SF2

SoundFont
Developer:	E-mu Systems, Inc., Creative Labs
Header:	RIFF
Content:	PCM
Instruments:	Intrinsic
Target Output
Released:	1990-??-??
First Game:	?
Extensions	*.sbk *.sf2 *.sfz

SoundFont (SF2) file format widely used by Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 and by software synthesizers. The file doesn't store music, but it does contain the digital audio samples for instrument collections.

Older SoundFont versions has SBK extension while latest versions uses SF2 extension which also supports compressed files with SFZ extension.

Creative sound cards like Sound Blaster AWE32 and Sound Blaster Live! has onboard RAM with native SoundFont support for hardware wavetable synthesis.

Players

(Category)

• Awave Studio - Windows
• FluidSynth - Linux, Unix, Windows
• Digital Sound System - DOS
• MIDI (XMPlay) - XMPlay
• MIDI Decoder - foobar2000
• ModPlug Tracker - Windows
• modizer - IOS

Editors

(Category)

• Awave Studio - Windows
• Polyphone - Linux, Macintosh, Windows
• SWAMI - Linux, Macintosh, Windows
• Vienna SoundFont Studio - Windows

Converters

(Category)

? to SF2

• libdmusic - Linux, Windows 32, Windows 64 - DLS

Games

(Category)

Technical

All SoundFont files use RIFF tree structure, and the identifier is "sfbk".

RIFF Tree Structure

File Root
│
└─ RIFF:sfbk            - RIFF SoundFont bank header
   ├─ LIST:INFO         - Information container
   │  ├─ ifil           - Unknown
   │  ├─ isng           - SoundFont hardware signature
   │  ├─ irom           - SoundFont ROM info
   │  ├─ iver           - SoundFont version
   │  ├─ INAM           - Name / Title
   │  ├─ IPRD           - Product
   │  ├─ ICOP           - Copyright
   │  └─ ...
   ├─ LIST:sdta         - Samples
   │  ├─ smpl           - Sample waveform data
   │  └─ snam           - Sample names
   ├─ LIST:pdta         - Instrument definitions
   │  ├─ phdr           - Instrument headers
   │  ├─ pbag           - Unknown
   │  ├─ pmod           - Unknown
   │  ├─ pgen           - Unknown
   │  ├─ inst           - Instrument internal names
   │  ├─ ibag           - Unknown
   │  ├─ imod           - Unknown
   │  ├─ igen           - Unknown
   │  └─ shdr           - Unknown
   └─ ...

Links

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundFont - Wikipedia.
• synthfont.com/sfspec24.pdf - SoundFont format specification.