Calehay

I'm no expert at this, but I did a few demos of things in the past. Very low quality mind-you, but something at least usable.

To help the quality of Step 2, you must get some good soundfonts, and a few effects as well. While my recordings sound far from real with synthfont, they sound much better than the regular MIDI sounds we all know and love.

For soundfonts, I use these, all of which are free downloadables (though you may have to search for them!)

Florestan Woodwinds (Avoid the Flute and the Clarinet. Only use the Oboe (excellent for something free.) the Bassoon, and the piccolo.)

At the moment, I'm using Unison for Clarinet (AVOID IT'S FLUTE! It is horribly, horribly out of tune.)

For Flutes, I am using either sinfonia36 or Papelmedia's flute. Neither or which are great, but serviceable.

I have yet to find an English Horn (or a good English Horn, should I say.)

For Brass:

Florestan French Horns (You can also use Unisons French Horns, which sound like they already have reverb on them, but I suggest these because they sound more organic.)

JL_Trumpet for Trumpet. It might be a little jazzy sounding, but it still works well in a classical setting.

JL_Trombone for Trombone. Again, it's a little jazzy sounding, but it can work in classical music.

I haven't looked for a Flugelhorn, so I couldn't advise on that.

For Harp:

I suggest Clavinova Harp. With effects, it can sound great.

For Piano:

Most definitely NS_Piano. It is superb. It has a key release sound and everything, and you can also program into your midi pedal sounds. Very cool soundfont.

For Percussion:

Unison, hands down. There are so many styles of drum kits on it. However, if you want an orchestral bass drum, you'll have to do some searching.

For Strings:

Here's where nearly every type of sampler has problems. Good String patches are few in number, great virtually unheard of. Now, I may be biased because I spend so much of my time around a real orchestra, but there is no soundfont that I have ever found to emulate strings well. However, I can rank some in order of what I think are best.

1. Cuerdas ( A little biting attack. You may make one that doesn't bite so much.)
1.5 RolandViennaStrings (Some things are better suited for it, so I switch.)
2. Florestan Strings (Though 2 and 3 are pretty neck and neck to me.)
3. Kurz Strings (needs a lot of effects to work.)
4. Super DXS Orchestra (definitely not my favorite. It's really loud as a negative as well, though that's easily fixed, just an annoyance.

For solo strings... Good Luck. I have a few, but I wouldn't suggest them.

Now, most of these may not be worth much of anything without effects to give your "performance" that extra zing. Here's what I use:

DaSample's GlaceVerb. It's a reverb vst plugin. I use it in individual instrument families first (aviod wet reverb if you do this first. You can add a small bit in your final mix.) and create a final overall reverb. Think of it as the instruments natural reverb, then the halls reverb. If you need help with learning how to use these things in SynthFont, just ask me.

Aneostrophic Room Simulator (spelling is wrong, I know. I'll try to post it when I get back to my old computer.) This adds a nice little ring to your sound, and makes it sound like a room.

H20: Saturation. This is where I'm sure to be disagreed with, but it has at this point and time in my ears felt that if a small amount of saturation is placed upon the string sections, it makes it sound more like a string section. I feel this might be due to the various sounds of a string orchestra from individual players is not as cut and dried as some people that make string samples think.

I use a gater for Harp and sometimes Piano, but only when I feel it is necessary. Some things I feel don't need it while others do.



Now, onto Step 1. When sequencing your MIDI, be sure to use dynamics (and I mean to the teeth.) Since you can't control the dynamics in SynthFont, you are going to have to program your phrasing and whatnot into the MIDI before you put it in SynthFont. Otherwise, your final product may sound a bit like oatmeal, a little plain.

In Step 3, my recordings differed from yours, because since they were just demo recordings, I didn't find any need to use any effects, but I suggest you pick up Audacity. You can use alot of the same effects from SynthFont on your voice.

As for the microphone, again, I wasn't so worried about quality, so I merely had the sound low while I recorded. Another solution might be using headphones while listening to the track. Now, I believe that Audacity allows for you to record a track while another track is playing. I was using WavePad at the time (Which might have it as well, but I'm not sure.) and I decided to use the Line Out recording option to record the playing sound file and the sound from the microphone to the soundfile. Whatever you do, I don't suggest recording the voice without being able to sync it up with the music in real time. You may try to do it afterwards, but it's rare that you'll be able to get it just right.

Well here, you have it, my little guide to makeshift recordings. Tell me if there's something you don't understand, or something you think would work better. I'm still learning this stuff as well.


Good Luck with your recordings!