What's MIDI? MIDI stands for musical instrument digital interface. MIDI is a language that allows different pieces of hardware to speak to each-other. For example you would use MIDI to connect you keyboard to your computer. MIDI sequencers like Pro Audio 9 can listen to the MIDI information that the keyboard is sending and record it. It is important to understand that a sequencer records your performance and not the actual sound that the keyboard makes. For example, if you were to play a C chord the notes of that chord would be transmitted via MIDI out of the keyboard along with how hard you hit the keys, if there was any aftertouch or other controller information and when you released the key. Because MIDI transmits all this information it can be very precisely edited. More on that later. Remember that to record MIDI information into your PC from a keyboard you will need to install a MIDI interface card into you computer.
Summery: computer + keyboard controller + MIDI program = One man band
The Secrets. The building of a quality SoundFont takes a long time, just as building a synth from scratch takes a long time. The process is the same. The building of the Ice Kold Tekno Orkestra took many many months working with little sleep. However, the end product is so rewarding you will find yourself using your font in many of your productions. Its truly a creative art. You will also find after jumping through these hoops making your own that you can do better than most of the soundfonts out there. You might even find it hard to go back to your hardware sampler after discovering the joys of manipulating sounds on the big screen. I know some pros that scoff at the SoundFont process, but don't let that sink in. The sound quality of well made SF2 files is just as good as any 16 bit sampler, The soundcard itself may add a very thin veil of distortion, but it is so small it will not be evident on boards that most home studio folks can afford. If you use a digital out on your soundcard, the playing field with professional 16 bit samplers is almost level. 5 years ago you would have to pay 10's of thousands to get the flexibility you have with a cheap soundcard. That's the secret the pros won't tell you. With a little creativeness, you can make the same incredible sounds they do. Experimentation has never been easier. The layering, mixing, timestretching, panning, morphing, vectoring capabilities are easily had by anyone who works with the SF2 format. Add some cool plugins and resample in a digital audio sequencer and you are actually far beyond what a stand alone hardware sampler can do! A final tip: its not going to be long before excellent conversion tools will be in place to import soundfonts into samplers. The Tweak is about to beta test one. This will clearly raise the bar in commercially available soundfonts. It could easily become the de facto standard that links all samplers together in a consistent format. As time goes on, we will see the hardware sampler as an extension of the SoundFont protocol, much the way laptop computers dock to their desktop hosts. Within a year or two, this will be reality. Why? you ask? Its just easier to work this way!
What's Audio Recording? Think of Digital Audio as a tape recorder in your PC. You can record yourself singing, playing guitar or even your dog barking. Once the audio is digitized or put into the computer it is stored on the hard drive of you computer. Digital Audio can take up a lot of space, CD quality Audio which is 44.1kHz and 16-bit will take up five megabytes per minute per track. To record digital audio into your PC you will need to install a Soundcard into your computer. It is important to note that most PC’s that are purchased today come with a soundcard built in. You can use the built in soundcard if you wish. These soundcards usually have MIDI capabilities on them also, and only require an inexpensive adapter cable to connect the computer to the MIDI keyboard.
How to Build a Bank of SoundFonts ? Building a good SoundFont is the same process as building a sample based synthesizer from scratch. You can use any sample and tweak it with a wide range of envelopes, filter and resonance settings and effects just like you can on a standard analog style synth. If you always wanted to build your own synth from scratch, the SoundFont protocol allows you do do this entirely in the virtual domain. And it's cheap! No hardware is needed other than the SF2 compatible sound card and any decent midi keyboard to trigger the sounds. The results are as good as the care you put into the process. If you really work the format, and are savvy with plugin FX, digital audio sequencers and wave editors, your results will be on par--and may even exceed--those developing sounds on professional samplers. You do have to know what you are doing, or have a relentless drive to experiment. Then there is a matter of taste. It isn't going to happen on a weekend. But if you are like me, an incurable tweakhead, searching for beauty and art through sound, there are few things as satisfying as a well made soundfont collection. Join the discussion on making SoundFonts What you need to get started: A soundcard that plays soundfonts. The best choices here are the sblive soundcards (any) and the Emu APS Vienna 2.3 (Free on the Creative Labs site) A decent Sample Editor (I use Sound Forge 4.5, but anything that has looping tools will be fine) A MIDI keyboard with velocity and aftertouch. (Aftertouch is important).
(Summery)
Step 1: Make your .WAV files.
Step 2: Make Instruments
Step 3: Making Presets
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January 7, 2001