GM Soundset?

Indigo_blues

New member
Hi, just got a copy of cubase LE which already comes with a basic GM soundset. I was just wondering if there are any free GM soundsets which are of slightly better quality out there compatible with cubase... does anyone know? Thanks in advance.

:wink:
 
No aware of any free GM VSTi (could the others help?)
You could however download a free Soundfont VSTi player and one of those free GM soundfonts and see if they work for you.

Here's a starting point:
http://www.kvraudio.com/
 
hey thanks for the reply! i think i will check it out.

I think probably need to look for a free VST instument with GM soundset although nowadays if composing own music its probably easier to go with VST synths and then just save to mp3. Anyone got any tips in this regard? Probably something with a nice drum kit and something for strings.
 
I'm not aware of any free GM soundsets either. The cheapest GM soundset I know is the Virtual Soundcanvas by Edirol:

http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/DXi/ED.asp

This will give you basic GM sounds - should be sufficient for most things. If you want to go for better sounds, it can get costly - so you need to know exactly what instruments/sounds you want. What kind of music are you writing? What is your budget?

Very hard to get a library/VSTi that includes both strings and drums - they belong to 2 very different categories. Strings are usually bundled under orchestral instruments; drums are mostly sold separately or bundled with other jazz instruments which exclude strings. Virutal soundcanvas may be your best choice.

There are lots of free VSTis out there, but may not give you the sound you want. Although some of them are pretty good, it will be hard to find good strings sound that's free.
 
Indigo_blues said:
Probably something with a nice drum kit and something for strings.

Giving the intended style that the songs will be in would be helpful
eg
ballads - need drums with nice long reverbs, "dreamy" strings with bells etc.
rock - hard cracking snares, punchy kicks, fast strings/pads
pop - "friendly" sounding drums, "fat pads/sweeps"

you get the idea.
 
I tend to compose more ballads and poppy tunes.. not into rock or too heavy stuff. I like acoustic pieces too so I think a good drum soundset is very important. A good set of sounds for the washes/strings/oohs/ahhs for ballads would be nice actually.

I have an old SCB-55, you know the old roland daughter board for the old soundblasters with the GS soundset but eversince the computer got upgraded got no more ISA slots for the old soundblaster so its kinda wasted. Still find that the sounds on that old board were superb. I have tried the virtual soundcanvas with sonar2 and thought it sounded quite nice compared to my old board. However just switched to cubase so i'm in a fix again.

If there is a VST virtual soundcanvas i'll probably end up using that. :D
 
Cheez would be in a better position to advise you on this.
I'm more of a "virtual analog" person (ie I'm into the Juno-106, Minimoog V, Prophet 5 type of electronic sounds)
 
haha i was just browsing lah.. for my 'serious' work i usually borrow the jv1080 from church to sequence. I just need a decent sounding 'free' gm instrument.
 
Colossus by East West is the largest GM soundset to date. But I think it didn't do as well as they thought it would. Only people into serious softsampling will spend that kind of money on a library - and believe me, there's many more things we will want to with that money rather than GM sounds! People who wants to try out GM sounds will never spend that kind of money - much cheaper to get a JV1010. 32GB of GM sound is just plain silly - I now have close to 100GB of samples; I will be crazy if a third of that is just GM. I can spend less money on dedicated sounds with better quality - may not get the entire GM template (I don't use more than half the GM sounds regularly anyway) but will sound much better with more articulations etc.

The thing with GM is about playback - so standard midi files can be played. But if we want to compose and write music with softsynths/softsamplers we should focus and invest on only the sounds we usually use/need. Eg - I never use the Shamisen, any of the guitars, the sound of the bird or gunshot and many other sounds etc etc in GM. Why pay so much money for that??

Anyway, since you already use the JV1080 from your church, just keep using that. I would try lowjk's idea about free soundfonts. If you really want GM sounds in software form, don't pay more than the virtual soundcanvas.
 
yups thanks cheez and lowjk for the advice. yes it's probably better to invest in specific softsynths for specific purposes rather than just a 'general' instrument. haha..

i'll go do some exploring on VST instruments then..

cheers!
 
There are lots of FREE (and legal softsynths). You just have to searh for them on the KVRaudio website.
 
Hi,

I've installed the sfz player but my cubase le can't seem to recognise it. When i press F11, the sfz doesn't show up on the list. Is there something i'm doing wrong?
 
Indigo_blues said:
Hi,

I've installed the sfz player but my cubase le can't seem to recognise it. When i press F11, the sfz doesn't show up on the list. Is there something i'm doing wrong?

You either install into the Cubase VSTi directory or tell Cubase LE where to look for your VSTi.

Eg I install all my VSTi into C:\VSTi folder.

Then run Cubase.
Open Devices|Plug-In Information
Look under VSTi Plugins
In my case, I would put "C:\VSTi" under the shared VST plug-ins folder.

Then click on "update"
Exit the program and restart.

The newly installed VST should be found.
 
hey thanks! The cubase recognised the sfz.


But got another problem.. i loaded the nsf free drum kit sound font version (about 200mb).. but no sound coming out. i see the meter jumping but no sound. Now what is the problem?

Thanks for all the help!!
 
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