MrManTheIII

NEW UPDATE!!! - NEW INSTRUMENTS AND STEREO EFFECT CHANGES Hey there again! I took a short break from this soundfont because I was getting burned out from working on it so much. I was planning on doing a huge update where I add in a bunch of new instruments, but they take forever to make and even longer to make them sound good. Still, I got a pretty good selection of new instruments done in this update. I'm happy with how they turned out, but I feel like the size of the soundfont is starting to become a issue. Yea, I did say this was a "no compromises soundfont", but I also don't want it to be ridiculously huge. I'm not exactly the best at keeping things tight and nicely optimized, so if this soundfont becomes bigger in future updates, I'm sorry! A more noticeable change is how instruments are played back in stereo. Before, I had set every instrument to have the maximum amount of stereo separation allowed. This means that for each instrument, left samples will only play on the left and right samples will only play on the right. Though it makes sense in theory to have both samples playing on their respective sides, it ends up causing instruments to sound super far away or worse, sounding like they're inside your head. In this update, I changed it so that left samples and right samples will have some crossover with their opposite side, which is closer to how you hear things in real life. Now, instruments sound like their part of a stage, with each instrument having their own spot on that stage, instead of just blending together into one big blob. I feel like some of the changes will be a bit controversial so I would really like to hear your guy's opinions on them. As always, the download and samples have been updated.

Added the changelog to the download!

NEW UPDATE - NEW DRUM KIT!!! (AND MANY OTHER CHANGES)!!! When I first started working on this update, I was planning on just focusing on fixing all the minor issues of the soundfont. After some time though, I began to look into some VSTs and decided that I wanted to start sampling them again. I lost interest in VSTs a while ago because how boring and time consuming they are to sample. But now that I am more familiar with Polyphone (the soundfont editing program I am using) and am using a simpler DAW (SoundBridge), sampling has become easier (still takes a long ass time though). The first instrument I sampled was the Dulcimer because the VST I found sounded really good and the old instrument in the soundfont kind of sucks. That turned out really good, though I haven't actually found a MIDI that uses it. After that, I wanted to tackle something more ambitious and focused my attention on the Standard Drum Kit. The old version was fine, but I was not happy with how kind of flabby sounding it all was. With this new version, snares and kicks are punchier, toms are more impactful, and rides and cymbals cut through the mix cleaner. It sounds pretty different from the old drum kit, but I hope you guys can agree it sounds a lot better! The download like has been updated with the new version along with its samples. Go give them a listen and see the difference for yourself!

NEW UPDATE - TIMING, REVERB, AND CHORUS CHANGES!!! You know how I said that I would update this soundfont if things don't sound as they should? Well, I have been using this some more and realized that the attack and release times for every instrument were slightly off. This means that sounds would fade in and out at different amounts of time compared to what was intended by the midi's composer. I fixed this by copying the attack and release values from the windows default soundfont, which most midi songs were designed for. Now instruments behave similar to the Roland SC-55, meaning midis should play as intended. I also removed the forced reverb and chorus effects from every instrument. Before, each instrument's values were for reverb and chorus were set at 50%, like how it is on Trevor0402's SC-55 Soundfont. Although those settings sound good on their soundfont, it made mine sound all bloated and muffled. Removing the effects, instruments sound a lot cleaner and the mix as a whole feels more spacious. I also replaced some of the instruments I didn't like, but you guys probably wouldn't hear those new instruments in DOOM. (I assume your using this for DOOM, just a wild guess (: ). As always, the download link, samples, and change log have been updated!

NEW UPDATE - EVEN MORE BALANCING!!! I've always had a problem with this soundfont and that everything was WAY too loud. I just assumed that because the instruments are denser and higher quality, they just sounded louder. Yea, turns out it's just because the mixing wasn't good... AGAIN. This time when remixing however, I used the Windows Default Soundfont and an actual volume meter to rebalance everything. It turned out MUCH better than I expected. Everything song should sound as they should now! (With probably a few differences, but hey -- that's what more updates are for!) I've updated the download link as well as the samples. (The samples have a much more noticeable difference. Duke Nukem and Rise of the Triad are actually LISTENABLE now!)

NEW UPDATE - BETTER GUITAR LOW NOTES!!! Decided to update this again. It was annoying how the distortion guitar gets a separate instrument for bass notes while the overdrive guitar doesn't, so I decided to add one. I basically just copied the bass guitar from the distortion guitar preset and changed a few settings to make it sound more cohesive. I also changed some settings for the distortion guitar in the same way. The file is now called "Stolen Soundfont v2.02" because I want to be more transparent about my updates. "Stolen Soundfont v2.01" was the stealth update I announced in the last post (I replaced the glockenspiel and banjo, in case you were wondering) but didn't change the name. I was hesitant to use decimals in my version numbers because I think they are annoying, but I realized I should probably use them if I'm gonna keep doing small updates like this. I also added new demos in the top link using the new v2 mixing so you can compare the two.

Yea, it's probably a good idea to credit the authors. I have been completely dreading this because I deleted all of the original files I used for the soundfont when I reset my computer a while ago. I have started a big ol' list of sources, but DAMN is it a pain in the ass. I have to basically go off memory and frantic Google searches just to find everything. I made pretty good progress though, but now it is late and I am very tired. Oh yea, I also replaced some sounds in the soundfont while looking for the sources. The download link has been updated and the file is still called "Stolen Soundfont v2".

NEW UPDATE - MAJOR INSTUMENT REBALANCE!!! I didn't expect to update this so soon, but I've been screwing around with this soundfont a little bit and realized that some of the mixing is a bit off. This update rebalances ALL the instruments to be closer to the SC55 (or at least EmperorGrieferus's SC55 soundfont). I also did a few tweaks to some instruments like the strings and saw wave, but overall, everything should sound the same, although better mixed. The download link at the top has been updated with the new version.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SAMPLES ARE RIGHT HERE SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO DOWNLOAD THE SOUNDFONT TO HEAR WHAT IS SOUNDS LIKE! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is this? A soundfont is a collection of sounds that are used to playback midis. It is like a font for normal text, but instead of different letters, there are different samples. Got all of that? Cool. So, what makes this soundfont special? I wanted this to be a no compromises soundfont without going too far into "realism" and making everything sound bland. My main focuses while making this were how well the instruments sounded together and the sound quality of each instrument. I tried to aim for something similar to the "Arachno Soundfont", specifically its excellent mastering and ability to sound good with basically everything you play with it. I hoped to get something similar to that using higher quality, more modern instruments without losing the upbeat energy and cheesiness that midis have. I avoided trying to make this soundfont sound super realistic and true to life because that is basically impossible to do with General Midis (and it just sounds bad). I have been working on this for about a year now and I hope all that work shows. So where did I actually get all of these sounds? Off the internet of course! I got various free soundfonts and VSTs (many of which were just a single instrument) and compiled them together into one (sort of) tight, GM sized package. None of the instruments I got for this were made by me (hence, the name of the soundfont), so I hope no one gets mad at me for posting this. I would credit the authors, but I genuinely don't remember where I got most of these sounds from. I did use only free source material for this, so I hope that protects my ass from licensing issues. I have been using soundfont for games for a while now, but I decided I didn't want to keep this to myself forever and wanted to share this soundfont with you guys. I would like to hear your guy's feedback on how I can improve the soundfont! I've only ever used this with VirtualMIDISynth, so I don't know if other programs will work well with this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DOWNLOAD HERE! (it's quite big at 1.5GB 1.8GB, hope that's fine with you guys) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Changelog Here is a MASSIVE list of sources so this doesn't get taken down as quickly. It's not complete at the moment, but at least it shows I'm trying.