03-31-2017, 09:58 AM
Yeah, there would be clear legality issues. Which is a shame because in case of the Soundscape, these patches exist nowhere else expect in maybe other equally antiquated Ensoniq hardware, and the company isn't around anymore. Just like E-MU they were gobbled up by Creative in the late nineties, and then dissolved. So Creative owns the IP, but clearly isn't doing anything with it. At least E-MU's stuff lives on in various other shapes and forms.
But as you say, you could easily get in the ballpark at least sample-wise using other stuff. I say "at least sample-wise" because there's obviously more to these onboard synths rather than just the samples. There's envelopes and dynamic filtering and modulation and stuff going on which is harder to emulate properly. Even if you could get the raw samples out of the Soundscape and load them into a modern sampler, it still wouldn't sound the same unless you spent a lot of time setting things up to sound and behave like the original hardware. And then there's the effects of course, which also play a large part in defining the character of these synths.
As for the APS and the AWE64, the default banks (in sf2/sbk format) are probably floating around on the web somewhere if you care to look for them. The Waveforce uses XG, and IIRC there used to be a custom made XG soundfont available for free which is similar but not exactly the same. There's also a free version of the Yamaha S-YXG50 software synth, which uses the same patches but has a larger ROM and higher sound quality (which may not actually be desirable in this case). Plus, like you say, if you wish you could go ahead and downsample more modern stuff and thin out the multisampling to like one or two notes per octave, add really short loops etc.
Maybe I should create a Sonatina Retro Edition
But as you say, you could easily get in the ballpark at least sample-wise using other stuff. I say "at least sample-wise" because there's obviously more to these onboard synths rather than just the samples. There's envelopes and dynamic filtering and modulation and stuff going on which is harder to emulate properly. Even if you could get the raw samples out of the Soundscape and load them into a modern sampler, it still wouldn't sound the same unless you spent a lot of time setting things up to sound and behave like the original hardware. And then there's the effects of course, which also play a large part in defining the character of these synths.
As for the APS and the AWE64, the default banks (in sf2/sbk format) are probably floating around on the web somewhere if you care to look for them. The Waveforce uses XG, and IIRC there used to be a custom made XG soundfont available for free which is similar but not exactly the same. There's also a free version of the Yamaha S-YXG50 software synth, which uses the same patches but has a larger ROM and higher sound quality (which may not actually be desirable in this case). Plus, like you say, if you wish you could go ahead and downsample more modern stuff and thin out the multisampling to like one or two notes per octave, add really short loops etc.
Maybe I should create a Sonatina Retro Edition
