SoundFont Synth broken in Leopard

Question

Level 1

36 points

SoundFont Synth broken in Leopard

I just made a clean install (using migration assistant) of Leopard.
(Tiger still available on a second disk).
All seemed fine until I tried to play a previous GarageBand composition, which
sounded horrible.
The problem seems to be SoundFont Synth. Notes never end after they
have started. The same happens if I play them on a keyboard.
In addition, GarageBand crashes when I select SoundFont Synth and click on "manual".
None of these problems ever occurred with Tiger. I am using the lastest version
of everything except SoundFont Synth, which does not seem to exist anymore.

Can anyone reproduce this? It is hard to believe I am the only one.

Second question: is there a fix? DSLMusicDevice should be able to do this, but
I have never been able to use another instrument in a soundbank and save it
(I have succeeded in changing the instrument using a MIDI keyboard, but when
I save it and listen again I hear the first instrument from the bank, which usually is piano).
Is there any way to split a soundbank into separate instruments?

PowerMac G5 dual 2GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Dec 17, 2007 2:23 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 17, 2007 4:18 PM in response to Adrian_S

SoundFontSynth does work with Leopard, everything's fine in my installation.

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Answer 2

Adrian_S Author

Level 1

36 points

Dec 18, 2007 2:30 PM in response to Christoph Drösser

My version (2.0, PPC) definitely does not work. To eliminate Migration assistant as the culprit I
started all over again with a clean install, with absolutely nothing migrated. I upgraded to 10.5.1,
installed iLife 08, upgraded all programs to the latest version, and started Garageband, which
seemed to work OK. Then I copied SoundFontSynth.component from my Tiger hard disk to
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components. As far as I remember that is all I have to do. Started up
GarageBand, found SoundFont Synth V2.0 under Audio Unit Modules, clicked the little pencil
icon to the right of "Manual", and GarageBand crashes:

Exception Type: EXC BADACCESS (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: KERN INVALIDADDRESS at 0x00000000c35ad377

If someone has a working version for PPC, I would very much appreciate a copy. I have bought
a license code a few years ago, but apparently the plug-in is no longer available and I do not
know an alternative.

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Answer 3

Dec 24, 2007 12:28 AM in response to Adrian_S

Hi, I have a working PPC version of soundfontsynth, are you still looking for it? If you want I send you an email...

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Answer 4

Dec 24, 2007 3:24 AM in response to Adrian_S

I have to agree with Adrian, SoundFonts just keep playing on. Most of my music projects depend on these sounds and there are many that I can't replace by substituting a modified software instrument etc. This is particularly frustrating as I have a bad habit of leaving projects "hanging" unfinished, so when I get back to them later I realize there's nothing much to be done for them! Hopefully Apple or Andy (the developer of SoundFont Synth) can find a solution in the near future. SoundFonts are great and there are legions of them!

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Answer 5

Dec 24, 2007 3:30 AM in response to Arto Järvinen

Forgot to mention the specs: SoundFont Synth 2.2 Intel version on an iMac core duo Intel (1.83 MHz), 2 Gb of memory. I don't think it has anything to do with keyboard used because my M-Audio Keystation 61es worked just fine under Tiger with SoundFonts, and the problem is present, as Adrian already mentioned, with previously saved songs too.

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Answer 6

Dec 24, 2007 3:33 AM in response to Arto Järvinen

Have you got the intel version of soundfontsynth? Could you please send it via email at "agreatplay@aim.com"? I really need it! I bought a new mac and now I can't use the PPC version and the publisher's website is offline... Thanks

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Answer 7

Dec 24, 2007 6:37 AM in response to Advanced User

http://www.macmusic.org/software/view.php/lang/en/id/2444/

Works like a charm

Harry

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Answer 8

Adrian_S Author

Level 1

36 points

Dec 24, 2007 7:35 AM in response to Advanced User

OK, if you have a working version for PPC and leopard (mine worked fine under tiger)
please send it to aschellekens@mac.com. I would be very happy if I got it working again.

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Answer 9

Adrian_S Author

Level 1

36 points

Dec 24, 2007 7:37 AM in response to H Oudekerk

But did you manage to download it?
I get a "404 not found error", and I have tried many times and via
many different websites.

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Answer 10

Dec 24, 2007 9:03 AM in response to H Oudekerk

Hi, thanks for the link but I get an error 404 if I try to download it... could anyone who has got the intel version send it via email? Thanks!

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Answer 11

Dec 25, 2007 6:53 AM in response to Adrian_S

Adrian, als je me je email adres stuurt stuur ik je de plugin plus het adres van KAGI toe als bijlagen.

Harry Oudekerk

h.oudekerk01@chello.nl

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Answer 12

Dec 25, 2007 6:54 AM in response to Advanced User

Send me your Priv Email adress.

Harry

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Answer 13

Dec 25, 2007 7:05 AM in response to H Oudekerk

I sent you an email with my address

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Answer 14

Adrian_S Author

Level 1

36 points

Dec 26, 2007 2:31 PM in response to Adrian_S

Summary of what I found out so far:
SoundFont Synth works under Leopard on intel (according to others) but not on PPC

H.Oudekerk mailed me a version downloaded a few months ago. It contains
two folders, named Intel and PowerPC. The Intel package contains a file "InfoPlist.strings"
containing the line

CFBundleGetInfoString = "SoundFontSynth version 2.2, Copyright 2004-2006 __Andy's OSX Software__";

In the PowerPC folder the same file contains a line

CFBundleGetInfoString = "SoundFontSynth version 1.0, Copyright 2004 _MyCompanyName_";

So it seems that the PPC version is much older than the intel version. In any case, it does not
work, not on my own account, nor on a different user's account, nor on a completely clean
install of Leopard and GB08.

I have now tried two version of SoundFont Synth.
The SoundFontSynth.component I downloaded two years ago has a size of 312 Kb, creation date 23-11-2004 11:08,
and shows up under "Instrument Generators" as "SoundFont Synth V2.0".
The one downloaded recently by H.Oudekerk is 244 Kb, date
5-03-2006 10:45, and shows up as "SoundFonthSynth" (to see the correct names you have
to remove the GB cache files). Both work under Tiger, neither works under Leopard.

If anyone has a different version I would be happy to give it a try.

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Answer 15

hvico

Level 1

0 points

Dec 26, 2007 2:44 PM in response to Adrian_S

Hi Adrian_S,

Could you please send me both versions by email? I bought this software a couple of years ago. I have a Macbook Pro with Leopard (I had a PowerBook G4 which was stolen recently) so I don't have the original installer DMG. The author' site is down and every link I found points to his site. Please help! hvico@hotmail.com

I will try this on Leopard and see if I can make this work.

Thanks!

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