Can anyone recommend an intermediate quality (quality of a PSR2000 say ) vst or soundfont sellers? Not Kontack high quality or low quality free soundfonts.
Is there a forum that discuses soundfonts, vst, dxi instruments?
Find it a little difficult to find good quality soundfonts/vst's on the web.
Has anyone tried Utopia Live GM soundflonts.
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 03-11-2005).]

Starkeeper, I am very surprised that you cannot find free soundfonts which are much better than a PSR2000. I find almost any soundfont out there is better - but it might be my sad ears.

As I pointed out in the past you can always start with a reasonably good soundfont wavetable and replace the instruments you do not like.

Here are some wavetables which are (in general) much better than most arranger wavetables:

GM500 (can be converted to soundfont)
Papelmedia SF2 1.22
Titanic 200
Plus many many many many many many many - and then some others.

I think what it is you like the Yamaha sound and therefore anything that does not come close is not so good. If you for example like Yamaha 4mb softsynth then you just simply like the Yamaha sound.

Whereas when I do A & B comparisons on my high quality audio system professional musicians will more often pick my enhanced sYnerGi GS wavetable over anything Yamaha has to offer (Motif, Tyros). That is not to say that Yamaha is not good enough for live performances. I use as my criteria the ability to come as close as possible to sound like real acoustic instruments.

The reason I take you up on this issue is that if you like the Yamaha sound then I strongly recommend you stay with their hardware based solutions. You will not succeed until someone makes a wavetable using as its source a Yamaha keyboard or sound module.


[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 03-11-2005).]

Have you tried any of these? http://www.personalcopy.com/home.htm



[This message has been edited by Vquestor (edited 03-12-2005).]

Vquestor, yes I have and they to are of reasonably good quality. I have about 12 CDs full of soundfonts and Soundfont wavetables. I acquired these when the Soundsite was still up and running. This site collected all the available soundfonts out there and provided them at a price to cover the cost of the CDs and Postage. So - I have no trouble finding good soundfonts - it is just a matter of time. Some of the soundfont wavetables (GM/GS, etc.) which I use/have are:

Akai GM
Cadenza
Fluid 3 GM/GS
Genevoice
Hubbe64
Nytonx
PC51d
SGM180 v1.5
Sonic Implants
Utopia 2.0
Titanic 200
GM500
sYnerGi GS (modified)
(plus many others)

I also use the following:
Edirol VSC
Edirol HyperCanvas
Cakewalk TTS-1
(plus others)


Plus I have thousands of soundfont instrument sounds. So I have no trouble finding high quality soundfonts - quality that equals or exceeds anything you will find in any hardware based solution. Plus for my melody/lead voices I use top of the line samples with Kontakt. I have no trouble making beautiful noises - music is another matter!!!


[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 03-11-2005).]

Sorry Frank, I was actually addressing this
to Starkeeper.
But your information is always very helpful.
Thanks.

Hi Frank,
I have found free soundfonts on the internet, but I don't like them. I should have mentioned in my original post that I am looking for lead/melody/right hand voices. I am happy with SynergiGS/AnotherGS for playing arranger styles. I do like Yamaha voices, especially the sweet voices, but I also own a Roland and like the quitars, vibraphone, brass, and strings on the Roland over Yamaha. I don't think that I am tied to the Yamaha voices IMO. I appreciate your suggestions. Will look into them.

Vquestor,
No I have not tried personal copy. Will check that out. Would these be good for lead voices or would you recommend anything else? What do you use for lead voices?
Starkeeper
P.S. I am now using the left hand split of my Roland to play Yammy styles using OMB software and AnotherXG soundfonts and will never play the Roland styles again. I am half way to a totally softsynth arranger.
I have recently purchased a 2.1 speaker system and it sounds great.

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 03-14-2005).]

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 03-14-2005).]

Starkeeper, I guess I don't understand. If you like Yamaha sounds why not stay with them. Even I think they are very good given the size of their wavetables and the quality of their effects. The longer you use a given wavetable the harder it will be to change to something else. I would hate to see you spend a pile of money and then be unhappy with the result. I still say - stay with Yamaha.

Hahaha. Well.. If I could buy a Sweet soprano sax or a sweet flute, then maybe I would, but this is not available. Unless Yamaha releases some sweet voices via Steinberg or something like that.
I have a Roland keyboard (with full size keys) that I use for a controller, I have a good speaker system, I have an arranger (OMB), I have a computer and a soundcard. I don't want to buy all this equiment all over again, in a Yamaha keyboard package, just to get a few new voices. You made this same comment in another thread.
Kevin

Starkeeper, I forgot to ask whether you use good quality effects (reverb, chorus, equalizer) when you test soundfonts. These effects can improve the sound of soundfonts. Plus this would make for a more apples to apples comparison with your PSR sounds.


[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 03-15-2005).]

Actually no. You are right of course. Yamaha Sweet voices have "natural vibrato" added.
The organ voices demos at Sonic Implants sound very good (haven't purchased any though), some on slow tremolo, fast, and off. I prefer to hear the Leslie sim spin up & down. Is there an effect that could do this?
I have asked this iin another thread: Can I buy a flute voice from you?
Starkeeper