At 06:23 PM 9/20/02 +0100, Michael Lawlor wrote: >Is there a good (step by step) source of information for someone using >soundfonts for the very first time, in particular within Finale, if that >makes a difference? I have found the help on soundfonts that came with the >software (Creative Wave Studio) not very enlightening. I need something >that explains the technology from the musical point of view.
If you've used any Midi card with Finale, you know how that works. Finale doesn't care about the card you're using, so using Finale doesn't make any difference in answering your question. Soundfonts are banks of sound samples containing additional information on velocity, range, etc. Soundfonts can be used in software (such as LiveSynth Pro) or in a hardware sound/Midi card that supports them. If you have a Creative card, soundfonts are stored in its memory. It means you can change the instrumental samples used for a given patch by loading in a new soundfont. So if the card came with a trumpet you don't like, you can load a soundfont into the card's memory to replace it with a new trumpet. The card will behave exactly as it did before, but you will have a new trumpet sound (and perhaps better response to velocity, etc., depending on how well the soundfont was made). Any soundfont can be loaded into any patch, so if you want a whole choir of different sounding trumpets, you can load them over other fonts (such as gunshots or bird calls, in the upper area of General Midi patches). The number of soundfonts you can load into the card is limited by its memory. Some soundfonts are pretty big. If you use a softsynth, you can load larger soundfonts. For example, in LiveSynth Pro, I regularly use the "Yamaha Spendid Grand", which is 250MB. There are lots of free soundfonts (some quite good) at http://thesoundsite.net/ Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
