Missing alto flute in many basic soundfonts
i write compositions for mixed quintet (and voice). it does include alto flute.
but recently i have found that there is a violin given instead of alto flute. i have tried to change instrument
patches in the mixer but both 'piccolo' and 'shakuhachi' sound very differently from my target instrument.
then i tried to change the soundfont; i tried all available names in synthesizer: default-GM.sf2, FluidR3_GM.sf2,
FluidR3Mono_GM.sf3, MuseScore_General.sf3 but they all give violin patches for 'flute' entry.
only obsolete TimGM6mb.sf2 gives true alto flute (as 'flute TB') but actually i prefer MuseScore_General.sf3
because of its sounding quality, particularly because of realistic coloratura soprano which i don`t want to miss.
could be changes made to MuseScore_General.sf3 to include alto flute?
Comments
Alto flute is not part of the General MIDI standard, so no common soundfont will include it. But I'm confused when you mention violin. If you add an alto flute in MuseScore, the sound you get should be the standard flute (specifically, "Flute Expr." if using the default soundfont), which includes samples below C that might have been recorded from an alto flute but are just as likely pitch-shifted samples from a standard flute.
now i modified FluidR3_GM.sf2 replacing its alto flute with flute patch from TimGM6mb.sf2 and it is working well.
but still i want sf3 soundfont (Swami editor in ubuntu cannot open them).
In reply to now i modified FluidR3_GM… by amelanchier smith
Polyphone can open any sf3 format soundfont file, and you will be able to edit it at will.
But, you just can save the final result as a sf2 format file.
Remember sf3 uses compressed audio samples; sf2 uses not compressed audio samples.
" i prefer MuseScore_General.sf3
because of its sounding quality, particularly because of realistic coloratura soprano".
pardon me, but can you give me the Bank and Preset number of that coloratura soprano?
regards bottrop
In reply to " i prefer MuseScore_General… by bottrop
There is none.
Alto Flute from University of Iowa
In reply to Alto Flute from University… by dSchnides1
Do you have also the others soundfonts of University of Iowa? If yes, you could share them?
In reply to Do you have also the others… by Tanica D'Olio …
here is my GM compatible soundfont with a bunch of UoI instruments. Sorry about the size, it is just more than 1GB.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e7IN_TXZCYEv44VBC-bkxqyjUe3mkcmW/view?…
In reply to Do you have also the others… by Tanica D'Olio …
After downloading my soundfont, you should go to the synthesizer window and change the Dynamics settings to the ones shown in the png. Also, here is a test to see if an instrument has single-note dynamics.
In reply to After downloading my… by dSchnides1
Wonderful sounds!!! Congratulations!!!
But... As any human work, I can note some "mistakes":
1) Notes MIDI 71 and 72 (B4 and C5), with Strings Fast and Recorder (and probably with Sax family), are out-of-tune. I tried to fix it with Polyphone but I couldn't, because those notes are a mixdown of more than one samples. I don't know how to fix it.
2) There is a noticeable attack delay with real note Eb4 with Soprano and Alto Sax. I don't have enough skills to say if it could be fixed with Polyphone.
About the Dynamics issue, I use MuseScore 3.6.2 Portable AppImage with Ubuntu Studio 20.04.4 LTS (64 bit Lynux) and I can get the single note dynamic effect using the "standard" (By Default) parameter inside the Synthesizer.
The files I used to test any SoundFont are attached here.
Blessings from Chile!!!
In reply to Wonderful sounds!!!… by jotape1960
I just uploaded the newly tuned alto flute about 8 hours before your comment. I don't know which version you reviewed.
I do not have a recorder in any of my presets, what instrument would you be referring to? Also, I'm starting to use this feature that corrects for the intonation of each individual note. I have fixed some of the notes mentioned in the Soprano sax. Also, I found that the Alto Flute was really out of tune for most of the notes, so I used that tuning feature across the whole range.
In reply to Wonderful sounds!!!… by jotape1960
Also, I just realized that Strings fast is a combination of Violin, Viola, Cello, and Contrabass, so the problem might be in one of those instruments. But since it is a "combination" instrument, I don't know if many people will notice the small discrepancies or care enough for it to matter.
Also, when looking through the Violin samples, I realized that the stereo samples were set to mono and I don't know which are the left and right samples. Does it matter if two linked stereo samples are on the incorrect sides?
Example: stereoL is labeled as right sample and stereoR is labeled as left sample
In reply to Also, I just realized that… by dSchnides1
My personal opinion about the stereo sound of the instruments, I guess will be very "prehistoric" to a lot of people, but...
I've been a recording "engineer" since 1978 (even the fact I don't have any college course), so... I have some experiences about the stereo pan control.
When you are in a real concert hall, seating on the first row. just in the front of one symphonic orchestra, you can clearly hear the great stereo sound from the left to the right.
But, if you are seating from the 7 or 9 rows of the hall... Mmm... That stereo sound effect is so confused. If you are seating on the last row of the theatre, you cannot get that stereo sound at all (due to the distance and the hall reverberation).
Adding the obvious fact that most of instruments have just one "speaker" to give its sound (as sample: a clarinet has just one sound output hole)... I think there is not a good idea to have stereo sound inside the soundfont files.
Even if we think about the great grand piano... Just the player can hear the stereo effect. Nobody inside the theatre hall can hear that effect.
So... I'm not a friend of the stereo sound samples inside the soundfont file.
Just my humble opinion.
Blessings!!!