shayme

Hi,

I'm sad to report that after several months of trying the KX drivers (several versions), I must abandon them and return to the APS / APS Live drivers.

PLEASE, save OTHER MUSICIANS from wasting time and frustration as I have: prominantly put on the KX-Homepage and FAQ that the KX Drivers do NOT support the SF2.1 Specification.

Because many musicians don't necessarily know what SF2.1 is, PLEASE consider writing "If you need powerful SoundFont support, the KX drivers are currently NOT for you!" and "For synthesis/SoundFont playback, the KX drivers do NOT offer the same power or functionality of the APS / APS Live drivers."

Had I seen this in the FAQ, I wouldn't have wasted so much time trying to figure out what was wrong with my soundfonts--only finding answers after spending hours reading posts in this forum.

I'd like to congratulate those working on this project for accomplishing so many great things--the routing is very powerful (although VERY difficult to understand and manage), ASIO and low latency rock, and the extra DSP effects (and future potential) are wonderful.

I guess I just don't get why SF2.1 wasn't near the TOP of the KXProject priority list. If a person is a musician, why choose a SBLive / Audigy / APS as your soundcard UNLESS Hardware SoundFont playback is important to you? For Wave I/O, ASIO, GSIF, etc., I can think of many hardware options that are both better and more professional.

Finally, although the SF2.1 issue is the dealbreaker for me, I had already been struggling with KX Drivers on another front for quite some time: since I use Win98se (and can't upgrade because of certain hardware restrictions) and GigaSampler and GigaStudio don't seem to have a chance of working on this platform, I was out of luck with Gigasampler/studio. So in 2 supremely important regards, this musician was able to do LESS with kx than with APS Live / APS.

Thanks for all who put effort into this grand project--I wish the effort had been focused on things I need to be a productive musician.

Best Regards,


Shayme

p.s. If SF2.1 is ever faithfully supported, I have some additional ideas that might interest musicians using KX Drivers. These ideas would build on the DSP FX enhancements of the KX Drivers, and could turn the 10k1 platform into a real serious powerhouse of a synthesizer.

dj_stick

i think that many musicians use live! cards due to the low cost involved. And i am pretty sure that various aspects of Soundfont supprot are still being researched and tested. Also creative do not even follow their own standards

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dj_stick

second note, like any powerfl application, it will be difficult to manage at first, but after playing around for awhile, and reading documentation you will get the hang of it. Also please reply with the issues you are having with soundfonts

edit: i am pretty sure there is a quick fix patch for gigastudio for win98 that allows it to use the WDM format of drivers

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shayme

Thanks for your reply, dj_stick.

The Modulator assignments seem to not work at all, which I think is the main difference between SF2.1 and SF2 specifications. (Under Vienna 2.3, the window titled "Modulator Properties" are where these can be inspected, modified, assigned, etc.)

Beyond this, I had problems with Pedal Sustain not working, as well as the 1-pole LowPass filter not functionaing--the filter that is also a critical part of the SF2.1 specification.

These problems may be partly related to the Modulators not being implemented, but I did notice that Pitch Wheel and Mod Wheel seemed to always "work" in a HARD-WIRED fashion (this might be how prior SF specifications handled these controllers--I don't know).

PERSONALLY, I almost NEVER use the Mod Wheel for the typical purpose (BORING!)--I like to assign it to something usefull--say, Filter Cutoff Frequency or Filter Resonance (Q). When I make my own SoundFonts I make this (and many other usefull assignments) happen in the Modulator Properties window in Vienna 2.3 mentioned above. I also take 3rd party SoundFonts and make my own Modulator assignments and/or overrides.

I'd guess that the KX developers have read the Official SF2.1 .PDF paper titled "SoundFont 2.1 Technical Specification" available for free download from Creative Labs for several years.

For anyone reading this thread who is interested, you can download the SF2.1 Specification below:
http://www.soundfont.com/documents/sfspec21.pdf

Below is a link to the "SoundFont 2.1 Application Note" from Creative Labs:
http://www.soundfont.com/documents/sfapp21.pdf

Below is the "SoundFont 2.0 White Paper" for comparison to the SF2.1 specification:
http://www.soundfont.com/tutorials/sf20white.pdf

You can find all the above technical documents, plus several more tutorials on SoundFonts on this page:
http://www.soundfont.com/tutorials.html

Thanks again,



Shayme

NightBreed

I currently use soundfonts in compositions regardless of the present issues. I guess when you've been dealing with creative products for so long, you learn to improvise. The lack of 2.1 really hasn't hendered any of the music I do but I tend to use alot of other instruments and soundfonts as fillers. I believe in the todo list of the site, it does mention that 2.1 implication is being worked on.
Besides that, I'm sure with so many other sources available as far as soundfont control and other sample based controller that the ASIO support for soundfont based VSTi is more desirable anyway. Synthedit which provides a free 2.1 soundfont controller offers the best of both. As well as other free soundfont controllers. Sometimes it's also a good idea to look into alternatives before totally abandoning your current drivers.

dj_stick

if you look more closely, SF 2.01 is supported. If you require 2.1 support use a soft-sampler

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