Last Changed 09/24/2005

SoundFont^® Banks

Our SoundFont^® Banks have been designed in Vienna 2.3 and tested on a Creative Labs SB Live! sound card, and are 100% SoundFont compatible.
However, there are compatibility issues with devices that claim to be SoundFont compatible, particularly where percussive sounds are concerned. Even the conversion program supplied with Emu EmulatorX does not convert the SoundFonts at 100% compatibility.

If you're thinking of designing your own SoundFont^® Banks, but you don't know how to get started, try our comprehensive Tutorial? It explains everything from the creation of waveforms, through to editing and looping them, and finally to compiling them into instruments and presets. This is a great introduction to SoundFont^® technology, and also contains some useful tips for experienced users.

Once you realize how difficult it is to create authentic-sounding analog SoundFont^® Banks, you might want to take a look at those we have on offer. They are very inexpensive, and contain some explosive vintage sounds.

Our RAM-conscious SoundFont^® Banks are small in size, but big on sound quality, versatility, and diversity. These SoundFont^® Banks are primo vintage emulations with hundreds of very unique and very evolving electronic sounds, all designed within the SoundFont^® II framework. Real time effects have been kept out of our banks to keep them consistent amongst different Soundfont^® II compatible machines, so, what you hear is what you get. If you've ever heard an Ensoniq ESQ-1 or SQ80, or a Roland Alpha Juno or Korg DW8000, then you know the power of the analog-digital hybrid synthesis we're using here. You will not be disappointed!

Note: These banks are completely different from our Emu banks - they are not conversions from Emu Banks.

We currently have the following SoundFont^® Banks available:

1. Vintage Synth 2001                $11.95   $19.95      3.7Mb zip

If you're into Dark Wave, Trance, Techno, Dance, Electronica, Synthpop, and other electronic music, Vintage Synth 2001 is a necessity for your collection! Growling, thumping, and pulsating basses. Screaming leads. Soaring pads. Gritty synths. They're all in here. If the words sweep, grunge, dirty, gritty, screaming, resonating, pounding, and stomping mean anything to you, then this is something you must have! The emphasis is on samples generated using proprietary, in-house software synths, and building instruments from small pieces into a huge crescendo of sound. You're looking at some very unique and highly evolving textures. Each patch name has been divided into a number of categories for easy referencing:

2. Vintage Drums 2001                $11.95   $21.95      3.2Mb zip

Being the sister of Vintage Synth 2001, Vintage Drums 2001 will keep your ears tuned in for months!  Obligatory TR909, TR808, and CR-78 emulations are included, as well as many other drum machines, real and imagined! Remember that since these are designed from the ground up rather than sampled from the original instruments, you do not have anything like this in your collection. They are very unique sounds with a flavour of the original drumboxes. Some TR909 kicks are heavier than the  original TR909. Some TR808 snares are snappier than the original TR808. In all cases, you get something unique and you get a lot of it. Favorites include the two huge analog kits, with around 6 octaves of percussion each, as well as the clean-sounding TR and CR kits, and the amazingly versatile FM Percussion kit! The list is extensive and includes over 500 drum sounds! A lot of people have raved about the kits in this bank and at this price you are getting a serious bargain. To give you an idea as to the extent of this SoundFont^® Bank, just take a look at what it contains:

3. Digital Bliss                $11.95   $19.95      1.1Mb zip

Digital Bliss follows in the very ample footsteps of Vintage Synth 2001, but this time with an emphasis on vintage digital and hybrid synths rather than just analog. However, this is not to say that all the sounds are digital. It contains a full complement of 128 patches, concentrating on digital pads, leads, basses, and FX, but still with some analog patches thrown in for good measure because you can't get enough of those! Don't mistake digital to mean thin. This SoundFont^® has enough low-end ballz to knock an elephant on its back! Several velocity-sensitive patches are also included, each responding to up to 7 layers of velocity. This gives you extremely expressive playability, which brings a live feel to your music and allows playback just like old analog synths. There is no description for these sounds!

4. Cheezoids                $11.95   $19.95       476Kb zip

This is the ultimate Digital emulation SoundFont^® Bank, and follows a path from 1981 to 1984, when analog was dying and the dawn of cheap digital had arrived. Did you miss out on the pioneering years of synth music?  Did you miss out on Hi-NRG, Eurobeat, or Italo Disco? Do you remember Trans-X, Tapps, The Flirts, People Like Us, Lime, or Fancy? Do you remember Speak and Spell from Depeche Mode, Yazoo (Yaz), Blancmange, OMD, and Dare from The Human League? Well this is your chance to get to grips with the type of sounds they were using during those pioneering synth years. A solid 128 patches of the coolest retro digital sounds around, and all with the usual Analoguesque quality. This SoundFont is predominantly Pads and Leads, but still with enough rocking bass thrown in to keep it mixed.

5. Buy all 4 SoundFonts for $44.95   (save $2.85 off individual purchases)

Customer Survey     ( Survey updated 03/23/2003)
In a recent survey we asked customers to rate our SoundFont ^® banks out of 5. The worst rating from any customer was a 3 for Vintage Synth 2001. However, several customers rated this at 4 and even 5, proving that you can't keep all of the people happy all of the time :). We averaged the results and tabulated them as follows:

SoundFont	Rating	Medals Table
Digital Bliss	4.7
Vintage Drums 2001	4.3
Vintage Synth 2001	4.3
Cheezoids	4.2

5 is the maximum score so all came very close to perfect ratings! Cheezoids has now been included in the survey, but less customers have rated it compared to the other SoundFonts. However, it did achieve great results anyway.

QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR SOUNDFONT^® BANKS?

SoundFont^® is a registered trademark of E-Mu Systems, Inc. in the United States of America and/or other countries

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