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#1
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? about Soundblaster Synth A/Synth B and relationship to banks/channels/ports
Apparently I've been operating under a misconception about something
regarding the SB Audigy/Live cards and their "Synth A/B" I thought that these were two essentially identical internal synths that allowed you increase the number of instruments you can access from various banks. But perhaps not. Under CWPA8, when I choose the midi output ports, in this case using an Audigy2, I have Synth A at the top and Synth B as the second choice. When I go to a particular track and look at the track properties dialogue box which gives you choices for port, source, channel, bank select method etc., the choices under port are Audigy wave, Sounfont device and Sythn B. First, why is the one choice called Soundont device and not Synth A? With Soundfont device chosen, if I have one or more Soundfont banks attached to a particular project, with controller set to 0, I can go under the bank field and see the various banks - sf1, sf2 etc. However, if I have Synth B chosen, when I go under the bank select field, I don't get the sf1, sf2 etc. options. Sounds will come out, but they're obviously different than those that come out when I have Soundfont Device chosen. I assume these different sounds are coming from the Audigy's built in bank. Can anyone explain what the distinction is between Soundfont Device, Synth A & Synth B? Thanks for all shared wisdom. |
#2
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Synth A and B are soundfont devices. The reason they're two is because the
MIDI spec allows for only 16 channels ( I think ) and having 2 synths allows for more channels. You can indiviually assign different soundfonts to each synth. The available synths should be Synth A, Synth B which're soundfont devices and the soft synth which doesn't support soundfonts. In addition to that there is a hardware accelerated DirectMusic Synth used by DirectX. This can be tested by running DXDiag.Exe from the run menu. "Doc" wrote in message ink.net... Apparently I've been operating under a misconception about something regarding the SB Audigy/Live cards and their "Synth A/B" I thought that these were two essentially identical internal synths that allowed you increase the number of instruments you can access from various banks. But perhaps not. Under CWPA8, when I choose the midi output ports, in this case using an Audigy2, I have Synth A at the top and Synth B as the second choice. When I go to a particular track and look at the track properties dialogue box which gives you choices for port, source, channel, bank select method etc., the choices under port are Audigy wave, Sounfont device and Sythn B. First, why is the one choice called Soundont device and not Synth A? With Soundfont device chosen, if I have one or more Soundfont banks attached to a particular project, with controller set to 0, I can go under the bank field and see the various banks - sf1, sf2 etc. However, if I have Synth B chosen, when I go under the bank select field, I don't get the sf1, sf2 etc. options. Sounds will come out, but they're obviously different than those that come out when I have Soundfont Device chosen. I assume these different sounds are coming from the Audigy's built in bank. Can anyone explain what the distinction is between Soundfont Device, Synth A & Synth B? Thanks for all shared wisdom. |
#3
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Doc,
First, why is the one choice called Soundont device and not Synth A? Sharanga gave you the right answer: Each MIDI device supports only channels 1 through 16, so to be able to play 32 different instruments at once the sound card divides it up into two devices. I'll add that the term "SoundFont Device" is Cakewalk's wording. Most other programs display the two synth names as Synth A and Synth B. If you're using Cakewalk products with SoundFonts, there are a number of articles on my web site you'll find relevant and useful: www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html You might also consider upgrading from PA8 to one of the more modern programs Cakewalk offers. The newer ones are a lot better than PA8, and don't cost a lot. --Ethan |
#4
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Independent of Cakewalk products, the Soundfont loader from Creative allows
you to select which Synth (A or B) you're loading soundfonts to. It defaults to Synth A. -- Sue Morton "Ethan Winer" ethanw at ethanwiner dot com wrote in message ... Doc, First, why is the one choice called Soundont device and not Synth A? Sharanga gave you the right answer: Each MIDI device supports only channels 1 through 16, so to be able to play 32 different instruments at once the sound card divides it up into two devices. I'll add that the term "SoundFont Device" is Cakewalk's wording. Most other programs display the two synth names as Synth A and Synth B. If you're using Cakewalk products with SoundFonts, there are a number of articles on my web site you'll find relevant and useful: www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html You might also consider upgrading from PA8 to one of the more modern programs Cakewalk offers. The newer ones are a lot better than PA8, and don't cost a lot. --Ethan |