.  One I've been playing with a bit is VSTHost and VSTSynthfont.  For a quick intro have a look at this page: https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=6528.0 but be aware that you will run into latency issues - E.G the note chase will be ahead of the sounds rather than with it.  It works, but looks a bit strange if you like following things...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.
 

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #2 –
Lawrie;
   What device are you looking at? The Creative Sound Blaster Live 24bit External does indeed support soundfonts and ships with the soundfont bank manager on the cd. The old pci Soundblaster live also shipped with the soundfont bank manager on the CD. I don't see a download for it at the moment, but then again figureing out the creative sight can be a challenge sometimes and I just didin't see it.
Mark;
   I hope that you are abe to find the version that you need. If you cannot let me know if it is the new live 24  bit external or the pci card one and I will check my cd's.

Regards
Keith
Illigitimi Non Carborundum

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #3 –
Mine is the older, PCI SB Live! Value 24bit.  My computer is a homebuilt that I bought off of eBay, and while the maker included CDs for the mouse, the motherboard and the graphics card, the sound card CD did not come with.  I do have the CD for my Audigy card (which is not currently installed on any computer) and tried installing the Bank Manager from there once, but it didn't work (perhaps it's got some Audigy-only algorithms or something).  If you could find it on your CDs it would be handy, since it doesn't look like they have it available on Soundblaster's website.

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #5 –
Actually, I just got MIDI working with MegaFont - I had merely been using the wrong input device in NWC, previously.  There are some drawbacks, though: it usually skips the first couple notes the first time a piece is played, since it has to load the soundfont into memory (something the SF Bank Manager would do quicker, perhaps?), and larger orchestral pieces won't play, because "One of requested presets don't fit in memory" (the error messages were evidently written by hillbillies).  It appears I have to increase the Soundfont cache size . . . which must be done from Soundfont Bank Manager!

So it appears I'm still going to need it after all.  :)


EDIT:  Thanks for the link, Rick!  I had actually already looked at that page, but took another glance after you posted the link and saw the Sound Blaster Live! LiveDrvUni-Pack, and installed it.  It includes updated drivers and some handy apps like AudioHQ - but not, unfortunately, Soundfont Bank Manager itself.

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #6 –
G'day Keith,
Quote from: Keith Mckenna –
Lawrie;
   What device are you looking at? The Creative Sound Blaster Live 24bit External does indeed support soundfonts and ships with the soundfont bank manager on the cd. <snip>
Hmm, OK, I stand corrected - you've got one so you should definitely know - I was just going on the Creative web site where I found no mention of MIDI at all WRT this device let alone soundfont support.  I sorta half assumed it was like the X-Fi Xtreme music which does not support souindfonts according to all reports - apparently you need to go to the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer as a minimum for soundfont support with an X-Fi.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #7 –
Oddly enough, I googled 'Soundfont cache size registry' and one of the fora it took me to offered this link:
http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/nwcforum/3510.htm?rcnt=11 (See reply #11)
Worth a try. I'm still using an AWE32, which will only use onboard memory, so I can't test it.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #8 –
Well, I actually have SB live! (as I already wrote I'm the one with old things... I wonder why :-) and I can use soundfonts via the original SB drivers and hardware.
n.b. the memory is shared so you SF will take memory from the main processor

The soundfont manager is indeed INSIDE AudioHQ and is called (no wonder) "SoundFont AudioHQ".
If you managed to get AudioHQ then you must already have it.

As many Creative tools, it's not particularily user friendly but it works.

The program file is C:\Programmi\Creative\ShareDLL\AHQ\CTSFONT.EXE but you can't launch it directly.
You must use AudioHQ to launch it.

Halas, you have to install the whole crap to have it.

By the way: what a bad idea for SB to store the environment parameter data base in the system registry!

Hope this helps.

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #9 –
Rick,

I was curious so I clicked your link.
It keeps redirecting me to  http://support.creative.com/welcome.aspx with manual search for updates.

What's wrong?

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Flurmy –
What's wrong?
I don't know. It works for me. I have SoundBlaster drivers/utils installed on my system. Perhaps I have an ActiveX, cookie or Registry key that you lack. Maybe the page redirects based on browser type or region. Sorry it didn't work for you.
Registered user since 1996

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #11 –
Thanks folks, you're right - bank management (and cache resizing) is controlled from within AudioHQ.  I was just hoping it would have a pretty, intuitive app like Audigy did. :)

And now . . . are there any good soundfont banks available that are well suited for orchestral works, that any of you can recommend?

Re: Using Multiple Soundfont Banks

Reply #12 –
Mark,

I am not good on orchestral sound fonts but

http://hammersound.com/cgi-bin/soundlink.pl

is a very comprehansive library of free sound fonts and for many there are reviews or critiques. Have a look at "ensembles"

Tony