Introduction to Sound Fonts
Josh Green (jgreen@users.sourceforge.net)
v0.5, Apr 1 2000 (Ha ha, April fools)
Thanks go to John Littler for his suggestions, comments and his expressed
interest in this document. I probably would not have gotten around to this for
a while otherwise :) Check out his page with music, linux and related stuff.
http://linuxmusic.cjb.net.
Disclaimer
Like the Smurf Sound Font Editor, this document has no warranties or claims of
correctness blah blah. Basically, if you rely on any of this information, you
do so at your own risk. This document was written to help those interested
in SoundFonts, I will not be responsible for any damages that may be caused
or indirectly caused by its correctness or incorrectness. Having said that,
please contact me if you do find any errors.
Intro
The SoundFont file format gives users the ability to create digital sampled
instruments that are portable across different hardware. The idea being that
an instrument could be created on a computer using an AWE 32 card and then
transferred to a piece of recording equipment for studio production or to
another computer with a different wavetable card etc. Since sound fonts are
most commonly used to compose music, they are closely tied to the MIDI
(Musical Instrument Digital Interface) specification which is a protocol for
communicating song data between sound equipment. This is just a brief
description of the different terms and structures of a version 2.x SoundFont
(SoundFont version 1.x is a different beast and is outdated).
The parameters and
descriptions relate to working with sound fonts at an application level, like
the Smurf Sound Font Editor, rather than the programming level. Many of the
parameter units specified are what the Smurf user interface uses and not what
is actually used in a sound font file (though they relate to one another).
Those wishing to write a program using the sound font format should consult
the official SoundFont (R) specification, in addition to or rather than, this
document. The specification will also provide more detailed information and is
helpful for those who learn from a programmers perspective rather than an
application perspective (I often need both :)
Trademark Acknowledgement
SoundFont is a registered trademark of E-mu Systems, Inc.
Sound Blaster AWE32, Sound Blaster AWE64 and Sound Blaster Live! are all
trademarks of Creative Labs, Inc.
All other trademarks are property of their respective holders.
Other Sound Font resources
Smurf Sound Font Editor I'm also the
author of this program and parts of this document refer to it. Its a Sound
Font Editor that runs on Linux, and is quite functional, though not complete.
Sound Font Specification You can find
the v2.0 specification of the Sound Font standard at Creative Lab's FTP site in
various formats. The latest version I'm familiar with is v2.1 which has some
added documentation on Modulators, but is not required in understanding how
to work with sound fonts.
How do Sound Fonts compare to other audio file formats
Most sound file formats have audio data and information that describes how
to play the audio, like if the sound is stereo, 8 or 16 bits, the sampling rate
etc. Some formats can even describe loop points and a limited amount of
instrument related data, but for the most part audio files only describe
information related to playing the audio. Sound Fonts on the other hand can
have multiple samples and a wealth of information that describes how these
samples are contstructed into instruments (noise making devices :), and how
these instruments interact with other MIDI equipment. So audio files are used
to store sound and Sound Font files are used to store instruments for composing
music. Sound Fonts aren't "better" than audio files, as they are used for
different purposes. Programs that work with Sound Fonts, such as the Smurf
Sound Font Editor, use audio files to load sample data.
How do Sound Fonts compare to MIDI files
MIDI files store song data. Sound Fonts store instrument data. Although midi
files describe the sequence of notes that make up a song, and perhaps the
general instruments that are used, they don't describe specifically how the
instruments should sound. This is where a Sound Font comes into play. Your MIDI
capable device (sound card) is first loaded with the appropriate Sound
Font which contains instruments that you want to use in a song. You then start
your MIDI sequencer program and load and play a file. The MIDI sequencer program
does not necessarily know anything about the Sound Font you loaded into your
sound card. It just tells the wavetable device on the card what preset
to play (i.e. instrument #), at what tone, etc, and the device takes care of
playing the loaded instruments. MIDI is described more in depth in a later
section of this document.
Why would I use Sound Fonts
If you have a desire to write music on a computer with custom instruments,
Sound Fonts are a good resource. You can either make your own instruments from
sounds that you record (from around the house, garage, or bathroom), from
audio files someone else made, computer generated sounds; or you can
tap into the wide selection of free Sound Fonts on the internet. Sound Fonts
just make it possible to have custom noise making devices without having to
have a studio full of instruments, which would have less flexibility and more
skill would be involved :).
What do I need in order to use Sound Fonts?
Technically speaking you need a wavetable sound card device in your computer,
that has some memory to load sample data into. You also need a program that will
load sound fonts and supports your card. This document is for the Linux
nuts who want to compose music on their own beloved operating system, and so
there are some other requirements described in the next section. If you are
not one of these (perhaps you should be :), you will probably still be able
to glean useful info about Sound Fonts from this document.
What can Linux do with Sound Fonts?
First thing you need to know is that Linux currently only supports a select
few of the wavetable sound cards that are out there. To be honest, I don't
even really know "whats out there", so let me know if you are aware of another
supported wavetable card that I don't mention. Support for more wavetable
cards is likely to get better in the future as there is a new audio system for
linux called ALSA www.alsa-project.org,
which looks quite promising in bringing quality audio, midi and wavetable
services to Linux.
As far as loading sound fonts is concerned, the AWE 32/64 driver by Takashi
Iwai has a program called sfxload that will load a sound font into your AWE
card. This is a command line utility and doesn't offer any sound font editing
capabilities.
The only Sound Font editor I know of in Linux, at this time, is the Smurf Sound
Font Editor (I'm also the author of this program, and a bit biased :). As I am
writing this document, Smurf is well on its way to being able to edit every
aspect of a Sound Font, but it is not quite there yet. The only audio devices
it currently supports are the Sound Blaster AWE 32/64 and the Gravis
Ultrasound/SoftOSS driver.
The GUS/SoftOSS driver is mostly a tease, as it will work with any 16 bit
Open Sound System supported card via software wavetable emulation, but will
only load a single sample and isn't polyphonic (only one note at a time). The
ALSA driver is supposed to support the SB Live! card through OSS emulation
(using the AWE 32/64 API), but I have not seen this myself (let me know if you
have).
So currently, if you are serious about using sound fonts in Linux, you
probably want a Sound Blaster AWE 32/64 or Live! card (assuming the Live!
works as the AWE 32/64 does with the afore mentioned ALSA driver). Technically
speaking you don't need an output device at all to use Smurf, but you won't be
able to hear what you are actually doing, which is pretty useless.
How much memory should my wavetable card have?
As much as possible! The more memory your card has the more realistic your
instruments can be and the more of them you can load. Of course it also takes
more time to load them. Some wavetable cards come with a fixed amount of
memory, others are expandable, and some use your computer system's memory.
I have 8mb of memory (two 4 meg 30 pin simms) in my AWE 32 which will load a
pretty decent sounding set of instruments. The card is expandable to 30 mb
with two 16 meg 30 pin simms but that isn't cheap these days! I believe the
SB Live! card uses your systems memory, so just make sure you have some of that
to spare if you plan on getting one of these cards (seems like the way to go,
as current system memory tends to be cheaper than older memory types).
Wavetable cards often have a set of instrument banks in ROM as well. These
aren't usually too incredible, but they also occupy a small amount of space for
what they deliver. Some sound fonts use ROM samples, but for the most part I
don't think ROM samples are all that great these days. I have heard that the
SB Live! doesn't have any.
Brief description of MIDI
The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) specification is a hardware
and protocol standard that was developed to provide a common communication
system between musical equipment. Not to be confused with the midi file type,
which is used to record a sequence of MIDI events like a song.
Even if you are not planning on using any external MIDI equipment, you will
find that a lot of the Sound Font specification is based on MIDI.
MIDI compatible devices that wish to communicate with each other are connected
by cables (2 cables, one for each way of the traffic) and if all goes well the
chatter of the MIDI protocol ensues.
Most wavetable cards (and some regular sound cards) are MIDI capable. Usually
there is a special cable that hooks to the joystick port of your sound card
with MIDI connectors (standard 5 DIN a la PC Keyboard connector) and a joystick
connector so you can still play your games. The protocol defines things like
"note on" and "note off" events as well as controller change messages. An
example of a controller is the "pitch bender" which is commonly found on
keyboards and is reserved its own controller number, but the MIDI standard
also allows for arbitrary controllers such as: pedals, levers and hamster
wheels, you name it. Note on/off events contain information about which note
the action is taking place on as well as how fast the note was played
(called velocity). Notes are specified by a number in the range of 0-127 with
60 being "middle C". Velocity is also specified on a 0-127 scale (127 being
the fastest key press). These messages are sent on individual channels,
of which the MIDI specification has 16 of them. A channel is used as a way of
routing MIDI messages to specific devices on your MIDI chain (as there may
be several). Each device is set up to listen on a certain channel, specified
by the user. Channel 10 is commonly set up as a percussion channel (drums,
cymbols etc), it is the only channel that has a common assignment, the others
are arbitrary.
A Preset number is used to specify which instrument to play. The
original specification defined 128 presets in the range of 0-127. There are
different standards for how Presets map to instruments. Under the GM and
GS preset standard preset 0 is Piano, preset 4 is Electric Piano,
6 is Harpsichord, 126 is a Helicopter, etc. 128 individual presets is pretty
limited though, so the idea of a Bank was created. The bank number is
in the range of 0-127, Bank 0 being the GM and GS "Capitol tones" as described
above. Each bank is a set of 128 presets, which can be variations on the
standard Bank 0 or be its own unique set of instrument sounds. The GS preset
standard has several variations of the standard Bank 0 presets, whereas in
Bank 0, Preset 124 is the sound of a Bird, Bank 1 Preset 124 is a Dog, and
Bank 2 Preset 124 is a Horse-Gallop which all have to do with sounds of animals,
they are variations on the original Bird sound. There is also an MT-32 preset
standard.
Its important to understand that these are just standards created that define
the mapping between preset numbers and instrument sounds. This mapping is
arbitrary though, and as the standard GM, GS, MT-32 sounds get kind of boring
quickly, its good to know that you can define an instrument sound to be whatever
Bank and Preset combination you want, using Sound Font files.
Technical note: In fact you'll find most of the
parameters surrounding the MIDI standard have a range of 0-127. This is because
the MIDI standard only uses 7 bits of each byte transfered along the MIDI bus
(your cables). The remaining bit is set to 1 for the command (op code) portion
of a message, and 0 for the command's operands. MIDI messages that need more
bits of resolution will send multiple bytes which are combined, such as the
pitch bender which uses 2 bytes for a total of 14 bits of resolution.
Samples
Samples make up the heart of the sound font file. They are composed
of digital audio, like a .WAV or other type file, though they can also be loaded
from ROM on the wavetable device (the AWE 32, for example, has 512k of
preloaded ROM samples).
Instruments with a continuous sound, like a flute, often have periodic patterns
that can be reproduced by looping a portion of the sound. Therefore samples in
a sound font have the option of being looped, allowing for realistic
reproduction of continuious sounds by recording only a portion of the
original "real world" sound. So to continue the example of a flute, the sample
would have the initial breath sound and then loop for the rest of the duration
of the instrument.
Instruments
Instruments use one or more samples combined with effects generators
to create a sound producing device. Generators, in other words
"parameters", control properties of a sample such as initial pitch and volume
as well as how these parameters are affected over time. The collection of a
sample and the generators that affect it is called an instrument zone.
There is also a special type of zone called a Global Zone which contains
only generators, which sets default generator values for instrument zones that
don't specifically set those generators. A global zone is optional and there
can only be one of them. Heres a more visual representation of an Instrument
as a tree:
|
+- Overdrive Guitar <-- Instrument
| |
| +- Global Zone <-- Global Zone
| | +- Reverb = 20% <-- Generator, amount of Reverb effect
| |
| +- Metal Gtr E1 <-- Instrument Zone w/ sample "Metal Gtr E1"
| | +- Note Range = 0-44 <-- Generator, range of notes zone is active on
| |
| +- Metal Gtr D2 <-- Another Zone, sample is "Metal Gtr D2"
| | +- Note Range = 45-48
| | +- Reverb = 33% <-- This zone specifically sets Reverb
This is a nice ascii representation of an instrument called "Overdrive Guitar".
It has 3 zones, 1 is a global zone and the 2 others are samples called
"Metal Gtr E1" and "Metal Gtr D2". Most quality instruments in Sound Fonts are
composed of multiple samples, at different tones, of the instrument it is
trying to reproduce. Each of these samples occupy a portion of the note range
that is closest to their original recorded tone. The reason for this is that
pitch shifting a sample (raising or lowering the tone) is a lossy process, as
digital samples are of finite resolution (digital sampling is the process of
taking individual "slices" of a sound at regular intervals). Too much increase
or decrease in tone will cause a sample to sound less like the instrument it
is trying to reproduce. In this example the higher pitched sample "Metal Gtr D2"
takes over from "Metal Gtr E1" at note 45. Each of these zones has its own
generators. The "Global Zone" sets the value of the Reverb generator to 20%,
globally. So any instrument zone that doesn't specifically set the reverb
generator will be assigned a reverb value of 20%. In this example the
"Metal Gtr E1" zone does not set the Reverb generator so it will be played
with 20% of the reverb effect, whereas the "Metal Gtr D2" zone assigns reverb
33% so the "Global Zone" does not affect it.
Presets
"So if you have an instrument already, whats the use of a preset?" you ask.
Well, once you have your instruments you need to assign them to MIDI
bank and preset numbers, and sometimes its nice to make other variations of your
instruments without having to duplicate them. This is where presets are used.
A preset is like an instrument in that it has zones and generators, but instead
of having a sample in each zone, it has instruments (except for a global
zone which just has generators). The generators also act differently when they
are in a preset zone. While instrument generators set a parameter to the
absolute value you specify, preset generators offset the values of every
instrument zone in the instrument that is part of the same preset zone.
Here is another ascii image, this time of a preset that uses the
"Overdrive Guitar" instrument:
|
+- 000-029 Overdrive Guitar <-- Preset on Bank 0, Preset 29
| |
| +- Overdrive Guitar <-- Preset Zone w/ instrument "Overdrive Guitar"
| | +- Note Range = 10-127 <-- Generator, Note Range of this Zone
| | +- Reverb = 10% <-- Generator, amount of Reverb effect
| | +- Chorus = 15% <-- Generator, amount of Chorus effect
In this example the Instrument created in the above example is assigned to
Bank 0, Preset 29. 3 generator parameters are modified; Note Range, Reverb and
Chorus. The values of these generators act as offset values which are added to
the values of the instrument "Overdrive Guitar". So in the Instrument example
we determined that the Reverb effect for each zone was:
- Metal Gtr E1: Reverb = 20% (set by Global instrument zone)
- Metal Gtr D2: Reverb = 33%
Since the value of the Reverb generator in the preset is 10%, this amount will
be added to each instrument zone of "Overdrive Guitar". So the values will
then become:
- Metal Gtr E1: Reverb = 20% + 10% = 30%
- Metal Gtr D2: Reverb = 33% + 10% = 43%
Note that if the result of an addition goes out of the valid range of a
generator (0-100% for Reverb) then it is clamped to its valid range.
In the case of the Chorus generator in the Preset zone, the Chorus parameter
was not set in any zones of the instrument. Each generator has a default value
that is used if no values are specified. In the case of Reverb and Chorus they
default to 0%, or no effect. So the chorus for each instrument zone then
becomes:
- Metal Gtr E1: Chorus = 0% + 15% = 15%
- Metal Gtr D2: Chorus = 0% + 15% = 15%
The affect of a Note Range or Velocity Range in a preset zone is not of an
offset or additive nature. Instead the ranges defined in an instrument zone
are intersected with the range of the preset zone. So only notes for which
both the Instrument Note Range and Preset Note Range are defined become active
notes after the intersection. The note ranges in the Instrument example were:
- Metal Gtr E1: Note Range = 0-44
- Metal Gtr D2: Note Range = 45-48
The Note Range is 10-127 in the Preset zone. So the intersection of the
instrument zone ranges with the preset zone range becomes:
- Metal Gtr E1: Note Range = 0-44 intersect 10-127 = 10-44
- Metal Gtr D2: Note Range = 45-48 intersect 10-127 = 45-48
More on generators
Each generator has a specified parameter format, set of allowable
values, and a default value. These values are different between the instrument
and preset levels.
Example: The Reverb generator at the instrument level; is specified in
percent, has an allowable range of 0-100, and a default value of 0.
At the preset level Reverb is specified in percent, has an allowable range of
-100 - 100, and a default value of 0.
The default value is used if the parameter is not specified for a given zone.
The descriptions of generators below are for the Instrument level, and therefore
are the absolute limits of the corresponding generator. The limits at the
preset level can be determined from this information. The default value for
preset generators is such that there is no affect on the instruments. For
ranges this is the range 0-127, for all other generators it is 0. The allowed
value of a preset generator is such that it can offset a generator at the
instrument level to any portion of the generators absolute range. So for Reverb
this is -100 for the low range to bring a generator to 0 if its 100, and 100
for its upper range to bring a generator to 100 that is 0. The units at the
preset level are the same as the instrument level for the Sound Font standard,
note however that some of the units used in the Smurf Sound Font Editor, and
in this document, have been converted to more convenient units. This causes
some generators to have a multiplicative affect rather than an additive affect.
Generators with these properties have the units column set to "X" in the
Smurf Sound Font Editor.
The following different parameter units are used:
-
Note - Sound fonts use the MIDI note scale, which is 128 notes numbered
0-127, and note 60 is "middle C". For some reason, I haven't quite figured
it out yet, an octave is normally devided into 12 steps, called notes.
An octave can be arbitrarily devided though. Some other note scales
do things differently, and sound fonts give you this flexibility.
An octave is basically a two fold increase in frequency. So normally note
60 "middle C" is twice the frequency of note 48 which is the next lowest C
note. This is why playing two of the same notes "resonate" with each other,
its because the waveforms are in sync with one another. When one note
completes a single cycle the other completes 2, 4, 8 etc (also known as
harmonic frequencies).
- Percent - The percentage the affect of a generator has.
-
Semitones - A semitone defines a change in pitch and is the difference
between two consecutive notes (counting flats and sharps). So a pitch
difference between note 60 and 61 (Middle C and C#) would be 1 semitone.
This is abbreviated in Smurf as "semi".
-
Cents - A cent is 1/100th of a semitone and is used for defining smaller
changes in pitch.
-
Decibels - A decibel is a logarithmic unit of amplitude measurement.
Logarithmic units are used commonly in audio because human hearing tends
to react on a logarithmic scale, rather than a linear scale. In other words
a sound that is twice as high in amplitude won't sound twice as loud, or
any other determinable linear fraction. I often get confused by the decibel,
if you have this trouble too, just try to remember that it is just a scale
that more closely models things like hearing. In mathimatical terms its the
20th root of 10. Abbreviated as "dB" in Smurf.
-
Hertz - Named after some dude I believe. Think "something" per second, i.e.
number of times something occurs per second. Frequency, or tone when you
hear it, is often specified in Hertz (abbreviated "Hz"). The average lowest
frequency the human ear can perceive is 20 Hz, basically a sine wave that
goes through 20 periods in a second. Digital sampling rate is also often
specified in Hz. CD quality is a sampling rate of about 44100 Hz, so the
audio signal amplitude is digitally "sampled" 44,100 times per second.
-
Seconds - Ummm.. I hope you know this one. Just in case you don't use
seconds, happen to be from another universe (like me), or are lucky enough
to live in the Burmuda Triangle with an appropriately translated copy of
this HOWTO.. A unit of time corresponding to approximately 1/86400th of the
time it takes for the Earth to rotate once. Abbreviated "sec" in Smurf.
Misc. Generators
The Root Key generator defines which note will play the sample at its
original recorded rate (i.e. sampling rate).
Example: A sample is recorded at 44.1khz (44100 samples per second, CD quality)
and the root key is 60 which is middle C. Playing note 60 would cause the sample
to be played at its original sampling rate of 44.1khz.
Playing a note higher than the sample's root key would increase the playback
rate causing the sample to be of higher pitch, and a lower note would cause,
surprise, a lower pitch.
The Note Range generator defines the note range a zone is active on,
specified as a low and high note number.
Example: 60-80 would be note 60 through 80 inclusive.
Only notes in this range will cause the zone's corresponding sample to be heard.
Samples in an instrument are layered when they occupy the same note(s).
So if a note is played and two or more instrument zones are active for said note
then all are played simultainiously.
The Velocity Range generator defines the range of velocity levels the
sample is heard like Note Ranges. Velocity is the speed at which a note is
played, this applies mostly to velocity sensitive MIDI keyboards. Playing a
note "softly" is a low velocity level while "banging" on the keyboard is a high
velocity level.
The pitch can be modified by 3 instrument generators. Course Tune
changes the tone of the sample by semitones. Fine Tune modifies the tone
by cents. Scale Tune defines how the tone changes from note to note in
cents. This is the parameter that allows you to create other note scales
besides the default 12 note octave devision. Default is 100 which is 1 semitone.
Effects Generators
Filter Q and Filter Cutoff control the initial state of the
filter effect. The filter in this case is a low pass filter (passes lower
sounds and blocks higher ones), commonly used/abused in electronic music. Also
known as the "wah-wah" effect.
Filter Cutoff is the frequency at which frequencies above it start to be
significantly blocked by the filter. The default is aproximately 20khz which
would pass all sounds below this frequencly relatively un-molested, since 20khz
is about the highest tone an average human can hear, the filter would basically
be off. Lowering this value to say 2khz would start to significantly block all
frequencies in the sample above 2khz.
Filter Q affects the gain at the resonant frequency of the filter.
I don't think this has much to do with Q in the sense of Quality of a filter.
It looks like increasing this value causes a sudden increase in gain at the
resonant frequency (aprox. the Cutoff Frequency). So with a high Filter Q:
sound below the Cutoff frequency would be relatively un-affected, sounds at
and around the Cutoff frequency would be accentuated (louder), and frequencies
above this would drop off rapidly (blocked). Basically brings a small range
of frequencies around the Cutoff into the foreground.
Reverb adds a short delay "echo" effect to the sample. Increasing this
value will make the sample sound like its in a hall or cave.
Chorus gives a sample a "fuller" sound. Like the term suggests it makes
the sample sound like several duplicates of the sample being played at the same
time but at slightly different tones.
Pan sets the left/right balance of the sound. Good for making stereo
instruments, where one sample might be placed more to the left and another
slightly different sample, to the right.
Envelopes
The idea of an envelope is not unique to sound fonts. They are used quite
frequently in sound producing devices. An envelope defines how a parameter
changes through the various stages of playing a note. The envelopes used in
sound fonts have 6 stages listed below:
-
Delay - Amount of Time before the attack stage begins, the envelope
stays at its zero level
-
Attack - Time it takes for the envelope to reach its max value from
when the key is pressed
-
Hold - Time the envelope is held at the max value
-
Decay - Time it takes for the envelope to decrease to the Sustain value
-
Sustain - Value the envelope reaches at the end of the Decay period
-
Release - Time it takes for the envelope value to decrease to zero
after the key is released
As an example, lets say an envelope is controlling the volume of a sound,
though the parameter (volume in this case) is arbitrary. To begin the envelope
cycle, your pet ferret steps on a single key on your MIDI keyboard. Nothing
is heard during the Delay stage for the period of time set by the Delay time.
Next, the volume of the sound begins to rise until it eventually reaches its
highest attainable loudness (to your ferret's delight who prefers loud sounds).
This is the attack stage, and the Attack time controls how long it takes for
the sound to reach its maximum volume. Now that it has reached its max volume
it stays at this level for a period of time determined by the
Hold time. Apon the end of the Hold stage the volume level begins to decrease
for the Decay stage. The value it is going to decrease to is determined by the
Sustain value, and the amount of time it will take to decay to this value is
determined by the Decay time. At this point the volume is in the Sustain stage
and will remain at the Sustain value until your ferret gets bored with that
tone (or you throw something at it) and releases the key. This starts the
Release stage where the volume will decrease until the note is off, in the
amount of time set by the Release time. Look at the illustration of an
envelope to get a visual idea.
Volume Envelope
The volume envelope is basically what was used in the example above. This
envelope controls only the volume parameter of a sound. There are 6 parameters
for each stage of the envelope. Delay, Attack, Hold, Decay, Sustain and
Release. Every parameter is specified in seconds except for Sustain which is
in Decibels (dB). Sustain is the amount of volume attenuation (decrease) from
the maximum volume, during the Sustain stage. Setting this to a higher value
results in lower volume during Sustain, zero is no attenuation (maximum
volume). There are 3 other parameters affecting volume; Attenuation,
Key to Hold and Key to Decay. Attenuation sets the initial volume attenuation
of the sound before being modified by the envelope (basically controls what
the max volume can be, the envelope can only make it quieter). Key to Hold
and Key to Decay will be explained later (when they actually work in Smurf :),
but basically they control the degree of decrease per MIDI note for the
Hold and Decay stages respectively, I have yet to have used them for anything.
Modulation Envelope
The modulation envelope controls two parameters; Pitch and Filter Cutoff.
The 6 envelope parameters are the same as the Volume envelope except for
Sustain which is now in percent (rather than dB). Sustain in this case is the
amount of the effects (Pitch and Filter Cutoff) that are applied to the sound
during the Sustain stage. The "To Pitch" parameter controls the maximum
amount of pitch change (when the envelope is at the end of the Attack stage)
and it is specified in cents. When it is at a zero level the pitch is not
affected by the modulation envelope. If "To Pitch" is positive then the
modulation envelope will increase the pitch by a maximum of "To Pitch" cents.
Conversely if its negative then the modulation envelope will decrease the
pitch by the maximum specified cents.
Low Frequency Osciallators
A low frequency oscillator (LFO) is just a sine wave generator that has a
relatively low range of frequencies, compared to human hearing, that it
operates at. In a sound font there are two LFOs, one of them controls just
the pitch of the sample while the other also controls the pitch as well as
the volume and filter cutoff parameters.
Vibrato LFO
Vibrato is a term used in music, its a rapid oscillation of the pitch of a
sound. An opera singer uses quite a lot of vibrato. The vibrato LFO controls
only the pitch of a sample. It has 3 parameters; Delay, which is the amount of
time before the oscillator starts (in seconds); Frequency, which is the
frequency of the vibrato; and "To Pitch" which is the amount of vibrato, i.e.
the amplitude of the oscillator (in cents).
Example: Setting "To Pitch" to 0 will essentially disable this LFO and
no vibrato will result. Setting it to 400 cents would cause a note's pitch to
oscillate between 200 cents (2 semitones) above the note to 2 semitones below
the note. Setting "To Pitch" to a negative value will basically shift the phase
of the effect by 180 degrees. When the LFO goes up, the pitch would go
down, and when the LFO goes down, the pitch would go up.
Modulation LFO
The modulation LFO can control the pitch, volume and/or filter cutoff of the
sample. I'm not sure the exact reasons for letting both LFOs control the pitch,
but it does seem to me to be the most worthy of effects. Some rather psycho
alien sounds can be made from just about any sample by setting both LFOs to
tweak the pitch, but be careful you don't activate your alien implant. The
Delay, Frequency and "To Pitch" parameters are just like the Vibrato LFO. The
"To Filter Cutoff" parameter is the amount of affect the LFO has on the
Filter Cutoff parameter (in cents). The "To Volume" parameter is the amount
of affect the LFO has on the volume (in dB). If you can't imagine what these
effects sound like, I'll describe them. If the "To Volume" parameter is set to
something besides 0 (disabled), then the volume of the sample will pulsate up
and down at the rate defined by the Frequency parameter, I think this is called
"portamento" in the music world. If the "To Filter Cutoff" parameter is set to
something besides 0, then the cutoff frequency of the low pass filter
(described in a section above) will pulsate up and down at Frequency, causing
higher frequencies to be blocked as the cutoff parameter goes down, and allowing
more higher sounds when the cutoff goes up. Sometimes called a "Wah-Wah" effect.
Must hear it to know what they mean.
Modulators
Modulators are used to change the value of generators in real time, in
response to various control values such as velocity and custom MIDI controllers.
This could, for example, allow you to make the "pitch bender" controller on a
keyboard modify the Reverb generator instead of the pitch. This section will
remain relatively empty until the Linux AWE driver and the Smurf Sound Font
Editor have support for implimenting Modulators.
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