social.noyu.me

upsetting all the people who like my general midi content by informing them i am not particularly fond of soundfonts

someday i will rant about this. today is not that day. suffice to say that while CREATIVE® SoundFont® technology is okay at General MIDI and offers some fun creative possibilities, it was never good at GM extensions like Roland's GS and Yamaha's XG, and i love those, so i hate it

that's not an ironic use of the trademark symbol btw. SoundFont® is a registered trademark of Creative Technology. and if you're thinking “hey aren't they the company notable for making sound cards in the 1990's” that's because, yes, this is ancient and obsolete technology

unfortunately (and this is where i go a little nuclear) CREATIVE® SoundFont® was never particularly good. why are we still using this. why has the name become quasi-genericised. surely there are better ways to do libraries of sampled instruments.

god i guess one way to explain it is that it's like if you were really into the moog or something and then people are like “oh yeah i love that! i have a moog synthesiser sample library that all my gamer friends tell me sounds the most realistic”. it's not the same instrument

i can respect a sample library as a legitimate kind of “instrument” in its own right but…

people will pour great amounts of effort into making the “best” SC-55-soundalike CREATIVE® SoundFont® file and it'll take up like a hundred times more disk space than the original ROMs did and not even support adjusting the fucking filter cutoff, so it can't play electronic music

i think the gimmick of “here's a General MIDI sound set that resembles the instrument samples from Super Mario 64's soundtrack” is kinda neat though i suppose. that's a weird way to use CREATIVE® SoundFont® technology but it's a fun one at least

i am a single issue voter in this election and my single issue is that nobody understands general midi. not satisfied with the candidates' answers on this matter

“vice president harris what do you think of the fact that nobody knows what a variation effect is these days. how do you feel about amp simulation”

oops i guess this did turn into a rant. if you want suggestions for what to use instead, well:

• hardware: Roland Sound Canvas, Yamaha MU, or similar
• software: Roland Sound Canvas VA (VST), Yamaha S-YXG50, Nuked SC-55

all more powerful than any soundfont can ever be

@hikari god am I glad Nuked SC-55 exists now.

@hikari between that and the ADLMIDI project I have two wonderful ways to enjoy midi music now.