Harmony
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I’m sure there’s a tutorial out there somewhere. If you find one for Vienna, it’s virtually the same as Viena so you should be able to use that.
A soundfont is a collection of wave files bundled with instructions on how they should be played when midi info is passed their way.
At its core, a sf is made up of “samples”. These are just the wave files. For example, someone might record a snare being hit at 3 different volumes. These samples are then collected into groups called “instruments.” If we were making a drum kit soundfont, one instrument might be the 3 wave samples of our snare. Another might be the wave samples for the hi-hat, and so on. Most of the editing you’ll do to pre-made soundfonts is in the instruments. Here, you define what samples you want played and how you want them played when you press certain keys (or however you input your midi data). Instruments have further divisions like “layers” and “splits”, but those aren’t really important right now. Finally, instruments are arranged into “presets” or “patches”. So for the drum kit example, the snare, kick, and hi-hat instruments would be collected to form at single preset, say “drum-kit 1”. That preset is what you finally select in your sf player.
When you open up viena and load a soundfont, the left panel shows a tree of your samples, instruments and presets. Open up your harpsichord sf and you should see 116 samples, 2 instruments (Petit Italien-Jeu 1 and Petit Italien-Jeu 2), and 1 preset (Harpsichord) which is made up of both instruments.
What I suggested before was to delete the second instrument Petit Italien-Jeu 2. However, since the preset Harpsichord depends on Jeu 2, you first have to delete that instrument from the preset.
1) On the left tree, expand the Presets directory, expand the Harpsichord Preset, left click “Petit Italien-Jeu 2” and press ctrl-x. That should delete it.
2) Now, expand the Instruments directory, left click “Petit Italien-Jeu 2” and press ctrl-x. Now it’s gone. However, the samples that Jeu 2 used still remain and the file size is still large.
3) To get rid of them, expand the Samples directory. In order to find out what samples were used by what preset, you could have double-clicked on the sample names, but that was before we deleted the instruments that depended on them. In this case, just trust me that all of the samples with names that start with “II” were used by Jeu 2. Delete each one of those by selecting it, and pressing ctrl-x. Save and you should be done.
As far as effects like chorus and phasing, I was talking about applying them outside of the soundfont; nothing to do with Viena or soundfont editing. When you load your soundfont into whatever sequencer you’re going to use, you should be able to apply any number of effects
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The drum kit now comes with a demo video!
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Got a new camera for my birthday and recently built a new drum sample set. Put the two together and waddya got?
Enjoy!
For those interested, this is the same free drum kit that I posted in the remixing forum a little while ago. SO much fun to jam with
>> NEW VIDEO <<
New video for Zircon's Groove Bias drum sample library! For a limited time only, this video comes with increased production value!!!
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So the Harpsichord you posted works fine for me in Viena. It is so large because each of about 60 keys is sampled in stereo with each sample running about 15 seconds. On top of that, each key has a jeu 1 and jeu 2 layer, which undoubtedly are harpsichord related terms that I'm unfamiliar with. So, in my crudeness, I just deleted all of the jeu 2 samples and that brought the sf2 file size to 80mb. The difference in sound is noticeable, but not detrimental imo. Nothing a good chorus or phase effect couldn't make up for.
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That was awfully fast of you to pull all of the wav samples out of the SF, convert them to ogg and then convert them back to SF (assuming you didn't just keep everything in SFZ format). Are you sure you went through all of those steps?Grr... I did the Ogg thingy and it's still the same size when in sf2 format. And, I already tried to download vienna but when I started it, it said something along the terms: "can not find soundfont compatible hardware."And Vienna (two n's) is a soundfont editor made by Creative for SoundBlaster only cards. You'll get that message if you try to use it with any other card. Viena (one n) is a clone of Vienna which should work on any sound card. Did you go to the link I gave you? I've never had a problem with it on multiple setups with various soundcards (el cheapo laptop cards included).
SFZ allows you to stream soundfonts directly from disk. Cuts the RAM usage way down but it obviously taxes the processor more.Otherwise, soundfonts are actually really inefficient since they don't stream from the disk.
Out of curiosity, what do you mean "unstable"? I don't recall ever using anything over 300mb so maybe I haven't run into this barrier, but I thought the stability should be a function of your available ram.After 200-300mb I've noticed soundfonts become unstable in FL. 800mb sounds like you're pushing the envelope. -
Soundfonts are just files, so you should be able to edit them regardless of your soundcard. The only difference would be if you had a soundblaster which may give you a few more options in terms of editing and playing back sf2 files.
If you'd like to give editing a shot, download viena, find a simple soundfont to start out with, then have at it.
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Nope, I don't know of anyway to do easily do that. You could convert the sf2 to sfz using something like Extreme Sample Converter ($$$), then convert all of the .wav files to the compressed .ogg format. That would reduce file size considerably without a significant loss of quality . Or you could manually remove some of the velocity layers of the sf2 using something like viena(free) to make a "light" version of the sf2 with whatever loss of quality you see as acceptable. But both of those would take more time than I'm guessing you're willing to invest.
Sadly, the easiest solution I see is what DZComposer said: if you're ram-limited get more ram.
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Wow, thanks. I rarely get such glowing compliments on my lyricsCan I just say that I think you're an amazing lyricist? I really love the lyrics on this one because they flow so naturally and go well on their own too (as in like a poem). Super-inspirational stuff, man
Glad I could bring some attention to this worldwide epidemic. And just to clarify to all of the people out there thinking that the "dragon" might metaphorically represent anything about us that our friends/family/society see as odd or different, you're wrong. This song is about fursecution.this song accurately depicts the pain and suffering caused by fursecution
omg, I'm watching some of his videos now and this guy is awesome! Why hadn't I heard of him before?This really reminds me of Raul Midon. You listen to much of him?I guess I was too awestruck by
and Kaki King (oddly, no relation) to notice the other great acoustic tapping talent out there. -
Drawing a blank, but that's a really generic riff you've given us and with generic lyrics to boot
Any other more specific words from the lyrics coming to memory?While you think, your plight reminded me of this classic episode of Married With Children:
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Mainly it rapes my buffer if I have any soundfont over "poo-ish" quality and high polyphony, so I get that horrible crackling noiseDFD works fine
Well, dfd can't be helping with the rape of your buffer.
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That's an interesting sfz you've got there. That P3 must be causing comedy-related GUI problems as well.Are we talking about the same VSTi? I don't have "draft" on mine. Actually, looking at Luke's, it's missing a lot of stuff mine has. Like really bad jokes.
But hopefully you're not trying to run it on dfd. That'll slow you down for sure on an older pc.
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Ah ha, so the prophet reveals your true problem SOC.
In anycase, if your soundfont is decently sampled then it won't use a lot of resampling which means that the quality setting becomes less and less important. In fact, for most of my soundfonts, even the smaller ones, I barely hear a difference between 'draft' and '72' quality. So it's a little strange to me that your soundfonts degrade to 'poo-quality' at the draft setting. Are you sure they didn't start out that way
For an older computer, I'd stick to using PR16 mode. That way you use less RAM and have faster load times at the cost of 1) a delay whenever you change patches and 2) samples are played back at 16bit instead of 32bit (SF are restricted to 16bit so who cares?). And if you really want the best of the best quality, you can always just run everything as draft while creating and then up everything to the highest settings for rendering.
Plus, I think the P4 is the oldest Intel chip that supports the default SF32 setting. So if you actually do have a P3, that might be the problem right there.
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Well, since soundfonts have been around for a while and people seem to like them, there are a more than a few programs that will load them with a better interface than SFZ. Back when I had a Sound Blaster and SONAR 2, Megafont (possibly the most amazingly useful software of its day imo) made categorizing, loading, and searching your soundfont collection faster than getting the sounds out of any VST I've ever seen. But alas, Megafont's time has passed.You seem very knowledgeable when it comes to Sound Font technology. I've already seen the potential, but as you mentioned, the GUI issue makes it tedious to approach head on.In anycase, SFZ sacrifices GUI frills for lots of power and sound quality, but that shouldn't be a turn off. If you want to modify attack, cutoff, reverb, etc with SFZ, you just need a list of the controller numbers and you should be able to automate the parameters in your sequencer. As far as editing soundfonts offline, you can do just about everything you need with viena which has a pretty good GUI.
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What kinds of errors? I've only had rare problems with crashing (just about as rare as any other plugin) and stuff loads really quickly in SONAR 6. Top that off with the fact that sfz sounds better and has more options under the hood than just about anything else out there and it's been a winner for me!I have Quantum Leap RA and I have sfzguess which one works faster
I don't get it, soundfonts were fine back in 2003, why is it so hard to load them now? I get all sorts of errors with sfz in renoise, which is probably the most stable VST host out there.
GUI sucks though. Even the screenshots of sfz+ don't really inspire me to buy it.
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Gotta be honest, I'm pretty familiar with the OST so I tried to guess the source (didn't know the original was called Ceremony) and the way you've changed some of the notes threw me off. I just couldn't make the connection. I eventually got it though so maybe I'm just slow
Battle theme came through loud and awesomely clear.
In anycase, nice atmosphere; you're putting those samples to good use. The drums feel like they get overpowered during the DnB section so you might want to work on their mixing.
Good stuff so far, I'll be watching this WIP.
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I think that 99% of what we recognize as talent is, as has been said, just plain hard work. The "talent" is really just the dedication to continue working at something when others would get bored or overly frustrated. People tell me I'm good at math. Well, I think everyone can be just as "good" as me if they worked as hard as me at it. Sure hard work will only get you so far, but I honestly don't think that most people go far enough in most things to run into talent barriers.
Same thing with music. I don't feel I have any special talent except for a simple love of music creation. I can't get enough of it and while other people are perfecting their jumpshot or kickflip or dancing, I'm playing with chorus plugins till 3am. Everyone has their own passions.
To answer the question, I started piano lessons when I was 5 and took private lessons until I was almost 14 when my family moved and I was forced to stop. I kept up the practice myself until I picked up a guitar in 1999 and dedicated most of my musical time to learning it. Around the same time, I bought Voyetra's MIDI-only Orchestrator music starter kit. I started messing around with that and I was instantly hooked. Orchestrator -> Orchestrator Pro -> Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 + Fruity Loops 3 -> SONAR
So, in terms of recording, I've been at this about 10 years. As OCR goes, I've never had a remix rejected, but I submitted my first one in 2005 after 6 years of recording experience and with lots of musical background.
I don't want to say that it takes years to get on OCR though. With the free stuff that's out today, you can literally download an entire musical setup in a couple of hours. With Google and forums like KVR and the ReMixing forum here, you can learn to use it in a few weeks. Then, with the great presets out there you can throw something together that is AWESOME in a few days. Just takes creativity and a lot of hard work.
Now is a great time to be getting into music creation.
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Ohh, I was just about to get up from my desk and head home from work but this song came up in winamp and I'm transfixed. Gotta sit back down and let this one ride out
A sax this sexy and a piano that smooth are the only things that could keep me at work any longer than necessary on a Friday afternoon.
Agreed on both counts. I wish the piano owned a little more sonic ground in the mix. I'd love it if it were both louder and wider, but that's a minor gripe. And yeah, Anthony's performance makes me want to give up my dreams of having enough money to buy some decent solo sax/trumpet samples. I'd be much better served using that money to buy a sax and learning to play it...or just using the money to hire Anthony.I wonder if the piano is a little too quiet (or the sax too loud), but beyond that, I'm just loving this. It also serves as a reminder how expressive real sax is.Nice work guys!
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I would love it if you were right on this one, but nah, assuming my friend isn't lying, it was a $49.99 limited sale and he picked two up with tax+shipping for about $70 each. He now laughs at my Acer 20" that I paid almost 3 times as much for50 OFF, mind you.different websites generally have it on sale for 30 or 40 off, and it's almost always free shipping which saves another 15-20. you can find it for 180$ usually, and it's TOTALLY worth the money. works well for general use and gaming, it's got nice color but not the best blacks. but it's half the cost of any other monitor out there with the same real estate. and it's really close to being the same vertical size as my 17" square, which is handy because there's not a distortion effect between the two.
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That was hilarious. omg. Highlight: "my giney tickles" LOL
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lol, yeah I know I've gotta stop with the dragon thing.
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Glad everyone is digging this!
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Happy birthday!
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Oh, nice work! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.
In terms of passing there are a few issues that'll probably get mentioned. Firstly, I think I'm hearing some clipping from 0:00-0:25, but that may be the cheap headphones I'm on right now. Also there might be an issue with the open hi-hat sample you're using. It sounds like the left channel cuts out mid-sample (e.g. 0:20) creating an odd panning effect that isn't too appealing on headphones.
Arrangement is pretty conservative, especially for such a short song and especially for one that repeats itself for the last half of the song.
Performance is pretty cool, maybe a tad mechanical, but still cool. I especially like 1:07-1:24. But man, this song would have been 10 times better imo if the drum track really rocked. It's ok as is, but it's pretty simple and it repeats with little variation on the main beat. What you need is a friend with a marching snare to really go to town on this sucker. That would be sweet.
All in all not bad, but I'd keep working on it, make it longer (you're teasing us at only 2mins), mix up the arrangement some more, and spice up the drum track.
Good luck at the panel!
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Nah Rozovian, I'm not gonna sub this one, but I'm glad you like it. I was just having a little fun. I kinda like the imperfections and simple arrangement as-is and, although not entirely necessary, I'd feel the overwhelming need to perfect the life out of the song if I was going to try to get it posted here. Plus, I left out one of the best parts of the original! Can't post a mix of this awesome song without arranging all of it
Eino, if you get around to listening to the song you'll hear me laughing in the song at the same point for the same reason
Keyboard drum jam to classic VGM
in General Discussion
Posted
Thanks OCR, glad you enjoy!
Dude, for someone who types at 166 wpm you shouldn't be all that jealous. Your fingers move pretty frickin fast too. In fact, if someone were to steal your mouse, you'd probably start programming all of your phat beats from the keyboard just like I do...only faster...and without any misspelled notes...