Sad about Soundfonts

Nola · February 17, 2009, 15:42:41

Hello,

I've been really dying to expand my timbral palette beyond the same old sounds.

So I got 10 different nice GM soundset banks, ranging from 20 to 130MB.
I've loaded them all into MPT.

I've also downloaded some individual pianos and nice sounds.

In every other software I use, soundfont player, etc, they work flawlessly.

But,
Sadly, only about 1 out of 20 soundfonts works in Modplug.

Most of the instruments are wildly out of tune, random notes in the sample map are missing samples (there will be just an arbitrary one missing) And half the instruments sound like weird quarter tone scales.

It's really a shame because Soundfont GM banks would be a great way to have a nice big palette of sounds in MPT.

My list looks like this:

But MOST of the sounds don't work. It's just really sad!
Modplug does not import the right frequency values for SOME samples.

And it randomly does stuff like this:

Here is a link to some soundfont GM banks you can test out to see for yourself.
You need SfArk to extract them.
http://www.personalcopy.com/sfarkfonts1.htm

Is there any chance of this getting fixed?
It's been "bugged" like this for 8 years now.

Wouldn't it be nice to have 1000 new sounds?

- Nola

Saga Musix · February 17, 2009, 16:47:58

MPT is well known for not supporting modern soundfonts properly. I guess it supports SF2 Version 1, but nothing more recent. But you can try the "VSTSynthFont" VST-Plugin. Either use it as a VSTi in the tune or "export" the sounds that you want to have in your module (saving notes one by one).

Nola · February 17, 2009, 17:35:38

I do not want any kind of VST plugins-- that defeats the whole entire reason behind even using a tracker in the first place.

I use a tracker because of the effect commands, the ability to do beautiful dynamic things with individual notes that Midi cannot.

If I was going to use plugins I definitely would not be using Modplug.

Saga Musix · February 17, 2009, 17:46:20

Then do as suggest; Download the plugin, load the soundfonts into the plugin and play a single note through the plugin and do a wav export.

Nola · February 17, 2009, 17:52:31

Why don't the developers fix the SF2 importing code?

Saga Musix · February 17, 2009, 18:17:52

To be honest, I have other priorities than looking into the latest SF2 specs. Like looking into the VST specs instead. Also, the latest SF2 specs are not compatible with MPT at all, because there's no way to do multisampling in a tracker.

Nola · February 17, 2009, 19:15:10

but this is super important... I mean where else can I get big banks of sounds for modplug?

psishock · February 17, 2009, 19:38:19

I understand Nola, but why don't you try at least to load your favorite sound banks with a VSTi that handles them perfectly, as Jojo advised? The chances are high that you will find it even more comfortable than the OMPT's internal system.

Nola · February 17, 2009, 19:44:44

Because I do tons of portamento, pitch slides, fine pitch slides, tremolo, vibrato, Kxx, note cut VS note off, etc...
That is the only *reason* I use modplug at all.

Without those things I see no reason to use Modplug at all.

psishock · February 17, 2009, 19:46:34

I'm using only VSTis with trackers and believe me, you can archive much more control over the given sound than with internal tracker effects. OMPT is very good for vsti purposes too, don't have to look for another host if you're going to try.

Oh, and "note cut" is a bad idea to start with, anyway.

Nola · February 17, 2009, 20:08:39

That's what Buzz is for

psishock · February 17, 2009, 20:10:09

ah, Renoise does the job better.

LPChip · February 17, 2009, 20:11:25

Psishock, he said note-off.

I can understand where you're coming from Nola, The biggest problem is that most SF2's are multilayered. Even while it technically is possible to convert them to .iti files so you can load them into modplug, it might very well mean that you'll have 2 or more instruments to play just one sound.

If you're interested in converting your SF2 to an .iti, then look at awave studio. With the trial version you should be able to export one sound to .iti (not complete banks, but manually you should archieve what you want)

Otherwise, look on the internet for either .xi or .iti files. That way you can get what you want and it'll actually work!

Nola · February 17, 2009, 20:13:53

hey LPChip... I spent a whole day searching for ITI's a little while ago.. All I found was very few 8 bit old geocities web sites with really "cheap" sounds.. just really bad...

Doesn't compare at all to these nice SF banks..

Try googling for IT instruments, you will have no luck!
I asked a bunch of tracker guys I know too, none of them knew where to find any.

psishock · February 17, 2009, 20:19:05

LP: i disagree.

He said

Quote from: "Nola"note cut VS note off

note off is fine, but ompt is suffering from the "note cut" idea at the moment.