Are Soundfonts even compatible with my computer?

[The Legendary Zoltan]

I don't get it yo. I use Sonar, and the soundfont option in the tools menu is greyed out and unselectable. In the Hardware section of the audio devices section of my computer it says, "SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio." I guess that's my soundcard. Can I not use soundfonts with that? If you know what I'm doing wrong please let me know. Thank you.

CHIPP Damage

[Fishy]

I don't think they can be incompatible.

Try finding a VST soundfont player, there are a few free ones. I know sonar can do VST hosing, so you should be able to use soundfonts this way.

I don't know much about using sonar as it never really worked for me, but try asking on their forums.

[Yoozer]

While the integrated card isn't exactly awesome for music production (for various reasons), Soundfonts are no longer constrained to Creative Soundblaster-only cards.

http://www.rgcaudio.com/sfz.htm

Use that.

yo

[Moseph]

I don't get it yo. I use Sonar, and the soundfont option in the tools menu is greyed out and unselectable. In the Hardware section of the audio devices section of my computer it says, "SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio." I guess that's my soundcard. Can I not use soundfonts with that? If you know what I'm doing wrong please let me know. Thank you.

CHIPP Damage

What version of Sonar are you using? In the newer versions (4 and later, I think) you can use the included SFZ soft synth to load SoundFonts. If your version of Sonar didn't come with it, you can (as Yoozer said) download it here: http://www.rgcaudio.com/sfz.htm

[The Legendary Zoltan]

I'm using Sonar 3. Hopefully, that thing that Yoozer mentioned will help me out. The thing is, I want to use NSKit7 which is a soundfont. If there are equally good VST drums that I can get then that would be fine, though.

[Yoozer]

If I recall correctly the NS kit is also offered as separate samples; you could then use something like DiscoDSP Highlife (doesn't cost anything, either) and after a little work of assigning the samples to the right keys, you'd probably have the same .

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Thanks a lot everyone. Your idea of using SFZ seems like it's gonna work. Now here's another n00b question. I think I've figured out how to load NSkit7 into and all that, and then I can load SFZ into Sonar as a DXI synth, but when I want to select a patch, there are none. Not sure why. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you.

[Yoozer]

The soundfont -is- the patch. A soundfont is a set of samples rolled in a single file, with velocity (if the sample has to be triggered depending on the force which you strike the key with) and zone data (say, a certain sample will only be played from the lowest C to the middle C).

The only way to get more patches is to dump several soundfonts in a single folder, then see if the plugin detects all of 'm.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

The soundfont -is- the patch.

That's what I though. So, that means the fact that I'm not getting any sound is because of something else. Gotta figure this out. Thanks.

[Moseph]

Have you tried any other SoundFonts in it to see if they work?

(If you don't have others, you can get 'em at hammersound.net)

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Have you tried any other SoundFonts in it to see if they work?

Nope. It's my first time. So I have no idea what I'm doing. None of the help menus in Sonar seem to mention anything about how to use a soundfont when doing it with SFZ. It's possible that I missed an important piece of in the SFZ FAQ. I don't THINK so, though. I've been using VSTs until now. And not really all that much since I usually only use Sonar to make songs for my band to play. So I don't worry about quality one bit.

[Yoozer]

Can you get any other plugins to work?

[Moseph]

Just to make sure we're on the same page, here's how I get SFZ to play SoundFonts in Sonar 6. Sonar 3 ought to be similar. Let me know if this is more or less what you've tried.

From Sonar's Insert menu, I choose Soft Synths, then SFZ. It brings up the Insert Soft Synth Options box. I ensure that the boxes "MIDI Source," "First Synth Audio Output," and "Synth Property Page" are checked and hit OK. It brings up the SFZ window. I click the long gray field to the right of "File." It brings up a load window. I select, say, Sitar.sf2 and hit Open. The File field now says "Sitar.sf2" and the Program field says "0: Sitar." When I click and drag the mouse along the dark gray strip at the bottom of the window, it previews the sounds.

Keep in mind that not every note is always assigned a sound in a SoundFont. There are some SoundFonts where only a couple of notes actually make a sound, and you have to try all the notes to find them (clicking and dragging slowly across the dark gray test strip lets you do this).

EDIT:

The only way to get more patches is to dump several soundfonts in a single folder, then see if the plugin detects all of 'm.

There are some SoundFonts that contain bank and program data which allow multiple patches in one .sf2 file, but SFZ reads these properly, so that's probably not CHIPP's problem.

EDIT 2:

I just downloaded ns_kit7free and it works with SFZ.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Moseph and Yoozer, you guys are the greatest! I finally figured it out. It was Moseph's saying that he checks the synth property option in the insert synth box. I usually don't bother with that because, well, because I've never needed to in the past.

To answer your question Yoozer, I did use Edirol Orchestra a lot in the past. But I never needed to bother with the synth property page with that one. I guess because it's not a soundfont and thus doesn't require SFZ.

Well, I guess the only proper way to thank you is to dedicate the next mix (And it's an INSANE one) to you two. So that's what I'm gonna do. It will take some time though. I'm still a n00b when it comes to production values, so I gotta take some time with that. But I think I'll be able to make my drum beat sound really bad ass now. Thanks guys (or girls, if you are girls).

[Moseph]

Yeah, for most VSTs if the synth properties option isn't checked, it doesn't give you the synth window so you can't really do anything with the synth. If you insert the synth without that option checked or if you've closed the synth window and need it back, the way to bring it up again (in Sonar 6) is Views > Synth Rack, then double-click your synth in the window that comes up. Or, in the mixer, double-click the input field on the synth's track (it should say "sfz 1 Primary Out: Stereo)".

Glad we could help!