[LAU] Making a soundfont out of string instruments

[Ken Restivo]

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Many months ago, I downloaded a complete set of free public domain orchestral samples (I forgot where from).

I intended to make soundfonts out of them. But, the string instruments are driving me crazy.

The samples I have, are nice in that they are complete, but they don't give me a pianistic scale from Cx to Cy. They give me the complete scale on each of the 4 strings.

For example, here's the double bass (the pizz samples of this instrument are the ones I'm most interested in right now):

	Bass.arco.ff.sulA.A1B1.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulA.C2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulA.C3A3.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulD.C3B3.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulD.C4D4.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulD.D2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulE.C2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulE.C3D3.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulE.E1B1.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulG.C3B3.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulG.C4G4.flac
	Bass.arco.ff.sulG.G2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulA.A1B1.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulA.C2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulA.C3A3.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulD.C3B3.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulD.C4D4.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulD.D2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulE.C2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulE.C3D3.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulE.E1B1.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulG.C3B3.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulG.C4G4.flac
	Bass.arco.mf.sulG.G2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulA.A1B1.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulA.C2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulA.C3A3.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulD.C3B3.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulD.C4D4.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulD.D2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulE.C2B2.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulE.C3D3.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulE.E1B1.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulG.C3B3.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulG.C4G4.flac
	Bass.arco.pp.sulG.G4B4.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulA.A1B1.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulA.C2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulA.C3A3.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulD.C3B3.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulD.C4D4.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulD.D2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulE.C2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulE.C3E3.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulE.E1B1.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulG.C3B3.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulG.C4G4.flac
	Bass.pizz.ff.sulG.G2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulA.A1B1.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulA.C2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulA.C3A3.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulD.C3B3.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulD.C4D4.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulD.D2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulE.C2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulE.C3E3.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulE.E1B1.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulG.C3B3.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulG.C4G4.flac
	Bass.pizz.mf.sulG.G2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulA.A1B1.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulA.C2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulA.C3A3.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulD.C3B3.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulD.C4D4.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulD.D2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulE.C2B2.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulE.C3E3.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulE.E1B1.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulG.C3B3.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulG.C4G4.flac
	Bass.pizz.pp.sulG.G2B2.flac

I'm baffled. Which strings do I use for the soundfont? How do I decide at which pitches to go up from one string to another?

I've played string instruments (mainly guitar and bass), but never been formally taught them. I don't know of any "standard" way to choose where on the neck to place, say, middle C, in absence of any melodic context, if there are 4 or 6 possible places to play that note. I suppose maybe I could create several "patches" in the soundfont, one for each "position" in the neck. i.e. one patch starting at the nut, another further up the neck, and another way high up near the bridge, etc. I could end up with a dozen patches then, for each neck position and for bowed and pizz.

Anyway, any help in figuring out how to do this would be appreciated. 

Yes, I will be happy to upload the soundfont somewhere that y'all can obtain it, once it's done.

Alternately, if someone really loves swami and wants to have at this task, I can look around and find where I got the samples from, and point you there to create a soundfont.

- -ken
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