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[McCoy]

Well guys, this is related to music but not to game creation, anyway, maybe it fits better here than in general discussion.

For this new year's eve party, I'm planning to bring my computer to the building where the party is, and use it as a karaoke machine with vanBasco's Karaoke Player (a great freeware karaoke program BTW). Well maybe not everybody knows: karaoke files has usually the .kar extension, but they're nothing more than MIDI files with an attached lyric with its "flow".

But everybody knows the problem with MIDIs... Ok, they don't take up almost any space, but they tend to suck when it comes to listen to them. That's why I want to get better quality, but I don't know if I should use a good SoundFont (I have SBLive! so no problem), or maybe a Software Synthetiser.

About SoundFonts, right now I have the original 2MB, 4MB and 8MB SoundFonts that came with the sound card, and I've downloaded the Merlin GM V3.6, and the TimGM6mb. Right now I think that  the Merlin is the one that sounds best, but I'm still not much satisfied with its quality. What's the best (free) GeneralMidi complete and compliant SoundFont? (Jerrot maybe you could help me here...  ). Or wich SF combinations should I use? (Like,"this one for brass sounds", "this other one for guitars", "this for drumkits", etc cetera...)

And about SoftSynths, I've downloaded WinGroove, but I don't know why, it simply doesn't work in my system (I even get BSODs), Roland VST-88 (wich doesn't work under XP -_-U), and Yamaha SoftSynthetiser S-YXG50, wich works fairly good, and I think it shows more quality than the SoundFonts I have.

So my real final question is: What should I use to get the best quality when playing MIDI files, a good SoundFont (and I would greatly appreciate if you tell me wich one, I don't mind the size [plenty of RAM  ]), or a good SoftSynth (and the same, with is the best one and blahblahblah, I don't mind if it's free or not, just a trial version is OK).


Well, thank you everyone, and have a happy christmas and new year!!  

[Jerrot]

Well guys, this is related to music but not to game creation, anyway, maybe it fits better here than in general discussion.

I'd think it's quite interesting anyway.

Right now I think that  the Merlin is the one that sounds best, but I'm still not much satisfied with its quality. What's the best (free) GeneralMidi complete and compliant SoundFont? (Jerrot maybe you could help me here...  ). Or wich SF combinations should I use? (Like,"this one for brass sounds", "this other one for guitars", "this for drumkits", etc cetera...)

Hard job... I never use complete banks, from time to time I just import some instruments for minor important parts. But for SoundFonts, the latest Merlin Bank is a quite good choice, I couldn't recommend a better (free) one. In earlier days I used the Xioad Bank (64MB), but I guess you don't have to try this one for your purpose. And finally - I never use SoundFonts just by playing them as they are, so SoftSynths are the better choice in my opinion.

And about SoftSynths, I've downloaded WinGroove, but I don't know why, it simply doesn't work in my system (I even get BSODs), Roland VST-88 (wich doesn't work under XP -_-U), and Yamaha SoftSynthetiser S-YXG50, wich works fairly good, and I think it shows more quality than the SoundFonts I have.

Hm, I don't know the first two, but the S-YXG50 is still installed on my system (it was freeware some time ago, did you know ? Maybe you can download a older but free version somewhere) - and it's awesome for playing some pure MIDI files. I can't compare to other SoftSynths though, but this one really does a good job, since it even supports all the reverb signals, etc. !

I've got a SB Live! too, but my default MIDI Synth device is the Yamaha, and in my opinion it beats the Merlin SoundFonts by far. Well - it depends on the music style of course.

Not too helpful maybe, but obviously you already collected good information.

[McCoy]

Well, thank you Jerrot, then I think I'll use the Yamaha SoftSynth for the songs (in fact that's what I've been doing since I downloaded it  ). I think it has the best quality too, even if there's some sounds that the merlin one plays better (Like distorted and overdrived guitars... ), but I think that the general quality is better, and if you think that too, then I'm completely sure!

Again, thank you!