 General
MIDI
Creative provides 3 General MIDI (GM) SoundFonts
with the SBLive! drivers - a 2MB, 4MB and 8MB. These SoundFonts contain
the instruments that allow you to playback .MID files on the SBLive!
The GM Standard
The General MIDI standard specifies a standard list of 128
instruments and 1 drum set consisting of percussion sounds
mapped to notes on the musical keyboard. For example, instrument 1 will
always be a Piano on all GM devices. This enables composers to write music
and the correct instruments will be used even when the compsition is played
on different GM devices.
Problems With GM
That's where the problem arises. Most manufacturers make
use of their own set of GM instruments. Therefore the timbre, nuances
and sound quality of each instrument is slightly different. On really
bad GM sound sets, the MIDI file can sound really weird. If the composer
heard his composition like that, he'll puke! :)
Roland
Fortunately, there is a reference set of sounds that is
regard as an unofficial "standard". That is Roland's
GM sound set found on their SoundCanvas
line of sound modules. Since Roland was one of the first manufacturers
to release a General MIDI product, and because the quality of their GM
sound set is regarded as one of the best available, it is now the reference
standard that all other GM sound sets are compared to.
 Both
Apple and Microsoft have licensed Roland's GS sound set for software wavetable
synthesis. QuickTime 4.0 includes this sound set. GS is an extension
to GM, which includes variations sounds for some instruments, and also
adds several new drum kits like Orchestral and Jazz.
Utopia
Utopia's aim was to create a GM SoundFont for the SBLive!
to provide MIDI playback that surpasses the quality of those that came
with the SBLive! I believe many of us are disappointed at the way MIDI
files sound with the built-in 2MB, 4MB and 8MB SoundFonts provided by
EMU.
Let's find out more about how SoundFonts are created...
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