I use a AWE 64 Gold with 12 MB. I took the 8MB Sount Font Bank that came with the 8 MB Memory Bank of Creative Labs i buyed and improved it. I'm a friend of Heavy Rock Musik (not only Metal) and i changed the following intruments: SNARE 1 In the 80s i worked a time as a roady and talked a lot with professional sound engineers. All of them where disappointed of the heavy, dark, powerfull and broad snares at that time. That sound was popular but killed all other instruments. In the sound fonts of today this snare seemes to have a revival. The prefered alternative of the mixers was a mid-tone "TOK-TOK-Snare" that gives drive and is pregnant even at less loudness. The prototype was the Alex-van-Halen-Snare, the brother of King Edward, and i sampled it. The guy on the net, that made the MPheavy2.sf2 seems to be the only one who knows this problem, but Alex's snare is more powerfull. TOMS There are two ways to record Toms. The first is to dispense the lower drum skin and to put the microphone into the body. There you can get the full power of the tom, but the subtones allways sounds like a bottle. If you place the mike on the top you get the real sound with less power. I think it was 1996, i found a tom, recorded on both ways on the "go gravis" side at compuserve. It was a big tom. I mixed the two sounds, tuned them up for higher toms and that it was. SNARE 2 In most sound banks the snare 2 is beaten half on the drum edge and half on the skin. I don't know the midi definition, but the best snare in this way i found was from Mr.Mister, an australian band, popular in the late 80s (broken wings, cyrialayson, ...). It sounds a little bit technical, but only a bit. SLAP BASS 1 Ok, there a hundreds of slap basses on the net, that are really good. I took the most powerfull Pop Bass i found for the lower tones, and the raggest higher tone slaps for this bass. The lower tones i found in MPheavy2.sf2 (a really good sound font for only 2.5 MB), the higher tones in 8RealGS20.sf2 on the net. SLAP BASS 2 The nearest "Fender precision"-like Funk Bass, even found in 8RealGS20.sf2. OVERDRIVE GUITAR Electrik Guitars on Computer are a never ending story. The only guitar, that can play heavy chords without sounding too much like computer i found in the 2.5 MB Bank MPheavy2.sf2. Lower Solo tones are correct, but you'll miss dynamic. It is a correct guitar, because it uses a lot of samples, but, of course, the samples are not high of qualitity or powerfull. It comes for chords (the only one i found (!!!), because it's only small distorted) and its quite good for solo. More of Guitars in the next chapter. DISTORTION GUITAR Since i started sampling on the Amiga in 1987, i never heared a satisfying digital guitar. I sampled my Yamaha Strat with a Fender Combo, that sounds really good. But on the Amiga and on my first PC-Sound-Card (Gravis Ultrasoumd) i allways had to decide to take all memory for a good guitar or to make a compromise. And the compromise was allways, that i have to take one sample for 5 or 10 tones, instead of one sample of 2 or 3 tones, that would be neccessary. The other problem is (up today), that strings, picked together and then distort them, is another thing than pick strings solo, distort them and then put them together. Therefore most guitar chords sound synthetic. Meantime the memory increased, but the other intruments increasead too. Then i found an very good solo guitar on the net by a slowenian student, nickname "Kamac" (go to altavista.com and search for "kamac" to find him, nice side). He used a trash guitar and combo to make a fine guitar sound for solos like Gary Moore. But in lower tones and in chords it was useless. I started to mix my fender with his guitar and these first quick shots are promising. CURCH ORGAN It's not neccacary for rock songs, but it makes really fun to play this mighty organ, when you have a midi keyboard. Search for "gothic organ i" on the net! VOICE AHHS I found really good waves to get a mighty choir, but don'ask me where... It took me a few days to mix the intrument. The product is not a perfekt human choir (fucking loops !), but better than the rest i found. One wave was named cho_b4s.wav (stereo). Good luck finding and mixing them ! FLUTE The flute of the 8RealGS20.sf2 was the best choice once more. GRAND PIANO This is the primary instrument everey sound font that wants to convince. Because i like powerfull songs, i prefer the Creative Labs "Slack and Tight" of the "Crative Labs Sound Font"-CD. Of course its lesser usefull for ballads. BRASS SECTION "The first cut is the deepest", Cat Stevens sings. So i tried to convert the sounds that i miss from my gravis ultrasound. But meanwhile i found the complete classic gravis sounds converted in SF2-format on a russian server. Search for "Gus.sbk" or "Gus.sf2". The sounds must be from the early 90th, but they where revolutionary. The Brass Section isn't so powerfull like newer one, but i didn't find anyone sounding more true, fitting better in songs. E-PIANO2 Although from Gus.sbk is the Fender Rhodes, not powerfull and clear but pregnant without disturbing other intruments: Midtone, soft, small, old and original. When you try it solo, you may be disappointed, but when you compose complex midis, that's the one you need. RAIN-FX The patience of the man who made the Gus.sbk seemed to be empty. I had to improve setting like the sustain and and got a very fine sound for a few bytes. Even try the... AURORA.PAT and.. GTRHRM.PAT from the Gus.sbk. It pays! STEEL GUITAR I had memory free now, and tryed the Accoustic guitar of the Chaos Group: Chaos12m.sf2. I tryed a lot of accoustic guitars. For example the guitar of the "Crative Labs Sound Font"-CD sounds better, but in my midis it disapoints because it is recorded with frequency peaks of 50 Hz and 10 Khz, that should be reserved for bass, bass drum and cymbals. One more example for a good instrument, but useless for songs. By the way, test the good pianos of that corean cracks, but i'll stay with my hammmer sound. ALT-SAX A very smooth sax i love to use in ballads (Chaos12m.sf2) TENOR-SAX Here i take the crying, loud "balzy sax" of the creative sound font CD.