Freesound Forums

i have a idea in my hed, but with help of the owners of free sound can make this dream for me and some musicians and freesounders a true reality.
the free sound gm synth.
features.
128 instruments and 14 drumkits with programable velocitys.
2: based on samples of the freesounders, so in this website there is a good selection of sample instruments that the moderaters can choose the best and included in this exelent free sound library.
3: 16 multipart multitimbrality.
4: vst 2.0 copatible softsynth.
5: compatible with generalmidi and gs, posible gm2.
6: a spetial vertion of this synth in R T A S for pro tools.
7: based of the freesound samples, 4 gb of high quality samples here.
8: low C P U usage, pollyphony sellector for best performance.
9: the first vst instrument under creative comuns licence.
10: gm synth with high quality inssturments as freeware, or donationware.
it's just a thot, a simple idea.

It is a good idea, but it is a hard fetched one since more and more people doesn't use GM anymore for music production.

It is utterly seldom I turn to GM patches since they are so damn plastic. I would maybe have this plugin to go to if my reserve GM soundset doesn't work.

I have to agree too, it's really a good idea.

But there are good SF2 Soundfont files out there, even some for free.

One free and good example is:

TGSF21x [30.1 MB] - A very good GM soundfont with lots of excellent sounds. The harp and flute in particular are quite nice. This was sent to me by Ailsean.

It can be found here: http://soundfonts.darkesword.com/

If you don't have a SoundBlaster Soundcard, you may want to know, how to use the Soundfonts in e. g. Cubase or an other VST Host Software?! Well, just try this SF2 Player: http://sonicatwork.com/index.php?article_id=76&clang=1

EDIT: here are some Example MP3 files, recorded using Timidity++ and the mentioned TGSF21x Soundfont:

http://www.seele07.de/temp/freesound/voyager.mp3 - StarTrek Voyager Opening Theme, Style: Orchestral.
http://www.seele07.de/temp/freesound/01-xa_titel_orig.mp3 - Xtreme Assault Title, Style: GameSoundtrack.
http://www.seele07.de/temp/freesound/jp-journey.mp3 - Jurassic Park, Journey to the Island, Style: Orchestral.

Soundfull Greetings,
Ingo

What exactly is the difference between a VST and a soundfont? I've used VSTs (I do every day), but I've never used soundfonts. They do sound pretty cool, though.

A VSTi is an instrument in VST plugin format (i = instrument) and it can produce sound in various ways; the virtual synth ones for instance simulate the behaviour of the oscillators and filters you find in hardware synths.

A soundfont is a bundle of samples and information on how to use them, and it has to be loaded in a soundfont player, which may be itself a VST or may even be incorporated in a DAW e.g. LMMS.

The information maps the samples to the keys played and how strong they are played (MIDI velocity).

Depending on the format (e.g. SF2) a soundfont can contain more than one instrument sample set, with each instrument mapped to a MIDI program.

This just to scratch the surface, feel free to ask further questions.

Just one more. Do you know of the best websites I should check out to get started with soundfonts? Preferably free ones.

Dunno about the best, but these might be a good starting point:

https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/soundfonts-and-sfz-files

https://www.producersbuzz.com/category/downloads/download-free-soundfonts-sf2/

https://archive.org/details/free-soundfonts-sf2-2019-04
(click on "show all")

https://archive.org/details/sf2-soundfonts-free-use
(click on "show all")

https://hiphopmakers.com/over-2000-free-soundfonts-free-soundfont-player

https://www.reddit.com/r/lmms/comments/pm4z0m/list_of_free_virtual_instruments_sfzsf2/

https://www.ivyaudio.com/Piano-in-162

https://www.bandshed.net/sounds/sfz/

https://musical-artifacts.com/

https://freepats.zenvoid.org/

https://sfzinstruments.github.io/

https://vis.versilstudios.com/vsco-community.html

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/

Thanks!

You're welcome!