Starkeeper, I am not certain but I believe the Sonic Impants' B3 samples do not spin up or down as you wish. They are as you have noted. If you want that feature there may be other virtual B3s that can do so.

All the Soundfont flutes would be accessible at the following site (and many others):
http://www.hammersound.net/

I would not beable to sell you the high priced high quality versions, e.g.,
http://www.dandeanpro.com/
plus others (VSL, EWQSL, etc.)


[This message has been edited by Frank L. Rosenthal (edited 03-16-2005).]

Smart Flute from Musiclab might be something to look at as well. If it is anywhere near the quality of their multisampled "Real Guitar", my guess is that it will surely at least match if not exceed any hardware based sounds you can find.

For my ears, B4 does some of the best organ sounds on the planet, that don't actually come from a real B3 or C3. There are some decent alternatives though. ZR3 is a freeware that does some pretty cool organ w/ leslie simulations. Linplug "daOrgan" does a good job too, at less than half the cost of B4.

Then there is the NI Express kb package. If you dont need to tweak, you can probably get it for less than B4. It's a scaled down version of B4, Pro53 ( Prophet 5 emulator ) and FM7 ( DX7 emulator ) all in one package. A friend of mine has this and it's very good. Scaled down means far less parameters that can be tweaked, and less preset voices, but not at a reduction in quality of staple sounds for each instrument. I know because I have both B4 and Pro53, but if I didn't, I oould be happy with Xpress.

BTW, when I play "neutral" styles in OMB ( those not made specifically for Korg ), I find that the free soundfont sgm128 sounds better than my PA80 in almost all cases.

I did an A/B comparison using SD1 and KN7000 styles ( converted to Yamaha .sty with both the PA80 and Live synth pro with sgm128 as my sound modules for OMB through the same soundsystem. Of course I added some chorus and reverb effect to the sgm128 soundfont in order to make it a fair comparison.

Frank makes an excellent point. I think in many cases people listen to soundfonts "dry", and then think that they can't compare to hardware modules. Try this.. Turn off all of the effects in your favoriite hardware arranger or synth / module. Now how does it sound when you play a style ? Not so good is my guess.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-16-2005).]

Hi AJ, Frank,
Thanks for replying. I will check out smart flute. The XG voices on my Yammy are dry and don't sound good at all (never use them). This begs the next question. How do I add reverb, chorus, etc? Can I do this with OMB or is there some other software that will do this?
AJ,
I will check out NI Express, ZR3, I will be testing daOrgan this weekend (if I have all the software required )
I am searching for sgm128 on Google - lots of links, but haven't found the actual download site yet. Any chance it has changed name to sgm180? Great info.
Thanks
Starkeeper

Starkeeper, usually you add the effects within the host (forte, Cubase, Sonar, etc.). Soundfonts have these built in and can be turned on by a VST such as LiveSynth Pro. The built in effects for soundfonts are only of moderate quality. Other VST have better effects included (NI Kontakt). The higher quality reverbs are very demanding on your CPU power. So again it will be a balance of quality vs costs.

Ok. Thanks Frank. Wil be trying this out this weekend.
Brainspawn forte as wrapper
Live synth pro as host
daOrgan as a vst.
Starkeeper

Sgm128 is different from 180. In spite of the lower number, sgm128 has more sample rom and I think it sounds noticeably better. Here is a link for it. It's a large file btw, on the order of 126 mb
http://www.sf2midi.com/index.php?page=sdet&id=5038

You might want to also look at Xlutop Chainer as a standalone host. One session can host a combination of up to 10 vst instruments and effects, and it couldn't be simpler to use. You can use Chainer alone, with no other Daw or host needed ( Cubase, Sonar etc ), or you can open it up in your favorite host as a vst.

I completely agree with`Frank about high quality effects. The built in ones for soundfonts are of fair quality at best. For starters I would recommend the freeware Kjaerhus Audio "classic series " a lot, as the quality is actually quite decent, and they aren't terribly hard on your CPU. You can find them here:

http://www.kvrau dio.com/get.php?mo...p=100&start=100


All of the ones on this page are freeware. Some are of lesser quality, but a few of the mda plugs and all of the Voxengo plugins ( go to the next page for Voxengo) are pretty decent as well.


AJ




[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-17-2005).]

Also check out the free VSTi called ORGANized_trio_v30 http://www.kvraudio.com/get/682.html

[This message has been edited by Vquestor (edited 03-17-2005).]

Ahh that's the one I keep forgetting. Organized trio might just be the best of all the freeware Organs. Actually, I thought it compared favorably with the commercial "DaOrgan".

Dirtbag is kinda cool too, for that almost excessively overdriven B3 sound.


AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-17-2005).]

Hi AJ,
thank you for the link. The sgm128 sounds great.
I'll have to check out some of those effects you mentioned also.

best wishes
Rikki


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bluezplayer:
[B]

You're quite welcome Rikki. When I get time to do it, I plan to use much of SGM128 as the base for a "supersoundfont".

I will add, or actually replace the 128's guitars with the Sonic Implants Telecaster and PRS guitar sets. I'll add SI's Blue Jay and Session drums, and some better organ and ep samples. I'll then set it up in Chainer, and then assign acoustic guitar style patches directly to Dasample's Electroacoustic Vsti. If it gets a little too CPU intensive, I'll simply make multisamples from EA and assign them to the soundfont.

This should make OMB play very nice in the GM mode. I'm still only at version 6, but I am quite comfortable using it, and I've already used it in a live set. Eventually I'll probably upgrade.

The one thing that did not work so well was trying to use the Motif ES as my OMB module. It seems no matter how I set it up, I notice a slight hiccup when changing style variations. I've tried a number of fixes, including reworking patch and bank, and other controller data of entire styles to better fit the ES. Nothing I can do seems to help.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-17-2005).]