SoundFont

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SoundFont collectively refers to a file format and associated technology designed to bridge the gap between recorded and synthesized audio, especially for the purposes of computer music composition.

SoundFont technology is akin to software sampling. A SoundFont file contains one or more banks of sampled audio data, which can be re-synthesized at different pitches and dynamic levels. Each sample in a bank is associated with a particular range of pitches and dynamics. Generally speaking, the quality of a SoundFont bank is a function of the quality of the digital samples and the intelligent association of samples with their appropriate pitch ranges. Quality is also dependent on the number of samples taken for a given range of pitches.

SoundFonts are tightly integrated with MIDI devices and can be seamlessly used in place of GM patches in many computer music sequencers. The sound quality of SoundFont banks is generally regarded as superior to standard GM banks, and many SoundFont banks have been created specifically to replace GM banks with samples of each corresponding instrument.

[edit] History

The original SoundFont 1.0 specification was developed in the early 1990s by E-mu and Creative Labs. This version of the SoundFont specification was never released to the public. The first major device to utilize the technology was Creative's Sound Blaster AWE32 in 1994.

A 2.0 version of the format was developed in 1996. The 2.0 format generalized the data representation using perceptually additive real world units, redefined some of the instrument layering features within the format, added true stereo sample support and removed some obscure features of the 1.0 format whose behavior was difficult to specify. This version was fully disclosed as a public specification, with the goal of making the SoundFont format become an industry standard.

A 2.1 version of the format was introduced in 1998 with an E-mu sound card product called the Audio Production Studio. The 2.1 format added features allowing sound designers to configure the way MIDI controllers influence synthesizer parameters. The 2.1 format is bi-directional compatible with the 2.0 format, which means that synthesizers capable of rendering 2.1 format will also by definition render 2.0 format, and synthesizers that are only capable of rendering 2.0 format will also read and render 2.1 format, but just not apply the new features.

A 2.4 version of the format was introduced in 2005 with the Sound Blaster X-Fi product. The 2.4 format added support for 24-bit samples. The 2.4 format is bi-directional compatible with the 2.1 format, which makes it so synthesizers that are only capable of rendering 2.0 or 2.1 format would automatically render instruments using 24-bit samples at 16-bit precision.

[edit] Tools

  • Alive is a drag and drop based visual editor for soundfonts, and can be used to create, manage and edit SoundFont files on Windows systems with a Sound Blaster compatible card.
  • FluidSynth is a free, open source program which synthesizes using SoundFonts without need for a SoundFont-compatible soundcard, and the size of loaded Soundfonts is limited by the amount of RAM available. There is a nice GUI for FluidSynth called Qsynth which is also open source. Both are available in most Linux distributions, compiling them for Windows is also possible.
  • Megafont is a (freeware and open source) program created for dynamically managing, loading and unloading SoundFont files on Creative Sound Blaster Live! cards. I.e. it's a dynamic cache manager for these cards.
  • SFPack and SFArk are archivers for SoundFonts which use different compression techniques.
  • The SFZ SoundFont Player is a freeware VST plugin which allows the playback of SoundFonts on cards not natively supporting such playback.
  • Timidity++ is a high quality software-only MIDI sequencer and MOD player available for various platforms. It uses sound fonts (GUS-compatible or SF2-compatible) to render MIDI files, so you don't need to have a SoundFont compatible soundcard. However, for .sf2 files is not as good as FluidSynth which follows very closely the sf2 specs.
  • The Vienna SoundFont Studio can be used to edit and create SoundFont files on Windows systems with a Sound Blaster compatible card. Swami is another SoundFont editor/creator for Linux systems.
  • SynthFont can play, edit, and create SoundFonts on soundcards which are not Sound Blaster compatible.
  • bs-1 / bs-16 is a SoundFont 2 compatible sampler for Steinberg VST plug-in format.
  • SimpleSynth is a SoundFont 2 compatible software synthesizer for use with Mac OS X.

[edit] External links

Online tutorials

Others

  • SF2-Files.COM Top quality free and commercial soundfonts available for instant download. Tutorials and HOWTOs on how to use soundfonts with modern software samplers.
  • Creative Developer Relations Creative developer resources for SoundFont technology, including the SoundFont 2.4 format specification.
  • Freepats is a free patch set suitable for MIDI audio synthesis. It is not complete, nor comprehensive yet. It is, however, the sole DFSG-compliant patch set in existence so far. New SF2 patches are welcome.
  • Guitar Vince High quality free guitar soundfont
  • Papelmedia - Specialist in General MIDI SoundFonts
  • Free Bass Multisampled Ibanez Bass
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