Jump to content

High quality soundfonts?


 Share

Recommended Posts

I've been using hammersound for a couple years and well it just isn't doing it for me anymore. I want higher quality (especially for a piano)

Anyone have any ideas for some really high quality stuff I don't mind paying for good soundfonts.

The pianos are okay on hammersound, but they don't really have any soft notes, its pretty much hit the key hard or nothing.

Also isn't there a step-up in quality from the soundfonts that the pros use? What is this format called and can it be used with FL studio?

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doing good :)

"SF2 is pretty much dead also in terms of purchasing."

May I ask why? I don't really follow much when it comes to technology, I just like to play.

*edit* oops you mention GIGA and another format. I take it they are professional grade. Are there many or any free quality gigas etc?

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doing good :)

"SF2 is pretty much dead also in terms of purchasing."

May I ask why?

Not an industry standard, I guess.

I take it they are professional grade.

No; they're just industry standards :).

Are there many or any free quality gigas etc?

I wouldn't think so.

See, Soundfonts are essentially nothing but a particular kind of sample libraries.

A sample can have a volume change during the time applied by the 'engine' itself. It can be put through filters and the parameters of the filters can be changed during time. The Akai format takes that into account.

A sample can span only a few keys instead of the full range. Such a 'zone' can be overlapped with another sample, so you have an acoustic bass and a piano and on the octave where they overlap, playing a key triggers both. That's also part of the format.

The sample format says nothing about quality, availability, or how professional you are; it's just that popular formats can be read by a large number of applications so whatever you bought for an older (Akai) hardware sampler will not become obsolete rubbish just because you moved to Kontakt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm sorry to be the board moron but I tried searching for this SF thread with no luck :(

You could have searched for "Piano Collection" or just entries that I did. I don't post that often in there. It's old, I don't support it anymore but it's still running hot on my tracker.

Link to the Sample Request thread

"SF2 is pretty much dead also in terms of purchasing."

May I ask why? I don't really follow much when it comes to technology, I just like to play.

SoundFont was a standard made by the firms E-MU/Ensonic and Creative. Creative ran the system fairly well in times of the AWE series, but it slowly died out with the Live! series from Creative. Even though E-MU and Creative are working together again (Creative Studio product series), they stopped working on the SF2 format.

The fans however let this "container format" live on and started the cult to offer samplepackages for "free". Nowadays you can't really buy a samplepack in SF2 format anymore (only what's still in stock). It only lives on in the heart of "sample sharer" and oldschool user.

SF2 was pretty much tagged off with other sample formats or even samples that're bound with sample players (like Kontakt Player/Halion Player/Stylus, etc). The same applies with AKAI btw. In the early days it was the only "highend sample format" possible. Then there was SF2, then there was GIGA as container format.

Then the hardware samplers died out, so did almost the AKAI format too. You can still get AKAI sample CDs, but they're barely produced anymore. Like it happened with SF2. They're simply way better sampling possibilites now than a couple of years ago.

*edit* oops you mention GIGA and another format. I take it they are professional grade. Are there many or any free quality gigas etc?

GIGA is a sample standard. See it as "container" like SF2 toowhich includes not only the samples, but also keyswitches, program patches, effect settings (ADSR, LFO, etc). If it's professional grade is a thing that "you" determ.

I can't give you free sources for GIGA samples. But if you search in google for "GIGA free download" or something like that, you can find some samples (as in term of testimonials) from the one or another thing from time to time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Darn, well I appreciate the help however no one is seeding that piano torrent :(

Hey, I'll be seeding it tomorrow at about 8:00-9:00 in the morning and 11:00-2:00 in the afternoon (possibly up to 3:30), MST. And then I'll be seeding it whenever I remember to turn on Azureus. ;) The connection might break from time to time as I move between classes. Sorry for the weird schedule, but that's when I get to take advantage of ASU's wireless internet (luckily, they don't block torrents like other schools do).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ASU? in that case you should just put it on your student webspace :o

and then you can go slap protricity in the nuts for me and tell him to bring back abobo

Not exactly sure who Abobo is, but I'm sure if I wore an OCR shirt around campus and then punched the first person who called me a fgt, chances are it'd be Protricity.

Only trouble with that is, I don't have an OCR shirt. I sent my first one back because it feels nasty to wear polyester (which the baseball tee is made of), and I still haven't gotten my replacement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are many higher-quality formats out there. SoundFont's weakness is that it is not very programmable and doesn't offer develoeprs much. Also, it isn't very efficient either.

Higher-end sampelrs, such as Kontakt, Gigastudio, Akai, or HALion offer more programmability and most of them have the ability to stream large samples from your hard drive to ease the RAM load.

Most of those samplers have to be purchased seperately from samples, though most come with some (Kontakt 2 comes with a full orchestra from VSL, somewhat featured).

A good thing about the Kontakt format, though, is that Native Instruments is licensing the technology to sample developers in the form of the Kontakt Player which allows developers to ship to people who don't have a sampler. The nice thing is, owning such a library will get you a discount on the full Kontakt. Examples: Garritan Persnal Orchestra, EastWest Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra (all Versions), Virtual Drumline 2, Garritan Jazz and Big Band, the list continues... Look for "Kontakt Player" or "Kompakt Instrument."

I should also note that I use Kontakt, GPO, VDL2, and GJABB.

I'll tell you right now, it is hard to find good free samples for those formats. But look around. Project Sam had a few free GIGs for a while that were decent sounding, but not very featured.

You may want to browse here for something. Listen to demos and see what peaks your interest:

http://www.soundsonline.com/sophtml/search.phtml?sampler_type=&type=sample_cds_and_cd_roms&sound_category=pianos_keyboards

I'll note that GPO, EWQLSO, and GJABB come with piano sounds. Also, EastWest has a damn-fine stand-alone piano that runs as a Kompakt instrument. ( http://www.soundsonline.com/sophtml/details.phtml?sku=EW-157 )

EDIT: Important Hardware Note:

These higher-end samplers are resource-hungry. Don't expect to be able to use them on a Pentium 2 with 256 megs of RAM. Won't work. You should have at least a gig or RAM (preferably more), a CPU that can handle the polyphony load of your musical style, and a soundcard that supports necesary formats (Like GSIF for Gigastudio or ASIO or HALion. In fact, ASIO is a good idea and most VST hosts can benefit greatly form it.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 14 years later...

Check out musical artifacts. A simple google search will show you. Its a massive site dedicated to soundfonts and other formats for free. One of my favs is the realistic soundfont. Plus it has many game soundfonts that people used vgm trans to create. Even the long lusted after final fantasy 10 soundfont plus many more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/23/2020 at 7:48 PM, Tetewaki said:

Check out musical artifacts. A simple google search will show you. Its a massive site dedicated to soundfonts and other formats for free. One of my favs is the realistic soundfont. Plus it has many game soundfonts that people used vgm trans to create. Even the long lusted after final fantasy 10 soundfont plus many more.

Agreed. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...