I have some GM midi files that I want to play with best possible quality. I use Studio One and mostly Kontakt for my sound libs. I was wondering if anyone know a high quality GM VST or GM sounds for Kontakt or any other solution. What's the best one I could get?

And btw, it will be a blessing if I get something that opens in studio one and automatically adds the right sounds to each midi track.

 

It is very old technology that was basically abandoned, because these midi modules got obsolete - software vsts replaced them.
Create your own template with Kontakt sounds - this is my advice.

 

There aren't that many instruments in the GM soundset so I agree with 2848392 (sorry if I got your name wrong).

I may do that myself, sounds like a nice project.

Maybe there's a GM file that uses all of the instruments, that would be useful. Anyone?

 

The biggest one sample-wise could be Goliath by East West. EW writes:

But in my opinion it has the same problem as NI had with Bandstand decades ago: It doesn't sound right.
MIDI files were made with (and thus for) a specific synth. And usually that's also the only synth that sounds right with this MIDI file. In most cases it's probably a Sound Canvas. So the best guess might be Roland's own Sound Canvas VA. Another popular synth would be Yamaha's S-YXG50. It covers a lot of XG devices and PSR keyboards.

 

Or you could go with this: https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

I actually just built one of these with a spare Pi3B+ I had laying around. It's probably the most authentic experience you'll get, using the right/suggested soundfonts OR just go with the built-in MT-32 Emulation. The cool thing about this is you can use ANY soundfont you want and it's multi timbral and controllable from a master Keyboard or Computer via USB.

 

you and i seem to share a lot of the same interests. i can tell you that you most likely will not be satisfied with any of the solutions offered here. but i agree with olaf when he says that the roland sound canvas is your best bet because many of the gm files on the web were created with that unit. there is an r2r crack of the vst version of the roland sound canvas on the sister site.

 

Roland - Sound Canvas VA ( MIDI Format: Conforms to GS, GM2, GM)
www.roland.com/us/products/rc_sound_canvas_va/specifications/

 

Thanks a lot for your replies. I am going to get roland sound canvas and check it out.curious to see how it sounds.
On my side let me share the only other solution I found:

Steinberg lets you download and use Halion Sonic SE for free. https://www.steinberg.net/en/landing_pages/halion_sonic_se_3/halion_sonic_se_free.html

You can also get Doric SE Notation program for free and it comes with free Halion sounds that include the Steinberg Halion GM soundset.
https://www.steinberg.net/dorico/se/

With the soundpack you get with Dorico, you have your GM lib and when you load a MIDI file in Halion it will use that and loads every instrument correctly. This is on the standalone Halion. I could not find a way to do this with the Halion VST in StudioOne. So I have to assign each instrument separately.

Maybe SoundCanvas has better sounds! This is what I am going to test right away

 

A little complicated! No SoundCanvas on sister! So got Roland VirtualSonics Legendary & AIRA Series 2018 from there and extracted soundcanvas from it. SoundCanvas inside is a vst2. Runs without problem in studioone. But I have to open the midi file in StudioOne and then drag drop soundcanvas on each midi track. Am I doing this right? or is there an easier way to load the midi file in canvas!!?

 

Not sure what version you're using exactly, but the regular Sound Canvas VA is 16-part multitimbral. With just one instance, you can route any MIDI tracks to 16 separate channels.
Here's a guide for Studio One: https://ask.video/article/presonus-...ltitimbral-instruments-in-presonus-studio-one

 

Thanks a lot for the guide. this is what I needed
The version of SoundCanvas I got from the package is : Sound Canvas VA Version 1.13 (s) (Build 130)

 

I used to have an AWE32 Sound Blaster back in the day, followed by an SB Audigy Platinum, which both had onboard MIDI sounds, making it very quick & easy to set up and use Cubase for MIDI composition. I also had that very tasty sounding Yamaha SYXG100 MIDI driver for Windows for general playback of MIDI files, but sadly, that driver/program became unusable with operating system 'upgrades'. At the time it did not matter so much as I was still able to use a Yamaha PSR keyboard as both my MIDI keys and sound module in one. There are modern workarounds for this, thankfully... Falcosoft MIDI Player (2nd in the list) and CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth.

I also went through a phase of using Edirol Virtual Sound Canvas... then Hyper Canvas (which since made its way into Cakewalk)... then after that, I converted to SampleTank. But I wish it was possible to buy decent, modern soundcards/interfaces that still had internal MIDI synths/soundfonts, especially if it were to sound like the SYXG50 (and not those nasty, cheap looking, cheap-sounding piles of crap by Midiplus/Pianobox/V3!). & So, I ended up looking into alternative methods...

If, like me, you're not a fan of those old Roland sounds, you could, perhaps, try one of these VSTi's and then load in your preferred soundfonts...

• VSTSynthFont for just 15 Euros (which also unlocks SynthFont2!)

Simple, traditional interface, easy to use

Or, some freebie options include...

• BeatAssist Gotcha

Very powerful but with messy interface

• Juicy SF

Clean, simple interface with features such as envelope & filter

• Falcosoft BassMIDI (scroll to near bottom - second from last on the page)

Nice, clean, simple interface with useful controls, but very small GUI. If you have a 1440p resolution (or higher) you will need a microscope to see it!

Some of these offerings are multichannel, but others may require a new instance per track (it's been a while since I tried them).

Personally, my favourite on this list is probably VSTSynthFont and I'll be buying it as soon as I get back into regular music composition.

 

I have an old Yamaha TG300 in the cupboard, pretty sure that's a GM module but I haven't ran it for maybe ten years, I always assumed software instruments were way ahead of it. Maybe I'm wrong... Hmm...

 

I totally agree. Maybe after all the best solution is to load the midi file in a gm software, just to see what instruments are used on each track and then use good vst replacement instruments. Don't think for a second that I like using old GM sounds. This is simply my battle to replace low quality or bad sounding Karaoke with something descent to be able to sing on. Have not even been lucky enough till now to find good midi versions of songs I am after!

 

Most of my career in music involved making backing tracks from midi files, I mostly only needed the drums and bass but also I liked to create the full track with real instruments alongside so each member of the band could have their own backing track for rehearsing with. Figuring out what the instruments were was always a pain until Studio One came along and I could just load the track and it would load all the instruments automatically.

I'd be surprised if the TG300 sound set hasn't been sampled and uploaded somewhere - other modules have, I believe, but at this stage in the evolution of DAWs it seems a pointless exercise. Replacing each instrument is definitely the way to go now, maybe also there are specific patches available for VSTi instruments for specific songs, that's worth searching for I think.

 

It's covered by the S-YXG50. When sending a GS ON command, it switches to a "TG300B" mode.

 

Crinklebumps, can you please tell me how you manage to load your midi files in StudioOne to have all instruments load automatically? When I open a midi file in StudioOne it asks me: "Do you want to load general midi sounds for this file". I choose yes, but the file opens with no Instrument! see image:
You must have set a default instrument for GM? If it would tell me what instrument is on each channel then I could apply them from my personal vst libs.

 

Last edited: Mar 1, 2022

As far as I can see, the whole song is on the track one, but remember that they're on different MIDI channels. If you add Roland Sound Canvas on the first track it should play just fine. It seems that StudioOne doesn't know how to separate MIDI channels? So why did it make all other tracks... weird. In Reaper, when I load a multi-channel MIDI file, which they practically all are, it separates it properly on all up to 16 tracks, then I put them into a folder, put Sound Canvas on the main folder track and it plays everything properly.

 

Information on DAW software compatible with SOUND Canvas VA.



Attached is a PDF from Roland / Sound Canvas, which DAW works and which does not !

 

Last edited: Mar 1, 2022

Luxonix Purity

This is my go-to for PCM/GM sounds. (not free, but sounds are top-notch)