DOS Days

Software Wavetables

29th November 2021

 

In Part 2 we looked at the soundfonts used by Ensoniq AudioPCI, Advanced Gravis UltraSound and Aurel Vortex.

In this part, I look at a few more, including the Dream/SAM and Turtle Beach range.


Dream/SAM - DXB Files

The Dream/SAM soundbank format has a .DXB file extension. These are used by popular wavetable chips including the Dream SAM9233, and are binary files so are not editable. To create new .DXB soundbanks the Dream 5000 SDK is required, which is very expensive. This software development kit includes a bank editor and compiler.

The modern-day DreamBlaster X2 and later daughterboards are based on the Dream chipset. While they don't support software wavetables (being loaded dynamically after your PC has been booted), they do allow you to upload a .DXB soundbank into the onboard EEPROM chip using a Windows utility called X2UPLOAD, and then switch to the 'user bank' instead of the default read-only X2 bank.

Some of the more common soundfonts in this format include:

  • 8 MB CleanWave SoundBank (GMBK5X128.DXB, licenced for use on the DreamBlaster X2 only by Roland Corp)
  • 16 MB CleanWave SoundBank (GMBK5X64.DXB, licenced for use on the DreamBlaster X2 only by Roland Corp)

Some third-party DXB soundbanks can be downloaded here:

Roland GM
Hummtaro

From Vogons' contributor Hummtaro, this is a port of Roland's 3MB GS sound set.
Last update: 05.11.2019
- 3.278.746 Bytes
- 128 Instruments
- 226 Variations
- 10 Drumsets
- MT32 map on var127

The second download is his Test Preset file for this soundbank.

Yamaha GM (Unfinished)
Hummtaro

Unfinished port of DLSbyXG.dls
Last update: 08.11.2019
- 3.185.340 Bytes
- 128 Instruments
- 226 Variations
- 10 Drumsets
- MT32 map on var127

Gravis UltraSound (Unfinished)
Hummtaro

Unfinished and untested port of Gravis UltraSound soundfont.
Last update: 28.07.2022
- 9.992.280 Bytes
- 128 Instruments
- 1 Drumset
  


Turtle Beach - WFB Files

Turtle Beach used a soundfont format with a .WFB (WaveFront Bank) file extension, reflecting their use of the ICS WaveFront 2115/2116 wavetable chipset. These were used on their Tropez, Maui, Rio, Monterey and Monte Carlo range of sound cards. WFB files contain the entire MIDI bank, and are complemented by .WFP (WaveFront Program) and .WFD (WaveFront Drum Set) files.

An excellent utility for ICS WaveFront cards is SETWF by Endre Csato which is a full-featured control/configuration tool, and among other things it allows you to configure the card to use a different soundfont.



Other third-party tools you can use for soundfonts on ICS WaveFront cards include:

  • SETMAUI - written by Endre Csato, similar to SETWF (works with other ICS cards, not just TB Maui)
  • MAUICTRL - written by Endre Csato, a front-end UI for SETMAUI.

Collection on WFB Soundfonts
(Various)

This 80 MB ZIP file contains 36 different WFB soundfonts for use with ICS WaveFront cards. They range in size from 512 KB up to 8 MB.

 

Still to do: I still have a number of other soundfont formats I want to cover, including .TTS, .94B, and .BNK, as well as recording some audio from cards that support these to compare them side by side.