Creative SoundFont Bugs

Bennet Ng, Apr 30 2004

These SoundFont bugs are not corrected since 2002. You may or may not encounter these bugs but these bugs do exist so I wrote this page for you to test your driver. Please do not ask me how to fix these bugs or ask me which driver is the best because it is the responsibility of Creative Labs.

Please download this file. You need this file to check your driver.

Bug 1: Effect parameter

Firstly, set up your environment as below:

1. Add the "Echo" effect. (Sometimes it is called "Echo (Two Tap)", make sure the effect is in maximum position (0dB or 100%, depending the driver you use).

2. Except "Original Sound", turn all effects to zero.

3. Change Echo to CC94 (In normal case, Chorus will be disabled automatically. If you cannot change Echo to CC94, change Chorus to "Not Mapped" first.)

4. Save the settings.

the video Echo-new.avi shows the procedure.

For SB cards, two MIDI effects [Reverb + (Any custom effect)] can be used simultaneously. Default is Reverb + Chorus. Reverb is fixed at CC91 and cannot be changed or removed. In this experiment, I tried to use Echo@CC94 instead of Chorus@CC93(Default). Echo.mid has 3 snare hits. The correct sound should be:

Hit1=Weak Echo
Hit2=Medium Echo
Hit3=Strong Echo

However, in buggy drivers, the result will be:

Hit1=No Echo
Hit2=No Echo
Hit3=Strong Echo

It is because buggy drivers will disable any custom effects if effect value is smaller than 64. The effect setting of the test MIDI file is:

Hit1=4
Hit2=30
Hit3=127

Bug 2: Polyphony handling

Buggy drivers often truncate notes prematurely. If you find that some notes are missed when playing MIDI files, it is not my fault. Please check the file stg_boss.mid

Bug 3: Tuning

The "Coarse Tuning" MIDI command is used to change the pitch of a particular sample. However, in buggy drivers, the "Coarse Tuning" command will change the sample being played to another sample. Please check the file Tuning.mid.

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