soundfonts, DLSMusicDevice, how? Help!!!!

sholland · Post by **sholland** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 6:17 pm

Hello. Here's a question that probably exposes me as dumb. But anyway...

I thought I'd like to have higher quality sounds than those produced by the QuickTime synthesizer. I downloaded the Sonic Networks 24 meg GM Wavetable. It's a soundfont thing, I do believe. Cost me $79 American, which is almost $100 here on Vancouver Island.

Following the advice of an article in Electronic Musician, I downloaded Andy Drabbles Soundfont Synth.

I was hoping that, having downloaded those things and putting the Soundfont Synth thing in the place the ReadMe told me to, I would see something in Digital Performer when I went to Add Instrument Track. (I actually have no idea where to put the soundfont file from Sonic Networks, so I stuck it here and there.)

Still, after restart and booting up DP, nothing different appears in the options for Instrument Track or DLSMusicDevice.

All I want to do is to have an alternative bank of sounds to the ones that my Mac G4 PowerBook came with.

What am I missing? I feel very stupid here. PLEASE help me. (It will no doubt enhance your karma, helping the mentally challenged.)

Thanks so much for any help.

azusa749a · Post by **azusa749a** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:51 pm

DLSMusicDevice has nothing to do with Soundfont.

You need a sample player the can load sf2 such Mach5, Reason's NN-XT, or $39 shareware VSamp.
In case of Mach5 or VSamp, you have to open an instrument track in DP as usual.
For NN-XT you need to open it in Reason.

carrythebanner · Post by **carrythebanner** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:40 am

azusa749a wrote:DLSMusicDevice has nothing to do with Soundfont

Au contraire, it IS a soundfont player. Place your .sf2 files in /Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks and they will appear in the DLSMusicDevice's "Sound Bank" drop-down menu.

azusa749a · Post by **azusa749a** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:10 pm

Oh yeah! I've forgotten about that completely.
Thanks.

sholland · Post by **sholland** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:32 pm

Thanks a lot. I'd eyeballed that "banks" folder and the thought crossed my mind... but then something else happened and I was distracted from it.

It worked!

But now I find, testing two identical tracks (drum tracks), one using the Quicktime sounds that come with the Mac OS, and the other with the Sonic Network sounds... I can't tell the difference! They seem identical! Have I just thrown $100 down the drain? (It won't be the first time, I can tell you that much.)