Ethan Winer

Using SoundFonts With a Sound Card in SONAR

Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 GMT

Although Sonar supports DXi software samplers, many musicians still prefer using a SoundBlaster Live or Audigy sound card for SoundFonts. Playing SoundFonts through a sound card's hardware has several advantages over using a software synthesizer: There's no burden on the computer's CPU, the response time (latency) is immediate, and it's one less plug-in to fiddle with. When I bought my current computer I loaded it with 512 MB of memory just so I could use multiple large SoundFonts all at once. (See my ProRec article Striving for New Lows for the details.)

I have many SoundFont files, but three of them serve as my main sound set and contain all of the instruments I use on a regular basis. Where a standard General MIDI bank has one grand piano, one finger bass, and one trombone, my SoundFonts have many variations in separate banks. For example, I have four different clavinets, five acoustic basses, three timpanis, and so forth. This way I can try different instruments while a song is playing, and choose the one that sounds best for that particular piece.

The alternate versions use the same standard GM patch numbers, but are placed in different banks within the SoundFonts. For example, Preset (patch) number 57 in Bank 0 has one type of trumpet, the same preset in Bank 1 has another, and for some instruments I have as many as nine such variations. So to audition the various oboes or pianos while a tune is playing I call up the appropriate patch, and then change the bank numbers. To keep the SoundFont sizes manageable I use three separate files that total 182 MB. These are loaded when my computer starts so all of the instruments are available whenever I want them. This approach has served me well until recently, when I bought Sonar.

Many Problems

Unfortunately, Sonar has its own ideas about how SoundFonts should be used. Sonar assumes you will use different SoundFonts for each project, and store each in the same folder where the song resides. Then to use the instruments you must "attach" the SoundFonts to your song. That's a nuisance because it prevents you from trying different instruments as a song plays. And you have to stop what you're doing to attach a new SoundFont just to try it. This also forces you to keep multiple copies of the same SoundFonts in separate folders which wastes space and adds unnecessary complication. Plus, when the SoundFont files are large there is an added delay as Sonar loads them into memory every time you open a project. But Sonar has other, more serious, problems managing SoundFonts:

1. You can see the names of instruments that are in Bank 0 only. If a SoundFont has instruments in other banks their names are not shown, and you can't even tell which banks have additional instruments.

2. When Sonar starts, and every time you load a song, all SoundFonts that are currently loaded in the higher (non-zero) banks are intentionally purged from memory. Yikes. Ouch!

3. If you have the new Audigy sound card, SoundFonts you attach to a project can be used by the "A" Synth only. The Audigy lets you load SoundFonts separately for the A and B synths, and in fact you must load both synths if you want to access every sound from all 32 available channels.

4. Even though Sonar recognizes a SoundBlaster card as a SoundFont device, it stupidly uses the wrong bank select method. So you must change that before you can access sounds in other banks.

Many Solutions

Fortunately, all of these problems can be solved with a little ingenuity, and a quick visit to the Vienna SoundFont editing program. Vienna is available as a free download from the Creative Labs web site, and is a must-have for anyone who is serious about using SoundFonts.

The following steps show how to load any number of SoundFonts into multiple banks, keep Sonar from clearing them from memory, and have Sonar show you all of the instrument names in all of the banks so you can easily choose the ones you want. (By the way, this information also applies to later versions of Cakewalk.) You may prefer to place many sounds into different banks of the same SoundFont files as I did, or create separate files for each bank. The technique I'll show can be used for either method.

Here's a brief overview of the process, and in a moment I'll explain each step in detail. First you'll edit your SoundFonts to move the additional instruments into separate non-zero banks. You will then load all of the SoundFont files "on top of each other" into Bank 0 to keep Sonar from clearing them from memory. Next, in Sonar, you'll attach a series of "dummy" SoundFonts to each bank you plan to use, to make Sonar display all of the instrument names. Finally, you must tell Sonar to use Controller 0 as the Bank Select Method in each track's Properties dialog.

I suggest that you create a template file - a song that has all of the tracks defined but with no MIDI note data - and use that template each time you begin a new project. Be sure to use Save..As to save it under a different name when you start a new song, so you don't accidentally overwrite the template. Or you could set the template file to be read-only if you prefer. Right-click the file name in Windows Explorer and choose Properties. Then check the Read-only box and click Apply. Now if you click Save by mistake, Sonar will force you to use a different file name.

1. Organize your SoundFont banks

The first step is to organize your SoundFonts so they use absolute rather than relative bank numbers. Suppose you have two different SoundFont files. Each has instruments in different patch locations, but all are in a single bank. This is how most GM SoundFonts are organized, where the only piano is at Preset 1 in Bank 0, the only harpsichord is at Preset 7 in Bank 0, and so forth.

The usual way to make both banks available to a sequencer is to load them with your sound card's SoundFont control panel. You load one SoundFont file into the main Synth bank (Bank 0), and then load the next file into Bank 1. This is shown in the table below. Internally, the second SoundFont has its sounds in Bank 0, but since you loaded it to Bank 1 the bank numbers you specify when selecting instruments are effectively shifted up by one. So to play the sounds in the second file you tell Sonar to use Bank 1. If you instead edit the second SoundFont in Vienna so all of its presets are in Bank 1 instead of Bank 0, you can load both SoundFonts into Bank 0 and access all of the sounds in both files. Again, loading all of your SoundFonts into Bank 0 is what prevents Sonar from clearing them from memory.

SoundFont #1

Patch number	SoundFont's Bank 0
1	Grand Piano
...	...
34	Finger Bass
...	...
57	Trumpet
58	Trombone
...	...

SoundFont #2

Patch number	SoundFont's Bank 0
1	Nice Grand
...	...
34	Roto Bass
...	...
57	Silky Trumpet
58	Bass Trombone
...	...

Both SoundFonts as Loaded into SoundFont Memory

Patch number	Synth Bank 0	Bank 1
1	Grand Piano	Nice Grand
...	...	...
34	Finger Bass	Roto Bass
...	...	...
57	Trumpet	Silky Trumpet
58	Trombone	Bass Trombone
...	...	...

In order to load all of the SoundFonts into Bank 0 you must edit the bank numbers in Vienna. Your primary SoundFont can be left as is, with all of the instruments in Bank 0. If that SoundFont has instruments in other banks, make a note of the highest bank number used. The second SoundFont will then use banks starting at the next available bank number. Therefore you will load the second SoundFont into Vienna, and set all of the bank numbers to one higher than what the first SoundFont uses. If your main file uses only Bank 0 - as shown in these tables - set all of the instruments in the second SoundFont to be at Bank 1. You change the bank number for a preset in Vienna by right-clicking its name in the Melodic Pool and selecting Rename. There you will see the current patch name with its preset and bank numbers, and be able to edit them.

SoundFont #2 after reassigning all Bank 0 presets to Bank 1

Patch number	SoundFont's Bank 0	SoundFont's Bank 1
1	empty	Nice Grand
...	...	...
34	empty	Roto Bass
...	...	...
57	empty	Silky Trumpet
58	empty	Bass Trombone
...	...	...

Repeat this for every SoundFont you plan to use, then load them all into Bank 0 of SoundFont memory using your sound card's SoundFont control panel. If you have an Audigy sound card you must load all of the SoundFonts twice - once for the "A" synth and once more for the "B" synth. Go to the Options tab and select SB Audigy Synth A. Then click the Configure Bank tab and load each of the SoundFont files in the correct order. Now go back to the Options tab and select SB Audigy Synth B, click the Configure Bank tab again, and load all of the same SoundFonts in the same order.

2. Attach the Dummy Files

In order to make Sonar show the names of instruments in the other banks you must attach a SoundFont to each bank you plan to use. I created a tiny (about 1k) SoundFont named Dummy.sf2 for this purpose, which you can download from my web site.

This SoundFont has only one instrument using one short sample at Preset 127. (I chose Preset 127 assuming you don't mind losing access to the GunShot sound. When the dummy file is loaded it will supercede whatever was already present at that patch number.) Once you attach the dummy file to Bank 1 in your Sonar song template, all of the instruments already loaded in Bank 1 will become visible from the Pch list when Bank 1 is selected. If you also have sounds in Bank 2 you'll need to make a copy of the dummy file with a different name and load that into Bank 2 as well. Unfortunately, you can't just load the same dummy file repeatedly, so you must create a separate copy for each bank. I suggest you name the files Bank1.sf2, Bank2.sf2, and so forth, as these are the names you'll see in your Sonar MIDI tracks when you click the drop-down Bnk list.

3. Configure Sonar for SoundFonts

By default, Sonar knows that a Creative Labs sound card is a SoundFont device that uses standard GM patch names. But alas, Sonar is not smart enough to know there are two available samplers since only Synth A is identified that way. To fix this go to the Options menu, select Instruments, then one by one select each channel of the "B" synth on the left and click SoundFont Device on the right. Now you'll be able to see all of the instrument names and their bank numbers on every MIDI track, regardless of which Synth port (A or B) the tracks are assigned to.

The last step is to tell Sonar to use the proper Bank Select Method. Sonar seems to know the proper method since it puts an asterisk next to the correct choice, but for some reason it still uses Normal as the default. So for each track in your template right-click on the track number, select Track Properties, and change the Bank Select Method to Controller 0.

Finally, save the template file and you're done. When you load the template again to work on your next masterpiece you'll be able to see all of the instruments in all of the loaded banks, and select the one you want even while the song is playing. More important, all of your SoundFonts will be loaded when you boot up, and Sonar will leave them alone.

Ethan Winer is a retired computer programmer living in New Milford, CT. Besides playing electric guitar and bass, Ethan is also the principal cellist in the Danbury Community Orchestra. Learn more about Vienna, SoundFonts, and much more at www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html.

Striving for New Lows, pt. 2

Mon, 01 May 2000 00:00:00 GMT

As I mentioned earlier, I used the Vienna SoundFont editor to organize the patches in my master SoundFont file. The first step was to build a series of "audition" files, so I could compare the dozens of similar instruments side by side. Vienna includes a bank manager that lets you copy patches from one SoundFont file to another, so I built one file with every clarinet, another with every electric bass, and so forth. Unfortunately, many of the instruments were programmed to play in the wrong octave. So before I could compare them, I had to transpose the Coarse Pitch for those instruments up or down an octave, and then adjust the key range each sample occupies in the Instrument definition to compensate.

Once I had chosen the best patches in each category, I loaded the 8 MB SoundFont that came with my Live card, and one by one replaced sounds with the better versions. In some cases I kept the original patches, if they were good, and added the new instruments to other banks. For example, I ended up with three different xylophones from which I can choose in my sequencer.

Besides making all of the instruments play in the standard octave, I had to balance the levels so they would play at the same volume. I also stripped out the entire SFX percussion bank and all of the other sounds not needed for serious music making like the Bird and Helicopter. This saved about 1.5 MB of sample memory in the file.

Some of the instruments I downloaded were badly looped; others had Wave files that extended beyond the loop end points. Except in special cases, any sound past the loop end is never played and thus wastes memory. So I exported those samples and edited and relooped them in Sound Forge. Further, since saving memory is important, I converted many of the Wave files to a lower sample rate. For example, electric basses don't really need the full 20 KHz. frequency response a 44.1 KHz. sample rate offers. So I resampled them down to 22,050 KHz., which reduced the memory requirement of those instruments by half.

When a Wave file is exported from Vienna to resample or otherwise edit it, the exported file retains the loop points. This feature allowed me to use the superior editing features of Sound Forge to fine-tune the loop points. When I later brought the file back into Vienna, all of the loop information was intact.

Looping Techniques

If you listen carefully to the open A string on a real electric guitar, you'll hear the initial plunk as the note is hit, followed by a slight twang or "wow" sound that continues as it fades out. To squeeze all the sounds needed for a full GM bank into only 2MB, most notes play for only the first half second or so, and then loop (repeat) the last cycle over and over for as long you hold down the key. So while the instrument is recognizable as an electric guitar, it has no ambience and sounds static and artificial. Only by using much more of the original recording--at least a second or two, hopefully longer--can a sample-based synthesizer sound realistic. But the longer a sample extends before looping the more memory it requires, and samples recorded in stereo require twice as much as mono.

There are two main methods for looping. The simpler approach is to play some initial portion of the sample, and then loop a single cycle of the waveform. Figure 1 shows an electric bass Wave file that has been looped this way in Sound Forge's Loop Editor. (Loop editors like the ones in Vienna and Sound Forge can be confusing at first because the left pane shows the ending portion of the Wave file and the right pane shows an earlier region.)

Figure 1
The very last cycle in the Wave file (identified as Sustaining Loop at the top)
is set to repeat for as long as the note sounds.
The bottom window (left) shows the trailing edge of the wave
as it is spliced to the start (right) of the looped region.

The big problem with single-cycle looping is that the instrument loses all of its ambience as soon as it enters the looped region. Further, after resampling to a lower rate, sometimes the ideal loop points no longer fall on exact sample boundaries. This is a problem especially with high notes because the new, sparser, loop points don't encompass exactly one cycle. In this case the note may buzz or become sharp or flat when it enters the looped region.

You can often solve these problems by auditioning the looped region continuously while you move both points one "sample tick" at a time until the buzzing is at a minimum. This preserves the basic frequency of the looped region, while finding the spot where the mismatch in level or change in pitch is at a minimum. If the problem can't be solved, you must go back to the original Wave file and resample at a slightly higher rate and try again. SoundFonts can use any arbitrary sample rate, so you are not limited to the standard rates of 44100, 22050, and 11025.

A much better method for looping is to encompass one or two seconds of the "wow" sound within the loop. This is much harder to do, especially with stereo files where the ideal loop points for one channel are not necessarily ideal for the other channel. Further, if the timbre is not identical where the loop points are spliced you'll, hear a "bang bang" sound rather than a smooth continuation of the note. Note that when looping stereo samples, you must combine the exported Wave files and loop them as a single stereo file. Otherwise the image will shift to the left or right when the samples enter the looped portion.

Audible Improvements

Some of the instruments I downloaded or bought used samples that were recorded in stereo, but most were recorded in mono. Obviously real stereo samples are better, but there are a few tricks you can use to simulate stereo. In fact, these techniques have the advantage of not needing twice as much memory like real stereo samples do. I'll describe two very different methods, but first you need to understand how samples are organized within a SoundFont.

SoundFonts are based on a three-level hierarchy: The original samples are used to define an Instrument, which is where you specify in Vienna the range of notes each sample should play. This is also where you establish the ADSR and filter settings, how much vibrato to apply, and so forth. One or more Instruments are then assigned to a Preset, which is the patch you ultimately select from your sequencer.

One method for creating a fake stereo effect is to assign the same Instrument twice to a single Preset, but with one panned hard left and pitch-shifted 1-5 cents high and the other panned hard right and shifted low by the same amount. The more the pitch is shifted the wider the stereo effect. Although this creates a very effective stereo image--especially with electric pianos and organs--it can also create a problem if the song is played in mono. In that case the instrument may sound as if it were processed through a flanger or Harmonizer.

Another--and I think superior--technique is to assign two different samples to play the same range of notes. If an instrument uses several samples to cover the entire range, simply assign the next adjacent sample to each range in addition to the sample already in use. When you then pan one sample hard left and the other hard right, you are using two different recordings for each note, which gives the illusion of width. (You can also use layering to thicken a patch even when leaving it as mono. For example, a thin string section will become much fatter if you layer the adjacent higher sample because the lowered pitch yields a thicker sound.)

I used this technique to create faux stereo on the Pizzicato 1 patch from the Proteus/2 SoundFont with great success. To my ears it yields a more convincing stereo effect than simply pitch-shifting and panning the same samples, which I also tried. And since the left and right channels are derived from different samples, there will be less of a flanging effect if the entire mix is reduced to mono. This layering method is less effective when the samples are very similar, like an electric piano or bass recorded direct rather than through a microphone. And, of course, it doesn't work at all for instruments that use only one sample for the entire range of notes.

As much as I admire the SoundBlaster Live, the only thing I find less than first rate is the quality of its on-board reverb. Don't get me wrong, it sounds fine when applied to an entire mix, and on sustained instruments like strings and horns. But when you add a lot of reverb to, say, claves or wood blocks, you can hear the familiar boingy sound common to most software plug-in reverbs. In fact, I recorded a Wave file of a very bright clave hit which I use whenever I try out a new reverb plug-in. Nothing reveals a poor reverb algorithm as well as a sharp impulse with a quick decay that gets out of the way so you can hear the reverb tail.

I disabled (set to Zero) the reverb and other effects on the Live card's Environmental Audio control panel. Although this results in a dead sound during mixing, you can always turn it on until you're ready to create the final mix, or add reverb with an external unit. But I simply wait until mixing and add reverb to the final Wave file with Sonic Foundry's excellent Acoustic Mirror reverb plug-in. I often add reverb in two passes: The first applies a small-room ambience to give a sense of "being there," and a second pass adds a more traditional Hall or Plate reverb. For instruments that need a huge wash of reverb, or require a reverb very different from the rest of the mix, they can be recorded dry as audio files and processed separately before or during mixdown.

Using SoundFonts

Once you have created a new GM master bank, you can replace the existing bank using the SoundFont control panel. Simply select the current bank, click the Clear button, then click Load to locate and load the new file. You will also have to click the Options tab to allocate enough memory to hold the new bank. In fact, you should allow more memory than the bank requires if you plan to do further work in Vienna while the bank is loaded.

You can also load multiple banks at one time. From the SoundFont control panel's "Select Bank" list you pick a bank that is marked as Empty, and then load a new SoundFont into that bank. In your sequencer you'll specify the bank number into which you loaded the additional file, and the patch number then selects the instrument(s) within that bank.

Once you have the new SoundFont file loaded, you can easily get at all of the sounds from your sequencer. If you have variations in alternate banks, simply pick the primary instrument, and then specify the bank. Note that the concept of MIDI banks can be confusing. Usually, a bank of instruments implies that a bank is the master group that holds the various instruments within it. But with SoundFonts (and many synthesizers), the General MIDI instrument number is the group, and the other related patches are kept in alternate banks.

Finally, there is the issue of combining MIDI samples played by a sequencer and audio files played in a multitrack recorder. Many programs do both, such as Cakewalk and Cubase, but I still prefer to use a separate sequencer. I have an Opcode Studio 64X MIDI interface with built-in SMPTE capability. So first I create the sequence, and then record it as an audio file into SAWPlus32, with SAW serving as the SMPTE master and my sequencer as the slave. If I decide later to change the MIDI mix, I simply record it again as audio; the SMPTE sync guarantees that the new audio file is aligned properly, even if I have already recorded additional audio tracks.

If you don't have a SMPTE-capable MIDI interface, you can still change the mix later. Just make the changes, record the result as audio again onto a new track, and slide the new track forward or back in time until it lines up visually with the original version. Then you can delete the original Wave file to free up the space on your hard disk.

Striving for New Lows

Mon, 01 May 2000 00:00:00 GMT

Several months ago I was mixing a symphony I had sequenced for a local composer when I noticed the French horns were fuzzy in one channel. It was that unmistakable sound of a bad connection, the kind that goes away when you wiggle the wires. I have a fairly complex setup comprising seven external synthesizers, a computer with dozens of audio programs and two sound cards, a rack full of outboard effects, and a 48-input mixer to combine all the outputs.

The fuzzing horn patch was coming from my Yamaha SY77 synthesizer, so I reached in the back and unplugged and reseated both stereo pairs of phone plugs. The fuzz was still there, so I fiddled with, in turn, the wires from the SY77 to the noise gates, the noise gates to the mixer, and the mixer to the power amp. Nothing helped, and all I could do was ignore it for the time being. By the next day, when I was finishing the mix, the fuzz had disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. But this experience confirmed what I'd long been considering: It was time to abandon my aging gear and start working entirely within the computer.

There are many good reasons to consolidate all recording and mixing--both MIDI and audio--into a single computer. Modern software samplers, audio recording programs, and plug-in effects are very high quality, and computers are finally powerful enough to handle an entire mix in real time. Keeping everything in the computer eliminates all hum and noise caused by ground loops and flaky cables, avoids the hiss inherent in most older outboard gear, and allows complete mixdown recall and automation. And with current computers you can handle 24 or more audio tracks--you don't need to buy three ADATs or an expensive stand-alone hard disk recorder.

Using a computer-based sampler also simplifies patch editing because there's only one operating system to learn. With my seven synthesizers, making even a small change to a patch requires a frustrating trip to the owner's manual and time wasted squinting at a tiny LCD display. Compare that to using a single computer program that presents an attractive interface on a large video monitor. Further, a computer-based sampler is easily upgraded with new sounds, as opposed to the latest must-have hardware synthesizer that must be purchased again and again. Perhaps most important of all, with a computer you can mix directly to a Wave file and burn that to a CD as the final product--without ever leaving the digital domain.

Choosing a Sampler

I already own IQS's excellent SAWPlus32 multitrack recording program, Sound Forge 4.5 for Wave file editing and mastering, a slew of DirectX plug-ins, and the excellent DreamStation software emulation of classic analog synthesizers. All I needed was to play back sampled sounds from my sequencer. I tried several shareware software samplers but found them inadequate, and I rejected the high-end commercial programs because they all use copy protection.

Because I already have a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live card, it was an easy decision to use its built-in sample-playback capability. The SB Live sounds great, it is powerful and inexpensive, and it has one huge advantage over software synthesizers: The sound generation is handled entirely by hardware on the card itself. So there is no latency delay, and there's no load on the computer's CPU or hard drives even when playing a very complex MIDI sequence. Further, the Live card has two complete 16-channel synthesizers, for a total of 32 separate instruments and 256-note polyphony.

Many people wrongly believe that the SoundBlaster Live card is cheesy, based on the puny 2 MB GM sample set installed by default. However, I have done careful listening tests of this sound card and found the fidelity to be excellent. Samples played back by the SB Live are based on Wave files, so whatever quality is in the original recording comes through exactly. You can allocate up to half your system RAM to hold sample banks, offering the potential for truly professional results on a well-endowed computer. My sound card test is described in a separate article on my web site. Also see Pete Leoni's article Is it Live, or is it Sampleblaster? here on ProRec that discusses other aspects of using a SoundBlaster Live card as a sampler.

As a typical project studio owner I don't need 8 or 16 sound card inputs and outputs. I use MIDI to sequence as much as possible of a project, and then overdub live instruments one at a time as mono or stereo audio tracks in SAW. For the occasions when I do need to record more inputs at once, I have a second sound card, a CardD Plus, for a total of four simultaneous channels.

Unless you record entire bands or need to transfer many tracks at one time to an external tape or hard disk recorder, most project studios need only a SoundBlaster Live and possibly one additional sound card. And if you really do need many input and output channels, you can buy a multi-port interface for that and still use a Live card for its sample playback.

SoundFonts

The SoundBlaster Live uses a sample format called SoundFonts. Several SoundFont banks are included when you buy the card, and hundreds more can be downloaded for free on the Internet (see the list of web sites below). Commercial SoundFont libraries are also available, and most cost much less than similar libraries for the "pro" format samplers.

The SB Live comes with 2 MB, 4 MB, and 8 MB General MIDI SoundFont banks. The 2 MB bank is installed by default but, depending on how much of your computer's main memory you are willing to allocate, you can instead load the 4 MB or 8 MB version. Each is progressively better because the instrument notes play for a longer time before looping. But the real action is in 32 MB SoundFonts, and dozens of them are available for download or purchase.

Since I write both pop and classical music, many of the 32 MB SoundFonts I found were of little use to me. I need good strings, oboes, clarinets, and so forth. Most of the large GM banks improve on the pop music instruments only, and contain the same cheesy classical instruments in the SB Live's original 8 MB bank. Indeed, many of the free sounds I found are lame, or merely contain minor variations on the stock sounds that already come with the SB Live. But there were some real gems among all the garbage, and I set out to create my own 32 MB GM SoundFont, based on the best samples I could find.

For less than $100 and about ten hours of download time, I ended up with a collection of sounds that are much better than all of my current hardware synths combined. (Plus I can always record a favorite sound from an existing synth and add it to my master bank.) In fact, I found so many great sounds--harp glisses, ethnic instruments, drum sets, even sound effects--that I created several additional SoundFont banks I can load as needed to access those additional patches. I also bought from the E-mu web site a SoundFont version of their Proteus/2 synthesizer. At only $29 this is a great value compared to what I paid for the hardware version just a few years ago!

Creating a custom SoundFont bank was a huge project that took more than three months to finish. Most of the work was done in Vienna, the SoundFont editor Creative Labs offers for free in the LiveWare Downloads area of their web site. When samples needed to be edited or relooped I used Sound Forge 4.5. But the real effort was auditioning the hundreds of electric basses, clarinets, harps--you name it--and deciding which were best and thus deserved to go in my master file. Along the way I learned a lot about building and editing SoundFonts and looping samples, and that is covered in Part 2 of this article, linked below.

I have not yet found a grand piano SoundFont as good as my Yamaha PFp-100. The stereo Grand Piano in Fluid is the best I have come across so far, and it's noticeably better than the piano patches in most hardware synthesizers. But for now, when I write a tune where the piano is prominent and I need the highest quality possible, I'll simply record my PFp-100 as an audio track.

Table 1: Web sites that offer SoundFonts for free downloading
Hammer Sound	http://www.pvv.org/~thammer/HammerSound/hs_sounds.html
Fluid	http://www.geocities.com/fluidfont/
Personal Copy	http://www.personalcopy.com
Planet AWE	http://www.infinet.com/~teaton/awe32/soundfonts/soundfonts.html
SF Upload	http://plaza19.mbn.or.jp/~sfwire/soundfont.html
The Sound Site	http://thesoundsite.ismi.net/
Up Metal! Studio	http://altern.org/ziokiller/soundfonts.htm

Many of the web sites that offer SoundFont files for downloading use SFPack and/or SFArk. These ZIP-like programs are designed specifically for compressing SF2 files to make them download faster. All of the sites that use these utilities also have links to download them.

Hammer Sound is run by Thomas Hammer, and this is a great site with tons of SF2 files. All of the files are organized by category, and many of the sounds are rated by previous downloaders.

Fluid is a work in progress by Frank Wen, and the site has only the 35 MB Fluid.sf2 file. But this is a very good collection of instruments and it's well worth the download time.

The Personal Copy site is not a huge collection, but according to "JimR," the site's host, "If a SoundFont isn't outstanding, I don't post it."

PlanetAWE offers only a few original files, but it has links to many other free and commercial SoundFont sites.

SFUpload is run by Kyosuke Takahashi, and contains mostly pop instruments as well as some complete drum loops.

The Sound Site is the most comprehensive of all the SoundFont sites I have found. There are several gigabytes of SF2 files you can download for free, and they also offer every file on the site on a four-CD set for $39 postpaid.

The UpMetal! site contains mostly drum files, but there are a few organs and pianos too.

Click here for Part 2, Creating, Editing, and Using SoundFonts

Copy Protection

Sun, 01 Aug 1999 00:00:00 GMT

You won't see software publishers talk about it in their glossy product brochures or on their web sites. I've never seen it listed in an advertisement, and it is rarely mentioned in magazine product reviews. It affects almost everyone who buys software, yet vendors go to great lengths to avoid talking about it. I'm referring, of course, to software copy protection, the audio industry's dirty little secret. Traditionally, copy protection has been more of a burden for Mac than PC users, but I am greatly disturbed by the recent trend of PC programs to start using copy protection too. Let me state up front that I am vigorously opposed to software piracy, and my objections to copy protection are based solely on its negative impact for legitimate users.

Copy protection comes in many forms, and is an attempt by manufacturers to limit the use of their software to people who actually buy it. The simplest form of protection requires you to enter a serial number when the program is first installed. In practice this protects very little, since anyone can lend the installation disks to a friend along with the serial number. All this does is minimize the chance that someone will upload the program to a web site for others to retrieve. Since they'd also have to include the serial number, that number could be used to identify them--assuming they had registered the program. A more severe form of copy protection uses a key disk, which is a floppy disk that cannot be copied and is needed to install the program.

The most punitive protection method uses a device called a dongle that comes with the software and must be attached to the computer's parallel or serial port. If the dongle is not connected, the program detects that and refuses to run. A recent protection trend requires you to phone or email the manufacturer when the program is installed; they give you a special code number to enter, which is needed to install.

There is no doubt that a lot of software--and not just audio software--is illegally copied, and I am not without sympathy for the software companies. In many cases someone buys a program and then "loans" it to a friend who installs it too. In other cases a large company will buy one copy of a program and then install it on 400 computers. Most damaging of all are the misguided losers who buy or borrow a program, and then crack it and upload it to a web site for others to download and use. (Cracking means modifying a program to remove the part that asks for a serial number, or checks for the key disk, or verifies that a dongle is attached to the computer.) Indeed, many people believe that copy protection is a nuisance only for legitimate users because would-be pirates can find cracked versions of many programs on the Internet if they look hard enough.

What's So Bad About Copy Protection?

It would be difficult to condemn copy protection if it protected the publishers without harming the legitimate user. Unfortunately, it usually does harm legitimate users. Some protection schemes interfere with disk optimizers, requiring you to uninstall all of the programs that use such protection each time you defragment your hard disk, and then reinstall them all again after. When I'm working on an audio project I defragment my hard drives daily or even more often, and having to uninstall and reinstall several programs every time would be a terrible nuisance! Admittedly, this is less of a problem today, now that hard disks are cheap and audio files are often kept on a separate drive that can be defragmented independently.

Any copy protection scheme that requires intervention from the publisher has the potential to cause you disaster. Suppose you're working on a project and your hard disk fails. So you go to Staples and buy another, only to find that your Key disk is no longer readable or it reports that you already used up your two allowable installations. Even the seemingly benign method of calling the vendor for an authorization number is a burden if you're working on a weekend and can't reach them on the phone. Or suppose the dongle simply stops working? You're in the middle of a project with a client paying $200 per hour, and you're hosed because even with overnight shipping the new dongle won't arrive until tomorrow.

The ultimate disaster is when the software vendor goes out of business. In that case you can forget about ever getting a replacement dongle or key disk. I have many thousands of hours invested in my music programs. This includes not only the time spent creating my audio tracks, MIDI sequences, and printed scores, but also the time it took to learn these programs. I use Master Tracks and Encore from Passport Designs, which still serve me well after many years. Even though Passport is no longer in existence, my enormous investment is secure because I have safe copies of all the original disks. I have never and will never buy any program that I cannot backup and use without intervention from the publisher for exactly this reason.

Just The Facts, Ma'am

Is copy protection really the best solution? Does every pirated program really reflect lost income? According to the latest figures from the Software & Information Industry Association (formerly the SPA), in 1998 pirated software accounted for $11 billion in lost sales. But this assumes that every pirated program would have been purchased, which clearly is not the case!

Bob Lentini of Innovative Quality Software, maker of the SAW line of multi-track software, is philosophical on the subject: "We don't use copy protection on any of our current products. It has been my experience that in the long run the pirates do not cause as many lost sales as you might expect. Those of the pirate mentality would never have purchased the product anyway if they could not steal it. Many of our customers came to us after running a pirated version for a short time, and then decided that they could not live without the product and wanted to register for access to support and free downloads and other product discounts. Others have purchased after seeing a pirated version running in some other location...free advertising."

Tom Johnson from Coda (Finale) feels similarly: "We have tried a few forms of protection over the years. Currently we have a system that places the moral burden on the software owner. When Finale is loaded onto a hard drive from its CD, it locks to that hard drive. This is invisible to the user but prevents copying the software off the hard drive. However, there is nothing stopping the software owner from giving his or her CD to another individual thereby giving them permission to copy the CD."

SEK'D America (publisher of Samplitude) uses an uncopyable key disk, but it also accepts that piracy exists despite its best efforts. According to Michael Seltzer, "Cracked versions of almost all software exist on the Internet. This seems to be an unstoppable fact of life. Personally, I have no problem registering anyone who calls our office because I feel that in this new world (Internet) the concept of 'marketing through piracy' and 'free pre-release' and 'shareware' versions are appropriate and rather effective. Samplitude has always been a very deep program with many layers of functionality. An owners manual and the support of our Tech team is almost required to learn Samplitude's ocean of features and methods of working. For SEK'D, word of mouth is by far how most people discover Samplitude, and that is much more important to us than big hyped-up print ads. Access to trial and cracked versions, or a friend's version, will often create another Samplitude evangelist, spreading the good word about our products!"

But a more typical response from many software vendors is that without copy protection, not enough people would buy their products for them to stay in business. This is patently false, as evidenced by the strong advertising presence of PG Music and Cakewalk. The last time I checked, Microsoft was doing pretty well too. Further, I would argue that copy protection can even hurt sales. Surely there are many people like me who love the gorgeous screens and integrated audio and MIDI of Cubase and Logic Audio--but buy something else because of the dongle. In that case copy protection translates to lost sales!

Nonetheless, many companies--especially those entering the PC marketplace from the Mac world--defend vigorously their use of copy protection. Steinberg's (Cubase, ReBirth) position is typical, as stated clearly by Costa Kotselas: "Software piracy still is increasing, and we have to protect our sales in order to survive and finance new development. Depending on the product, we use serial numbers, uncopyable key disks, dongles, and CD protection. Sometimes even combinations of two. But we plan to strip down the protection to one scheme for all products to make it more customer friendly."

Sonic Foundry (Sound Forge) has used only serial numbers in the past, but its new Vegas Pro program uses more secure protection. According to Kirstin Beckman, "The software is fully functional but must be registered with Sonic Foundry within seven days of installation or it will time out. To register, a customer can call, e-mail, fax, or write in and request a key code to enter along with their registration number. We allow for multiple installs within reason because we understand that computers go down, or people upgrade and need to re-install their software.

TC Works also requires a phone call but extends the "trial" period to three weeks. After someone put a cracked copy of its Native Reverb on a web site, there were reportedly 30,000 downloads within three days. Says Ralf Schluenzen, "I would personally love to drop copy protection! But having just lived through the Native Reverb trauma, it doesn't seem to be an option." F.A. Preve from NemeSys concurs: "We are a small company that uses every dollar we receive to improve our products and create new technologies. Without legitimate customers, it would be impossible for us to continue to provide cutting-edge technology like GigaSampler."

The most candid and revealing comments came from Todd Souvignier, Marketing Director of Arboretum Systems (Hyperprism, Ray Gun): "We use a serial number only. Like most software companies in the pro audio space, we had lots of experience with copy protection, and we've tried both key disk authorization and dongles. The dongles in particular were a nightmare--they cost upwards of $20 each and have lots of defectives."

Todd continued, "As we're about 75% Mac, when we learned that Apple was eliminating the floppy drive, we saw the writing on the wall, held our breath, and got rid of the key disks and dongles in one fell swoop last fall. Surprise! Our product sales actually increased. Not only that, our tech support calls were cut by two-thirds, and our cost of product manufacture was cut in half. So I'm a serial number-only believer. I hate challenge / response schemes. Making the customer wait upwards of a day or more to run their new purchase is intolerable. Steinberg's 'show me the CD' scheme is just as bad; I had WaveLab time out on me when I was on the road demonstrating with my laptop - .BOGUS!"

The Bottom Line

Personally, I believe the real problem is that much software is grossly overpriced. People want to do the right thing and will gladly pay for a program that meets their needs if they can afford it. When I first saw the DINR noise reduction plug-in on a friend's ProTools rig, I thought it would be great for cleaning up my old LPs and 45s. But I don't restore recordings for a living, and even $400 for DART was more than I could justify. When I saw a magazine review of DCart selling for $59, I called and ordered it on the spot.

Should all audio programs retail for $59? Probably not. But in my opinion, many software companies fail to understand the very market they serve, and should seek a better balance between what they charge and how many copies they hope to sell. It is clear to me that, as computers and music hardware become cheaper by the week, the real growth is happening at the low end. I would much prefer to sell 70,000 copies of a program for $99 than 1,000 copies for $799, but it seems many companies are unable to understand this basic marketing concept. Moreover, the more a company charges for a product, the more irrational and protective they become. I know from my own success as a software company president that the key to making a lot of money is to sell a great product for a great price, and without alienating the very customers you depend on.