Questions about VSTSynthFont

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John Reimer
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Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:29 pm

Questions about VSTSynthFont

Post by John Reimer »

Kenneth,

Some years ago I began to investigate the use of VSTSynthFont with jOrgan. jOrgan is really a MIDI processor and still requires the use of some suitable sound engine into which an .sf2 file has been loaded. For convenience, Fluidsynth is bundled with the jOrgan download these days, but its use is not mandatory.

A typical organ soundfont may contain up to 100 or more presets, and these presets may each consist of two or more instruments. Organists require that often quite a large number of presets should sound at the same time. I had the impression years ago that VSTSynthFont was limited to sounding only 16 presets at the one time, although there was no particular limit to how many presets could be accommodated.

1. Is VSTSynthFont limited in this way?
2. Is there a help file or other documentation to assist users in making optimum use of its features?

John Reimer
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Re: Questions about VSTSynthFont

Post by Admin »

John,
Sorry that I have not seen this question of yours until now. The answer is: VSTSynthFont is limited to the MIDI standard of a maximum of 16 channels, which means that only 16 different presets can play at the same time. In theory VSTSynthFont could offer more than one input node, and each node could have 16 independent sounds. On a VST host you easily get around this problem by using multiple instances of the VST instrument. Each instanced has its own set of 16 channels/presets. So, if jOrgan supports multiple instances you are set!

Question related to this: you may have 100 presets, yes; any GM SoundFont contains at least 128 melodic presets and one percussion set. Naturally you cannot play more than 16 of these together at one time, but you can of course make use of MIDI program changes at any time during the playback so that you can quickly switch from Preset A to Preset B for a particular MIDI channel. This "extended multitimbral" mode is often used in MIDI files.
John Reimer
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:29 pm

Re: Questions about VSTSynthFont

Post by John Reimer »

Kenneth,
Thank you. I actually got pragmatic and tried it out, and of course this confirmed what I recalled from my earlier use of VSTSynthFont. Fortunately jOrgan does allow for multiple instances, and so there is no real problem. And changing from one preset to another represents normal use, and so presents no problem unless one is trying to exceed the permitted number of presets.

John Reimer
John Reimer
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:29 pm

Re: Questions about VSTSynthFont

Post by John Reimer »

Kenneth,

Another question. What sort of limit is there on the size of soundfonts when used with VSTSynthFont?

John Reimer
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Re: Questions about VSTSynthFont

Post by Admin »

The size limit is related to the size of samples - each sample must be less than 2 GB. The SoundFont itself can be much larger.
John Reimer
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:29 pm

Re: Questions about VSTSynthFont

Post by John Reimer »

Kenneth,

My question is related to the total of all the samples and any "overhead" content. jOrgan people think that Fluidsynth has a limit of 600 MB. Is there a ball-park figure for what total size we should not exceed when using VSTSynthFont? Does this figure reduce if a number of instances are in use at the same time?

John Reimer
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Re: Questions about VSTSynthFont

Post by Admin »

As it looks now - with a minor bug in the latest version - the size limitations is 2 GB. I guess that when/if I get this fixed the SoundFont size limit ought to be 4GB.

Update: just made a test with the fixed version successfully reading and using a 3.30 GB SoundFont.

(This same bug is also found in my stand-alone MIDI port player SyFonOne.)
John Reimer
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:29 pm

Re: Questions about VSTSynthFont

Post by John Reimer »

Thank you, Kenneth.

John Reimer
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