Scratch
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#1 2011-12-16 09:46:50
- Paddle2See
- Scratch Team
- Registered: 2007-10-27
- Posts: 1000+
Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
Scratch 1.4 allows Scratchers to create musical projects using the "set instrument", "play note", and "play drum" blocks. These blocks make use of music synthesizers built into the OS or Java. Unfortunately, for various reasons, Scratch 2.0 can't use those synthesizers, so we have to build our own synthesizer and musical instrument library. We've made a start. To hear the results so far, you can run musical projects using the Flash-based player on the Scratch website. You'll probably notice that most of our instruments don't sound great.
We want to improve both the number and quality of the instruments in Scratch 2.0, and we could use help. We're looking for links to free musical instrument files in SoundFont format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_font) that we can incorporate into Scratch 2.0.
Here's a list of the instruments we're looking for:
Acoustic Piano
Electric Piano
Organ
Harpsichord
Acoustic Guitar
Electric Guitar
Bass (acoustic or electric)
Brass
Clarinet
Double-reed (bassoon/oboe)
Sax
Flute
Wooden Flute
Bowed String (violin or cello)
Pizzicato String
Marimba
Vibraphone
Dulcimer
Steel Drum
Music Box
Human Voice ("ooh" or "aah")
Orchestra Hit
Synth Lead
Synth Pad
We can only use SoundFonts that are public domain or available under a license that allows us to distribute them freely, such as a Creative Commons license.
We're limited in size. The entire library should be no more than two megabytes. Assuming we include 25 instruments, each instrument should be about 80k in size.
But we may be able to do some compression, so if you find something good, post a link to it anyway.
What tools can you use to listen to SoundFonts? On the Macintosh, you can try a combination of:
MidiKeys (http://www.manyetas.com/creed/midikeys.html)
and
SimpleSynth (http://notahat.com/simplesynth)
However, if you know of better tools, or tools for other platforms (Windows,
Linux), please post links here. Also, let us know if you can recommend any SoundFont editing tools.
Thank you, and Happy Hunting!
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#2 2011-12-16 10:00:44
- RedRocker227
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-10-26
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
How about this for piano? It's only 128kb. I haven't downloaded it myself though, so I don't know what it's like.
Last edited by RedRocker227 (2011-12-16 10:04:39)
Why
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#3 2011-12-16 10:24:17
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
Hey everyone - it's also possible to Make your own soundfonts, which would be awesome....
Help Scratchers make the leap to 2.0!
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#4 2011-12-16 10:47:28
- stevetheipad
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-08-06
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
Lightnin wrote:
Hey everyone - it's also possible to Make your own soundfonts, which would be awesome....
Eeek, this looks complicated!
I'll try to build something but it seems a little past my audio ability. 
gone
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#5 2011-12-16 10:49:25
- Codebreaker
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-10-03
- Posts: 100+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
I can help with the instruments! I have an electric piano, and some other instruments. I'll also try to make a soundfont...
Latest project: Pixelation/Upcoming project(s): M.A.Z.E Runner
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#6 2011-12-20 10:05:04
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
It would also be great if you could send midi-notes to a synth, some kind of broadcast to Midi-synth (so you could use VST-instruments in ex. cubase or something else). If you understand me... ?
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#7 2011-12-23 17:44:31
- monsterbear
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2010-07-21
- Posts: 9
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
who here knows the shift click the loop int the R to open squeck trick (only on pc)
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#8 2011-12-23 17:58:18
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
Lightnin wrote:
Hey everyone - it's also possible to Make your own soundfonts, which would be awesome....
LOL yeah I tried that once... I put my voice going "pop"
I failed to code it into the block though...
If you are reading this, please read to the end, because if you don't you won't know what's at the end. Don't just skip to the end though otherwise you won't be able to read the middle, which is most important. Now you must be wondering why you just read all that, the reason is you may have not noticed something, read it again and see if you notice it this time
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#9 2011-12-23 19:42:07
- rookwood101
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-07-29
- Posts: 500+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
May I ask why you chose to use such an unsupported and little-used format?
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#10 2011-12-24 04:57:02
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
rookwood101 wrote:
May I ask why you chose to use such an unsupported and little-used format?
It's probably one that they can support easily using Flash...
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#11 2011-12-24 06:20:14
- rookwood101
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-07-29
- Posts: 500+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
LS97 wrote:
rookwood101 wrote:
May I ask why you chose to use such an unsupported and little-used format?
It's probably one that they can support easily using Flash...
Just googled it and they're probably using http://code.google.com/p/flash-midi-player/
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#12 2011-12-24 06:59:26
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
rookwood101 wrote:
LS97 wrote:
rookwood101 wrote:
May I ask why you chose to use such an unsupported and little-used format?
It's probably one that they can support easily using Flash...
Just googled it and they're probably using http://code.google.com/p/flash-midi-player/
Ooh interesting!
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#13 2011-12-25 09:51:18
- midnightleopard
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2007-09-13
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
I might be able to make some guitar ones. I have an electric, an acoustic and bass.
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#14 2011-12-25 12:09:32
- Mcsugarface
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2009-11-16
- Posts: 100+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
Found this with a Google search. Has lots of free SoundFont downloads, but I don't think many of the are below 2MB.
Hi! I'm
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#15 2012-01-14 11:37:29
- scratcher7_14
- New Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-10-25
- Posts: 5
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
I have two saxophone soundfonts. I use them in my music.
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#16 2012-01-14 13:04:48
- rookwood101
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-07-29
- Posts: 500+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
I have found the program 'polyphontics' for mac. I cannot find any program (that will run on my modern windows machine) that can create soundfonts. http://sonicamigos.com/polyphontics/
Edit: I will have a go at creating soundfonts of the clarinet and the guitar (the two instruments I play)
Last edited by rookwood101 (2012-01-14 13:14:02)
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#19 2012-01-15 09:25:30
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
The best soundfont I could find was this, but it's about 200MB in size. eesh.
Perhaps you could have an option to assign a sound to an instrument, like tracker software. That way, people could make 8-bit or dubstep music, or whatever. Also, that would probably reduce the file size of such songs. Then, you could get a midi soundfont, dissect it, and upload the separate files to the cloud, for people to download.
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#21 2012-01-31 22:10:02
- XenoK_Studios
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-12-10
- Posts: 500+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
I own a piano, electric violin, a viola, an acoustic, as well as electric guitar, a mandolin, and a virtual mixer. I might be able to help.
New signature under construction
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#22 2012-01-31 22:25:43
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
XenoK_Studios wrote:
I own a piano, electric violin, a viola, an acoustic, as well as electric guitar, a mandolin, and a virtual mixer. I might be able to help.
But can you use them to make something under 2 MB?
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#23 2012-02-01 09:21:29
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
http://musescore.org/en/handbook/soundfont
It lists some soundfonts there. I use TimGM6mb.sf2, and it's very good. If you've ever used the MuseScore notation program (which I use), it's the default one.
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#24 2012-02-01 15:31:16
- eventexception
- Scratcher
- Registered: 2011-04-08
- Posts: 500+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
Lightnin wrote:
Hey everyone - it's also possible to Make your own soundfonts, which would be awesome....
How about persuading a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_school
to join the bandwagon?
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#25 2012-02-10 09:30:18
- MyRedNeptune
- Community Moderator
- Registered: 2007-05-07
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Help us find instruments for Scratch 2.0!
I have a few questions. Does this mean that Scratch 2.0 will have 25 instruments total? Also, what's the size of the current Scratch sample library?
I know what you're thinking! "Neptune! Get rid of those filthy advertisements and give us back the Zarathustra siggy, you horrible person!" Well, don't worry about it, the Zara siggy will be back soon, new and improved! ^^ Meanwhile, just do what the sig tells you to. >.>Offline