JaZMan PRO GM-24 Bit Soundfont review

The JaZMan PRO GM is a commercial 24-bit General MIDI soundfont, one of the few commercial GM sample sets that is still sold.

The soundfont is available from gmsoundfont DOT com for US$69.95.

Payment, download, and installation

After payment, a download link is immediately given.  The download is a 159 MB rar file.  The rar archive contains a few text files, a PDF instruments list, and...an executable installer.  Using an installer for this is rather odd, since a soundfont is just a sf2 file that can easily be moved around; an installer isn't really necessary.  But anyway, the soundfont is installed by running the exe.  The soundfont's final uncompressed size is 259 MB.  After that, the soundfont can be copied to wherever you wish on the computer.  The installation folder also has an uninstaller, although I doubt anyone would need to use that.

Loading the soundfont

The soundfont can be loaded into any sf2-compatible program, such as CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth and BASSMIDI driver (CoolSoft actually uses the BASSMIDI library).

Using the soundfont

So, I loaded the soundfont into the CoolSoft MIDI synth driver, and proceeded to play MIDI files; MIDIs from games like DOOM, MIDI music of songs from movies and the like, and my own MIDI files that I have previously composed.

Sound quality and instruments

The soundfont overall sounds pretty nice.  The melodic instruments are fine, and the drums are solid and heavy.  The samples are 24-bit quality, unlike the quality from regular 16-bit soundfonts.  The soundfont has the 128 GM instruments, plus the drumkits.

The instruments are from various sources, and many are probably original and created by the soundfont's author(s).  The fact that it uses samples from different sources may cause some slight imbalance with some instruments, but the instruments generally all play well together.

Some of the instruments use free samples.  The overdrive and distortion guitars, for example, use some Fender Strat and Garcia Distortion samples respectively.

For some reason, I encountered a problem with the Square instrument.  It sounds screwed up in this soundfont; it wasn't looping properly/kept cutting out, and would only play one note at a time.  At first I thought that it was a problem with the BASSMIDI library...  However, it's because the soundfont has the Square instrument set to monophonic, making it rather unusable.  Fortunately, I just had to edit the soundfont with Awave Studio to fix it. (Awave Studio is not free, but there is a free alternative soundfont editor called Polyphone.)

Also, the Square instrument is actually the one from another commercial soundfont, the GeneVoice GM64Pro.  After listening to some more samples, there are other instruments borrowed from the GM64Pro soundfont.  Some of the synth instruments...  It doesn't really matter though; just about all GM soundfonts use a few samples borrowed from other sources.

Overall, the GM sound is pretty good, even though there are a few issues that need to be fixed.

Pros

• Nice sound and instruments quality
• 24-bit samples
• Good for use in composing General MIDI music

Cons

• GM-only (no GS variation instruments)
• Some instruments need fixing (the soundfont can be edited in Awave Studio or Polyphone).  Credit goes to kode54 on KVR forums for finding many of these issues:
  - Square has "key group exclusion", causing it to be monophonic.
  - Synth Voice (000:054, a.k.a. Vox) sounds strange/unpleasant (out of tune?).  This seems to be an issue with the samples themselves and cannot be fixed (except by completely replacing them with different samples).
  - Square and Bass & Lead are too loud (Square should be attenuated from 10 dB to 36 dB, Bass & Lead should be attenuated from 10 dB to 24 dB).
  - Fiddle and Viola are 1 octave too high (their regions need to be shifted up one octave, then the samples' root keys).
  - Synth Drum is 2 octaves too low.
• Price is a bit high, in my opinion.

List of some GM Soundfonts and VSTs

Edit 2018-09-26:  This list is no longer updated.  A Google Drive folder with some soundfonts is available here (all included soundfonts are either free or formerly commercial):  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TbLOvr6GwqrxteWH8RD7Z7Q7t8q-vsIe

Here is a nice list of ALL the General MIDI soundfonts I currently have.  This list is updated when/if I get new soundfonts.  A lot of download time was spent on these.  Some are most likely no longer available.  Please note that this list does not include GM sets in other formats (e.g., GUS PAT files, Creative ECW wavesets), with the exception of VSTs and soft synths which are shown after the soundfont list.  There are of course many others that I don't have, such as the Provitamin GM and Voice Crystal 4 MB commercial sets to name a few. Perhaps you may like to try some of the soundfonts in my list if you don't have them.  A few of these are still being updated by the authors, and therefore the current versions of some soundfonts may be higher than what is listed here.  Sizes are of the uncompressed sf2 files.  If you have questions, then feel free to ask.  If you can't find where to get one, then ask and I'll give the soundfont's download page (if it still exists).  Please note that I probably will not re-upload these soundfonts due to copyright reasons (unless the SF2 is not available anywhere else), and I will not provide any warez links for the commercial soundfonts or VSTs.


Gigantic (> 128 MB)

* Musica v1.7 (GM) by Cose - 1.84 GB
* Evanessence 2 (GM/GS) final version by Cose - 1.64 GB
* Musyng (GM/GS) by Cose - 1.62 GB 
* Crisis General Midi v3.01 (GM/GS) by Chris Maricourt - 1.57 GB
* Musyng Kite (GM/GS) by Cose - 0.99 GB
* Giant Soundfont banks 1-4 v5.8 + drumkits v3.3 - 510 MB total
* GMR Basico v1.1 by Rodolfo Lopez Gonzalez - 468 MB
* Studio Works 2007 Light (GM) by Kirill Kiricenko - 377 MB
* Timbres of Heaven (GM/GS/XG) v3.2 Final by Don Allen - 354 MB
* Conexant (GM)500 Beta - 350 MB
* Timbres Of Heaven (GM/GS)_XG_SFX v2.0.2 by Don Allen - 304 MB
* Titanic 200 (GM/GS) Rev. 1.2 by Luke Cena - 275 MB
* Airfont 380 final version by Milton Paredes - 263 MB
* JaZMan PRO (GM)-24 Bit by Digital Pro-Audio Samples - 259 MB
* SONiVOX (GM/GS) 250 - 251 MB
* OmniSynth Pro (GM) by Sonic Reality - 250 MB
* SGM-V2.01 (GM/GS) by Shan - 235 MB
* Papelmedia (GM) 2007 - 229 MB
* Timbres Of Heaven (GM/GS) + Stairway To Heaven X-Tension v1.3 by Don Allen - 190 MB + 11.1 MB
* Merlin Symphony (GM) v1.21 by GoNet - 163 MB
* Arachno SoundFont v1.0 (GM) by Maxime Abbey - 148 MB
* Fluid R3 (GM/GS) by Frank Wen - 144 MB
* Shadow 1.0 (GM) - 142 MB

Huge (16-128 MB)

* OPL-3 FM 128M (GM) by Zandro Reveille - 128 MB
* Roland SC-55 v2.0 by Patch93 - 125 MB
* EdgeSounds SoniqBear (GM) 120 Pro - 115 MB
* RealFont v2.1 (GM/GS) by Milo and friends - 101 MB
* Merlin Vienna v3.02 (GM) by Lavio Pareschi - 100 MB
* Airfont 340 v1.01 (GM/GS) by Milton Paredes - 76.7 MB
* Sonic Virus GMMI Tuned All Sets - 69.3 MB
* 65.8mg music man (GM/GS) v1.0 - 64.3 MB
* DooM v1.0 (GM/GS) - 63.9 MB
* Silverspring v1.5 (GM) by Aenn Seidhe Priest - 63.8 MB
* DGX 62M (GM) - 61.8 MB
* The Xioad Bank (GM) - 61.6 MB
* Patch93's SC-55 Soundfont v1.9 - 60.5 MB
* 61.9mg Jurgen (GM/GS) Bank by Jurgen - 60.5 MB
* GeneVoice (GM)64Pro v2.0 - 59.9 MB
* PersonalCopy v5r2 (GM) by Jim Roe - 56.0 MB
* SC-55 Soundfont by Trevor James - 53.5 MB
* 053.7mg Taiji Generation v6.66 Bank (GM) - 52.4 MB
* ¥Weeds¥ (GM) v3.0 by Rich Nagel - 52.3 MB
* 50_4mg Taiji Generation 4 SE Bank (GM) - 49.2 MB
* sYnerGi (GM/GS) v1.1 - 43.6 MB
* ph-gm2 - 37.8 MB
* 38.1mg The Atomic Soundfont v1.0 (GM) by Ross Scott - 37.2 MB
* Merlin Gold Plus v3.95 (GM) by Lavio Pareschi - 34.6 MB
* Industry Standard v1.4 (GM) by Presto and Colin - 33.6 MB
* Eawpats - The Soundfont! (GM) - 32.7 MB
* AnotherXG v2.1 (GM/GS/XG) by Bennet Ng - 32.5 MB
* Utopia Live! v2.0 (GM) WDM S w/ StereoID percussion 31.6 MB
* sYnerGi 200 (GM/GS) v1.0 - 31.3 MB
* Reality (GM/GS) by Takeshi Tan - 31.2 MB
* Utopia Live! v2.0 (GM) WDM P PE w/ enhanced pianos and stereo panned percussion - 31.1 MB
* NTONYX 32 MB Stereo (GM) - 30.9 MB
* GeneralUser (GM/GS) Live/Audigy v1.44 by S. Christian Collins  - 29.8 MB
* 28 MB (GM) by Creative - 28.3 MB
* Unison v1.00 (GM/GS) by Peter Jevnisek - 27.9 MB
* Utopia Live! v2.0 (GM) LW P w/ stereo panned percussion - 27.5 MB
* Utopia Live! v2.0 (GM) WDM P w/ stereo panned percussion - 27.5 MB
* The Fat Man OPL2 FM v2 - 26.3 MB
* Utopia Live! v2.0 (GM) WDM P LE Lite w/ stereo panned percussion - 24.6 MB
* Sonido Media 24 MB Monster (GM)! release 1.0 - 24.0 MB
* sYnerGi 200LE (GM/GS) v1.0 - 24.0 MB
* Chorium (GM) by openwrld - 23.7 MB
* SONiVOX 24 MB GM Wavetable (commercial Sonic Implants GS set) - 23.2 MB

Large / Medium / Small (8-16 MB / 4-8 MB / < 4 MB)

* 18.6mg Quasisynth GM V2.0 Bank (GM/GS) by Charles Lu - 18.1 MB
* Mini Groove 88ish (GM/GS) - 16.3 MB
* 016.5mg (GM/GS/MT32) V2.51 Bank by LuckyMax - 16.1 MB
* RSC (GM) - 15.7 MB
* Aspirin 160 (GM/GS) Bank - 15.4 MB
* Sonido Media Monster (GM) 12 MB - 12.0 MB
* Roland SC-55 v1.0 (GM/GS) by DJ Tony - 9.58 MB
* Roland SC-55 v1.1 (GM/GS) by DJ Tony - 9.40 MB
* Reinhard (GM) - 9.16 MB
* Ultimate (GM/GS) v0.9 by Frank Wen (AWE32) - 8.13 MB
* sYnerGi 8 MB v1 (GM) by Darrell Marjoram - 8.09 MB
* 8Rock11 (GM/GS) by George - 8.08 MB
* 8 MB RealSound (GM/GS) v2.0 by Daniel R. Careri (AWE32) - 8.06 MB
* E-mu APS 8 MB (GM) Rev B - 7.25 MB
* E-mu 8 MB (GM) Rev B - 7.23 MB
* E-mu 8 MB (GM) SFX Rev B - 7.22 MB
* Gravis Ultrasound (GM) - 6.03 MB
* TiMidity++ 6 MB (GM) - 5.71 MB
* Gravis Ultrasound Classic PatchSet v1.6 (GM) by ArekR - 5.58 MB
* Sonic Implants 4 MB (GM) - 4.76 MB
* MidiBel (GM)50 NX - 4.76 MB
* Chaos 4 MB (GM/GS/MT) v1.5 by Seong-jin Yun (AWE32) - 4.22 MB
* Industrial Dance (GM) Wavetable by SONiVOX (Sonic Implants) - 4.06 MB
* E-mu 4 MB (GM) SFX Rev B - 3.99 MB
* Retro Synth (GM) Wavetable by SONiVOX (Sonic Implants) - 3.99 MB
* VC (GM) 4 MB v4 by Eye & I Productions - 3.99 MB
* Creative 4 MB (GM/GS/MT) - 3.98 MB
* E-mu 4 MB (GM) Rev B - 3.98 MB
* Yamaha (XG) - 3.85 MB
* Roland (GM/GS) 960920 v1.00.16 - 3.31 MB
* Scc1t2 (GM/GS) - 3.12 MB
* ESS 3 MB (GM) Wavetable by ESS Technology - 3.01 MB
* Nokia Cellphone (GM) by Bryan Bilocura - 2.09 MB
* E-mu 2 MB (GM/GS/MT) Rev N+ - 2.06 MB
* ESS 2 MB (GM) Wavetable by ESS Technology - 2.05 MB
* E-mu 2 MB (GM/GS/MT) Rev N - 1.99 MB
* Setzer-'s SPC (GM) (incomplete) - 1.13 MB
* Creative SB AWE 32 (GM) assembled by Skie - 1.04 MB
* SYNTHGMS (GM) - 1.03 MB
* Hollywood by Gary Jones (AWE32) - 594 KB
* GXSCC-FM v0.33 (GM) by Zandro Reveille - 127 KB


General MIDI soft synths and modules:
- "Discontinued" means the software is no longer officially sold by the developer, but may still be available from other sources.  Yamaha synths are in a separate list, below.

* Bandstand by Native Instruments - VST, DXi, standalone - discontinued
* Casio SW-10 - standalone
* Coyote ForteDXi by Coyote Electronics - DXi
* FPD98 - standalone
* GM Module by M-Audio - VST - discontinued
* Hyper Canvas by EDIROL - VST, DXi
* OmniSynth 2 by Sonic Reality - requires SampleTank VST
* Purity by Luxonix - VST, standalone
* TTS-1 by Roland - DXi - comes with SONAR 6 and SONAR Power Studio, uses the same sound bank as the Hyper Canvas
* Virtual Sound Canvas by Roland - VST, DXi, standalone - discontinued - Note:  Only VST version is compatible with 64-bit Windows
* WinGroove - standalone - discontinued

Yamaha soft synths:

* S-YGM - GM-only
* S-YG20 - XGLite
* S-YXG50 - XG full
* S-YXG50NT - WDM version
* S-YXG50 VST - VSTi version of S-YXG50
* S-YXG70 - included with Final Fantasy VIII
* S-YXG100 Plus - XG full - has 1-voice Virtual Analog
* S-YXG100 PVL - XG full - has 8-voice Virtual Analog
* S-YXG/DM - DirectMusic version included with Final Fantasy VIII
* S-YXG2006LE - included with MidRadio Player 7 - VSTi version available