Where to get a full set of patches?

The KMidi Handbook
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# A.4. Where to get a full set of patches?

There are two sorts of patches that KMidi/TiMidity can use: GUS patches and AWE32 SoundFonts (`sf2` files). A set of samples and parameters for a single instrument, a patch, is in a separate file for GUS patches, but AWE SoundFonts put everything in a single`.sf2` file (or `.sbk`).

I recommend `.sf2` SoundFonts, and of those, the Chaos fonts mentioned below, in preference.)

Open up KMidi's configuration window for pointers to some web pages with patch sets. Here are some other places to get patches:

Dan Hollis has put together a patch set. Please visit his page at http://www.anime.net/~goemon/timidity and help him make this the best set available.

New: I have uploaded the above patchset to ftp.kde.org. It is currently in ftp://fiwi02.wiwi.uni-tuebingen.de/pub/kde/stable/Beta2/apps/multimedia/sound/<but I expect we will move it around a bit until we found a good location for it. So just poke around a bit on ftp.kde.org, if the set can no longer be found at the above mentioned location by the time you read this.

Patches can also be found packaged as dep or rpm modules on the Sunsite archive:

- Debian: timidity-patches_0.1.tar.gzu

- RPM: timidity-patches-1-1.i386.rpmu

- RPM: timidity-patches-1-1.src.rpm-try2

I have not tried the above (yet), and personally use the Midia patch set together with a few additional patches and a couple of additional drum sets. The Midia patch set can be found at: ftp://archive.cs.umbc.edu/pub/midia/.

For additional patches and drum sets: (get the gsdrum and wow patches) ftp://ftp/cdrom.com/pub/gus/sound/patches/files/.

Vincent Pagel has put together a collection of patches. This link can only be reached during night hours (Paris). ftp://sig.enst.fr/pub/midi/instruments/. The config file that goes with his patch set can be found here.

Also check the Timdity Page

and Takashi's page. Takashi's page recommends the 8 meg AWE32 SoundFont `chaos8m.sf2` and the 12 meg AWE32 SoundFont `chaos12m.sf2` available at http://soback.kornet.nm.kr/~chaos/sbawe32/sbawe32.htm, which are very nice. (They are packaged as self-decompressing `.exe` files.)

## A.4.1. Patch set installation

Some of the above patch sets come with a `.cfg` configuration file similar to the .cfg files which come with KMidi and reside in `KDEDIR/share/apps/kmidi/config`. KMidi has configuration files ready made for you for a number of common patch sets, such as the media patch set. For `.sf2` SoundFonts, a utility program is supplied, `sf2cfg`, which constructs a `.cfg` file from a `.sf2` font. This is compiled along with timidity.

It is not necessary to give `.cfg` files names with a `.cfg` extension. They are ordinary text files whose structure is described in another section of this manual.

In order to complete the installation of a complete patchset edit the file `timidity.cfg` and source the appropriate config files for the patch set/sets you downloaded. Look at `timidity.cfg` for an example. That's it. Now you can go ahead and and play the other midis that are in the KMidi distribution ( and any others of course).

## A.4.2. Miscellaneous

Occasionally you will see that KMidi can't find a patch for a particular instrument. ( Open the Info Window in order to see this information ) In that case, all you have to do is go out and get yourself the missing patch and install it by moving the patch into the patch/ directory and editing your patch set .cfg file to tell KMidi that the new patch is available now.

Sometimes a particular instrument doesn't sound all that well. In that case, simply go out and get yourself a different patch from any of the Ultrasound archives and replace the not so optimal patch by a better one. As you can see, it is totally up to you how good every instrument will sound. You can even make your own patches with the pat2wav utility which is included in the KMidi distribution.

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