Soundfonts Showdown! Comparing five different fonts.

[@skeetodev]

I really like hearing these side-by-side comparisons. It's like hearing different artists perform the same song.

[@DoomKid]

Really nice comparison video, and thanks for the shoutout. 0:49 cracked me up by the way!

[@getoffmylawn6692]

I'll always point out when another good channel has an idea before me! Your content is great.

[@SlyHikari03]

Touhou, SGM, Arachno and Timbres of heaven are my faves. Fatboy is cool too. Man I really need to get a SD-90.

[@Arachnosoft]

Don Allen's Timbres of Heaven is, actually, partially based on Arachno SoundFont. As a result, it also suffers from the same loudness issues as Arachno SoundFont ^^ Although I tried to reduce this issue, that's maybe THE point I've read the most about it. But, yes, ToH seems to be even MUCH louder... The distortion level is awfully huge @8:17... Never experienced that with this SoundFont and CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth, to be honest. But my last review of ToH was made several years ago, back when I discovered it on MIDKAR... Thanks for the objective comparison once again, and for featuring Fatboy. I never heard of this new SoundFont before, I'll check it out!

[@getoffmylawn6692]

I have no idea why ToH decides to amp itself up like that, but none of the other soundfonts I've tried have ever struggled the same way, including your own. I have to say, the more I listen to Arachno the more I find myself using it. I'm really starting to lean towards using it exclusively from here on out. Thus ends my gushing fanboy comment.

[@iluvsyphonfilter]

Hey Maxime, are the sounds from Arachno SF recorded from live instruments or keyboard samples?

[@TatharNuar]

After using Timbres of Heaven, I'm convinced it's just a meme soundfont. I've used Fatboy ever since. Wish you didn't need to dig through archives to get it. Also it makes RPG Maker XP's OST sound amazing.

[@alyctro8158]

Every soundfont has its own gain levels (normalisation), which is also affected by the notes velocity, and also the limitter on the soundfont player which tries to cut anything above 0db. But most likely, thhose songs in particular were made with a specific soundfont and had their velocities higher to compensate for the lower volume of the sound. Which causes some other soundfonts being played through the same midi file to be distorted. Easy solution is to just decrease the gain of the song, or the harder solution, going into the midi file and normalizing the velocities for that particular soundfont. Hope that helps in the future. And, if you're a real saddist you can open a soundfont editor, go into each instrument preset, and normalize each sample to a specific level such as -6db in this case perhaps.

[@iamlordstarbuilder5595]

Arachno is a destroyer. Wow. Even SGM struggles to match Arachno.

[@Splotch-015]

This guy looks like he has more subscribers than he actually does. Too bad, he deserves them.

[@SianaGearz]

Timbres of Heaven clips most synth engines, at least ones that don't have brickwall limiting. To fix that, you can just apply a gain of -18db or so, that should about level it with most others.

[@crnkmnky]

FatBoy and Ultimate MegaDrive both sound pretty sweet to me. 🎶😽 Thanks!

[@crnkmnky]

I stumbled upon this shootout while researching acceptable SoundFonts for Helio Workstation. This morning, I watched a ton of lousy GoAnimate cartoons on the Techy Help channel. Their nightclub music reminds me of a mediocre wavetable player. 🥁 Now I’m off to watch all of your _Chex Quest_ videos to satisfy my craving. 😸

[@theneoncactus2743]

Wow, pretty quality content!

[@getoffmylawn6692]

Thank you! More soundfont-related stuff will be coming soon.

[@ladycroina6032]

Wow what a brilliant video on sound fonts

[@getoffmylawn6692]

I know you're such a massive fan about sound fonts. I can sense the sarcasm from here! :D

[@Mike77154]

fatboy have cool orchestral trumpet and timpani

[@TakenUsernameAuradium]

i honestly knew most of these from.. You guessed it! Undertale

[@mikesol1162]

The original track is recorded directly from a Roland SC-55. Some of these soundfonts compare very favorably with that device. Very impressive.

[@jessesmith915]

Am I the only one who just messes around with midis and different soundfonts.

[@getoffmylawn6692]

Trust me, you are not alone! There are dozens of us!

[@TheRareMusicArchiveCollection]

You should cover airfont 400

[@hitherescotty]

Cool

[@hitherescotty]

Would love titles of the Soundfonts used in each example in the mega mix starting at 5:21 to show on the vid. I like the 3rd one there btw.

[@getoffmylawn6692]

Links have now been added for those 8/16 bit console fonts!

[@crnkmnky]

@@getoffmylawn6692 🌀🦔🆒

[@reallife_touhoujunko8203]

I need assistance, I’m trying to find a sound font that has the same bass as like, suspense bass in move trailers you know what I mean, or like heavy guitar bass that sounds like something terrible is gonna happen, yknow? Anything that sounds familiar will work, it’s just every time I try the sounds from my program the sounds are either too low and loud or too quite. Plz help. Yes I know this channel isn’t really a sound font channel but maybe you’d still know ?

[@getoffmylawn6692]

Sadly I don't know of a soundfont that fits this description. Sorry I couldn't be any help!

[@reallife_touhoujunko8203]

@@getoffmylawn6692 it’s alright I think I found one, it’s called cinematic trailer openers

[@tharii314]

I made one too

[@YuutaTogashi0707]

The touhou soundfont is flawed the touhou music is made with mostly roland stuff but the soundfont ruins how it's supposed to sound like

[@bcoon2000]

Can you compare orpheus soundfont?

[@getoffmylawn6692]

I shall stick it on my to do list!

[@slava_geese]

Блин, вроде русские сняли про всё но все равно приходится американцев смотреть. Да американцы интереснее чем многие русские но я еле понимаю вас:(

[@getoffmylawn6692]

Я не американец.

[@slava_geese]

@@getoffmylawn6692 Вот это поворот

[@Cynidecia]

Good on you for not exploring touhou. Its something I had a passing interest in but the sheer amount of anime girls and lack of English support made me stay away

[@TheRealFraston]

Love or hate the country of origin and medium, the music is fire and it pulls you in anyway

[@Cynidecia]

@@TheRealFraston id like to play shooters of it's kind but it's far too anime for my taste.

[@dr.koupop880]

@@Cynidecia Fair, but it's worth a shot. I play games I don't like the look of most of the time, these games I'm asked to play; SplitGate, Borderlands, Assassins Creed and a few others. I'm not a fan of western design philosophy but, I gave them a try. I'm not pressuring you either. Just saying that it's sometimes good to put your bias aside and try new things.

[@edsiefker1301]

It's surprisingly good! I'm not a weeb by any stretch of the imagination, but I had a lot of fun with Touhou. Great music, and the bullet hell difficulty is not as bad Cave shooters.

[@halinaqi2194]

@@Cynidecia u dont have to play the games, i only played 1 PCB and beat it on Normal. But the music is very accessible, the OG game soundtracks are very good, and the fan community has remixed its tracks into almost every time of genre there is, so there is bound to be a lot that you like.

[@TheFellerHasAChannelGodDamnIt]

For me, Touhou for the feeling, and TOH for that painful feeling.

[@TheRealFraston]

The Roland/Edirol SD-90 Romantic TP trumpet used in the Touhou soundfont is unbeatable. That and the saxophones are the only actual samples used in Touhou music that are in the soundfont. The rest is just weird, unsourceable filler to get it to GM status.