Help with soundfonts

Dark Soul · Post by **Dark Soul** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

I'm looking for some good free soundfonts to use for recording purposes. I really need a drumkit soundfont that would go well with prog rock/metal music. I've been to sites like Hammersound and Up Metal! Studio. Found a few that are okay, but still looking for a sweet sounding kit. If anyone has or knows where I can find a great drumkit soundfont, please let me know.

Thanks!

~Max

songsmith · Post by **songsmith** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

I didn't even know there was such a thing. I have to look into this... it'd be awesome to do a recording where I play all the parts, but I'm not much of a drummer, and have no kit anyway. I had no idea there were free drums!---->JMS

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

Yeah, back in the day, all we had were the default rythmns built into Casio keyboards.

...the sad part is that I think Billy Idol used one of those rythmns for the White Wedding remix he did.

DirtySanchez · Post by **DirtySanchez** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

bassist_25 wrote:Yeah, back in the day, all we had were the default rythmns built into Casio keyboards.

...the sad part is that I think Billy Idol used one of those rythmns for the White Wedding remix he did.

75% of all Bloodhound Gang songs sound like it too.
They still rule though!

Post by **Ron** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

Some here: link

Dark Soul · Post by **Dark Soul** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

I don't have a real drum kit and couldn't play one very well even if I did, so it's MIDI drums for me until Mike Portnoy knocks on my door and offers to lay down some tracks for me.

Just about any decent recording software (I use Cakewalk Sonar) supports soundfonts. Just load one into a MIDI track and have at it. Here are some good sites with free soundfonts:

Hammersound
http://www.hammersound.net/

Up Metal! Studio
http://www.soundfonts.it/

Home Musician
http://soundfonts.homemusician.net/

Soundfonts can get pretty large at times, so often soundfont makers compress them using utilities like sfArk (http://www.melodymachine.com/sfark.htm) or sfPack (http://www.personalcopy.com/sfpack.htm). Why they felt Winzip and Winrar weren't good enough for this, I have no idea. But there it is. Play around with them. You'll be surprised how good some of the free soundfonts out there are.

~Max

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

I have tons on CD. I downloaded them about 5 years ago when I was using an EMU APS card.

There are a few good sets and lots of individual fonts. I'll see if I can dig them up and find the links.

EDIT: Here are some links I saved:

http://www.personalcopy.com/sfarkfonts1.htm

http://www.hammersound.net/hs_links.html

http://alive.singnet.com.sg/download/

http://come.to/sblive

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/SOUND ... E_DRIVERS/

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/pro ... efault.asp

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/SOUND_FONTS/

songsmith · Post by **songsmith** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

I was on Soundclick recently, and this guy whose music I really like noted that he used a program called "DKFH" or "Drum Kit From Hell"... his music is very heavy and very progressive (look up "Bulb or "Periphery" on Soundclick), and the drums are awesome... everything's in majorly phucked-up odd time sigs, very impressive. However, I'm sure a program that good isn't free.
I knew about drum programs, but was unaware of any for free. Are they easy to use?---->JMS

Dark Soul · Post by **Dark Soul** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

Thanks Lonewolf! That would be awesome! It's so difficult to find a good drum kit because invariably at least one part doesn't sound right. I wanna tear my hair out when I think of all the drum soundfonts I've tried where the snare, bass and cymbals sound great...then I check out the toms and they sound like they were bought at Toys 'R' Us...

!?@#$?!!

~Max

Dark Soul · Post by **Dark Soul** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

Songsmith: Thanks for telling me about DKFH. You're right, it probably isn't free, but I'll check it out anyway. Might be worth it if it sounds good.

About using soundfonts; Soundfonts aren't programs, per se. All soundcards (that didn't come from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart) have what's called a wave table built in that gives you all your MIDI sounds. The wave table is basically a bunch of sound samples from various instruments that the card uses to play music just like a keyboard synthesizer. What a soundfont does is replaces those samples with new ones.

So let's say you're doing some recording and you don't like the way your soundcard's default piano sounds. Go online and download a piano soundfont that looks promising and, using whatever recording software you have, attach the soundfont to the piano MIDI track, hit play and see if you like how it sounds. Wash, rinse, repeat until you find a soundfont that you like.

Some soundfonts are called GM. A GM soundfont is a full wave table of fonts that replaces every instrument on your soundcard and because of this they tend to be gigantic. So I wouldn't suggest bothering with a GM font unless you really loathe your soundcard and want every single instrument replaced.

~Max

songsmith · Post by **songsmith** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

Thanks, that's very informative! I really need to expand my computer knowledge past porn and Rockpage.

------>JMS

Dark Soul · Post by **Dark Soul** » Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

ROFLOL!! You are most welcome, sir. Happy to help.

~Max