Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

How about commercial sound fonts like Sonivox? Anyone tried those?

I have pretty much all the Sonivox GM soundfonts. Most of them I had to obtain from others who kindly uploaded them, since the Sonivox soundfonts are no longer sold anywhere as far as I know.

* 24 MB GM/GS - A nice soundfont I suppose...I did use it quite a lot. Some of the instruments are not very realistic (such as the choir ahhs), and some are rather weak compared to some free soundfonts (strings and church organ for example). There were also a couple of smaller, lower quality versions of this soundfont, such as a 4 MB GM-only version. Video (DOOM E1M1): https://youtu.be/FVquRxzXV4s

* Industrial Dance and Retro Synth - These are two pseudo-GM soundfonts. Although they are designed for playing GM files, many of the instruments do not use the GM standard, which can result in some MIDIs sounding strange. Video (DOOM E1M1 and E1M2): https://youtu.be/4ZMews3-9Jc

* 250 MB GM/GS - "A step forward in every conceivable way and the last Soundfont GM Set you’ll likely ever need" - the Sonivox website. The product description for this is exaggerated, and this soundfont is definitely not amazing. It's a mixed bag; it does have a few very good instruments, but it also has some bad ones, resulting in poor balance depending on which instruments are used in a MIDI. The 24 MB soundfont is better than this one IMHO. Video (DOOM E1M1): https://youtu.be/KD0CFM1X7N0

Edit: And I'll also list all of the other commercial soundfonts I have, and a few opinions for them (which others may or may not agree with).

* EdgeSounds GeneVoice GM64Pro - 24-bit soundfont. Contains 2 full GM banks. Not really suited for classic game MIDIs; soundfont's samples are more intended for creating music with.

* EdgeSounds SoniqBear GM120Pro - Contains 4 full GM banks, and several drumsets. Not really suited for classic game MIDIs; this soundfont is intended for creating music in genres such as dance, techno, etc. Videos (DOOM E1M1): https://youtu.be/Mxq5KkuYkG4 - https://youtu.be/SznPgRqBJbg

* JaZMan GM24 PRO - 250+ MB 24-bit soundfont. I like this one a lot. Video (DOOM E1M1): https://youtu.be/5nHLqloSEos

* Merlin Symphony - 160+ MB. It's okay I suppose...uses some sounds from the standard E-mu/Creative soundfonts. There are also some free Merlin soundfonts, such as Creative, Elite, Gold, Gold Plus, Grand, Jupiter, Plus, Pro, Silver, Special, Vienna, and WXP.

* NemeSys Conexant GM500 - Originally in Giga format. Soundfont version is 350 MB. Videos: DOOM E1M1 - https://youtu.be/UJEZIp69DMU | E1M8 - https://youtu.be/uh2EOd-F4vA | DOOM 2 Map05 - https://youtu.be/glB_MovFkOg

* Papelmedia GM 2007 - 220+ MB. Some of the instruments are not really useable for regular MIDI playback, such as Synth Voice (in this soundfont it is a sample of a female "laa" that just sounds comical in some MIDIs). Videos: DOOM E1M1 - https://youtu.be/BxspHACtoMo | DOOM 2 Map10 - https://youtu.be/SqiutLZsUqM

* proVITAMIN - 230+ MB. Available as a Reason ReFill. Pretty nice, except for the distortion guitar, which is horrid. Video (DOOM E1M1): https://youtu.be/3LX4DGRIpm0

* Sonic Reality OmniSynth - Available for SampleTank and as a soundfont. Can sound muddy unfortunately. Video (DOOM): https://youtu.be/UWIzlpUQe3Q?t=2m58s

* sYnerGi GS - 40+ MB - I think it's nice for its size. Videos: DOOM E1M1 - https://youtu.be/3P3YmFCtXjo | DOOM 2 Map10 - https://youtu.be/PlgrNPqssZc

* Utopia Live! - 20+ Mb - The electric guitars are just not my taste. Others might like them, but that particular electric guitar style is bleh to me. 😜 Video (DOOM E1M1): https://youtu.be/RpsXwrEfslo - check the video description for a list of 4 main versions of this soundfont (stereo panned perc, lite edition with stereo panned perc, enhanced pianos and stereo panned perc, StereoID perc)

* Voice Crystal 4 MB GM - A very nice, small soundfont.

kashu200 wrote:

The Best Soundfont is Arachno

This bank includes many famous sounds from the best synthesizers by Roland (D-50, Sound Canvas...), Korg (M1, X5...), Yamaha (MU, Clavinova...), Fairlight (CMI), E-MU (Emulator), Ensoniq, and many others.

I tried Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers with the Arachno soundfont. I thought it sounded too good and detracted from the game.

i'll haveto hands down go w/ Aracno SF, i used FF7 (1998 Release) MIDI Test (which plays "Hurry Faster!" for it's test) to make differances and well i compared it w/ using both GeneralMIDI and Yamaha XG Data to Default MS Crap w/ GeneralMIDI/XG Data & Yamaha SoftSynthXG50 i think the differance is clear cut :3 (i took recorded samples the one ones a lil "Off are the XG50 ones as i had a lil issue making it work in a VM for whatever reason.)

(sample recordings)
https://copy.com/j1NBe11PZ7gjNile

My favorite one is CT8MGM.SF2 - it sounds very proper, yet colorful - unlike the more mechanical soundfonts of old.

Doom with Arachno > On a different level 😀

GenesiSF/The Ultimate Megadrive Soundfont is a good one, as is 8BitSF, here's a few MIDI rips I made using the soundfonts, including both ALAC and FLAC links, I will not be putting any lossy copies up, so don't ask for any lossy copies, granted it was on Realtek onboard audio using Timidty, but here 'ya go. The metadata and fadeout effect (for rips that end abruptly otherwise) were added in Audacity, and the ALAC copies were made using ffmpeg's ALAC encoder. The initial FLAC rips were made using Timidity and my soundfont of choice.

Launch Base - S&K Collection.
------------------------------------------------
Act 1.
------------------------------------------------
ALAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/kmzb0vrb65n … +Collection.m4a
FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/blappec0kco … Collection.flac
------------------------------------------------
Act 2.
------------------------------------------------
ALAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/j6a54gxa469 … +Collection.m4a
FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/o9mxo7vc7hr … Collection.flac

The Dance of the Spheares (with the 8BitSF rip as an added bonus).
------------------------------------------------
ALAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/6xv660c6pyx … e+soundfont.m4a
FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/9le3wfwdbqf … +soundfont.flac
------------------------------------------------
Bonus 8BitSF rip.
------------------------------------------------
ALAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/jvui9wsop84 … he+Spheares.m4a
FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/adjl4plm1sx … e+Spheares.flac

Icecap - Act 2 - S&K Collection.
------------------------------------------------
ALAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/zda2fhfe75x … +Collection.m4a
FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/fkusdrrmue2 … Collection.flac

FYI, the ALAC/Apple Lossless codec uses the .m4a container like MP4 and AAC do, to dispel any confusion, and here's the link to both soundfonts for anyone that wants to try them out. https://www.cinos.pw/projects/

UPDATE: The AWE32 ROM Dump soundfont is another great soundfont I just came across, and here's the soundfont in action in a MIDI rip of the King Meteor remix of 'Launch Base - Act 1 - S&K Collection,' which I titled 'Rush to Launch,' in addition to the DL link to said soundfont.

King Meteor - Rush to Launch.
------------------------------------------------
ALAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/pcjfp9irtai … h+to+Launch.m4a
FLAC: http://www.mediafire.com/download/661v6pa5lyl … +to+Launch.flac

AWE32 ROM Dump Soundfont: http://p99.yourfirefly.com/downloads/1mgm.sf2

I use musicaldev's nintendo ds soundfont, tssf's final fantasy 8 soundfont and magnius kun's cps2sf.

Has anyone heard Timbres of Heaven sound font? Pretty impressive, I must say. Almost like real Star Wars orchestra. TIE Fighter sounds even better, it seems I have found my holy grail TIE Fighter sound font.

yes it's a pretty rad soundfont which unfortunately is fuel for highly unrealistic "what could have been" sega history revisionists for theoretical superior genesis ports. like a fartless Doom32x

leileilol wrote:

yes it's a pretty rad soundfont which unfortunately is fuel for highly unrealistic "what could have been" sega history revisionists for theoretical superior genesis ports. like a fartless Doom32x

Fuel for what?

I like "what could have been" things, like playing a game's MIDI music using sound fonts or new modules that could sound better than the Roland Sound Canvas the MIDI is composed for, but I don't understand what happens among Sega fans.

Another good one is fireball sf, bby Lord Of the Chicken Wings. I personally use that as my primary soundfont.

autoexecdotbat wrote:

Another good one is fireball sf, bby Lord Of the Chicken Wings. I personally use that as my primary soundfont.

Whoa, that's quite big - almost 400 Mb. How many soundfont makers actually try to make them small too? Mine is 127 Mb (still somewhat large) and sounds much better IMO than almost any other I've tried, including this one. (Well that may be because it's tailored to my specific tastes, but still...)

I am now using the pc98 soundfont made by some japanese youtuber, which weighs in at almost 30 mb. sounds almost like the IBM music feture.

autoexecdotbat wrote:

I am now using the pc98 soundfont made by some japanese youtuber, which weighs in at almost 30 mb. sounds almost like the IBM music feture.

Is that available somewhere? Would love to try it out 😀

On the second thought, Timbres of Heaven's brass section is too shrill, to sibilant to resemble a real orchestrated Star Wars theme song. On the other hand, this unnamed sound font (although the videos are always described with "with the power of sound font" suffix) has better, more reverberating brass section which makes it closer to a real Star Wars orchestra. However, while the unnamed sound font is better in its brass section, Timbres of Heaven is better in everything else, including string orchestra.

So I guess I'm still far away from holy grail of Star Wars sound font..... 🙁

How about real GM modules? Would the brass sound like Star Wars brass?

Update: I have found this. According to the page, The Grande Orchestra sound font is partially based on EWQL, while EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus is used to remake this impressive X Wing music.

I'm downloading the soundfont now. I hope my search for TIE Fighter/X-Wing "holy grail" soundfont will finally end.

You spoke too soon. That link has no complete bank, merely an archive containing a collection of the banks he or she is allegedly using to make their complete bank, and some demo videos.

Laukku wrote:

autoexecdotbat wrote:

Another good one is fireball sf, bby Lord Of the Chicken Wings. I personally use that as my primary soundfont.

Whoa, that's quite big - almost 400 Mb. How many soundfont makers actually try to make them small too? Mine is 127 Mb (still somewhat large) and sounds much better IMO than almost any other I've tried, including this one. (Well that may be because it's tailored to my specific tastes, but still...)

Have you shared it anywhere? Or is it too full of commercial samples to be distributable?

E2: There's also Princess Soft and their SoundFont bank, which I leave as a challenge to you to find and utilize. A brief hint, the author's web page has a working Italian version of the site, but the English page is just a countdown to some time next year, with a super expensive web canvas effect bogging down the whole site. Assuming you do get to the SoundFont download, it will probably chug along at 150KB/s or so, and there's no way to know when the SoundFont is updated, since the download is always a "sf2.zip", containing the version-named and "protected" bank.

https://musescore.org/en/node/94941 is my favorite for Star Wars. The trumpet doesn't make my ears bleed, but also isn't drowned out. Strings sound fine to me.

I actually like the Compifont_NEW posted at the top better then the (even newer) Compifont_02042016 posted down in the comments

Trumpet still seems like the hardest to get right I've never really been perfectly happy with any trumpet I've heard in a soundfont

kode54 wrote:

Laukku wrote:

autoexecdotbat wrote:

Another good one is fireball sf, bby Lord Of the Chicken Wings. I personally use that as my primary soundfont.

Whoa, that's quite big - almost 400 Mb. How many soundfont makers actually try to make them small too? Mine is 127 Mb (still somewhat large) and sounds much better IMO than almost any other I've tried, including this one. (Well that may be because it's tailored to my specific tastes, but still...)

Have you shared it anywhere? Or is it too full of commercial samples to be distributable?

It should have zero commercial samples, only from freeware fonts. I made a thread a few years ago with a download link plus a couple of demonstration videos at the SynthFont forums.

I've tried to get a good compromise between size and quality, so there are minor ugly things such as imperfectly looping piano samples.

Laukku wrote:

I've tried to get a good compromise between size and quality, so there are minor ugly things such as imperfectly looping piano samples.

speaking of trumpets, the ones in yours do sound better than compifont's. Compi sounded better on some random Star Wars midi I found on the net, but in game (X-Wing) yours might beat it. Can actually hear the strings in yours as the intro pans down to reveal the Star Destroyers