Hello, I'm new to virtual synths...still fighting the loss of my Roland D-50.  Anyway, I just downloaded Cakewalk's SFZ+ synth.  I am able to insert it into a MC6 project and successfully get the user interface to pop up.  But that is where my success stops.  I don't see that the SFZ+ has anything to generate a sound, so I'm thinking I'm missing a piece of the puzzle.  Can somebody offer some guidance to help me jump start using this device?
 
Thanks!

you have to load in soundfonts.  There are plenty on the web.  load it in and play away.

@

AT, I found a 'valid' soundfont file (SF2 extension).  I see how to load bank files under the VST pulldown, but do not see how to load a soundfont file.  Can I trouble you for one more hint?

patmc007


AT, I found a 'valid' soundfont file (SF2 extension).  I see how to load bank files under the VST pulldown, but do not see how to load a soundfont file.  Can I trouble you for one more hint?

You load a soundfont file by clicking in the box to the right of "File>". If you click in that field it should give you the option to browse to the sf2 file you want to load.  Soundfont files can contain multiple programs, so these are selectable from the "Program>" field below.
Here is some introductory information from the cake site - http://www.cakewalk.com/products/SFZ/default.aspx

Brando, thanks for taking the time...it works great.  Even found a sound font that has some of my old favorite Roland D-50 sounds!!

Ok, I'm hoping one more lesson and I'll be proficient enough with this SFZ+ synth.  I've successfully loaded a sound font and assigned the synth to a midi track.  I am choosing the Staccato Heaven patch (D-50 sound library).  This patch is the second 'program'.  So, when I start the track, the program resets to the first patch on the list.  I'm used to this in other midi devices, but I can't figure out how to control it with the SFZ+ synth.  I can work around this by setting the program I want in the SFZ+ first, then in the track settings, set channel to 1:sfz+, Bank to 0-bank 0 and Patch to none.  This appears to send no program change message as the SFZ+ stays on whatever patch I set then.  But does anybody know how to better manage the patch settings and dictating which one should play?

Thanks! 

I used to use SFZ  and probably still have it on the DAW somewhere.

The whole sound font thing was a bit confusing to me, even after having done it....(adding some new ones)  several different times.  Some of the confusion came from the fact that not all the sound fonts actually worked properly. More than one time, I downloaded a font, unzipped it and installed it and it refused to work. So it was for me a hit and miss issue. Most did work and sounded OK. 

There were, at the time, at least 2 different formats and they both used different unpackers to install the fonts correctly. 

I had quite a collection of fonts on my lappy at one time.  However, when I built my DAW I decided to switch to all sampled sounds and left the font based synths behind.  To my ears, the samples generally just sounded better.... more realistic, than the fonts. 


HOWEVER... the main reason for popping in on this was to tell you that on my website, click on LINKS and the 4th and 5th links down are to websites with FREE sound fonts and I just checked and they are still active sites. I managed to pick up some nice ones there. 

Thanks GH, I will check out your links.  I just recently discovered soundfonts and like that Cakewalks has a free utility to let us use them.  And the draw for me is one particular patch from the old Roland D-50 synth.  Since it seems we will never see a new softsynth of the old D50 sounds, this sound font is my only salvation, and I have to say, the programmer nailed the font perfectly!  So, I suppose the lesson is to not get so attached to soundfonts, but to use the ones I want, I'll have to stick to the work around I had described in a previous post.

thanks again!