Symphonic Sounds

• Nov 26, 2018 - 22:53

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6l45bsv92ohxxi5/Symphonic%20Sounds.sf2?dl=0

Just FYI, I've updated it. Laura's clarinet is good for 2nd parts - it is at least a real clarinet, even if I didn't know how to soundfont or microphone when I made it. It is not looped, and on one note - a concert f4, I think, second line g for Bb clarinet, I ended it...lazily. One of the mistakes I made was trying to do everything fff. Another was not doing proper fff up top - I don't live alone, and I do not recommend playing altissimo as loud as you can outside of wagner, marching band, a for-real fff tutti, or a very soundproof room. So, fff is not... a beautiful tone friendly volume, but you do get a properly chunky low register, which makes it awesome for second clarinet. Eventually I'll add another velocity layer, or just remake it entirely.

Some of the brass is more looped - the trombone is something of a nightmare to loop. I've merged the solo strings into the section sounds to give them a bit more of a characteristic timbre.
Added:
Laura's Clarinet
Male Choir
Female Choir
Glockenspiel
Xylophone
3 Celli Soli - not sure if this was added earlier

Some visual advice for an accurate balance - I cannot for the life of me increase the volume on the bass trombone, or I would, so start by turning that all the way up. If you lack low brass, turn timpani all the way up, and Contrabassi. Visual advice is for the large full orchestra, though it works well when you remove instruments.

And my current drumset. A lot of instruments have multiple sounds, but the same looking notes.

Edit: Speaking of Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy, here's the update playing Tchaikovsky's Pas de Deux with it's two variations, Tarantella and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and coda. Pas De Deux has full tutti FFFF at 2:59, so you can hear what the visual aid balance results in: https://musescore.com/user/194052/scores/5313590
Just in case you don't believe me about the trumpet. Honestly, I should probably knock the piccolo down a little too.

upperwoodwindsmixer.png

I might... really like contrabassoon. Also, the lower instruments need more volume.

HornsTrumpets.png

No, I don't have a whip. I looked, didn't find one, used a castanet instead.

LowBrassPercussion.png

I know the celesta is surprising, I checked it on the Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy. Side note, Musescore auto transposes and the celesta is already transposed. So if it's not playing right, staff properties-> Transpose written pitches to sound, change it to a zero. Same for the Glockenspiel. No octave transpositions required.

PluckedViolins.png
Edit: Made me realize I hadn't switched the Xylo to it's actual instrument, lol

Lowstrings.png

Attachment Size
hope.drm 4.77 KB

Comments

• Nov 30, 2018 - 19:18

Cool! Was there a fix for when all of the instruments plays and it is so loud that noises happens (i used your sf on the throne room by john williams :) ill update my score to have the sf included for example)

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• Nov 30, 2018 - 19:25

That's not a soundfonts problem, that's a synthesis problem. Open the synthesizer. See the volume control with the green to red bar next to it? That's gain control. The bar next to it shows how loud your score is.

What you want to do is go to just before the loudest part of your score. Play it while looking at the synth. Turn down the slider until the bar is not knocking into the red - but only just, you want it as loud as possible.

Save to default, enjoy a crackle free score.

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• Nov 30, 2018 - 20:50

It's entirely possible that the other sf2 is quieter overall. I know Timbres of Heaven is incredibly loud. But either way, snap crackle pops at high volume are a result of clipping, and really, I think the gain should be auto-limited so it doesn't do that. What I told you do was just adjusting it manually, so there aren't any artifacts.

There's at least one other thread on it if you want to read - https://musescore.org/en/node/232376

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• Dec 16, 2018 - 00:59

@Laurelin
I see. Searching all day for a solution. Lengthy ensemble pieces have ff passages clipped while trying to make them louder than those mp. I guess its the same as analogue stereo days: watch the gain control.
I thought, too, about tinkering with the compressor, to increase the variance between p and f.

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• Dec 5, 2018 - 22:45

Tympani SSO should be separated 8nto diffrrent presets for convenience and the rolls should be looped. The philharmonia orchestra has a whip on their free samples webpage that you can use. The angelic clarinet would be a nice addition. Would it not be easier to adjust the volume, pan, and reverb in polyphone once rather than in musescore for every score?

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• Dec 12, 2018 - 01:46

What's polyphone? And people put different sections in different spots for different scores - usually I put Cellos next to Contrabasses, but sometimes I'm putting Cellos where First Violins go. I also tend to change volume balance according to score.

If I put Tympani into different presets, I'd have more trouble using it - I'll go for invisible third voice most of the time now. You'd have to use instrument change, or maybe start with a violin and switch it to timpani for multiple channels. I think that would be okay, especially with MS3. But... there's no way to notate tremolo without actually playing it. Rolls on the sf need to be long held notes - not tremolo. You'd be forced to use trills.

I looked into looping the rolls, and found it... very difficult. I might actually be able to do it now, though - I fixed the clicking on some of the Oboe SSO loops yesterday!

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• Dec 12, 2018 - 03:05

Why start with violin? Would it not be easier to just edit the instruments.xml file to get something like this: instruments.xml ? Polyphone is an sf2 editor. You can use tremolo from the symbols pallet but I just use invisible trill lines and disable playback. One other thing: the crotales play 2 octaves higher than they should. Also an easy fix, just use an instrument transposition of -24 semitones and change the preset range.

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• Dec 12, 2018 - 03:28

I don't use crotales much, but I can fix that easily in the sf2 itself. I used ithem in Rite of Spring a long time ago - I don't remember anything about pitch problems.

I don't assume the ability, confidence, or knowledge. to edit instruments.xml in a normal user.

I use Viena, as it's free.

Tremolo from symbols still plays, afaik. If you're using invisible trill lines, how are you notating it to let the player know to roll?
Usually, I do this:
usualtimp.png
Occasionally, this:
raretimp.png

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• Jan 14, 2019 - 23:30

Thanks so much for all your hard work on this! I especially love the UoI French Horn because the sample is very high quality.

The score in which I am using it has a very low tempo for which semibreve notes loop over the horn's 2 second sample length which has a noticeable silence in between loops. Can you please fix for a seamless loop?

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• Jan 11, 2020 - 00:51

for some notes the first violins sound insanely out of tune, also in my opinion you can hear individuals stick out in the first violins; they almost sound like solo parts.

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• Jun 19, 2020 - 06:05

Hi! I love this soundfont but I'm having troubles with the cymbal rolls. They only last one or two measures. Is there any way to have a sustained roll lasting a couple of measures? Thanks!

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• Sep 26, 2021 - 10:39

Good day everyone. Thank you so much for the work you have been doing on Symphonic Sounds. Have you considered creating a page for your soundfonts under https://musescore.org/en/tutorials ? (For background, I I created pages for Accordion playback and notation (my own content) and Wind instrument fingering (basically links to various plugins). That way people have one place to check instructions, FAQ, issues/workarounds. A current search for Symphonic Sounds Musescore produces hits to multiple forum posts.

(I have cross-posted this to the two main posts I could find on Symphonic sounds.)

There is also the Howto section, https://musescore.org/en/howto (which contains a summary field), but I decided to put my pages under tutorials because it provides a cleaner layout, has more information (author, created, last updated, which version it applies to).

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• Mar 12, 2022 - 16:41

Hey, can I ask something about the soundfont? My only problem with it is that when I try to use tie to two notes at some instruments (for example trombones and trumpets tying two whole notes on a 70 bpm piece) they seem to stop after completing a measure and a half. Instruments like the clarinet or the flute don't have this issue. What's wrong?

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• May 20, 2022 - 23:28

I know this is a kind of old thread, but I just recently downloaded this soundfont, and it is in the synth, but the only thing it does (to the strings anyways) is make the violins sound like horns and the viola and cello won't sound at all. This is if I have this sound font at the top of the list in the synth, but if I put the default soundfont at the top it had no change. Do I need to like increase the volume of the symphonic sounds soundfont in the mixer or what? Thanks.

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