? about Soundblaster Synth A/Synth B and relationship to b..

[Doc]

Archived from groups: cakewalk.audio,comp.music.midi,creative.products.sound_blaster.audigy,rec.audio.pro (More info?)

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.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: cakewalk.audio,comp.music.midi,creative.products.sound_blaster.audigy,rec.audio.pro (More info?)

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

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: cakewalk.audio,comp.music.midi,creative.products.sound_blaster.audigy,rec.audio.pro (More info?)

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" <docsavage20@xhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:60lLe.4907$RZ2.2085@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.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.
>
>
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: cakewalk.audio,comp.music.midi,creative.products.sound_blaster.audigy,rec.audio.pro (More info?)

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
news:CrWdnZ2dnZ0ccze8nZ2dnT-UY9-dnZ2dRVn-0Z2dnZ0@giganews.com...
> 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
>
>