SoundFont

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SoundFonts contain samples and settings ( e.g. relative volume, envelope, filter settings) to describe sounds ( patches ) in electronic MIDI sound generators, which can be used with suitable software ( software samplers ) or hardware ( sound cards ).

The SoundFont format was developed by E-mu Systems / Ensoniq to improve the older DLS format .

Among the various types of sound synthesis , the generation of sounds with SoundFonts is part of wavetable synthesis (see computer music ).

specification

The current SoundFont specification is version 2.04 (often incorrectly referred to as 2.4; the specification document for version 2.04 also contains the incorrect version 2.01 in the footer). Since version 2.0, Creative Labs has actively promoted the format as an open standard, which means that everyone is free to develop solutions that support the format.

The file structure of SoundFont files is a derivative of the RIFF standard . A detailed description of the structure of a SoundFont file would, however, go beyond the scope of this article, so reference is made to the SoundFont specification in version 2.04 at this point.

history

Early 1990s The SoundFont standard in version 1.0 is published. When developing the format, emphasis was placed on platform independence , expandability and compatibility .
1994 The Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE 32 with E-MU8000 chip comes onto the market. For the first time, an inexpensive digital sampler in PC technology is available that can handle SoundFonts.

Vienna SoundFont Studio becomes available in the same year. This makes it possible for everyone to create their own SoundFonts.

1996 The completely renewed SoundFont format 2.0 based on the experience gained appears. It supports numerous innovations, which are also based on suggestions from users of the predecessor, and is being actively promoted for the first time.
1997 Creative Labs is releasing a software wavetable synthesizer for the Sound Blaster AWE 64 Gold and the Sound Blaster 16 Wav Effects sound cards. This provides an alternative to the hardware wavetable synthesizers.
1998 The SoundFont format is expanded and appears in version 2.01 - the new version with the E-MU APS sound cards appears first.
2000 The SoundFont format is now supported by most software sequencers and audio applications.
2001 The Sound Blaster for Macintosh appears, and has support for SoundFont 2.01 from the start.
2002 The Sound Blaster Audigy series appears and the SoundFont format 2.01 thus reaches the majority of end users.
2006 With the Sound Blaster X-Fi series, the SoundFont format 2.04 appears with another innovation. In particular, it is now possible to create SoundFonts with 24-bit samples .

Hardware for SoundFonts

SoundFont synthesizers in hardware are characterized by the fact that, on the one hand, they cause practically no processor load and, on the other hand, they provide high quality output. In addition, the sound card models mentioned below also enable effects with their digital signal processors , such as reverb , chorus , flanger , pitch shifter , equalizer , and others.

There are a number of sound cards from Creative Labs that include a SoundFont synthesizer in hardware. These include, in particular, the Sound Blaster cards:

  • Sound Blaster AWE 32/64
  • Sound Blaster PCI512
  • Sound Blaster Live! series
  • Sound Blaster Audigy Series
  • Sound Blaster X-Fi series

Usable memory limits on Sound Blaster cards

There are samplers that can read instruments from the hard drive in real time . This saves working memory , but requires a sophisticated pre-buffer strategy so that there are no dropouts during playback due to the reloading of samples. Because the Sound Blaster drivers proceed differently and try to load the entire SoundFont into the main memory, it is clear that the size of the SoundFont to be loaded must not exceed the free main memory in the computer.

With the currently (2009) usual sizes of the main memory (512 megabytes to 2 gigabytes) it sometimes happens that a SoundFont cannot be loaded even though the SoundFont is significantly smaller than the free main memory. This is because Creative Labs' drivers use a technique called memory mapping to load the SoundFont , which Windows has certain restrictions depending on the operating system version. Even with a trick, Creative Labs' drivers cannot use more than approximately 340 megabytes for SoundFonts on Windows. With large General MIDI SoundFonts (such as Crisis GM 3.01) this is still not enough and then requires the use of a software synthesizer that does not have such restrictions.

The trick mentioned, to move the upper limit of usable memory as high as possible, is to create a key in the Windows registry (or to change it, if the key already exists). This is described in detail in the Creative Labs Knowledge Base in solution # 5184 in the How to load and configure SoundFont Banks section in SoundFont Bank Manager (see section Web Links ). After that, the entire free RAM is still not available for SoundFonts, but SoundFonts of up to around 280 megabytes can be used under Windows XP . With Windows Server 2003 , approximately 340 megabytes can be used for SoundFonts, the previous maximum under the 32-bit Windows operating systems .

With the 64-bit versions of Windows, however, it is no problem to load larger SoundFonts up to 4 gigabytes into the memory with the Creative Soundfont Manager.

Software for SoundFonts

If there is no sound card from Creative Labs available, or if the mentioned restriction on memory usage is to be avoided, a software synthesizer is the best option. With a fast computer, real-time capability (e.g. live conditions) and output quality are no problem. In addition, full-blown software synthesizers usually offer more options for sound generation and also understand a number of other formats apart from SoundFonts.

There are two ways to use a software synthesizer with SoundFonts:

  1. as a software instrument in connection with a sequencer or another MIDI device such as a keyboard
  2. as a program that creates audio files from MIDI files and SoundFonts , which can then be further edited with an audio editor

Commercial synthesizers

There are quite a few full blown software synthesizers or samplers out there. Some of the following programs read SoundFonts directly, while others have utility programs for importing SoundFonts.

  • Ableton sampler
  • Audio Compositor (officially no longer available)
  • Avanquest Music Producer
  • bismark bs-1 / bs-16
  • Imageline DirectWave
  • E-mu Proteus X / X2
  • E-mu emulator X / X2 / X3
  • Emagic EXS24
  • GigaSampler / GigaStudio
  • Steinberg HALion
  • MIDISyn
  • Native Instruments contact
  • Native Instruments Battery
  • Fruity Soundfont Player (based on LiveUpdate LiveSynth Pro and available for FruityLoops Studio)
  • Orion sampler
  • Propellerhead Reason NN-XT
  • rgc: audio sfz + ( VST instrument , requires ASIO driver)
  • Seer Systems Reality
  • Seer Systems SurReal
  • Solo orchestra
  • MAZ Sound Tools VSampler

Free / free synthesizers

In addition to the commercial ones, there are some free, free SoundFont synthesizers that meet simple to sophisticated requirements.

Utilities

There are a large number of utilities that serve a wide variety of purposes related to the SoundFont format. The most important auxiliary programs are briefly discussed below.

The standard program for creating SoundFonts is Creative Labs' Vienna SoundFont Studio, the latest version 2.4 of which also supports 24-bit samples . However, like its predecessor 2.3, it requires a sound card from Creative Labs. For owners of other sound cards, Viena, a bonus to SynthFont, is an option, as it does not make any special demands on the sound card used. SoundFaction Alive is another SoundFont editor that is also not tied to specific sound cards, but unlike the first two programs mentioned, it is not available for free. Finally there is Esbeekay, a program that can also handle SoundFonts, but only with SoundFonts version 1.x (.sbk files), which are now practically no longer used. Apart from Microsoft Windows, there are Swami for Linux and Polyphontics from Sonic Amigos for Mac OS X.

To pass on or store SoundFonts, they are usually compressed to save space. Any archiving program can be used for this. However, there are programs that specialize in the compression of SoundFonts and therefore achieve particularly good compression rates. The two most common programs are SFPack from Megota Software and sfArk from MelodyMachine. There are also RatHole from EdgeSounds and SFzip from Future Algorithms, which, however, are not particularly widespread. There are versions of sfArk for Linux and Mac OS X, which only allow decompression (sfArkXTc and sfArkXT). In addition to the version for Microsoft Windows, RatHole also has a version for Mac OS X.

Finally, individual programs that cover various areas of application are worth mentioning. MegaFont is a dynamic SoundFont cache management system that can be used to circumvent the limitation in storage space usage. Winamp 2.81 is also a special version with regard to SoundFonts, because with this version of Winamp the latest version of the MIDI plug-in is included, which SoundFonts can use to play MIDI files. Finally, ModPlug Tracker (and its open source version OpenMPT), BeRoTracker and BushTracker, which can also read SoundFonts, should be mentioned.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ PDF; 518 kB