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RealBand
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Joined: Apr 2009
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Hi,
I've found many very good sounding socalled "SoundFonts" in the internet, and I would like to use them in Realband or Powertracks. But I have no idea, if that is possible and - in a positive case - how to implement them in the programs. Who has experience and could give me some helpful tips?
git-jazzer
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RealBand
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You will need a soundfont player (multi channel) and put them in as a Vsti. There are some freebies you can find on the net.
Once you got a soundfontplayer, all you need to do is load in the soundfont(s) and from there it works about the same as the VSTi you got with Biab (VSC plugin). The only thing is that BiaB doesn't remember (I think) the settings or the plugin to be as a default, but I might be wrong about that. So in the worst case you need to setup the SfPlayer everytime. Saving presets in the sfPlayer would then be a solution to keep your settings per song, or as default.
I'll be back...
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RealBand
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OK, I had to give this a try with soundfonts. I have re-started trying the "Blues You Can Use" guitar series again and I have been recreating the lesson tracks in BIAB to have a track with no guitar in them for practicing. On this one (lesson #4), I decided to use brass and I needed a better sound. I created a Blues song using the style BEEBSHUF. It doesn't have a brass section, but I changed the OverDrive guitar to brass. I then sent the files to Sonar and it sounded pretty MIDI. I then went back to BIAB, changed the brass to the GM2 Brass 2 and exported that to Sonar. So I had two tracks of Brass which played slightly different stuff. I added some reverb/trem/chorus to try and make it more life like, but it's still pretty cheesy. Soundfonts to the rescue? 1.) Went here and got a free SFPlayer: http://virtualturntable.fourstones.net/free-vst-soundfont-player2.) Went here and got a brass soundfont: http://www.thejazzpage.de (scroll down to get to the downloadable sound fonts). I've only used the "BrAss" soundfont. It's an "archived file", so I had to go to http://www.melodymachine.com to get the unPack program for these soundfonts. 3.) I then passed the midi file from BIAB over to Sonar and tried to work with it there. Didn't like how it was going, so I tried to see if I could get it to work in BIAB. 4.) I got BIAB to recognize the SFPlayer (Audio menu --> DXi Synth Settings ...), but then the SFPlayer would only play ALL the midi channels through the Brass setting (ha, ha). No big deal. I switched to the VSC Dxi and output all of the midi tracks to audio and then switched to the Brass thing to just output the brass stuff. So now I have my song file with 3 tracks of brass (ha, ha). I've got lots more to do -- but here it is for now. 5.) Pulled all the audit files into Sonar and poof! The brass doesn't sound too bad. I really need to do the soundfont thing on one other brass track and only have two tracks of brass. Right now it is a little bit of an overkill. I switched the drum set to RealDrums, but everything else is midi. Basic Blues with 3 tracks of brass. Two VSC DXi tracks and 1 sound font track: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7507227Did any of this make any sense? Kevin
Last edited by Kemmrich; 04/10/09 01:23 PM.
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RealBand
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 436
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 436 |
Kevin;
Actually, it sounds pretty good. Definately different than you could do in BB with just midi and RT's.
I like it. Musical Instrument Digital Ingenious!
Gene
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RealBand
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Joined: Apr 2009
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OP
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Hallo, abaudio,
thank you for the quick information. Indeed, it works. Now I'm looking for a good and easy to manage VST Soundfont Player and good sounding soundfonts. In any case, the possibility to use Soundfonts with Realband or Powertracks is an very interesting way to improve the output of midi-music.
git-jazzer
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RealBand
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Joined: Mar 2009
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You are welcome Git-jazzer. Citaat:
but then the SFPlayer would only play ALL the midi channels through the Brass setting
I adviced you to download a multichannel player and I believe the one you got is a single channel player, so therefor it can only handle one soundfont on one channel at a time. Since Biab only allows one VSTi, all instruments will be routed through this soundfontplayer. If it is still a multichannel device, then see if you can make several different banks on different channels, then it would also work. You could try one that is a bit better to use since you got a list in front of you (see pic). I am sure there will be more, but this one I just know about, VSTSynthFont. This one is a simple player, so no extra FX or whatever, but it has 16 channels that you can add soundfonts seperately. Besides it has some basic option to adjust.
You can download VSTSynthfont here and also some other soundfont related tools if you feel you could use them:
Synthfont Page
For more soundfonts I can assure you, there are buckets full of them on the net. Just google "soundfonts download free" and you are for sure allready downloading for a while.
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RealBand
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235 |
??Can't see my pic anymore??
I'll be back...
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RealBand
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2009
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Okay try again: 
I'll be back...
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RealBand
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,815
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,815 |
"VSTSynthFont" seems to work just fine. I downloaded two GM soundfonts (SGM-V2.01.sf2 and RealFont_2_1.SF2) and I guess there are thousands upon thousands of individual instrument SF's out there. Looks like one could make a whole career just looking for the "best" soundfonts!
Kevin
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RealBand
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2009
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tell me about it, I got about 600 of them if not more! 
I'll be back...
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RealBand
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 4
Newbie
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 4 |
Hallo, abaudio,
many thanks for all the information from you about soundfonts and how to work with them in Realband, BIAB etc. I've the impression, that other PG-Users are also very interested in this topic. So I think, it is a very good discussion. Eventually we get further good tips and informations from other "BIAB-fans".
Thank you and have fun.
git-jazzer
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RealBand
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235
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Apprentice
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You're welcome git-jazzer. I hope you have fun exploring the huge amount of sf2's and find yourself some great sounding soundfonts!
I'll be back...
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RealBand
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 8,021
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 8,021 |
also google " soundfont librarian" this is a God send to anyone working with fonts. It's a rag and drop bank creator. Also get Creative Vienna sountfont Studio. For doing ANYTHING with fonts. Even make your own. Free but very complex.
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RealBand
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,709
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,709 |
google sonic implants, they are not free but they are top notch, there are GM sets and indivudula sets
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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RealBand
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 211
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 211 |
Quote:
4.) I got BIAB to recognize the SFPlayer (Audio menu --> DXi Synth Settings ...), but then the SFPlayer would only play ALL the midi channels through the Brass setting (ha, ha). No big deal. I switched to the VSC Dxi and output all of the midi tracks to audio and then switched to the Brass thing to just output the brass stuff.
Kevin,
I'm going through the exact same procedure. Could you please explain the steps you took. I've got the SynthFont software installed and running. I've got BIAB running and I've got DXi Synth Settings Window open and I've found the, "Add VST ..." but I don't know what I'm doing from this point forward and I've spent several hours with this so far. I could use a little help if you don't mind.
If you could give me a little heads-up on what to do with the SynthFont software too please.
Thank you.
Ike
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RealBand
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,058
Expert
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Expert
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The vst Synthfont has a DLL file that is usually placed where the other vst's are placed or in the synthfont folder.
You need to find this Synthfont.DLL when you go to add VST. This will link the synthfont to the list of other vst's like Virtual sound canvas VSC in the list of vst's you can choose from. When you do this you can choose which one you wish to use. You also need to have a GM soundfont group to use within the synthfont program.
I down loaded the Fluidr3.sf2 which is a compressed file on the synthfont webpage. download the SFARK program to unpack the soundfonts and it will have a sf2 extention after unpacking.
I had a bit of a problem unpacking the sfark file till I did a left mouse click on the file and chose "open with" sfark and it went smoothly
Hope this helps. Wyndham
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RealBand
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Is a soundfont a sample? How big are they? I'm running out of room here for big files. Are they resource hogs or cpu intensive? Just want to know what I'm getting into before I delve into this. Thanks for your help.
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RealBand
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 211
Apprentice
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Apprentice
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Quote:
The vst Synthfont has a DLL file that is usually placed where the other vst's are placed or in the synthfont folder.
You need to find this Synthfont.DLL when you go to add VST. This will link the synthfont to the list of other vst's like Virtual sound canvas VSC in the list of vst's you can choose from. When you do this you can choose which one you wish to use. You also need to have a GM soundfont group to use within the synthfont program.
I down loaded the Fluidr3.sf2 which is a compressed file on the synthfont webpage. download the SFARK program to unpack the soundfonts and it will have a sf2 extention after unpacking.
I had a bit of a problem unpacking the sfark file till I did a left mouse click on the file and chose "open with" sfark and it went smoothly
Hope this helps. Wyndham
This post is for anyone trying to install the Synthfont program mentioned in earlier posts. Although I'm replying here as a courtesy to a previous poster, I intend it more-so to aid the befuddled future readers who, like me (a novice but desiring to learn), wish to try to implement this software in BIAB.
Wyndham,
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my question.
I downloaded and installed the multi-channel software described above in abaudio's post called SynthFont (his link: http://www.synthfont.com/).
I read your reply and following your instructions I ended up doing a search of my entire PC for the file Synthfont.DLL and to my surprise it came back empty! So, I read the software docs for Synthfont (cover to cover ... nothing in there about the a vst DLL). I came back to this forum and read everything in the thread very carefully because I thought I must be making a mistake (still no luck and I performed everything just as you and others had instructed). I even reinstalled the software and still no luck. I went to the Synthfont web page and they had nothing that I could find there, so I re-downloaded and reinstalled the software again! Finally (my last resort), I did an Internet search for vstSynthfont (I seen this wording in a previous post here) and low and behold I find a separate link to download the file VSTSynthFont.DLL!
With this file I was able to complete the VST install in BIAB and at least initially, it appears to be working (although I have concerns -- see below).
It is strange that the file needed did not come with the SynthFont software as download. And stranger still, that the file needed is a completely different name and never mentioned by anyone.
I do have one other question though (and I'm trying not to sound condescending or sarcastic here here). Has anyone ever posted something in the forum to explain how a user would use this idea with BIAB (obviously in detail)?
This is a cool feature/idea but I think there's plenty of us on the PG forum that haven't a clue what to do after the install! I read the Synthfont manual and there's no way a user that is new to "sound fonts" and "VST's" can even make heads or tails about even the benefits of implementing it in BIAB!
Now personally, I don't see a majority of people here being pro's at BIAB and/or recording for that matter. On the contrary -- I think the majority of us are here to learn and get answers to things we don't already know (note that we -- the less BIAB-educated -- would like to be spending our time having fun with BIAB too).
I don't know what other users feel but I think that the information in this thread is too important to just pass up. Furthermore, I think it would be a nice idea if someone would take a bit of time to explain things in layman's terms. I know it would certainly help me!
Thanks again! 
Ike
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RealBand
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,616
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Expert
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Quote:
Is a soundfont a sample? How big are they? I'm running out of room here for big files. Are they resource hogs or cpu intensive? Just want to know what I'm getting into before I delve into this. Thanks for your help.
An entire soundfont GM library can be quite large. I think I've seen some over 1gb. If you don't need the entire library, individual soundfonts can be loaded. The Coyote Forte uses soundfonts. The largest soundfont in that library is the grand piano at around 35 mb. Less complex sounds are much smaller.
I don't think soundfonts are any more cpu intensive than the Roland VSC or Coyote Forte DXi modules. They will take up memory as they are loaded. When using Forte, my BIAB uses less than 250mb for everything. Other GM soundfont libraries I have used have seen the memory use go up to over 1gb. If you go the soundfont route, the trick is to only load the instruments to use, not an entire GM library unless you have ample memory.
There are some very nice soundfonts out there. If you have not checked out Forte, you may want to take a listen. I use it for most of the remaining Midi needs I have.
As mentioned earlier, the http://www.synthfont.com/ page is a great place to start.
Rachael
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RealBand
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Russel, my brain sometimes runs behind my fingers. I had forgotten the vst download, which thankfully you found and were able to install, my bad.
There is a soundfont "Chaosv2" that maybe worth downloading. the version 1 had ROM samples that overloaded the BIAB system, I'm hoping the new version won't.
Wyndham
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