[LAU] Decent soundfonts

[david]

Simon Williams wrote:
> Ketil Thorgersen wrote:
>> Do a search on this list and you'll see that this has been discussed 
>> frequently!
> 
> I've looked but can only find one other thread on the subject which 
> didn't help me.
> 
>> For piano the best free one I've found is http://www.pianosounds.com/
> 
> That's got the same problem. It just sounds too tinny.
> 
> I've got a Yamaha YPP-35 at home. I would have thought it's a pretty 
> cheap digital piano- only 5 octaves, 8 voices and partially weighted 
> keys (though my parents seem to think it cost over 500 pounds at the 
> time, which seems slightly mad, but I could be wrong- it was 10-12 years 
> ago). But it sounds really nice- even the strings work well. All the 
> sounds are clean and simple- they aren't too muddy in the bass, they 
> don't resonate, they don't twang if I hit the keys hard, they aren't too 
> tinny on the higher notes, and the volume is balanced across the 
> keyboard. Why can't I get this sort of sound out of my laptop?

I've been using and loving the Yamaha audio patches for years. Someone 
else on the list mentioned that a lot of the Yamaha audio sound is due 
to the licensing of some very sophisticated wave guide audio patents 
from MIT or some college like that. I suppose you could read the patents 
and figure it out, but ...

> I guess maybe I'm not really looking for soundfonts. I don't really want 
> samples of real acoustic instruments because recording them is 
> impossibly difficult and leads to too much background noise. What I need 
> is to know how to make these sounds up on a synth. I don't mind it 
> sounding a bit electronic- actually I think I'd prefer it to some 
> extent. Then all I need to do is find a synth which handles the response 
> curve sanely and allows me to actually balance the thing across the 
> keyboard, instead of being too quiet in the bass and getting louder as I 
> work up.

Hmm, that almost sounds like an artifact of listening to audio through 
laptop speakers. They all make the bass sound too quiet, at least to me.

> Maybe I'll end up writing my own. But at the moment I haven't 
> got the slightest clue how to get the sound I want out of a synth.

Yamaha uses samples of real acoustic instruments, plus their wave guide 
software. I think most synthesizers these days essentially do the same 
thing. Didn't someone on the list mention an article about how it's 
impossible to synthesize a true piano sound?

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community