Getting better sounds inexpensively

[Sherry C]

Howdy,

Originally Posted by fremowolf

So if you would write a little booklet (online and expandable over time) on "what to do" about sounds - every single step in the "monkey see - monkey do" way, this would be helpful for both sides, since if something does not work, the users could tell you exactly at what point they encountered a difficulty. All general advice leaves the incompetent reader helpless with "what does Sherry speak of here ?". If readers got encouraged by some simple success ("ah, now I hear the new sound for the first time !"), the next steps will be easy.

Alas, I wish it were that easy Part of the problem lies in the "this sound setup does all the same steps as that one except these two steps here." In the Help/Users Guide we have tried to cover a lot, but no two system configurations will all be exactly the same. Different operating systems, different sound cards or other sound devices, and the various combinations thereof, keep us on our toes for helping folks get it to all work together. I'm learning something new every day The Users Guide does cover step-by-step for all the Windows and Musician/Composer parts, but there is simply no way we could cover everyone's set up in a step-by-step fashion. That's one reason we have the Users Forum here so folks can help each other out for the various devices that are in use.

So assume that I have MidiNotate available, and a soundcard with a GM bank too, and I want to tell my soundcard how to use new soundfonts in the *.wav-format. Where should I put the soundfonts so that the card can find and use them ? This is what I call the "monkey see - monkey do" way.

Only some soundcards by a few makers will load soundfonts. If you have such a soundcard, you should be able to find the Soundfont Manager within the program folder for your soundcard. For example, if you have a SoundBlaster card that is capable of loading soundfonts, then you should be able to:

1. Click the "Start" button in the lower left of Windows
2. Select "All programs"
3. Find the "Creative" folder,
4. Find the "Soundfont manager" within that folder.

In the Soundfont Manager will be some method for "loading banks". At that point, you navigate to where you have your soundfonts stored (I keep mine in a separate folder, where I've now (finally) got them categorized) and load the soundfont you want in that particular bank.

I no longer have the old SoundBlaster Audigy 2 installed in my machine, so I can't give a 1-2-3 step sequence here for that, unfortunately.

Maybe someone else has one active, though, and could do that?

ttfn,
Sherry