SOUNDFONT COMPATIBILITY

SoundFont Compatible Soundcards

Creative Labs: Audigy Soundcards  |  Creative Labs: SoundBlaster Live!  |  EMU/Ensonic: E-Card

SoundFont Compatible Software Synthesizers
SoundFont compatible Software Synthesizers allow you to use the audio soundcard of your choice. The card itself does not need to support SoundFonts since the software synth will take care of that. Software synths are ideally suited for users needing multiple inputs and outputs on their audio card since at present there are no multi I/O cards that directly support SoundFonts. Software synths, however, generally require a 400megahertz PC or faster to work well.  

 With the increasing popularity of the Soundfont spec, more and more software programs are adding the ability to import and play Soundfonts. However, in our experience, many of these programs do not accurately import all the programming parameters. They typically will import the sample data and keymapping info correctly, but the various programming parameters, such as filter and envelope settings, fine tuning, etc., may not correctly be imported. If you are planning on getting a software program to play Soundfont files, you may want to check with the manufacturer to find out exactly how much info they import.

If you are going to be using a software synth on a PC, Sonic Implants recommends using Vsampler 3. It does an excellent job of importing all the programming parameters accurately. It includes VSTi and Dxi compatible plug-ins, plus a stand-alone application. The Dxi version of Vsampler is included with SONAR 3.0 Producer Edition.

Another program that works well is Live Synth Pro, which is a Dxi plug-in. Unfortunately Live Update, the company that created LiveSynth Pro, is out of business. A time limited demo version of Live Synth Pro is included on the SONAR 2.0 CD-ROM, along with demo versions of some of our Soundfont products. But since Live Update is out of business, there is no way to purchase the fully functional version any more.

If you have another software sampler that you like working with and it does not import the soundfont format correctly, you want to try working with a sampler format conversion program, to convert from the soundfont format to another format that imports better in your software sampler. Two programs that we have used are CDXtract and Translator.

SoundFont Compatible MIDI/Audio Sequencers
Although you can use any MIDI sequencer with soundfonts, as long as you have a hardware card or software sampler that supports them, if you have a Creative Labs soundcard, the following sequencers make it very easy to load soundfonts, by providing a Load soundfont option directly within the sequencer.

Cakewalk Software: SONAR , Home Studio, and Music Creator (PC)
Steinberg: Cubase (PC and Mac)  

SoundFont Editors
Creative Labs: Vienna (PC)  
Creative Labs: SoundFont Manager (PC)  
SoundFaction: Alive (PC)  
FMJ Software: Awave Studio (PC)  
Audio Compositor (PC)  
Bitheadz: Unity DS-1 (PC and Mac)