You will find here .sf2 soundfonts of the following types:
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V
2.0 (Type A1) preset 026 | ||
The story: As long as I've been looking for soundfonts I never found a JazzGuitar soundfont that sounded like a REAL Jazz Guitar! It seemed to me that all available fonts are simple guitar fonts (recorded with solid body guitars) with less high frequencies. The typical depth, the mellow tone and the long sustain - that means the character of an archtop guitar was never reached. The Gibson L-5 is called the "Queen of Jazz Guitars" and the typical Gibson sound is only achieved with this kind of guitar. The first L-5 was introduced in 1923, had no cut-away and was of course not electric at that time. The most known type today is the L-5 CES ( C=cut away, E=electric, S=spanish). Many famous Jazz guitarists use the L-5, amongst them my favourite player Wes Montgomery, Mark Whitfield, Peter Leitch and many others. Since I'm the proud owner of a vintage Gibson L-5 CES-N (built 1969/70 - N is for "natural") I thought that it would be nice to get this sound not only when I play on my guitar but also when I play midi files! So I took my guitar (with an old set of heavy gauge strings on it - LaBella 20 PH), plugged it directly into the soundcard of my PC (a Soundblaster Live), spent several hours (days?) with recording, sampling, listening, filtering, looping, adjusting and produced a lot of SF2-files. One that I was satisfied with is presented here. It's a small sf2-file called jAzZgUiTaR with a size of only 462 KB and contains 3 samples of my guitar (the light version has even less: 111 KB/1 sample). It can either be loaded temporarily into the midi banks of your wavetable sound card or you can make it permanent by importing it into your favourite sound bank (with Vienna for example). The jAzZgUiTaR - Soundfont uses bank 0 preset 026 (as usual for "Jazz Guitar"). First listen to the Midis
"Stella By Starlight" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Sushi"
as you usually hear it with your present settings (click
the titles) ... ...
then listen to the following MP3-demos
(recorded from midis with my SB Live and a modified Chaos Sound Bank with 96 kbps
and 44100 Mhz/Stereo) which give you an impression of how the new guitar soundfont
works - and compare it! If you hear a significant difference
(I'm sure you will),
2.0 - It sounds a little
bit more | ||
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mUtEd tRuMpEt | V
1.0 (Type B) preset 059 | |||
Another instrument I wasn't satisfied with is the Muted Trumpet - used by Miles Davis for example. So I looked for some wav-samples in the net and made this soundfont. | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
mUtEd
tRuMpEt-Soundfont (Version 1.0, 488 KB) |
tRoMbOnE | V
1.0 (Type C) preset 057 | |||
This is originally a soundfont I found in the net but it was twice as big before and sounded a little bit dirty - so I fixed that (shortened samples, new loopings, other adjustments). | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
tRoMbOnE-Soundfont
(877 KB) |
FLuTe | V
1.3 (Type C) preset 073 | |||
This
font already sounded very natural, but the envelopes of the samples were not suitable
for fast playing, so I edited the samples, set new loopings and made other adjustments. | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
FLuTe-Soundfont
(378 KB) |
TrUmPeT | V
1.0 (Type C) preset 056 | |||
The samples for this trumpet font were good recorded but it sounded much too wet and was only usable for some few midis. So I had to edit all samples, made new loops and the result is a trumpet that has individuality. | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
TrUmPeT-Soundfont
(496 KB) |
BrAsS | V
1.0 (Type D) preset 061 | |||
This
is the best Brass soundfont I could find - you will be satisfied with it! | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
BrAsS-Soundfont
(898 KB) |
TeNoRsAx | V
1.0 (Type A2) preset 066 | |||
Don't you also think that the Tenor soundfonts you can get in the net sound like everything else, but not as a real Tenor Sax - although it's the main instrument in Jazz? So I tried to change that - I looked for a nice and clear saxophone phrase, splitted the notes and experimented a lot with samples, loops and many special adjustments. Finally - after some months - I finished the work on the TeNoRsAx soundfont and here is the result: A realistic sound that can be used for
slow and breathy saxes as well as for fast playing ! | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
TeNoRsAx-Soundfont
(243 KB) |
aCoUsTiCbAsS | V
1.0 (Type C) preset 032 | |||
Here is a very small bass soundfont that I edited with the purpose to let it sound with more depth and a little bit heavier. | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your (listen to the bass solo at the end) | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
aCoUsTiCbAsS-Soundfont
(25,4 KB) |
CoNtRaBaSs | V
1.1 (Type C) preset 043 | |||
It's rare in midifiles that you hear a fiddled acoustic bass - but if it happens (mostly as bass solo parts) it should sound good! I found a nice classical contrabass soundfont in the net but it was a big one, so I made it smaller by leaving out some samples and shortening the rest of them. The envelopes had also to be changed a lot due to the faster playing in Jazz. Version 1.1: altered settings due to a problem that came up after installing new SBLive! drivers. | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
CoNtRaBaSs-Soundfont
(129 KB) |
7 gUiTaRs | (Type
C/D) |
Here I present all the other guitar sounds I have in my soundbank (beside the jaZzGuItAr). | ||||
|
HaRmOnIcA | V
1.1 (Type C) preset 022 | |||
Version
1: The original I had in my bank sounded very good already, but was to big ... | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
HaRmOnIcA-Soundfont
(734 KB) |
NyLoNgUiTaR2 | V
2.1 (Type B/C) preset 024 | |||
This
is a new soundfont (not an edited one from above). It sounds very natural compared
to other nylon guitar fonts. The Original was too big and needed some adjustments
(tuning) too. | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
NyLoNgUiTaR2-Soundfont
(640 KB) |
StEeLgUiTaR2 | V
1.1 (Type B/C) preset 025 | |||
Also
a new one ! Bill Williams sent me a font that already sounded very good and I
completed the work by some fine tuning (thanks Bill!). | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
StEeLgUiTaR2-Soundfont
(328 KB) |
SoPrAnOsAx | V
1.0 (Type C) preset 064 | |||
Here
is a nice soprano sax that sounds very typical (edited for better use with jazz
midis). | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
SoPrAnOsAx-Soundfont
(814 KB) |
aLtOsAx | V
1.0 (Type A2) preset 065 | |||
I
wasn't satisfied with my old alto sax soundfont and was glad to find good recorded
samples - after some work here is the result: another realistic soundfont from
TheJazzPage | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
aLtOsAx-Soundfont
(432 KB) |
V
1.0 (Type B) preset 067 | ||||
Again
a sax-soundfont - the family is complete now ... | ||||
Compare: | ||||
Play
the Midi with your | Play
the MP3 demo | |||
bArItOneSAx-Soundfont
(248 KB) |
GM Patches - Listen how midi instruments sound with your soundcard
Click here if you want to know how to install soundfonts ... (external link)
Do
you have other realistic soundfonts
for Jazz midis that should be presented
here ?
Please send it to me via E-Mail!