Sound Fonts, using Sound fonts with Logic express/pro Options

[Narayan]

Hi, I am very new to this whole mac affair. For over 25 years, I have been using PC to create music and till now have come up to Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 with a creative Extigy sound card. I use a lot of ethnic sounds which are not part of the software synths and hence create my own sound fonts (which only the creative sound card supports). Now that I intend buying an imac G5, I would like to know whether Logic express/pro is compatible with this sound format. If not, how does one get them integrated into the software for use. These are wave files, convered into sound fonts and work exactly like the MIDI sounds (except that they have to be supported by the sound card as far as the pc is concerned).

I would be grateful if some one can give some detailed information on this.

Thanks, Narayanan

[lepetitmartien]

I can't tell for Logic but you'll can translated the soundfont using CDXtract into something else and use a virtual sample player/sampler.

Anyway you won't be stopped using them. There may be other possibilites but I don't know everything (yet

Welcome on Macintosh anyway

[Narayan]

Thanks for the encouraging reply. Still, I would also like to know whether we need any specialised kind of audio gear to run Logic pro/express, or the on board sound card is good enough!
Narayanan

[mattygukas]

I too recently bought a G4 powerbook and use Finale to compose percussion music. I too use a soundfont and am looking for a way to use that on a Mac. I have used a program to pull out the sounds as a AIF file. How do I get those files in a form where I can map them in Finale?

Regards,

MM

[brendan]

Hey now,

I believe that there are sound font-playing AU plugins for the mac:

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/SoundFontSynth/

That one's $15. I seem to recall a free one, but I can't remember what it's called.

Hope that helps.

[brendan]

Honestly, unless you buy a G5 with the optical digital audio in, you're going to need some alternative sound input and output device, like one of the Roland/Edirol USB boxes. Pretty much any one of them will do the trick to get you started. I have friends who have completed movie soundtracks using only a 1.6 ghz G5, Logic 7, and a cheapo Edirol USB audio interface.

Hope this helps.

[mattygukas]

Thanks...I'll try that. The sound fonts is all I need but Narayan might need some external boxes.

MM

[azusa]

I use Vsamp and Mach5 for working with soundfont.
Vsamp works directly with soundfont. It's $36 shareware.
On Mach5 you need to convert the patch which is easy, a couple of clicks and you're done.

In some case you may need sfArk to decompress soundfont file.
You can get it here: http://melodymachine.com/sfark.htm
It's a freeware.