Create split of all MS Basic sounds into individual soundfonts
A radically simple idea, maybe it's come up before, but I haven't seen it:
Because MU4 doesn't let you select a sound within a soundfont, we're constantly advising people about workarounds like splitting a soundfont into individual sounds.
So, why don't we just do this ourselves, for MS Basic? Or for any other community-maintained soundfonts?
Any technical reason why MS Basic couldn't be distributed - unofficially of course - as a ZIP file containing the individual sounds themselves? Then you'd just download and extract into your soundfonts folder, and you're good to go.
Of course, it's not completely ideal, and eventually we all expect MuseScore 4.x will eventually support selecting sounds within soundfonts, but for now, seems this would do quite well for many use cases.
I could imagine the ZIP containing separate folders for the different families, maybe also two versions where one set just uses names and thus sorts alphabetically and another that pretends the patch number so they sort logically instead.
I would have to assume someone who knows there way around a soundfont editor could pull this off in a free evening. I gather there are even tools that can do this in one shot.
Comments
yea, it is easely done in Polyphone, but i would not waste one minute on a compressed soundfond like MSBasic.sf3
In reply to yea, it is easely done in… by bottrop
Does it require going through an extra decompress / recompress stage? Because obviously the sf3 is good enough for the vast majority of people, and its what people are accustomed to, so it seems like it should be the first soundfont made available in this way. But sure, no reason it couldn't be done from the original sf2 sources assuming someone has access to them, and also no reason other soundfonts couldn't be similarly treated.
Polyphone seems like it would require me to manually select each preset one by one and export it, manually naming each, etc. Possible but would take hour. But, I found a tool sf2splitter that did the job automatically in a minute. Looks to be abandonware for Windows only, but it did the job. I also see Polyphone seems like it would require me to manually select each preset one by one and export it, manually naming each, etc. Possible but would take hours.
However, I found a tool sf2splitter that did the job automatically in a minute. Looks to be abandonware for Windows only, but there is also https://github.com/schnitzeltony/soundfont-cmdline-tools which could be a better solution long term. For now, this is a one-time hack for me, so I'm good with sf2splitter.
So, now I have a set of sf2's thatseem to work as expected, even the drumsets. There weren't options to auto-name based on preset numbers, but maybe I don't care at the moment.
I'll continue to poke away at this and hope to post an update with a link soon.
In reply to Polyphone seems like it… by Marc Sabatella
That's great Mark.
In reply to Polyphone seems like it… by Marc Sabatella
so now the soundfont world is polluted with another 100+ blown up .sf3's.
when you make coffee, it is best to drink it right after you finished it. but you can make powder of it and add hot water the next day if that is more to your taste.
In reply to so now the soundfont world… by bottrop
As mentioned, sf3 isn't going to work for this anyhow, so please take your personal vendetaa against sf3 elsewhere. I'd love it if you have actual constructive comments for this project though.
In reply to As mentioned, sf3 isn't… by Marc Sabatella
it is not Vendetta, it is Environmentalism
In reply to it is not Vendetta, it is… by bottrop
Cool. now I have a reason to create more sf3's.
Sorry. (not)
Here is a link with the ZIP file and more info. I hope to update it periodically based on feedback, and eventually maybe add more fonts to the collection:
https://community.masteringmusescore.com/c/resources/ms-basic-individua…