croose0

is there any guide for how to use soundfont in kxmixer?
i couldnt load more than 1 instrument at the same time.. how do we choose which instrument (in 128) we replace for?

thanks..

Steve Wellens

My sound card has two synths. When you load a sound font in the KX driver, you can specify if it's for synth1, synth2 or both.

In a MIDI application (in my case Record Producer Deluxe) you have several ports. You can assign the output of each port to a different hardware device (synth1, synth2, Midi Mapper, etc).

Then, in the application, you can assign each MIDI channel to a port.

__________________
Steve Wellens

croose0

i dont mean that. for example i want to load a "guitar" sounfont to the card by kxmixer, but i cant choose the midi number of instrument (0-127); it asigns it to 0. then i want to load a second instrument to another instrument number; but it assigns it to 0 again by replacing the first instrument. so i cant load more than one instrument.

Steve Wellens

I don't think the KX device driver, or any other for that matter, will do that.

It is up to an outside application to select the instrument. What application are you using?

__________________
Steve Wellens

croose0

but i'm not talking about selection. i want to load the instrument in the number i want. it was just possible before with creative drivers.
i check the sounfont by using midiox and see that when i load a second instrument, it can be heard only if it replaces the first one as number 0. if for example i assign it to number 1, i cant hear sound even i choose number 2 in midiox

Max M.

bank?

__________________

Russ

The kX loader does not support that. The preset location is hard coded in the SF2 file. You cannot change that preset number (without editing the SF2), you can only specify the starting bank number (and any banks within the SF2 file will be shifted by that starting position).

croose0

so what is the way to use more than 1 instrument at the same time? if this is impossible, then making music with sounfonts (single instruments) would be impossible too.

Russ

SF2 files can contain many presets and banks.... you do not have to save each preset as a separate file and load them one at a time. Also, as I stated previously, you choose which preset location will be used when you create the SF2 file, so if they are numbered properly (when created), there is no problem with loading multiple soundfonts that contain single presets.

Also, as previously stated, you can load them into separate banks as well.

For your single preset soundfonts (which all seem to be using preset 0 bank 0), it is simple enough to open it in Vienna and change the preset number, so I would suggest just editing them, and re-number them. If you want it to be a variation bank, then change the bank number too (though as mentioned previously, you can choose the bank when loading, so that is not really necessary).

croose0

thank u very much but i still need clarification:

1) you say "you do not have to save each preset as a separate file". do u mean i can combine my seperate instruments in a sf bank?

2) what do all people do? change preset numbers and record them somewhere not to forget later?

3) how can we use that bank changing? say i have 1 guitar and 1 piano both at preset 0. i choose bank 0 for guitar and bank 1 for piano. but how will i use them at the same time?

thanks

Russ

1) Yes, you can have multiple instruments within an SF2 file (GM soundfonts usually have 128 presets (numbered following GM conventions (e.g. acoustic guitar is preset 25), plus some drum kits, all within the same SF2 file). Some soundfonts also include variation banks (i.e. similar instruments in different banks (e.g. maybe another type of acoustic guitar set to preset 25, in bank 1)). Try opening up one of the Creative soundfonts in Vienna and take a loot at the "Preset" section. e.g. CT2MGM.SF2 (from your Creative install CD).

2) It depends on the situation. GM soundfonts generally have standard numbering. If you forget the numbering, you can always open up the SF2 in Vienna (or some other SF2 utility) and see the numbers.

3) Unfortunately some programs do not allow you to change banks, but most of the better programs should. It is basically done the same way you choose the preset, but you also include a bank number. So, with your example, you choose bank 0 preset 0 for the guitar and bank 1 preset 0 for the piano.

croose0

there is also confusion with term "bank". i remember in creative sounfont selecting, bank only means a group of instruments, and i dont remember using several banks simultaneously; but now with kx, a single instrument is also called bank, while u call bank a part of a sf2 file ; still confusing

1) with vienna can i make a sf 2 file including my separate instruments without changing quality?

2) can i change 1 instrument of a loaded bank. i.e i loaded a GM, but i want to change only preset 14 with a different instrument.

3) if u know midiox, i cant find how to change bank. it only gives 3 options for selection method: normal, controler 0, controller 32 ; but in selection area there is no option other than "general midi" (no bank number)

thanks..

Russ

Banks and presets are like an address of which sound to play, nothing more. e.g. Compared with a telephone number, bank would be like the area code (i.e. you can have same phone numbers in different area codes).

The number of instruments in the SF2 fie should not have any effect on quality.

If you edit the SF2 file for the instrument you are using as the replacement, and number it as preset 14... then just load it (into the same bank) after loading the GM soundfont, it will replace preset 14 of the GM soundfont with the new one. (or just load it into a different bank, and choose that bank + preset in your MIDI app for the track that you want to use that sound in).

In MIDI-OX you can change banks in the Control Panel (View -> Control Panel). Use MSB and LSB to choose the bank (i.e. to change to bank 1, set MSB or LSB to 1 (the other to 0) and click send (per kX's default bank selection method)).

croose0

thank you for patience and answers

Russ

Glad to help

BTW: Kx's default bank selection method is MSB + LSB, which just means that the 2 values need to add up to the bank number you want to select.

e.g.
If you wanted to select bank 10, it could be:
MSB 1, LSB 9
or
MSB 9, LSB1
or
MSB 5, LSB 5
, etc.

Some programs may use a different method for bank selection, and kX supports 4 different methods (See kX 's Synth compatibility settings).