SoundFonts are a [[File Formats]] which store samples and sampler configuration data. - [Specification](https://freepats.zenvoid.org/sf2/sfspec24.pdf) # Notability Supported by many applications; from media players to music creation software to games; including [[FluidSynth]], [[FL Studio]], [[Bitwig]], [[Audjoo Helix]], [[ScummVM]], [[GZDoom]], # History Developed by [[E-Mu]], the first device which supported an early version was by [[Creative Labs]] was released in 1994, used an un-documented format in files ending in `.SBK`. Later in 1996 they released and documented a second version, using the file extension `.SF2` which gained wide adoption. A backwards-compatible extension called version 2.01 was released in 1998 with several new features for MIDI integration. The final version, 2.04, was released by [[Creative Labs]] in 2005 adding support for higher sample rates. As an open standard, some have since extended it. ## SF3 [[MuseScore]] created what they call `.SF3` which is identical to `.SF2` except it supports optional [[Ogg Vorbis]] compression of samples. According to their documentation, they use [[Polyphone]] to create `.SF3` files. It is supposed to be fully open, but I have had trouble tracking down the specification. ## SF2PACK Similar to SF3, but uses [[WavPack]] (https://www.wavpack.com/) instead. ## SFARK MelodyMachine (I think) developed a compressed soundfont format, but it was abandoned and never widely adopted. It's not clear how it worked or what advantage it had over putting a SoundFont in a zip file, since everyone seems to convert or extract it anyway. # Resources - Polyphone Soundfont Editor: https://www.polyphone.io/en - `sf3convert`: https://github.com/musescore/sftools - https://github.com/CarlGao4/Muse-Sounds ? - Musical Artifacts has `.SF2` and `.SF3` files for download https://musical-artifacts.com/ # References See also: [[SFZ]], [[REX]], [[DLS]] - SoundFont Wikipedia [article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundFont) - https://zdoom.org/wiki/Sound_fonts - FMJsoft's page about SoundFonts: https://www.fmjsoft.com/fmt/sf2.htm