SoundFont is a

brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

that collectively refers to a

file format A file format is a Computer standard, standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary format, pr ...

and associated technology that uses

sample-based synthesis Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instrument ...

to play

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

files. It was first used on the

Sound Blaster AWE32 The Sound Blaster AWE32 is an ISA sound card from Creative Technology. It is an expansion board for PCs and is part of the Sound Blaster family of products. The Sound Blaster AWE32, introduced in March 1994, was a near full-length ISA sound ...

sound card for its

General MIDI General MIDI (also known as GM or GM 1) is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the American MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Commi ...

support. SoundFont is a

registered trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from ot ...

of Creative Technology, Ltd., and the exclusive license for re-formatting and managing historical SoundFont content has been acquired by

Digital Sound Factory Digital Sound Factory is a sound design company that creates sound libraries, known as SoundFont libraries, for playback on synthesizers and computers compatible with Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar, Reasonstudios, Steinberg Halion, Native Instru ...

. Starting in the late 2010s, the derived term ''soundfont'' has gradually gained online colloquial status to refer to

chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...

– specifically the soundscape of a console's sound chip. Any video game console that utilizes sequenced audio is often referred as having "the onsolesoundfont", similar to the usage of Coke to refer to any soft drink. Additionally, it can also refer to a video game's audio data that specifically uses reusable digital samples.

Specification

The newest version of the SoundFont file format is 2.04 (or 2.4), released in 2005. It is based on the RIFF format.

History

The original SoundFont file format was developed in the early 1990s by

E-mu Systems E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling musi ...

and

Creative Labs Creative Technology Ltd., or Creative Labs Pte Ltd., is a Singaporean multinational electronics company mainly dealing with audio technologies and products such as speakers, headphones, sound cards and other digital media. Founded by Sim Wong ...

. A specification for this version was never released to the public. The first and only major device to utilize this version was Creative's

in 1994. Files in this format conventionally have the

file extension File or filing may refer to: Mechanical tools and processes * File (tool), a tool used to remove fine amounts of material from a workpiece. ** Filing (metalworking), a material removal process in manufacturing ** Nail file, a tool used to gen ...

of . SoundFont 2.0 was developed in 1996. This file 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 first version whose behavior was difficult to specify. This version was fully disclosed as a public specification, with the goal of making the SoundFont format an industry standard. All SoundFont 1.0 compatible devices were updated to support the SoundFont 2.0 format shortly after it was released to the public, and consequently the 1.0 version became obsolete. Files in this and all other 2.x formats (see below) conventionally have the file extension of . Version 2.01 (or 2.1) of the SoundFont file format was introduced in 1998, with an E-mu sound card product called the Audio Production Studio. This version added features allowing sound designers to configure the way MIDI controllers influence synthesizer parameters. It is bidirectionally compatible with 2.0, which means that synthesizers capable of rendering 2.01 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 the new format, but just not apply the new features. SoundFont 2.04 was introduced in 2005 with the

Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Blaster X-Fi is a lineup of sound cards in Creative Technology's Sound Blaster series. History The series was launched in August 2005 as a lineup of PCI sound cards, which served as the introduction for their X-Fi audio processing chip, ...

. The 2.04 format added support for 24-bit samples. The 2.04 format is bidirectionally compatible with the 2.01 format, so synthesizers that are only capable of rendering 2.0 or 2.01 format would automatically render instruments using 24-bit samples at 16-bit precision.

Functionality

MIDI files do not contain any sounds, only instructions to play them. To play such files, sample-based MIDI synthesizers use recordings of instruments and sounds stored in a file or

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

chip. SoundFont-compatible synthesizers allow users to use SoundFont banks with custom samples to play their music. Since MIDI files only contain instructions (akin to sheet music), SoundFonts can easily be swapped out to play MIDI files. Doing this changes the instrumentation (how it sounds), but retains the compositional integrity (how it is played). For example, a MIDI file with a sequence of chords might be rendered with a grand piano sound when using an orchestral SoundFont, or with a synthesizer-like tone when using an electronic SoundFont. The actual chords being played, however, do not change. This can be compared to word fonts, where switching the font changes the style of the letters, but keeps the original content. A SoundFont bank contains base samples in

PCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to Digital signal (signal processing), digitally represent analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio application ...

format (the audio data format most commonly used in

WAV Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced or ) is an audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on personal computers. The format was developed and published for the first time in 1991 ...

containers) mapped to sections on a musical keyboard. A SoundFont bank also contains other music synthesis parameters such as loops,

vibrato Vibrato (Italian language, Italian, from past participle of "wikt:vibrare, vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch (music), pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. ...

effect, and velocity-sensitive volume changing. SoundFont banks can conform to standard sound sets such as

, or use other wholly custom sound-set definitions like

Roland GS Roland GS, or just GS, sometimes expanded as General Standard or General Sound, is a MIDI specification. It requires that all GS-compatible equipment must meet a certain set of features and it documents interpretations of some MIDI commands and byt ...

and

Yamaha XG Yamaha XG (Extended General MIDI) is an extension to the General MIDI standard, created by Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha. It is similar in purpose to the Roland GS standard. Features Relative to General MIDI, XG gained popularity by increasin ...

SoundFont creation software ( format)

Several editors are available: * Vienna from Creative Labs, requiring a particular sound card (such as Sound Blaster) * Viena (with a single "n"), created in 2002 * Swami is a collection of free software for editing and managing musical instruments for MIDI music composition, used mainly under

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

* Polyphone,Polyphone, free sf2 editor for Windows, Mac OS and Linux
free editor for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Mac OS Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...

and

created in 2013

References

External links

SoundFont 2.04 specification 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soundfont Audio codecs Audio software Software synthesizers MIDI standards