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*** GeneralUser GS v1.47 ***

*** By S. Christian Collins ***
*** 6/14/2016 ***
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GeneralUser GS is a GM and GS compatible SoundFont bank for composing, playing MIDI

files, and retro gaming. It features 259 instrument presets and 11 drum kits, all
while possessing a very low memory footprint (less than 30 MB of RAM). Due to its
clever, detailed sound programming, GeneralUser GS can sound as good or better than
SoundFonts that are 2-3 times its size.

I decided on the name "GeneralUser" because the bank was designed to sound well
with all kinds of music rather than specializing in only a few styles, thereby
benefiting the general user. It's not a great name, but that's what I came up with
almost 20 years ago, and I haven't bothered to change it.

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| Compatibility |
+---------------+

Although GeneralUser GS was originally designed for use with Sound Blaster audio
cards, the most recent development has been focused on SoundFont-compatible
software instead. The current version of GeneralUser GS requires a SoundFont synth
with support for SoundFont 2.01 modulators. Compatible synths include FluidSynth
1.0.9 or later (and other software that uses FluidSynth such as Qsynth, LMMS, and
ScummVM, just to name a few), MuseScore 2.0.3 or later, SynthFont2 2.0.3.0 or
later, and VSTSynthFont 1.080 or later.

While the current version of GeneralUser GS can be used with the hardware
synthesizer found in many Sound Blaster audio cards, you will achieve better
results using a version that was designed especially for this hardware (available
at http://www.schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php).

Most other SoundFont synths do not support all of the programming I have used in
GeneralUser GS and will cause many of the presets to sound incorrect. For these
unsupported SoundFont synths, you can download an older "SoftSynth" version of
GeneralUser GS from my website that cuts out a lot of the special programming and
is less likely to result in broken-sounding presets.

+--------------+
| Installation |
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Please follow your synth/sound card's documentation for instructions on loading

GeneralUser GS as the default GM/GS bank. This usually requires GeneralUser GS to
be loaded into bank 0, and any other SoundFonts loaded into bank 0 to be removed
prior.

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| Miscellaneous |
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Instrument list files are currently provided for Cakewalk SONAR (Windows) and
Rosegarden (Linux) sequencers in the "instrument lists" folder. If you create an
instrument list for any other sequencers, please e-mail them to me at
s_chriscollins@hotmail.com and I will include them in the next release package.

I have also provided some free MIDI files in the "demo MIDIs" folder for your
listening enjoyment. Please feel free to send me more of those as well :)

You can find updates to GeneralUser GS and more of my virtual instruments at

http://www.schristiancollins.com. I can be reached at s_chriscollins@hotmail.com,
but please don't send me questions that are easily answered by your sound
hardware/software's documentation. I won't have time to answer every question that
I receive.

Thank you!
-~Chris Collins