Breath Expression soundfont

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LouisB
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2021 4:22 pm

Breath Expression soundfont

Post by LouisB »

Hi All,

I have just posted a new SoundFont called Breath Expression that in my opinion works really well with the Warbl. It is actually not a new SoundFont but a reorganisation of the existing MuseScore General Full HD soundfont that has the expression patches renumbered and moved to bank 0.

The soundfont can be downloaded here https://github.com/louis-barman/breath- ... t/releases

And the documentation is available here https://github.com/louis-barman/breath- ... soundfont/

The soundfont will not sound without setting the WARBL Expression to "Send Pressure as CC"
using #2 (breath) as the controller. Also I have found that it works better on some of the patches if MIDI mono mode is turned on which I do using one of the Warbl button to send MIDI message CC #126

There are 91 different instrument patches available, some of the instrument sounds that I like are the Reed Organ, Harmonica, Cello, Harmon Mute Trumpet, Tenor Sax, Oboe and Recorder.

Louis
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Re: Breath Expression soundfont

Post by admin »

Fantastic, thanks for sharing this!
Andrew Mowry
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LouisB
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2021 4:22 pm

Re: Breath Expression soundfont

Post by LouisB »

Please note that this soundfont does not work with SForzando but fortunately it works great with qsynth see https://sourceforge.net/projects/qsynth/ The qsynth latency delay can be improved by reducing the buffer size and buffer count.

It also works on Android with FluidSynth MIDI Synthesizer. But on my phone at least I find no matter what the sound font there is too much latency.
LouisB
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2021 4:22 pm

Re: Breath Expression soundfont

Post by LouisB »

Hi all, I am replying to this post by Gonzo . Ok where to begin -- you raised lots of points.
I prefer S Christian Collins' GS soundfont
First that BreathExpression soundfont is based on the very sountfont you mention by S Christian Collins . (Long story short -- that soundfont was taken up by the Linux community and lots of minor fixes where made and it was renamed to FluidR3_GM.sf2. Then S Christian Collins worked on it again with MuseScore and he greatly expanded the samples and added the expressions CC2 to some of the sounds. Then I came along and just deleted all the presets that did not have CC2 expressions and called it BreathExpression soundfont)

My aim with the BreathExpression is that it contains the best presets from all different the soundfonts that have permissive licenses so if there are presets that you prefer from your original tweaked version Christian Collins' GS soundfont then please let me know. There are two options we can take your tweaked version or alternatively dial down the amount of reverb on some of the samples.
One of the issues with both these soundfonts is that they aren't adjusted for the octave that the instrument normally works in. Now, the Warbl can easily accommodate that by using the buttons, but many other wind controllers can't.
Ha you took the words out of my mouth. On the next release of BreathExpression soundfont I intend to rebalance the gain so all the preset are equally loud and also transpose all the presets so that they are "adjusted for the octave that the instrument normally works in" . I intend to do this on the newer version of MuseScore_General_Full SoundFont that is provided in the musescore-general-soundfont-lossless package on Debian (Linux)

I am sensitive to reverb, and I find most of the sounds too reverb-y
Ok this raises an interesting point. I have been experimenting with creating by own Whistle soundfont and I have not got very far as it only using a single sample at the moment. One problem I hit is when I play a trill you get this clicking effect at the end of each note. See the attached zipped mp3 file LouisWhistleTBD-raw.zip. I fixed this by using a trick I discovered in the MuseScore_General_Full / BreathExpression SoundFont by setting the "vol env release (S)" to 0.4 in the soundfont and you can hear the results in the other mp3 attachment to this post. Strangely this fix makes the playing sound like there is lots of reverb. I wonder if this is why you find the BreathExpression soundfont "too reverb-y". I am leaning towards making this value 0.3 seconds. I have also attached this soundfont so you can try it out yourself. I would be interested to hear your views on what is the best value and if 0.4 seconds is too reverb-y.
I note in your comments about the soundfont you don't mention PolyPhone as an editor. I think it is excellent https://www.polyphone-soundfonts.com/
Yes I am already using PolyPhone as an editor and it is excellent. However it does not work during use with the Warbl and CC2 :-( .

Also are you or anyone else interested in collaborating and/or help out by testing out my soundfont creations?
Attachments
Louis_Whistles_TBD.zip
soundfont
(84.48 KiB) Downloaded 168 times
LouisWhistleTBD-raw.zip
mp3
(173.48 KiB) Downloaded 162 times
LouisWhistleTBD-40.zip
mp3
(230.59 KiB) Downloaded 158 times
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