With regards to making this project, what went right was virtually everything (I talked about the optimization side of things in the Tech Discussion post, but mostly about the technical side of things, namely the clever sizing of it without any loss. What I didn’t cover was that I got very lucky that certain aspects were certain sizes, I got VERY lucky that every source component was under compatible libre licenses, and I got lucky that someone made a clone of the project that is also libre, and that I was able to utilize it safely, and that it was actually not reduced quality or layered like the rest of the bank which would have made it unsuitable. I also got lucky that my co-author Micasddsa was fine with it and even helped me out), much of which was due to sheer good luck time after time. I got lucky that the JummBox patches were as fixable as the BeepBox patches, and that they ALL mapped to Roland SC-8850 GS patches and that the number was just right to fit. I was also lucky to find never-SFPacked versions of the OPL2 bank for drums (SFPack is somewhat lossy), and that V1 with its Global Modulators also existed and was safe and unifiable. I was lucky that it covered drums the OPL3 didn’t have and was libre. I am lucky that William B. Santos made a libre Genesis bank that wasn’t ripped and covered stuff above General MIDI (including Roland SC-8850 User Kit-only notes) and that the libre Piconica bank he made is libre and that the patch I used is doable on OPL3 with square operators. I’m lucky that little-scale and drunkenjesus’s OPLL bank drums went from 0 to 127 and fit the Roland SC-8850 Standard Drumkit’s special notes. I was lucky that everything was single-layer. I was lucky that OpenMPT respected the modulators. I was lucky that the full drumkit didn’t push me above 0.99GiB or ruin libre status. I was lucky that the second Retro Player clone meant that one did not have to choose between stereo Seashore or no Chip Noise. I was lucky it was libre. I was lucky that I was able to incorporate everything and make Grand Piano 2 properly. I was lucky I did not have to favor short or long Seashore. I was lucky that the clone Seashore was the same quality and balanced. I was lucky the whole thing is highly compatible. I was lucky on every front.

What went wrong:

I would say that what went wrong was my old usage of the SFPacked V2 of the FM bank until I found the original AND V1. Also, the removal of Chip Noise for some time was a mistake, but it got rectified. Also, a large part of development was making the drums populated. This was a long project. Sometimes it got tiring. I basically turned “The Soundfont Nobody Asked For” into something designed to help people. For 3 calendar years I turned a shoddy joke project into something very useful. Also, the dates at which I did various updates were quite the spectacle. I did the JummBox patch additions on a certain January day in 2021. I did the OPL2 drum additions on April 13th, 2021. April 14th was the Titanic maiden voyage, and we know how that went. 3 days later is when I did the William B. Santos additions (April 15th is Tax Day in the USA, and the last day on the Titanic.) A day before I turned 19 (I turn 21 tomorrow), I improved the OPL2 stuff. On Halloween 2021 I added the OPLL drums. On January 17th, 2022 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) I did more OPLL updates. On August 27th, 2022, I added the first Retro Player Seashore, and then 6 months later to the day (February 27th, 2023) I implemented the stereo Retro Player Seashore. Talk about ironic dates. All by complete chance. Some of them (the Titanic ones, Halloween, and that January day [the 6th] were wack dates), but others were either good holidays or my birthday (on the verges technically, but you get the idea.) Other than the dates and the tiring nature of the work, things did not go wrong. Anything that did got fixed.

Stuff I learned after completing the project:

Don’t be so quick to write off something you initially consider junk, because it could be treasure at some point and you’d never know it. Also, learn from your competitors and imitators. Additionally, compatibility is not a bad thing, even if you may think it is at one point in time. I also learned that it does not cause any problems to let users choose if they want to use a major change. I also learned that sometimes things that seem like mistakes can actually improve things, and/or even be intentional. Additionally, I also learned that being faithful to the roots of a project is a good thing, so you don’t alienate veteran users. Also, I learned that when there is a will, there is a way. This project was quite a fun ride, and I hope that you enjoy using it. Evidently people already do given the tens of thousands of downloads. Go have fun with it, and hopefully you can get something out of it, and my story of making it.

Best Wishes, stgiga