Creating the 'perfect' Final Fantasy 7 soundfont...

[xeriouxi]

Hi!

Now, I know that there are ways of extracting the original sounds from the PSX version of FF7. I remember a tool called PSound somewhere that could do something like that...  

Anyway, is it at all possible to create an exact replica of the original FF7 sounds to use for MIDI playback via a SoundFont? If so, what software would I need to compile the SoundFont etc.  

xeriouxi.

[Rubicant]

Just tell me...is there any reason or obstacle preventing anyone from making a soundfont if they have the correct samples? There isn't any other reason than willpower. Mofokubik worked on such a soundfont several a month ago, but he never finished it off (at least to my knowledge). I offered to help him, but he never buckled down and sent me anything.

It sounds like a good idea because most of the samples from ff7psx are better than the ones included with ff7pc. To be completely honest, I would have done this myself a long time ago, but ff7music completely defeats the purpose of doing it. With the midis, you cannot resume the place in the song you were before a battle. With FF7music you can set it to do so (although on slower machines it causes some lag). I also never got ahold of a new version of PSound to rip the samples...and I forget where to get it.

I ripped the steel drum instrument from FF8 once and put it into a soundfont just to try it out. It was quite a bit of work, but it sounded great. I was at a disadvantage because I never had FF8PC, so having the original midis was out of the question. So I'm far more than qualified for doing this.

So to answer your question, I will say "yes, it is possible". I'm also sure there are people here that are willing to help you out if you need it.

[xeriouxi]

Hi!

OK, now if I have ripped all of the samples, what should I do now? I mean, the end result should be me compiling all of them into one .sf2 file, right? How, exactly?  

xeriouxi.

[Rubicant]

I'm not going to give you a tutorial for the program. Learn it yourself.

Just do it.

A good utility is the creative's vienna soundfont studio. You can get it from the creative website, Soundblaster.com.

I would suggest just replacing the old samples with newer ones directly; you can do that. There will be a few instruments that will require extreme midi editing (for example, dokubo has a pitch bend for the bassline. hard to do). Good luck, and keep in mind that as long as you work on it a little each day you will slowly make your way towards the end.

[xeriouxi]

Hi!

Thanks for the link! I'll try my best to make it a success. However, I'm not sure about the file size.  

If when I have finished making it the file size is a bit large, then maybe somebody in the UK could have it sent to them via a CD-R if they don't mind and then they could upload it on a broadband connection, maybe?  

Oh, and sorry if my last post sounded rude in a way. I had about 30 seconds left on the web...  

xeriouxi.

[Goku7]

Hi!

OK, now if I have ripped all of the samples, what should I do now? I mean, the end result should be me compiling all of them into one .sf2 file, right? How, exactly?  

xeriouxi.

heh...you oughta thank "Cloud_Strife" of the VGMusic.com forums for this:

http://www.9999hp.com/~wroget/personal/tutorials.html

While it covers both the SF2 and DLS formats, its still a decent tutorial.

I'm not going to give you a tutorial for the program. Learn it yourself.

Well, at least now you don't have to...

[xeriouxi]

Hi!

I don't think that I can do this, actually...

It looks too hard. Firstly, I only have about 70 samples from the PSX FF7. I'm sure there's more. Secondly, I can't grasp how you're meant to make them into instruments, add the other instruments, call the instrument from a MIDI file etc.  

Good luck if somebody wants to try, though!  

xeriouxi.

[Skillster/RedSarg99]

i can host them
i have 200meg x2 space online to host it

[xeriouxi]

Hi!

Thanks, but I really can't continue with it. There are too many different things to do and I get lost with them all. I thought it would be a bit of a challenge, but it's now too much of one...  :weep:

Anyway, maybe someday somebody will develop one... who knows?  

xeriouxi.

[Mofokubik]

My soundfont is finished, but since alot of the banks I made are new (I didn't use most of the psx samples, most of them were crap) I gotta remake some....most....all, of the midi files then make a patch, then my beautiful creation will have life!

[xeriouxi]

Hi!

That's great! Well done! You must have a lot of talent to have completed the soundfont! Is re-creating the MIDI files difficult to do? I think that is where I will have slipped up if I had created a SoundFont. How big is the SoundFont file, exactly? Keep everyone posted on your progress if you decide to finish it! I know that everyone, especially me, will be interested in your progress! Good luck!  

xeriouxi.

[Phanoo]

download Audio Compositor to edit your gm.dls midi bank

I've the ff8 soundfont (20 mo   ), I can send you some samples if you want... (they are in a very good quality)

[xeriouxi]

Hi!

How is the progress going with the SoundFont? That is, of course, if you are working on it. If you are, the good luck! I'm sure many members of the board would love to see the SoundFont, like me... probably because you're one of the few people who can actually create it!  

xeriouxi.

[Goku7]

Hey, something just occurred (sp?) to me.  Has anyone attempted to adapt Samuel's DLS into something FF7 could use?

For example, we could convert it to sf2, and then use the LGP tools to modify the MIDI files to use the instruments in the file.  And because it appears that Samuel set up the DLS to use only the "MSB:Patch#" system that SF2 uses for multiple instrument banks instead of the DLS "MSB:LSB:Patch#" system, all the instruments should be readily accessible after a straight conversion to sf2.

I've been sorta messing around with that idea but never made it a serious project.  I'll post a few mp3 examples of how we can adapt the battle theme to work with it..... it'll be awhile, though.  I have some errands to do today, and they just might interfere with the mp3-making.

-edit-

Well, I finished the errands I had to do, but no thanks to the "powers that be" (read: my parents), I'll have to hold off on uploading the mp3s until tomarrow.  -_-

[Goku7]

OK. It's up.  I don't have much time right now, so I'll skip the detailed explaination I would normally give, and simply say:

Linkage! (Size: 2.91MB)

[Aaron]

I like

I think there are a few things missing from the Fighting MP3, and the Mako Reactor has an annoying "buzz" at the beginning.  But if you or someone else wanted to work on this, that's a good start

[Goku7]

I like

I think there are a few things missing from the Fighting MP3, and the Mako Reactor has an annoying "buzz" at the beginning.  But if you or someone else wanted to work on this, that's a good start

Yes, I am aware of that, it was one of the things I was gonna mention about the mako reactor demo, but didn't have time to post any more than I did (parents were kickin' me off at that time).

Now that I have a bit more time to "talk", I can explain the buzz problem.  You see, as I don't have SF2 hardware, I had to use Samuel's DLS as it was in Winamp5 (which is awesome, by the way), and for some reason, Winamp can't transmit bank select messages for banks higher than 0 when it comes to DLS stuff, and as a result I was forced to use the Buzz sound.

[Bluetank]

omg hey i love them too!

hmm... could someone get these mp3 into the game now? well, although its not a lot of soundfonts, but these 2 is enough for my ears

Anyways, thanks Goku7 for doing such a great job!

[Goku7]

omg hey i love them too!

hmm... could someone get these mp3 into the game now? well, although its not a lot of soundfonts, but these 2 is enough for my ears

Anyways, thanks Goku7 for doing such a great job!

Heh....thanks.

I should mention that if Winamp would allow me to use the other instrument banks in the DLS file, then in addition to eliminating the buzz in the beginning of the Reactor theme, we could also recover the missing "iron/gong" notes in the battle theme, as well as using the correct French Horn sample....however, since I'm only using Winamp to emulate the output, these issues won't be a problem, as once the file is converted to SF2, FF7 can access the higher banks without much of a problem.

-slightly off-topic here-

Oh, and if anyone else is curious what other MIDI-related work I'm currently doing, I'm in the middle of doing an XG-specific renditition of "Summer Nights", a song written by "Ellhyr" of the VGmusic.com forums...and yes, I did get his permission before starting to work on it.    By "XG-specific", I mean that its using special Variation Effects (Distortion, Amp Simulation, etc.) that only XG synths can use, to add to the awesomeness that the song already possesses. But that also means that most of the changes can only be heard on an XG synth, with the exception of a patch change on the drum set.

Anyway, here's the linkage, if you're interested:

Summer Nights -- Original GM Version

Summer Nights -- XG version

[Skillster/RedSarg99]

cant access the files,
maybe need the register?
you dont mind hosting them on your own server?
thanks

[Goku7]

Doh!  It seems I've overlooked one of the newer aspects of the VGmusic.com forums.  Previously, you didn't have to be logged in to be able to view attachments.  Now, its different.  I had thought they simply hid the portion of a post that contains the link to the attachment, but still allowed anyone who directly typed in the link to access it.  Now it appears its more complicated than that.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and upload a .zip of the two MIDI files on Mirex's Server.

-edit-

Upload done. Linkage here.

[Sukaeto]

Well, before I start, I'm gonna say this:
I think it's great that everyone loves this game so much that they want to improve the shitty quality PC MIDIs.  Good luck to anyone and everyone writing an FF7 SoundFont, I'll definitely try it out when you're done.

Anyway, I worked on a FF7 SoundFont a while ago.  I thought it sounded pretty good, but then I realized:  I'm just a PC Tech/Programmer with really no knowledge of how to make good music.  Nobuo Umatsu is a musical genius.  Every last intrument, note, pitch, etc that he put into every one of his pieces was done for a specific reason.  I just don't believe that I have the musical ability to create a SoundFont that owns up to Umatsu's original vision.  (It's kind of like blasphemy for me, if you will.)

On a side note: I'm playing through FF7 again.  I'm using my Soundfont, because I believe it sounds WAY better than the crappy quality ones that come with FF7, and the XG SoftSynth doesn't have the Sephiroth choir . . . I just don't think the SoundFont lives up to Umatsu's original vision.

[Keseph]

So what's wrong with the mp3-rip of the music CDs? AGO put out a BT for it couple weeks ago, though it's dead now.

[Bluetank]

So what's wrong with the mp3-rip of the music CDs? AGO put out a BT for it couple weeks ago, though it's dead now.

True, i totally agree. Why not use the mp3s from the CD's?

I've uploaded 3 mps on them, they are the best music for usage for the soundfonts. 1 is the main field theme, another is the aerith theme, the last is the final battle theme i think.

the thing is that they are not design for looping i must say? is that right?


EDIT:
Anyway, finish uploading. the links are below.

http://ff7resources.tripod.com/aeriththeme.mp3
http://ff7resources.tripod.com/maintheme.mp3
http://ff7resources.tripod.com/onewingedangel.mp3

right click and save as please. cheers.

[xeriouxi]

Hi!

I haven't heard the samples yet... but I'm sure that they are very good!  

Anyway... how will the SoundFont being made (if there is one being made) be the original if a lot of the instruments have been scrapped? It would be nice to have a 100% original one, too... but I suppose that's me being a miserable person to people who do a lot of hard work... sorry!  

xeriouxi.