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What is a Soundfont?

Soundfont is a specific format for storing a collection of sound samples which allows them to be played back using MIDI. It was first developed by E-mu and Creative Labs and is the native format used by these company’s soundcards – most notably, the Sound Blaster series.

The strength of the Soundfont format is its wide compatibility with current software applications - that is, most software samplers support loading and playing sample libraries that are in the Soundfont format. They are also, generally speaking, more affordable than libraries in other formats - making them a good choice for those just starting out in digital music composition and sound design.

Also, the wide use and low cost of Creative Soundcards enables many people to immediately start using Soundfonts to improve the sound of their music, without having to purchase new hardware.

How are Soundfonts organized?

A typical Soundfont file consists of a library of "Patches" or "Presets" which are the individual collections of sound samples. For example, you might have a Guitar Soundfont, which contains one patch of downward strums, and another of upward strums. In your software, you can then select which set you want to play for each note in your music.

These patches can be organized into "Banks" of similar themes. For example, you might have one bank that contains 3 patches of sounds which are all recorded from the Lead pickup of the guitar, and another bank of patches which are all recorded from the Rhythm pickup. In your software, switching from one bank to another will allow you to play sounds from either the Lead or Rhythm pick-up.

You can recognize a Soundfont by its extension, which will be ".sf2" standing for Soundfont, version 2. Most Soundfonts you find today will be in Soundfont 2.1 format.

Soundfont Pros and Cons:

Soundfonts can support 24 bit samples, as well as a number of modulation and control functions, and are capable of producing outstanding sound quality.

They have received a negative reputation over the years likely due to the large number of free soundfonts available on the internet which are often poorly designed, or use limited or badly recorded samples.

The main weakness of Soundfonts is their lack of advanced features such as legato playing functionality or the ability to modulate between samples. They also require a large amount of system memory to store the Sounfont data, (though this is less of a problem when using a software sampler such as Vsampler or GigaStudio to load and play them as these applications are able to stream the samples directly from the hard drive.)

Conclusion/Summary:

Soundfonts are one of the world's most widely used formats for storing collections of samples and organizing them so that they may be played using a sequencer or MIDI keyboard. Although they lack some of the advanced features of newer formats, they are still a valuable resource for the average digital musician, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

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We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful.

If you have further questions and/or comments, please contact us.

Regards,

Jayzen Sound

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