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Waveblaster 1 soundfont?

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First post, by deemster

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Hey all 😀

Is there a Creative Waveblaster 1 soundfont available somewhere? Maybe E-Mu released it or something?

It's sound is kind of 'soothing' to me.

Reply 2 of 49, by Anonymous Coward

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Wave Blaster 1 is rare?

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 4 of 49, by rfnagel

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An FYI: You might already know that the Wave Blaster I is based on EMU's "Proteus" line of rack-mounted MIDI Modules that were popular back in the '80s ( http://www.vintagesynth.com/emu/proteus.php ).

Anyhow, there were several retail Proteus SoundFonts released by EMU quite a few years back:

"Proteus 1 Instruments.sf2"
"Proteus 1 Presets.sf2"
"Proteus 2 Instruments.sf2"
"Proteus 2 Presets.sf2"
"Proteus 3 Instruments.sf2"
"Proteus 3 Presets.sf2"

...which of course, were SoundFonts created from the samples contained in the onboard ROMs of the Proteus 1, 2, and 3.

Unfortunately, NONE of those retail SoundFonts are GM compatible, and they STILL don't contain all of the samples and presets that are contained/included on a Wave Blaster I's ROM 🙁

There are quite a few that were not included, and two that come to mind is the "Overdrive Guitar" and "Distortion Guitar" presets and samples that the Wave Blaster I includes.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 5 of 49, by Stojke

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I can buy an EMU Proteus 2 from a guy for 50 euro. Is it worth it? Can it be used in games?
Also what is the difference between Proteus 2 and Proteus FX?

[E]

Also i found out i have Proteus 1, 2, 3 EMU sound fonts if somebody needs them.

Note | LLSID | "Big boobs are important!"

Reply 6 of 49, by deemster

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Thanks for the answers guys 😀 If i would buy an external Proteus 1 module, would i get the same sound for General Midi as the Waveblaster 1?
And Rich, does your Weeds Soundfont contain samples from the Waveblaster 1?

Edit: I just read on an excellent site about the Waveblaster 1 that it contains samples from Proteus 1, 2, 3 AND custom samples.

Reply 7 of 49, by rfnagel

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Stojke wrote:

I can buy an EMU Proteus 2 from a guy for 50 euro. Is it worth it? Can it be used in games? Also what is the difference between Proteus 2 and Proteus FX?

deemster wrote:

If i would buy an external Proteus 1 module, would i get the same sound for General Midi as the Waveblaster 1?

The things is (just like the SoundFonts), NONE of these Proteus MIDI modules are General MIDI compatible, and EACH ONE contains a collection of SPECIFIC genre samples and presets:

Proteus 1 = Pop and Rock Instruments
Proteus 2 = Orchestral Instruments
Proteus 3 = World Instruments
Proteus FX = Features instruments from both the Pop and Rock, and the Orchestral modules.

All of the Proteus MIDI modules were used extensively for film scoring back in the day, but all MIDI sequencing accomplished with them was TOTALLY non-GM. BTW, all of the music from the original "Myst" was recorded from one of the Proteus modules (I forget which one though) 😀

deemster wrote:

And Rich, does your Weeds Soundfont contain samples from the Waveblaster 1?

Nope, not a one. Short of actually recording the sound from a WB1, there has never been a way to extract/dump the actual samples from the onboard 4MB ROM to a file/files.

deemster wrote:

I just read on an excellent site about the Waveblaster 1 that it contains samples from Proteus 1, 2, 3 AND custom samples.

Yeah, and that's the problem... some of the presets and instruments/samples are WB1 specific.

Last edited by rfnagel on 2014-05-17, 10:45. Edited 1 time in total.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 8 of 49, by rfnagel

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P.S. My old Wave Blaster I (that I no longer have) in action (attached MP3)... one of the tunes from WarCraft 2, and it sounds GREAT! 😀

Attachments

  • Filename
    Human_2_GM.mp3
    File size
    1.69 MiB
    Downloads
    181 downloads
    File comment
    WarCraft 2, Human2GM.mid, recorded from a Wave Blaster 1.
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 9 of 49, by Anonymous Coward

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TheMAN wrote:

if you think it's not rare, find me one and I'll buy it

That's true of just about every old PC component though.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 10 of 49, by rfnagel

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rfnagel wrote:

BTW, all of the music from the original "Myst" was recorded from one of the Proteus modules (I forget which one though) 😀

http://youtu.be/94pzx_9LkVI?t=9m30s

...more specifically:

http://youtu.be/94pzx_9LkVI?t=9m42s

😀

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 11 of 49, by rfnagel

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P.S. (re: Myst music) One of my own MIDI sequence snippets from years ago, recorded from my Wave Blaster 1. Note that I "post-processed" the resulting WAV file with EAX reverb effects using my Sound Blaster Live (as the Wave Blaster 1 doesn't support any reverb effects).

Attachments

  • Filename
    Myst_Theme.mp3
    File size
    461.01 KiB
    Downloads
    104 downloads
    File comment
    Main theme snippet from "Myst", recorded from a Wave Blaster 1, and post-processed with Sound Blaster Live EAX reverb effects.
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 13 of 49, by rfnagel

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j^aws wrote:

^^ What's the technical difference between a Wave Blaster 1 daughterboard and EMU SoundEngine module? I was under the impression they both had effects like reverb?

I'm not sure about the E-mu SoundEngine (although, I *think* it does), but the Wave Blaster 1 features NO reverb effects whatsoever (MIDI CC 91).

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 14 of 49, by j^aws

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rfnagel wrote:
j^aws wrote:

^^ What's the technical difference between a Wave Blaster 1 daughterboard and EMU SoundEngine module? I was under the impression they both had effects like reverb?

I'm not sure about the E-mu SoundEngine (although, I *think* it does), but the Wave Blaster 1 features NO reverb effects whatsoever (MIDI CC 91).

I don't have WB1 docs to compare, but just had a quick look through my SoundEngine manual, and it states it has 2 FX processors: FX A (reverb/ delay) and FX B (chorus/ delay). I always thought WB1 was the same module in daughterboard format, but it looks like WB1 shares the same 4MB ROM-set minus FX processors.

Reply 15 of 49, by rfnagel

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j^aws wrote:

I don't have WB1 docs to compare, but just had a quick look through my SoundEngine manual, and it states it has 2 FX processors: FX A (reverb/ delay) and FX B (chorus/ delay). I always thought WB1 was the same module in daughterboard format, but it looks like WB1 shares the same 4MB ROM-set minus FX processors.

Thanks for that refresher... that's what I remember reading about the EMU SoundEngine MIDI module as well 😀 Yeah, IIRC, the EMU SoundEngine MIDI module was like a WB1, with the addition of reverb and chorus.

That was something that always drove me nutz about my WB1... no reverb or chorus effects.

Hehe, like I said about the previous two MP3s I uploaded, I cheated <grin> (using my SBLive's EAX reverb effects to post-process the resulting WAV recording from my WB1 to add reverb).

(Edit) Oops :shamed: ... It appears that I didn't mention that for the WarCraft II tune (although I did for the Myst tune)... I used the same method for adding reverb to the WC2 tune as well,

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 16 of 49, by rfnagel

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Hmmm... now HERE'S something that I didn't know before. re: this thread -> http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php?topic=3529.0 , and this pic -> http://www.ym2149.com/temp/emu1.jpg .

In that thread "Stefan_L" states that (referring to the EMU SoundEngine):

Inside it is an EMU8805 PCB... with waveblaster connector.. or reversed version of it i guess.

Then, have a look at the pic... QUITE INTERESTING! 😀

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 17 of 49, by deemster

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So wait 😁 EMU SoundEngine is *basicly* the module version of Waveblaster 1 (Although with effects) ? IF SO, IT IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR 😁

If it's true, i am SO gonna buy it! Damn.

Reply 18 of 49, by rfnagel

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deemster wrote:

So wait 😁 EMU SoundEngine is *basicly* the module version of Waveblaster 1 (Although with effects) ? IF SO, IT IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR 😁

If it's true, i am SO gonna buy it! Damn.

Of course, nothing is 100% guaranteed, but that's exactly what I'm thinking 😀

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net

Reply 19 of 49, by rfnagel

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P.S. In that thread that I mentioned previously -> http://queststudios.com/smf/index.php?topic=3529.0 , the poster attached an MP3 recording of the module playing that tune from WarCraft II... and it is a DEAD RINGER for the WB1 😀

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel
http://www.richnagel.net