Volume control in the font config file

Sound Fonts
1

Just a random thought, as from the many fonts ive acquired throughout the years…some are super loud, while some are very quiet. What are your guys thoughts on having a general volume setting in the font config file so it adjusts the volume for the entire font itself that’s active, so its on a font-by-font basis?

Theres sooo many font makers now, and their volumes of the created font can vary widely. I just thought it might be useful to have such a simple function so the end user (saber owner) doesn’t have to go and edit their fonts they purchased in a audio editing program, so they can easily attempt to volume match the many other fonts they have installed in their saber.

Maybe something like as simple as 1-20, where 10 is the default (no volume adjustment) and for every digit up or down will increase/decrease that selected fonts sound by 10%

2

Look at the top part of config.ini my man.

# The volume of the hum sound. Can be 0-16, where 0 is muted.
# Default 15

	volHum=15

# The volume of all effect sounds. Can be 0-16, where 0 is muted.
# Default 16

	volEff=16
1 Like
3

So this will adjust the volume for the ‘entire font’? I always thought this only changed the volume for certain parameters of the font. And if the default is “16”…and it cant go any higher…how would one be able to make their font a touch louder instead of having to make all the other fonts “softer” to make them all match?

4

My understanding is hum has its own control, and all other sounds fall under voleff.
The smoothswing volume multiplier etc… is based off this value.

5

I think this value system may want to be a different default number (16). And maybe have it so 10 (out of 16) is the default (no volume adjustment) and it allows the user to go both higher or lower…and not just “lower only”. Thoughts?

6

I’m not a good example because I go through every font sound anyway to optimize/organize and adjust to my version of perfect.
While I completely understand where you’re coming from, I find the majority have the opposite problem: fonts being overdriven to clipping and excessive low end for the application.
I have yet to ever come across a font that needed to be turned up.

Personally, I think that between the config.ini and on the fly volume controls, there’s already enough available adjustment, and it’s on the font creators to make the final product’s volume “industry standard” peaking at zero dB.

Now, that being said, I would totally be behind having SAVE_STATE include a seperate volume level per preset in presets.ini. That seems pretty easy to do in theory.

7

The way i was thinking was in the same sense of looking at an audio mixing console, the same type of console that audio engineers mix/master music on. On the console you have many multiple tracks (volume faders), and they all route to a mater buss (master volume).

In the same sense, its kinda like fonts on a saber. Where you have many sound fonts (all varying in volume depending on the font maker)…and you have a master volume on the saber (from the main config.ini from 0 to 3000).

So we already have our master volume on the saber from the main config.ini, and we also have a font volume in the font config file (thank you for letting me know this was available). So we already have everything set up in place to work like an actual mixing audio console. I just feel like the current set up isn’t really optimal for all scenarios, as it only allows the user to turn a particular font “down”.

Example:
if i have 15 fonts installed on my saber, and all all great in terms of equal volume with each other…but ONE dumb font is just a touch to low in volume with the rest, i would then have to go and edit the volume of the font configs of the other 14 fonts, just to volume match with this one font that’s too low.

The current set (0-16 where 16 is default; no volume change) up seems like its fine assuming all your fonts are good to go except the one font thats too loud. but we don’t have anything in place for something for the end user to adjust for the 1 sound font thats too soft.

Now i know its up to the font makes to determine the optimal volume of their creations…but wouldn’t it be nice to give the end user (saber user) to have control of such all scenarios? And this way they wouldn’t have to import all the font wav files into an audio editor to make the sound font louder/softer, because most consumers don’t even own an audio editor…let alone know how to use one.

im just thinking outloud. This idea may not even be worth the trouble. Im just trying to think of some ides to make proffie be the ultimate editor to allow the user full control for all scenarios (even the scenarios that may be far and few)

Holy hell that was a long reply…i need a beer.

8

I do hear you and understand.
Faders have unity gain, mostly negative adjustment, but still some positive above.

Maybe @profezzorn has something to add here.

I personally would just batch process the whole “quiet” font to 0db in about 3 clicks, except hum to -5

9

There is nothing in ProffieOS that limits volEff or volHum to 16. You can set it to 100000 if you like, but if won’t work particularly well… A value of 32 might be quite reasonable for a very quiet font though.

In the future, I’m thinking of adding per-effect volume variables.

2 Likes
10

Thank you for clarifying this! Now that I know these values can go both up and down I can go back and edit my font config files with a clearer explanation for that this parameter can do.

Just to verify…the value of 16 is in fact the normal default value (no volume change) for this parameter (both volume volEff and volHum), yes?

11

No, volHum defaults to 15.

12

ok, so volHum parameters are 0-16 ‘and above’ (default 15 is no volume change) and can actually go higher than 16 if desired …
and volEff is actually 0-16 ‘and above’ (default 16 is no volume change) and can actually go higher than 16 if desired?

13

That is correct.

14

perfecto! thank you for clarifying!