Download a sound bank (SoundFonts) to emulate real instruments
Why a SoundBank?
Nothing beats the sound of a real instrument. A computer program, as sophisticated as possible, will never render an instrument in a perfect realistic way.
The sound banks, as they contain samples of real instrument, can get you closer to the most realistic sound for your Karaoke player.
More informations on how to improve MIDI sound
Which one?
The sound banks proposed on this page are my favorites and the one I use almost always.
- Timbres of Heaven from Don Allen (354 Mb)
- Arachno Soundfont from Maxime Abbey (148 Mb uncompressed)
They contain all the 128 MIDI instruments, so you will have no any other manipulation to do once downloaded and set up in the VirtualMidiSynth synthesizer.
Where can I find others?
There are many others available on the internet, some are general, they contain the 128 instruments of the MIDI standard (GM), and others are specialized for a single instrument (piano, guitar etc …).
Share your experience
If you use SoundBanks, do not hesitate to share your experiences, otherwise, start with the one I propose and make your own idea.
Notes:
Downloading a sound bank (SoundFonts) only makes sense if you have downloaded previously a synthesizer capable of managing it. This is the combination of the two that will allow you to significantly improve the sound reproduction of your MIDI songs.
The SoundBank (SoundFonts) is a creation of E-mu.
A SoundBank contains samples of many instruments.
These samples are in .wav format and are organized as MIDI instruments for use by applications that use this format.