sound fonts !!

[fabdub]

hello I have a SBLive! card running winxp.. and I downloded the lastest soundfont from this guys page.. FF7 for SBLIVE! 1.6 .. anyway I follow all of the instructions .. loaded the font in audio HQ ..
in ff7 config in midi driver I select SB LIVE! midi synth A..
is it wrong ? because I do not see A: SB Live! MIDI Synth like it says..
but I do have a SBLive! midiport..

is it possible that my sblive! card is not compatible ??

because it really isnt working it fails

[Rubicant]

This is another windows xp problem. You need to get the newest windows xp drivers from creative's website. Go here and get the drivers that are xp-specific. Keep in mind that the drivers that DO come with XP are there to piss people off. They don't provide enough for the card to run well. This is my take the stupid drivers: "Oh, let's make people happy by providing half-assed drivers that are compatible with their systems anyways even though they'll have to download better ones later because ours are so shitty".

However, I don't remember the original drivers coming with AudioHQ. Tell me..which drivers ARE you using?

This is why I hate windows 2000 and above.

[fabdub]

im using the lastest sblive! drivers from last september..

[Rubicant]

Hmm...do the A and B devices show up in the "Sounds and Multimedia" options in the control panel? I don't even remember if that option is even in XP. Either way, just see which MIDI devices are even available outside of FF7Config.

If nothing turns up, try re-installing those drivers, or else see if there are any new ones. I don't use XP anymore..and for good reasons :p
Most of the games I still play are pretty old.

[Aaron]

Hmm... mine fails in the configurator if you tell it to use Soundfont MIDI and hit "Test."  But it works if you load it up in AudioHQ and run the game anyway.

Well, here's what I see.

[fabdub]

well heres what I got.. its the same as urs aaron except that mine has a B instead of a D ? ...
and look I got grayed options..

just go check it out there ..

http://www3.sympatico.ca/fabdub/ff7shot.jpg

[Rubicant]

Use "SbLive! Synth A", man. What were you expecting, to have something identical to what the help file says? With problems like this you gotta mess around before asking for straight-out help.

The "greyed out" option is just for the fadeout of the music. I never really used it, and I don't think that w2k and above allow it to be used.

[fabdub]

please  dont take me a dope man..
I know what im doing..
and I tried that in the FIRST place..
and no it didnt work.
I tried all other possible options
and nothing
I unload the fonts and even rename the old sf2 files and its still the SAME sound

[Goku7]

The "greyed out" option is just for the fadeout of the music. I never really used it, and I don't think that w2k and above allow it to be used.

Actually, its a different method of controlling the sound card's preamping of the output.  It doesn't directly affect the fade out as it does affect the reponsive-ness of the volume slider.

Why is it there?  Some cards, specifically the AWE64, needed that option to work right, otherwise the volume would not get quiet at all unless you moved the slider almost completely to the left.  The same things happen when you try to use the option on a card that doesn't need it.

[Aaron]

I never really used it, and I don't think that w2k and above allow it to be used.

Well, you can see that the option is available in my screen shot above, and I'm using Windows XP

Anyway, I don't think it works on the SBLive! synths, but its available because my Yamaha XG Synth supports it.  However, if it is turned on, as in the screenshot, the volume slider does not function correctly, as Goku pointed out in the previous post (you have to move the thing way to the left before it starts to get quiet).

Ah well, I don't really know how to make the soundfonts work if they don't, cause I've been using the Yamaha Synth because it is the %$@# coolest thing ever.  Only bad thing about it is you don't get the voices in the final battle music.

[Threesixty]

Last September?

The only drivers I see from creative are dated July of 2002, not September.

http://www.americas.creative.com/support/files/download.asp?Centric=109&OS=13


-------------
http://www.geocities.com/threesixtyci/
I did this a ways back....But soundfonts only seem to work well for Win9x kernel. They would autoload....WinXP doesn't, I hear. So If you want to hear the chorus, you have to load lb2 up by itself, or load it second.....but if you load it second, it messes up a few other songs....and if you load it on it's own, all the songs before the final battle don't play.

I know on Win9x, since the fonts would autoload, if you didn't have enough free ram open (it's a slider bar in one of the soundfont tabs) for the soundfonts...It would fail.

[Goku7]

Ah well, I don't really know how to make the soundfonts work if they don't, cause I've been using the Yamaha Synth because it is the %$@# coolest thing ever.  Only bad thing about it is you don't get the voices in the final battle music.

Well, that and no "Patented SquareSoft French Horn Sample".

[Sukaeto]

Are you sure you've loaded the font into bank 1? (not 'Synth Bank' or 'Bank 0').  Also (and I'm not taking you for an idiot - we all make these kind of mistakes.) make sure you're not accidentally loading the original.  (the easiest way to do that is check the file size.  The original will be somewhere around 4 megs, ff7 for SBlive! will be about 23 megs.  Also, the description for ff7 for SBLive! in the bank stack window is 'FF7 for SBLive! v 1.6')

Another thing to make sure of - in the second drop down box on the FF7 MIDI configuration page (the MIDI Data box) make sure you've selected 'Soundfont MIDI (Creative AWE32/64)'.  I kind of think that defaults to 'General MIDI'.

As far as the test in the Config program, it will fail.  (Just like Aaron was saying) but it still works in the game, or if you extract the MIDIs and listen to them from Media Player of Winamp or whatever.