Any good soundfont recommendations?

jihanj · Post by **jihanj** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:41 am

I'm excited to see the soundfont feature on the new 0.8.0 build. Anybody know where I can get some good soundfonts? I'm especifically interested in soundfonts that are "optimized" for MI 1 & 2, DOTT, and S&M:HTR. Probably different sets for each game.

I would LOVE to see some soundfonts designed specifically for these games cropping up on the Internet. Any info would be appreciated.

E-Male · Post by **E-Male** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 1:56 pm

i downloaded soem free soundfonts and work on patching together a "game and general usage" SF (not for musicians, but for people that have midi in games or maybe some .mid files)
but due to myself doing to many stuff at once while not really having any time it'll surely take ages for me to get the firts public version done
also expect huge filesize

multiaudun · Post by **multiaudun** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 6:12 pm

This could actually be done pretty easily, if you have the time and hardware to do it.

What you'd have to do is to record samples of all the midi notes at all 128 patches produced by some old soundcard (preferably a sound blaster pro 2.0 IMO, love the sound of the midi synth in that card. Why? Because that's the first sound card I ever had

)

Then put it all into the appropriate patces of the soundfont, and your new and flashy soundblaster multiplatinum audigygalaxy whatever will sound just like a sound blaster pro 2.0, making all your old games sound like they did on your 486!

This will probably take a couple days to accomplish, though.. Anyway I don't think you have to capture every note. Everey 5th or so will be enough, and the soundfont sampler will pitch bend them to reach the correct pitch. Allso, a lot of the 128 patches sound the same. I certainly remember a few of them sounding identical. Still, I think it would take a couple days to accomplish.

LogicDeLuxe · Post by **LogicDeLuxe** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 7:17 pm

multiaudun wrote:What you'd have to do is to record samples of all the midi notes at all 128 patches produced by some old soundcard (preferably a sound blaster pro 2.0 IMO, love the sound of the midi synth in that card. Why? Because that's the first sound card I ever had )

Adlib emulation is ScummVM's default midi, which is exactly the same sound you got from the OPL3 which in fact is the synthesizer used on the SB Pro and many other ISA sound boards. Actually OPL3 is an advanced version of the OPL2/Adlib synthesizer with more oscillators and stereo output, though fully compatible to Adlib drivers (which SCUMM games from Indy3 to Sam&Max did use)

JamesWoodcock · Post by **JamesWoodcock** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:03 am

Adlib is the way to go, soundfonts don't even come close.

E-Male · Post by **E-Male** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 10:18 am

the question is what you want:
-classic sound, like when you played thsi games originally (without VM)
-sound as the programmers/composers had when they made the games
-realistic sounding instruments

AFAIK adlib should be best for classic, mt32-emu matches the composers hardware for most games and (big) soundfonts can give you the best realism (exept for some special instruments like e-guitars, which don't sample well)

i'll go for a soundfont that's realitic sounding, with some tweaks to tune it for games

JamesWoodcock · Post by **JamesWoodcock** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:07 am

Depends on the game as well..

Games like Simon the Sorcerer work best with Adlib/MT-32, try playing through a soundfont and it sounds awful as for example sometimes a Sax is used as a bass sound.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:57 am

glidem wrote:Games like Simon the Sorcerer work best with Adlib/MT-32, try playing through a soundfont and it sounds awful as for example sometimes a Sax is used as a bass sound.

I thought our Simon engine used the same music data regardless of which music driver you've selected. I.e. unlike the SCUMM engine it doesn't seem to be looking for any music specially composed for Adlib.

In the case of Simon 1, it looks like the tracks were written for MT-32, which I guess would make that the best choice. But I don't have one, so I wouldn't know.

I also do not know how the original Simon interpreter behaves.

JamesWoodcock · Post by **JamesWoodcock** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:02 pm

Well sometimes on much older games, because the selection was not so great and certainly nothing like the instrument real life counterparts, they had to look through and think to themselves, "hey.. that sounds like a bass sound, I will use that instead of the actual bass sound that is listed."

This is no fault to the original composer, but when you play it through something that is capable of playing a very realistic alternative which was not available at the time, you get a very poor result as it was never intended through such a 'modern' device!

To work through a soundfont, the original MIDI would require extensive alteration to be compatible.

Kaminari · Post by **Kaminari** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 1:19 pm

glidem wrote:"hey.. that sounds like a bass sound, I will use that instead of the actual bass sound that is listed."

It goes even beyond that. The MT-32 was no ordinary MIDI gear -- it was a synth in the true sense of the word, not a wannabe orchestra like the Sound Canvas. You could completely transform the existing patches and make them sound like something entirely out-of-this-world. Thus it was standard fare for composers to create their own patches, loosely based on what the original ones sounded like.

(For starters: "uploading" new sounds into the MT-32 doesn't mean exchanging the built-in samples with other samples. The existing samples are modified on the fly via parameters contained in a sysex message. That should make you understand why "imitating" the MT-32 through a soundfont is futile, or at the very least, would require a specific soundfont per game.)

The Dot · Post by **The Dot** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:11 am

After searching a lot on the web, and after trying MANY free GM soundfonts, I found a soundfont that is made especially for games!!!
It is the Silverspring Soundfont v1.5, and it's FREE!!!

Get it from here : http://clinique.jeuxvideos.free.fr/file ... %201.5.zip

Please tell me what you think of it...

If you want, I can post many free GM soundfonts links, just ask it...

Sordid · Post by **Sordid** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 9:07 pm

Try the following: http://www.geocities.jp/shansoundfont/

The SGM-180 v1.5 is 180MB big but it sounds perfect!

boxstar99 · Post by **boxstar99** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:21 pm

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but it seems that link for Silverspring Soundfont is dead. Also, using Google, I couldn't find any live links. Does anyone know of any / can upload it to Megaupload? Would appreciate it so much!

Reckless · Post by **Reckless** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:46 am

Not sure what Google you're using but the top item from http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Silver ... 0Soundfont provides the site with an active download (I downloaded it to be sure)...

Anapan · Post by **Anapan** » Mon May 04, 2009 9:12 am

I've found this forum a few times while searching for more content for my page (thanks for the tips guys!).
If you want a large selection of soundfonts, Zandro has a huge collection available on bit torrent here:

http://zandro.freeunixhost.com/

If you want ones that sound like older hardware, I've made a page about them here:

http://www3.telus.net/anapan8/oldscardemu.htm