Cake Pro 3 and Soundfont...

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Argo
  • Start date Start date
James Argo

James Argo

Fancy Rock N' Roll
:D
Yep, I still use that old Cakewalk Pro 3 for doing MIDI things. I found it so simple & fit what I need in order to doing MIDI things. Very good MIDI capability, yet no need powerfull PC to run it. I even recomended it for many MIDI lover I knew.

My Q is...
How can I load Soundfont files (.sf2) and assign 'em in Cakewalk Pro 3. I did load bank by bank in my SBLive!'s AudioHQ, but I can only call ONE bank (bank synth). Not the rest I assigned. And since Cake 3 doesn't have any Soundfonts Options (...or something like that.), I have no clue how to do that corectly. Is there any add on progs/apps that can help ? I use WinXP. Thank's guys...
 
James,

I use PA7 and Virtual Sampler to play SoundFonts. My audio card doesn't have on-board wavetable synthesis like the SB cards do.

It's reasonably easy to load SF files into VS and get them playing through your sequencer. You will, however, need some PC grunt in order to get the whole thing happening without audio glitches and stuttering. At least a PIII with 512MB would be a good place to start. Win XP is fairly RAM-hogging, so I wouldn't personally recommend it for a DAW unless you have buckets of RAM at your disposal. I'm happy with Win98SE.

--
BluesMeister
 
Thank's for rwply, BluesMeister...
I use PIII866 with 256MB RAM. I didn't have any problem with the resource yet. :D Hardly I have to use WinXP because it's stability. I was happy with 98SE untill it crashed again and again... :(
Anyway...About the Virtual sampler, I'll check it out... I'll let you know if it helps. Next Question...
I Downloaded many free Sound Fonts outthere, Install it as necesarry. It worked fine. Now, how to assign each note name & patch name inside the SF Bank automatically in Cakewalk Pro 3 ? Seems like I have to configure 'em and type their names one by one to Cakewalk's instrument deffinition file. (.ins)... I work with much SF's so don't have much time assign it over and over..., any suggest ?
Thank's buddy...
 
SounfFonts Made Easy

OK James, this is what I do with VS & PA7, you may find you have to vary the procedure slightly, but I reckon it will work:

1) Download VS2.74 from the VS web page. You can Google for Virtual Sampler.
2) Install VS with Virtual MIDI Port option.
3) Open VS
4) Click on the Preset Tab It should default to P1 Bank 0
5) Press the Import Preset button
6) Click on one of your sound fonts.
7) Click into the next vacant Preset position in Bank 0
Repeat steps 5 thru 7 until you have the soundfonts loaded that you want. I always put drums in P10 Bank 0

8) Click on the MULTI tab This now shows Channel/Preset
9) Double click in Channel 1. This opens up the Select Multi Voice dialogue box (don't you love the way we Aussies spell?)
10) Click on the instrument for Channel 1
11) Repeat for all instruments - remember to place the drums in Channel 10

12) Open your sequencer
13) Load a MIDI file
14) Click on each Channel and give it the number of the appropraite Preset (for example Channel 1 in your MIDI file may be Rhodes and Preset 3 in virtual sampler = Rhodes) I tend to use the same Presets for all my MIDI files so that I know what goes where. This is what I use:
P1=Grand Piano
P2=Rhodes
P3=Small Electric Piano
P4=Funky Bass
P10=GoldDrums

When I open up a MIDI file I make sure that Acoustic Piano is Channel 1 in PA7, Electric Piano 1 is Channel 2, and so on :-)

(Still with me James???)

Go to Tools>MIDI Devices and click on Virtual Sampler Internal MIDI as your Output port.

Press Play. You should be listening to those SoundFonts in all their glory.

Hammer Sound do some really good SF2s. And a lot of them are FREE!

Good luck!
--
BluesMeister
 
Re: SounfFonts Made Easy

BluesMeister said:
P10=GoldDrums
[/B]
Click to expand...

GoldDrums RULES!!!! It's the best-sounding drum-soundfont I've ever heard!:D
 
...Way to go, you're the man, brother !

...Well, Thank you so much. Untill I post this reply, I still download it. Still don't know if it works. By the way I get it clear now. And I really apreciate the way you explain it. I really pay respect for that. Thank's BluesMeister. You're the man.

BTW, Gold Drums I also download comes in compressed .sfpack format. But I couldn't uncompress it, I visited their site at www.Megota.com, but doesn't seem to appear. Always get an error message. How else can I uncompress it ? Any miror site to download the sfpack utillities ?
Thank's.
 
BluesMeister Takes A Bow

And I really apreciate the way you explain it. I really pay respect for that. Thank's BluesMeister. You're the man.

No worries mate. Glad to have been of assistance. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get VS2.74 working properly. I wouldn't want you to go through the same tedium. Virtual Sampler is a neat bit of software and when VS3 is finally released it will be one of the best on the market. :)

For the SF uncompression utility try this link: www.personalcopy.com/sfpack.htm

And, yes, Moskus is right about GoldDrums. There are some really good SoundFonts available and some not so good. Do as DougC suggests and have a look at The Sound Site. I got some good ones from a Hungarian site. GoldDrums and some other good ones are on HammerSound's site.

--
BluesMeister
 
...All day long I have a good time with Sound Fonts, since you guys gives more hints to me. All is good. I downloaded many interesting things on thesoundsite. It solves everything I ask above. Thanks for the link, DougC. I found Gold Drums is really hot one. Although IMHO, for hihat sounds, I would rather use Blue Jay Drums from Sonic Implants. More realistic I think... :D I'm doing Rock N' Roll things by now...
Here is what drums sound I'm looking for drums sound ( Sounds like this ) :
  • Guns N' Roses --> Nice Boys
  • Guns N' Roses --> Sympathy for the devil
  • Aerosmith --> Dude looks like a lady
  • Metallica --> Creeping death
  • Aerosith --> Jenie's got a gun
Any oppinion ? Thank's.
 
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