Soundfonts for the MusicWeaver and Haiku
Before you can use the MusicWeaver's Synth module, you will
need a "Soundfont" available somewhere in your system. A Soundfont is a
collection of Instruments, or voices, that can be selected by
MIDI Program Change messages; the format is a cross-platform open
standard, originally from Creative Labs. Its usual filename
extension is ".sf2".
No soundfont comes with Haiku by default, because they are all at least
several megabytes. A reasonably good and fairly small one is available
as an optional package (see below), but there are
many other choices.
A really good one can be rather large, smaller ones may be
limited in quality, and individual instruments within a font can be
relatively good or bad, so the choice is left to you.
If your main aim is to play standard midifiles, you will want a
"General Midi" ("GM") soundfont, with a standard set of 128 instruments
(and a drum set), to which most midifiles are oriented.
There are lots of other instrument sets available, though, if you have
more wide-ranging desires.
A lot of fonts are, or approximate to, the "GS" (Roland) instrument set,
which has a much extended number of instruments in other banks.
Some font files may contain just one
or a few high-quality instruments, such as a piano, or they could
hold a large set of totally off-the-wall instruments — not much
good for getting the expected sound out of a midifile, but a lot of
fun to play live.
There is a fairly wide choice of GM and other soundfonts on the web,
if you can dig them out. Unfortunately, because they are large,
you are likely to find the downloadable file is compressed, and
worse, compressed in a proprietary format that Haiku can't handle!
One of those two formats, 'SFPack', is even defunct, though the relevant MS-DOS
expander is still available. The more common 'SFArk' format seems
to be still maintained, and there are expanders for Windows, Linux,
and OS/X. You can always download to one of those systems with
a suitable unpacker installed, and transfer the expanded file to
Haiku.
Here is a selection of freely-usable GM soundfonts that
are available not packed in a proprietary format.
They range in size from under 6 MB to over 140 MB.
- TimGM6mb: 5.72 MB
-
http://goodeveca.net/TimGM6mb.sf2.zip
This is the basic soundfont for Haiku, available at HaikuDepot.
It is the smallest of those listed here, but the original version has
deficiencies. Four instruments — the accordion, harmonica, bandoneon, and whistle
(22, 23, 24, and 79) are unlistenable. Unfortunately (!) the HaikuDepot version nas not yet
been updated (even though it is labelled "fixed") so it too is badly broken...
I did some fixing back when, and the version on my own site linked to above no longer has
those bad instruments. (Unpack it anywhere that is convenient where you can find it for
the MusicWeaver's Synth.)
If you've installed the hpkg and you want to use it in MusicWeaver's Synth
module you will find it at /boot/system/data/synth/TimGM6mb.sf2.
- Unison: 27.92 MB
-
http://www.personalcopy.com/linuxfiles.htm
[download "Unison.sf2.gz"]
I've had this around for some time, and am pretty satisfied. The standard Linux
distribution of fluidsynth includes it (or did when I last checked). You can find
it anyway at the Personal Copy web page below.
- GeneralUser_GS: 29.83 MB
-
http://www.schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php
[download FluidSynth-version 1.44 — the zip file includes both the sf2 file itself
and some demo midis and docs]
This is perhaps the most impressive of the lot. I like all the instruments,
but further, rather than being just 'GM', it is 'GS',
with 118 extra instruments in other banks! (The earlier 1.43 version didn't actually
have a list of these, but there is now an "Instrument lists" folder.
The "GeneralUser GS 1.43.ins" file there is detailed, but not in a suitable form for
use with the Program module, so you can find a suitable patch list file,
"GS_extended.presets", in the 'Tables' folder here that covers all the
instruments.)
The included demos in the download package show off the voices well.
- PC51 (PersonalCopy 5.1): 60.1 MB
-
http://www.personalcopy.com/linuxfiles.htm
[download "PersonalCopy 5.1f"]
Rather larger than the previous ones,
but to the extent I have tried it, it sounds very good.
- FluidR3_GM: 141.52 MB
-
http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/f/fluid-soundfont/fluid-soundfont_3.1.orig.tar.gz
[Direct Download link]
The biggest of the lot. It has some extra instruments, mostly in bank 8, but is not
full GS. Whether the size is matched by quality gain is not clear.
Remember that a soundfont must be loaded into memory to be played, so if space is tight
this may not be for you.
And finally...
- 4GMGSMT.SF2: 3.92 MB
- [On the Creative SoundBlaster CD]
The smallest of the lot, but not freely distributable. However if you have
an old SoundBlaster CD you probably already have it. And for its size it has an impressively
large collection of GM, GS, and SoundCanvas MT instruments (319 in all, plus 10 drumsets),
mostly fairly listenable.
One non-standard soundfont I've had fun with is "Vintage Dreams" — a collection of old
analog synth type sounds, so you can pretend to be an 80's Synth-rock band. It used to be
distributed with Linux, too, but it has been withdrawn due to licensing problems. You should
still be able to find it though. Another that you can probably still find is a collection of
glorious cinema-organ voices — turn the reverb up, and you're playing the Mighty Wurlitzer
in a 50's Movie Palace!