I made my first instrument in 1995. I was fifteen. At that time, it was a brand-new technology only available on the Sound Blaster AWE32 PC sound card. I used to bring boxes of floppy disks to my piano lesson so that my teacher could let me use the university computer lab for downloading SoundFonts; we didn’t yet have Internet at home. SoundFont technology was my introduction to virtual instrument design, and over the next several years, I continued working in this format, honing the skills that would eventually lead to my current job with.

• Midi Codec For Vlc
• Fluidsynth Windows 10

Over the years, SoundFonts have remained a pretty universal way of distributing sample-based instrument sounds. The format has long been surpassed in features by the likes of and, but yet, SoundFonts still persist. A great many DAWs and audio plugins support the format, as well as programs such as DOS game emulators, notation software, and media players. The went through a few revisions at the hand of the format’s creator, Creative Labs, the most significant being version 2.01, introduced in 1998.

Midi Codec For Vlc

So VLC resorts to software synthesis with a sound font file (.SF2) through the Fluidsynth open-source library. Timidity is more commonly used, but it is not available as a C programming library out of the box. That raises two potential problems: First, the Fluidsynth plugin must be enabled. Many binary packagers omit it. FluidSynth is designed to interpret the signals from a MIDI device in order to play the sounds on your computer. The program is based on the SoundFont specification and can be used for sound.

Supported at the time on Creative’s new Audigy series sound cards as well as pro audio hardware by E-MU, SoundFont version 2.01 added support for “modulators”, allowing different types of MIDI input (key velocity, key number, continuous controllers, etc.) to control any number of synth parameters. Using these modulators, a sound designer can determine exactly how note-on velocity affects note loudness or filter cutoff, map the mod wheel to control filter cutoff, crossfade samples, and much, much more. These modulators are actually very powerful, but few SoundFonts today make use of them. There are a number of reasons for this:. Earlier Sound Blaster sound cards (AWE32/64 and Live!) did not support SoundFont 2.01 modulators, so any SoundFont banks created using those sound cards do not make use of modulators. Only the Sound Blaster Audigy, Audigy 2, X-Fi, and E-MU APS sound cards featured full SoundFont 2.01 functionality (to my knowledge). In addition, people haven’t really been using hardware SoundFont synths for a while now.

Most software SoundFont synths are not compatible with the 2.01 spec, and many aren’t compatible with any version of the spec! This has lead many SoundFont designers to code for the lowest common denominator. Alas, many SoundFonts today are nothing more than samples mapped to keys, with scant little in the way of actual sound programming. I am aware of only two SoundFont editors that allow both A) editing modulators, and B) being able to hear the effect of the modulators.

These editors are:. Vienna SoundFont Studio 2. Not to be confused with another SoundFont editor, (one “n”), Creative Labs’ Vienna SoundFont Studio requires a supported sound card (specific cards by Creative Labs and E-MU) to run. To make matters worse, the latest version of Vienna (2.40.60) removes access to the instrument and sample pools, making it very difficult to properly manage a SoundFont bank.

An earlier version (2.3 version 1.31.0) doesn’t have this problem, and it is what I still use as my primary SoundFont creation tool to this day. However, this version was never made available for download (it shipped on certain install CDs), and is very difficult to find online. Furthermore, it is a 16-bit application, which means it will not run in 64-bit Windows.

This SoundFont editor uses the excellent at its core, and is able to not only edit modulators, but all effects can be heard and manipulated. Unfortunately, Swami is currently a bit of a work-in-progress, and only supports Linux at the time of this posting (unless you compile it yourself for Windows/Mac).

Of the other available SoundFont editors, and allow editing modulators, but the editors’ built-in SoundFont playback does not allow you to hear their effect. In addition, out of all of these, only Vienna SoundFont Studio properly displays the list of default modulators, allowing the sound designer to easily turn them off. ( I made that covers this, for any interested developers. It was originally made to help the Swami dev team.) This state of inconsistent support is not unique to the SoundFont format.

Other complex formats attempting widespread use suffer from the same problems. SVG files, for example, don’t display properly in some applications. Older audio players can’t handle variable-bitrate MP3s. Another popular sampler format, SFZ, sees a wide disparity of compatibility as well, with some samplers unable to handle the more complex instruments. “I’m not dead yet!” It is 2016.

Fluidsynth Windows 10

Gone are the days when dedicated audio processing hardware is required to achieve a professional sound. Music is created using software synths and effects now. So, if you are wanting to use SoundFonts in your home studio, chances are you are looking for a VST plugin rather than grabbing a Creative sound card off the shelf at your local Best Buy (do their current sound cards even support SoundFonts anymore? So if you are looking for SoundFont-compatible software, you’ll find there is a lot out there. And as you might expect, the quality varies quite widely. The available software can be broken down into three categories:. Programs that emulate a General MIDI device.

These programs usually install an internal MIDI device that adheres to the General MIDI (GM) standard. This is also how the onboard SoundFont synth of the Live!, Audigy, etc. Sound cards worked.

These virtual MIDI devices are less useful for modern music production, but are ideal for things such as DOS game emulation or playing General MIDI-compatible files. Some of the programs in this category are:, (and its various installable GUIs), and.

DAW plugins (VST, AU, LV2). These programs integrate directly into your DAW, and provide the best music production workflow, including the ability to bounce out audio with the rest of the project (unlike synths from the first category above). Unfortunately, this category is also the most bleak in terms of full SoundFont support, the lone exception being the plugin, which currently only runs on Linux. Most DAW plugins that advertise SoundFont support aren’t even trying to be compatible with the spec, often just pulling the samples out of the SoundFont file and re-mapping them in the plugin’s native format. There are some decent options available, however.

Some of the programs in this category are: // (PC/Mac), (iOS), (Linux), DLSMusicDevice (Mac), Phenome, SafFronSE, sfz,. There are many samplers available as well that can import SF2 files, but I have excluded them from this list.

Self-contained programs. These applications aren’t trying to make a SoundFont synth that is available to other programs.

Rather, the SoundFont support is only accessible within the program. Examples include, and some DAWs such as and.

The Tests I created a test to determine a synth’s compliance with the official SoundFont specification. I have chosen to test the synths that A) stand out for their quality/popularity, and B) were available to me. In cases where multiple programs use the same synth engine, I only tested one. For example, LMMS, MuseScore, and others all use FluidSynth under-the-hood, so I only tested FluidSynth. Same thing with SynthFont, which shares code with VSTSynthFont and SyFonOne. A good many programs were left off of the compatibility chart as they were unable to complete even the most basic compatibility tests (Phenome, SafFronSE, and a good many other VST instruments). I have posted the results of my tests in a (the contents of this document may change as tests are added/updated).

The legend for the test results: green = full support, yellow = working but not a proper/ideal implementation, red = broken or not supported. You can read detailed notes on each of the tested synths.

Explaining how each test is performed. Any software developers interested in improving their SoundFont software can e-mail me at “schriscollins AT hotmail.com”.

I will be happy to test the SoundFont compatibility of your product. Or you may if you’d like, although I must forewarn you that my documentation is not as comprehensive as it could be. Test Results As you can see from the (as of 2/29/16), there is only one software synth with complete support for the SoundFont 2.01 spec:. Nothing else even comes close (apart from the Audigy 2 hardware implementation, of course). FluidSynth is a command-line application that runs as a General MIDI device. There are also GUIs that you can install such as or if you’d rather not type commands. FluidSynth is also built into programs such as, and to provide SoundFont support within those applications.

Unfortunately, its existence as a DAW plugin is currently limited to Linux (, FluidSynth DSSI), and may stay that way due to incompatibilities between Steinberg’s VST SDK license and FluidSynth’s GPL v2 license. FluidSynth actually betters the official Creative/E-MU hardware implementations in a few ways. It has a better-sounding filter (to my ears, anyway), with access to the full range in both cutoff and resonance (the Sound Blaster caps off at a certain point). FluidSynth also ignores the 2.01 spec default modulator for “velocity to filter cutoff”, which is a good thing.

You can read why in my. If you don’t care about 2.01 modulator support, CoolSoft’s (itself based on the ) also makes a strong showing, but this program will only appeal to those looking for a virtual GM device.

The best SoundFont VST/AU plugin for Windows and Mac that I tested is (or the single-channel version: ). It doesn’t support modulators, and the filter implementation is not perfect, but instruments generally sound as they should. It is also very flexible, allowing realtime manipulation of the ADSR envelope and filter, among other things. The plugin is not free, but can be demoed as long as you don’t mind the sound of the occasional dog bark.

There is a free version, but it is extremely limited. If you’re looking for a free SoundFont VST/AU plugin for Windows or Mac, I’m sorry to report that nothing I have found is very good. Is decent as long as you don’t run more than one instance at a time and don’t mind it badly interpreting instrument layer volume and other parameters. The old rcg:audio sfz plugin has been around for a long time, but it also gets some things very wrong, including a very shallow velocity curve that really messes with the balance of many instrument sounds.

Also, you will need to hunt down the multi-core-friendly version if you want to avoid issues on modern PCs. Macs can use Apple’s DLSMusicDevice, but it’s pretty terrible, failing the majority of my tests. In Conclusion The purpose of this blog post was to provide a thorough review of the SoundFont technology as it stands in 2016. It is my hope that this information will be useful to others in the field—musicians, virtual instrument designers, synth plugin developers—perhaps leading to better support for the standard moving forward. What’s still missing at this point in time is a VST/AU virtual instrument with complete support of the SoundFont 2.01 spec, as well as a good, cross-platform SoundFont editor that supports and can audition 2.01 modulators. I realize that clamoring for change regarding an aging technology might fall upon deaf ears.

However, I still see a lot of life in this old format. There is an obscene number of SoundFont instruments available online, and new, SoundFont-compatible software continues to be actively developed. SoundFonts might not be as feature-rich as Kontakt instruments (no round-robin or scripting, for example), but they are perfect for many tasks, and I make use of them frequently in my own music production. So, you have now heard my very long and technical plea.

I have no idea how many others will care about this as much as I do, but I thank all of you who stuck it out to the end! Please let me know your thoughts in the comments, and have a blessed day! And don’t forget to check out my SoundFonts and music! I also program (even nowadays2016) SoundFont-patches with “Vienna SoundFont Studio” with a lot of fun!

But I prefer, as before, the “hardware-solution” (the E-MU APS Synth/Sampler) I think the last “Vienna SoundFont Studio”-version 2.4xxx was a step backwards, therefore I also prefer the older version (v2.3xxxx) Case one of the “SounFont-Technology- / “Vienna SoundFont Studio” -programmers should stumble across this blog; it would be great if there could be further development / updates e.g. Wave-start Modulation via additional LFO Like. Thanks for your article. I’m an avid sf2 user and designer, particularly for iOS devices (iPhone/iPad) and am convinced the soundfont technology is still very worthy of support in 2016. For those who have tried SampleTank, Korg Module, iGrand or ThumbJam etc you probably found, like me, they all leave you wanting.

You might be surprised that that free sf2’s can sound a whole lot better if a bit of work is put into their design. I’m happy to share these from my site if anyone is interested. – Thanks for the thoughtful, useful blog post. – I’m just starting out. – I (and friends) want to create an electronic concertina that does away with the need for the reds, levers, valves. AND we want it totally portable, with internal battery, and speakers.

– I paid a MIDI cards designer to create a MIDI controller to emulate the buttons (one wire per button, and it delivers MIDI signals). – Big question for you/anyone else reading this Next I want a sound module – probably available for general MIDI, but I have an SF2 file for an excellent concertina sound, and another for an accordion sound. Do you have any ideas about what to get? The Adafruits people have a MIDI card with amp for speakers, but nothing that’ll drive SF2 files. Regards, Bruce Thomson in New Zealand.

Hello christian can you possibly compare /add these other ones to your tests? Some of these are mentioned in the comments. TX16W TAL-Sampler BassMIDISynth – does this one fall into the fluidsynth category? Its appears to be based on the bass libraries I messagged the dev for TAL and he said his synth only imports a few parameters. I’d also like to take the opportunity to ask; does Vienna differ from the EMU APS interface, judging by the screenshots of APS, it seems like an entirely different interface, anyone know?

VirtualMIDISynth uses the BASS library, so I would imagine that BassMIDI would have similar SoundFont compatibility to my VirtualMIDISynth test results. The other two samplers you mention aren’t really SoundFont synths, so I didn’t consider them for my testing. There are many samplers out there that can import SoundFonts, but with programs like TX16Wx, a conversion process is used to convert the sound bank into the plugin’s native sampler format, and compatibility with the SoundFont spec is usually very low. Regarding your question about Vienna: I’m not sure, since I’ve never seen the E-MU APS interface.

Audio playback for MuseScore is provided by virtual (or software) instruments, which can be either of two formats:. (file extension sf2/sf3).

A single file containing one or more virtual instruments. (file extension sfz). A collection of audio and definition files containing one or more virtual instruments. SF2 SoundFonts A SoundFont is a special type of file (extension sf2 or, if compressed, sf3) containing sound samples of one or more musical instruments. MuseScore 2 comes with the soundfont 'FluidR3MonoGM.sf3' already installed. This is a (GM) sample library of 128+ musical instruments and drum sets suitable for a variety of musical styles—classical, jazz, pop etc. (previous versions of MuseScore (0.9.6 – 1.3), used a different soundfont, 'TimGM6mb.sf2').

Once your score is set up to play correctly through FluidR3, it should be able to trigger similar instruments from any other GM sound source. This makes it possible to scores even with non-MuseScore users, by exporting them as or files (see ). Many different soundfonts are available on the Internet, both free and commercial. Larger SoundFonts often sound better but may be too large to run on your computer.

If you find MuseScore runs slowly after installing a large SoundFont, or your computer can't keep up during playback, then look for a smaller SoundFont. Once a SoundFont has been, you can use it for playback in MuseScore (and control other aspects of the sound output) with the. To display the Synthesizer, go to View → Synthesizer.

Install a SoundFont After finding and decompressing a SoundFont (see →), double-click to open it. In most cases, the SoundFont file type will already be associated with MuseScore, and MuseScore will start and a dialog will appear asking if you want to install the SoundFont. Occasionally an application other than MuseScore will be associated with the SoundFont file type; if this is the case, you will need to right-click or control-click on the file, so as to display a menu from which you can choose to open the file in MuseScore. In either case, when the dialog appears asking if you want to install the SoundFont, click 'Yes' to place a copy of the SoundFont file in MuseScore's SoundFonts directory. This directory can be viewed or changed in MuseScore's Preferences, but the default location is:. Windows:%HOMEPATH% Documents MuseScore2 Soundfonts. macOS and Linux: /Documents/MuseScore2/Soundfonts In contrast to user-added SoundFonts, the initial default SoundFont installed with MuseScore is located in a system directory, meant only for that purpose, which should not be modified.

This directory and its default SoundFont file is:. Windows (32-bit):%ProgramFiles% MuseScore 2 sound FluidR3MonoGM.sf3. Windows (64-bit):%ProgramFiles(x86)% MuseScore 2 sound FluidR3MonoGM.sf3. macOS: /Applications/MuseScore 2.app/Contents/Resources/sound/FluidR3MonoGM.sf3. Linux (Ubuntu): /usr/share/mscore-xxx/sounds/FluidR3MonoGM.sf3 (with xxx being the MuseScore version) Uninstall To uninstall a SoundFont, simply open the folder where its file is installed and delete it. SFZ An SFZ consists of a bunch of files and directories, an SFZ file and a bunch of actual sound files in WAV or FLAC format, with the SFZ file being a text file that basically describes what sound file is located where and to be used for what instrument and pitch range. Note: For full support of SFZ, MuseScore 2.1 or later is need, prior versions had only limited support, namely for Salamander Grand Piano Install an SFZ After finding an SFZ (see →), you'd need to manually extract all the files that belong to the SZF (the SFZ file itself and all the subdirectories and the actual sound files within) into the directory listed.

Uninstall To uninstall an SFZ, simply open the folder where its files are installed (see ) and delete them all. Synthesizer The Synthesizer is MuseScore's central control panel for sound output. Once a SoundFont has been, it needs to be loaded into the Synthesizer in order for MuseScore to use it for playback. To make a different SoundFont the default, load it in the Synthesizer and click Set as Default. To display the Synthesizer, go to View → Synthesizer. For more details, see.

List of downloadable soundfiles GM SoundFonts The following sound libraries conform to the General MIDI (GM2) standard. This specification gives you a sound set of 128 virtual instruments, plus percussion kits. (29.8 MB uncompressed) Courtesy of. (67.8 MB uncompressed). (148MB uncompressed) Courtesy of. MuseScore 1 came with (5.7 MB uncompressed) License: GNU GPL, version 2 Courtesy of.

MuseScore 2 comes with (12.6 MB). License: released under the. (369 MB uncompressed) Courtesy of Don Allen Orchestral soundfiles.

Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (503 MB uncompressed) Downloads: License: Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 Piano soundfiles SF2 Pianos. Description: Yamaha Disklavier Pro Grand Piano, sf2 format, 36MiB compressed, 113MiB uncompressed, 121 samples, 5 velocity layers More information: including other soundfonts.