Experimenting with SoundFonts

Apr 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Kurt Heiden

Numerous editors exist for the Windows platform because SoundFonts are native to that OS. I recommend Creative's Vienna, which allows for full editing of all SoundFont parameters. (You can download Vienna free from the company's Web site.) Vienna is not overly graphic and uses numeric values for most parameter editing. See the sidebar “Port of Call: Vienna” for a closer look at some high-end editing techniques in Vienna.

There are a few alternatives to Vienna, one of which is Sound Faction's Alive. Alive has a more graphical interface than Vienna and sells for $39.

Note that if you somehow lose access to your original samples, they are not doomed to live their life inside a single SoundFont bank. You can extract the audio files from a bank and use them in another sampler or wherever you need them by using one of several utilities that offer that function. FMJ Software's Awave Studio is one of the best programs for extracting samples from banks and can convert SoundFont banks to other sampler formats and vice versa. It also serves as a capable alternative to Vienna for SoundFont editing. If you're using a Windows machine and deal frequently with multiple sampler formats, Awave Studio is a must-have tool.

Another great utility for converting to and from SoundFont banks is Translator Pro by Chicken Systems, Inc. Translator Pro runs on Mac and PC and supports dozens of sampler formats. It also allows you to extract various types of parameter information from a bank and use it in another sampler format.

Where the Hull Meets the Water

To integrate your new SoundFonts into your own music, you'll need a MIDI sequencer, software sampler, or synthesizer that supports SF2 files. Examples for Windows include Cakewalk Project 5, Steinberg Halion, Cyberware Music Waveplant CMI, and Maz Sound Tools Vsampler 3. Mac users will find SoundFont support in SoundFont Synth, Halion, and Simplesynth, among others.

You may find that after triggering a few sounds, your new bank needs some polishing. Not to worry: using the SoundFont Global Zones feature, you can make quick adjustments even after finishing the main round of tweaking (Global Zones are covered in the “Port of Call: Vienna” sidebar.) Global Zones give you access to the full range of synthesis parameters on the Instrument and Preset levels and affect all samples in a bank.

Let's say that you've created an Instrument that consists of 12 samples covering the entire keyboard range. You discover that you need the release time of all the samples to be longer. Adding a Global Zone to the Preset and adjusting the Release portion of the Volume Envelope lets you do that with just a few mouse-clicks. Global Zones are also a great way to add reverb or chorus effects to the Instrument or Preset and are an important part of making high-quality sounds.

Extending Your Stay

When you're ready to go the next step in your SoundFont explorations, Non-Registered Parameter Numbers (NRPNs) are a good place to look. NRPNs behave differently in SoundFont 2.1 than in Roland GS and Yamaha XG formats. For starters, there are two envelopes available in SoundFont banks versus one in GS or XG. Second, the LSB (CC98) values are different on nearly every parameter, and CC99 in a SoundFont requires a value of 127 instead of 1. Finally, the SoundFont specification includes many more parameters not covered by the other specifications. Although incomplete, you'll find a short list of commonly used SoundFont 2.1 NRPNs and how they differ from their GS/XG counterparts in Fig. 5.

Bear in mind that NRPNs are nonregistered, so there are no standards for compatibility between synthesizers. With the exception of GS and XG synths, most synths interpret NRPN data differently from one another. If you've composed music that includes NRPNs using a synthesizer other than a SoundFont synth, when you play it using SoundFonts, your real-time expression data may not sound the same.

For example, parameters like Filter Cutoff in the SoundFont specification use a different frequency range than GS or XG. Thus, a Filter Cutoff value of 64 may result in a cutoff at 5 Hz on an XG/GS synth, whereas that same value might result in a cutoff of 4 Hz in a SoundFont synth. That is an unfortunate by-product of using NRPNs, not a shortcoming in the SoundFont specification. See http://atlas.csbnet.se/livecenter/showpage_pf.php?id=15 for details on this situation.

NRPNs that are available with SoundFonts but are not in the GS or XG specs include Envelope 2 ADSR, LFO1 to Pitch, LFO2 to Pitch, Envelope1 to Pitch, Envelope2 to Pitch, LFO1 to Volume, and LFO1 to Filter Cutoff. Using NRPNs in your music is trickier than simply jamming with the Pitch Bend wheel, but they can add life in ways that other controls cannot.

Enjoying the Treasure

Using SoundFonts is like having your own sampling buffet. You can eat lightly by simply swapping out your GM bank, or you can feast by sampling sounds and tweaking them in an editor. You can also use your SoundFonts in a live performance with a vast number of real-time controls.

When the SoundFont format designers drafted the technology's detailed specifications, they set sail to create something special. Nearly ten years later, the format is blossoming into the most readily accessible and widely supported sampler format in history. In addition, it appears that E-mu has some wicked new improvements in the works (see the sidebar “Meeting with Captain Thorn”). How many other sampler formats can claim an installed hardware base of more than 10 million?

Not everyone with a Sound Blaster Live card uses it for sampling, but nearly everyone who has an interest in sampling has Sound Blaster Live or access to a software synth/sampler that handles SoundFont banks. Thanks to recent advances in processing power for Mac and Windows systems, upcoming enhancements, and an ever-growing number of devoted third-party software developers, just about anyone can enjoy the plentiful fruits from the island of SoundFonts.

---

Kurt Heiden is an award-winning sound designer and composer who has worked for Roland, Creative Labs, and Interplay Productions, among others. His credits include The Bard's Tale II, Battle Chess, and Return to Krondor.

---

SIDEBAR
Contact Information

Andy Drabble www.macmusic.org/news/view.php/lang/EN/id/2489

Apple www.apple.com

Best Software Design www.bestsoftwaredesign.com/polyphontics.html

Bismark homepage.mac.com/bismark

Cakewalk www.cakewalk.com

Chicken Systems www.chickensys.com

Creative Labs http://us.creative.com

Cyberware Music www.softwaresynths.com

E-mu www.emu.com

EYE & I Productions www.voicecrystal.com

FMJ Software www.fmjsoft.com

Granted Software www.grantedsw.com

Melody Machine www.melodymachine.com/sfark.htm

Peter Hanappe www.fluidsynth.org

Pete Yandell www.pete.yandell.com/software

Sonic Implants www.sonicimplants.com

Sound Faction www.soundfaction.com/alive

Steinberg www.steinberg.net

Synergi www.samplebanks.com