This article explains how to use MIDI
SoundFonts as an alternative to the instrument sounds given by the
Myriad digital soundbase (GMsebase.rsr). The article refers to
SBLive! series soundcards in Windows, but can be of use for any
SoundFont-compatible soundcard in any operating system
Introduction
Although Harmony Assistant is
initially designed to work in digital output mode with its own
digital soundbase (GMsebase), this software is also a good MIDI
sequencer. When you select the MIDI output for your score instead
of the digital output, the realism of the sound will thus be given
by the quality of both the MIDI synthesizer and the General MIDI
(GM) soundset included in the soundcard.
Several soundcards (among which the
Creative SoundBlaster Live! or Audigy series, the Emu Systems Audio
Production Studio APS, the Terratec AWS EWS series, or the
Creamware Power Sampler) give the possibility of replacing the
default standard Midi soundset with personalized sounds called
SoundFonts. Soundfonts are to music what TrueType fonts are to text
documents: the same music looks very different depending on the
quality of the sounds you are using.
What
are SoundFonts?
SoundFonts are merely wave-form
samples (.wav files) that have been treated and transformed by a
SoundFont editor into MIDI-controllable instruments which can be
loaded onto your soundcard and used by your sequencer. Several wave
samples (one for each pitch or group of pitches) form an
instrument. One or more instruments are grouped into banks. Each
instrument in a bank has an ID number which is called program
number or patch number. SoundFont Banks (files with .sf2 extension)
can contain definitions of from 1 to 128 instruments and 1 drum
set.
Preparing Harmony Assistant to work
with MIDI
In Harmony Assistant you work by
default with the digital output mode. This means that the
instruments of your score sound according to the built-in wave
synthesizer and the sounds given by the GMsebase included in the
GMDigit subfolder of the Harmony folder in your computer.
If you want to use alternative
SoundFonts for your instruments in Harmony Assistant you should
follow these steps:
- Configure the Midi output in Harmony
- Select Midi output mode for every single staff in your
score
Configure the Midi output in
Harmony
1. Select Configuration>Hardware
configuration
2. Select Midi 1 output: 'A: SBLive! MIDI Synth'
3. Select Midi 2 output: 'B: SBLive! MIDI Synth'
Do not select the "Creative S/W
Synth", because this is the built-in basic synthesizer of the
Creative card, but not the synthesizer that uses the Emu chip that
allows SoundFont handling. If you have the "Creative S/W Synth" as
the only possible choice in the listbox, then your soundcard is not
capable of handling soundfonts (although you have a basic MIDI
synth).
Select Midi output mode for every
single staff in your score
If you want an instrument to be played
with a SoundFont, its staff has to be put in MIDI output. If you
want some staves with MIDI and others with digital output, you will
have to deal with synchronization issues. Here we will just relate
all staves to the MIDI 1 output.
1. Select Instruments>Relate output
device
2. Press the "All" button to highlight all the instruments of your
score
3. Select the "MIDI 1 output" in the right box
4. Press the ">>Relate>>" button so all instruments use
the 'Midi 1 output'
Configuring SoundFonts in your
SBLive!
1. Open 'Audio HQ' and select
'SoundFont'
2. In the 'Options' tab change your 'SoundFont Cache' to set the
amount of system RAM you want to use for your SoundFonts. The
SBLive! allows you to use up to half of your system RAM for the
'SoundFont Cache': (for instance, up to 64MB SoundFont Cache for a
128MB computer)
3. In the 'Configure Bank' tab load
the soundbanks you are going to use in your compositions. There
will probably be a default installed bank called '4MBGM/GS Bank' or
'8MBGSFX E-mu'. It will be loaded in the 'Bank 000' and preceded by
the word 'Synth'. This means that this is the default soundbank.
The soundbank loaded in Bank 000 is normally a standard General
MIDI compatible SoundFont soundbank, that is, a bank that includes
128 instruments and a drum set in a particular order. It is made of
SoundFonts, and will sound through the A/B MIDI Synth of the
soundcard. If you want to load additional SoundFonts, you can use
all the available remaining banks ranging from 'Bank 001' to 'Bank
127'. Click on an empty bank and 'Load' your sf2. The allocated
memory will increase with each sf2 you load, so load only the
SoundFonts you intend to use. If you need to free up 'SoundFont
Cache' clear unused banks, or load a smaller GM bank.
As said before, Soundbanks are but
groups of SoundFonts. The SoundFont Manager lets you not only load
additional soundbanks but also configure specific instruments of
one of the pre-loaded banks.
¿Why would you want to configure an instrument? Let's imagine
you have a wonderful soundfont called NylonGuitar.sf2 that you want
to use for your guitar staves. You have two choices:
a) Load your NylonGuitar.sf2 in the Bank 001
b) Replace the Nylon Guitar instrument of the default
MIDI soundbank (instrument 024 in the Bank 000) with your brand-new
SoundFont (this requires that the NylonGuitar.sf2 contains only one
instrument)
In the first case, you will have now two guitar
sounds: the one given by the default soundbank (Bank 000, Program
24) and your additional soundfont (loaded in, for instance, Bank
001, program 024). If you want to use NylonGuitar.sf2 you will have
to tell Harmony to select the Bank 001.
In the second case, the default Nylon Guitar sound
will be from now on your NylonGuitar.sf2. All the staffs that
include a Nylon guitar will be using the new sound.
In general you should tend to first
load your SoundFonts in free upper banks. Try them, and when you
find one that you will never leave, replace the default
instrument.
Selecting SoundFonts in Harmony
Assistant
1. Before using your soundfont in
Harmony, get sure you have noted its localisation: Bank number (for
instance, Bank 001) and instrument number (for instance, 024, also
called program number or patch number).
2. Select the staff where you want to
use your soundfont and edit the instrument (Staff>Edit related
instrument, or from the button of the left toobar). Press on
'Standard sound' in order to switch to 'User-defined sound' and
edit the MIDI parameters (if you get a wave graphic instead of MIDI
parameters, it is because you have not selected the MIDI 1
output).
3. In the box 'Bank' put the number of
the Bank where you have loaded your soundfont bank (for instance,
1)
4. In the box 'Program' put the instrument number of the instrument
you want to use of this bank
5. Apply the panning, reverb and chorus effects, if required. Many
soundfonts do not require these effects ,but if you want to use
them you should previously create an Environmental Audio set for
MIDI sequencing.
Further questions
- Can I use SoundFonts with digital output? Yes and no.
SoundFonts are designed to respond to MIDI commands. In digital
output mode you can only import the original wave samples that the
SoundFont is made of (and you can only import up to 12 samples). To
do this, set a User-defined sound digital output mode, clear the
existing wave and import the SoundFont sound samples from the
Action menu. These are raw sounds, and do not account for all the
possibilities of MIDI SoundFonts
- Can I make my own SoundFonts? Yes, you can. It can be a bit
cumbersome, but if you like your real instrument you can sample its
sounds and define your own SoundFont. You will need a SoundFont
Editor software like Vienna SoundFont Studio 2.3, freely
distributed in the Soundblaster.com
site.
- Where can I learn more on MIDI and SoundFonts? Complete
tutorials on MIDI are available at Harmony
Central or in the JGlatt page.
As for Soundfonts, a list of available tutorials is given at
Soundfont.com.
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SoundFonts