Re: [timidity-talk] Classical Strings Soundfonts

[A. K. <ak...@co...>]

On Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:35:21 +1200
Sidney Hobbs <sid...@ho...> wrote:

> 
> It isn't clear to me if you use windows or Linux,I have both windows xp
> and Ubuntu Studio on my PC,I have a Soundblaster 5.1 card which serves
> both,I use Timidity++ (The windows version) on both,I run it under wine
> in Ubuntu,I also use a windows program called SynthFont,which enables one
> to use soundfont collections,and or individual instrument SF

I have dual boot system with both Linux and MS Windows.  For most
things I much prefer Linux, but for sound work I often use both.
MS Windows sometimes offers capabilities that Linux does not.
One example is soundfont decompressing and editing.  Linux has an
editor called Swami (http://swami.resonance.org/trac) which is useful
but the editors for MS Windows tend to be more capable, such as the
Awave editor that you mention.

I know about Synthfont, but I haven't yet tried it.  An excellent
software synthesizer for MS Windows is, or was, a program called
Audio Compositor.  Like Timidity, Audio Compositor used SF2 soundfonts
to produce wave files but it also had extensive soundfont editing
capabilities.  Unfortunately the program, which was shareware, has
been abandoned by its author.  It may still be available somewhere.
If you can find it, I would recommend it highly.

(I have a copy but I don't know how ethical it would be for me to
distribute it.)

>
> favourite string st2's is Papelmedia,and Cadenza strings or Florestan,
> I have tried the Sinfonia 36 and it has some great qualities,
>

String fonts, including the ones you mention, have always been
disappointing for me.  I've tried virtually everything available
at the free soundfont repositories without satisfaction.  Until I
discovered Sinfonia 36, I had given up on rendering string-based music.
The Sinfonia font is not perfect, but, for me at least, it is a great
improvement and will allow me to pick up on some old projects.   

>
> I use Awave Studio to make any soundfonts that I may need
>

Awave is one reason I still use MS Windows for sound.  The Linux
Swami editor is similar to Awave but is less capable and even
less stable.

I also need to use MS Windows for basic MIDI editing.
Linux lacks a good graphical MIDI editor.  A project called
Jazz++ is a start but it's been on hold for a long while:

http://jazzplusplus.sourceforge.net/

>
> I will attatch a little mp3 that I made with Synthfont,only piano,but most
> interesting,
>

That is a very good piano sound and a very good rendering.

My only criticism is the volume level of the wave file.
The maximum signal peak is -12 dB and consequently the overall
sound is much too soft.  This peak level should be increased to
very near the maximum (maybe -0.3 dB).

With Linux there is a nice tool called normalize (http://normalize.nongnu.org/)
that could increase the signal strength of the wave file
to any specified level.

>
> (sorry it's an mp3,always use wave files myself,but to big to send)
>

Flac compression can losslessly reduce the size of wave files
by about 30%.  That's not small enough for transmission but
it may be a liitle better for storage.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

AK