Sound banks

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General

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundFont - a brand name that collectively refers to a file format and associated technology that uses sample-based synthesis to play MIDI files. It was first used on the Sound Blaster AWE32 sound card for its General MIDI support.

MIDI files in themselves don't contain any sounds, rather they contain only instructions to render them. To render such files, sample-based MIDI synthesizers use recordings of instruments and sounds stored in a file or ROM chip. SoundFont-compatible synthesizers allow users to use SoundFont banks with custom samples to render their music. A SoundFont bank contains base samples in PCM format (similar to WAV files) that are mapped to sections on a musical keyboard. A SoundFont bank also contains other music synthesis parameters such as loops, vibrato effect, and velocity-sensitive volume changing. SoundFont banks can conform to standard sound sets such as General MIDI, or use other wholly custom sound-set definitions.

The original SoundFont file format was developed in the early 1990s by E-mu Systems and Creative Labs. A specification for this version was never released to the public. The first and only major device to utilize this version was Creative's Sound Blaster AWE32 in 1994. Files in this format conventionally have the file extension of .SBK or .SB2.


  • Extreme Sample Converter - a multifunctional audio software, browser, player, and program editor with advanced conversion between different sample formats. Windows.


Formats

SBK



  • SoundFont | Dungeon Keeper Wiki | Fandom - SoundFont is a brand name and file format for sample-based MIDI synthesis instruments. It was originally developed by Creative Labs and Emu-Systems. Dungeon Keeper utilises SoundFont technology to produce atmospheric sound effects. Bundled with the game are three .sbk files (sbk standing for SoundFont Bank): bullfrog.sbk, atmos1.sbk, and atmos2.sbk, each containing dungeon-themes wave files. These are used as instruments for music.dat (which is actually a MIDI file and has nothing to do with the game's soundtrack, which is in Red Book format (played from the CD)). If the game detects a Sound Blaster AWE32 or AWE64, one of the SoundFont banks is loaded at random and the MIDI tune plays, and the player is greeted by drops, screams, and other dungeon-themed sounds upon starting a game. It is for this reason that 'Creative AWE32 or AWE64' is the only MIDI option available in the DOS version.

GUS / PAT





REX2

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REX2 - a proprietary type of audio sample loop file format developed by Propellerhead, a Swedish music software company. It is one of the most popular and widely supported loop file formats for sequencer and digital audio workstation software. It is supported by PreSonus Studio One, Propellerhead Reason, Steinberg Cubase, Steinberg Nuendo, Cockos REAPER, Apple Logic, Digidesign Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Cakewalk Project5, Cakewalk Sonar, Image-Line FL Studio, MOTU Digital Performer, MOTU Mach 5 (software sampler), and Synapse Audio Orion Platinum, among others.REX files are named after the three-letter filename suffix for "ReCycle EXport," as these are files generated by Propellerhead's ReCycle looping utility. The filename extensions for the file format are .rex and .rx2.

SF2

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. Files in this and all other 2.x formats conventionally have the file extension of SF2.



  • hydro2sf2 - convert hydrogen drumkit into sf2 soundfont


  • sfpack - .sfpack sfArk compression



SFZ

  • The SFZ Format - The SFZ Format is widely accepted as the open standard to define the behavior of a musical instrument from a bare set of sound recordings. It was created by René Ceballos (founder of RGC Audio™) and is now maintained by Cakewalk™. Being a royalty-free format, any developer can create, use and distribute SFZ files and players for either free or commercial purposes. The SFZ format consists of one or more text files a set of sound sample files. Comes in SFZ 1.0 and SFZ 2.0 varieties.






  • https://github.com/rock-hopper/makesfz - BASH script to auto-generate SFZ files. Requires BASH v4. Running makesfz with no arguments creates individual SFZ files for every WAV file found in the current directory, with the key range spanning the entire keyboard and "pitch_keycenter" set to MIDI key C4 (middle C).
  • One-Shot SFZ Mapper - web tool instantly generates an SFZ file with a one-to-one mapping. Each sample will be assigned to its own key, beginning with the selected key on the pianoroll.
  • https://github.com/sfztools/sfz-flat - A command line client that "flattens" a .sfz file, removing all the hierarchies and keeping only the regions, curves and control information.


  • https://github.com/stevefolta/gig2sfz - a program to convert Gigasampler files to SFZ files, using libgig. It will not convert the sample data itself; use "gigextract" (part of libgig) for that. Better yet, use the included "convert-gig-file" script.


SF3

  • SF2 versus SF3 - "In sf3 the samples are compressed, resulting in much smaller files, so a much bigger (some 140MB before compression, some 12MB after) and better soundfont could be made part of MuseScore. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/soundfont. Sf3 is an invention of Werner Schweer and AFAIK only available for/in MuseScore, whole sf2 is more commeon and in use by other programs too."



SF4

But with FLAC.

DLS

NKI

  • nkitool is a simple console application which exports and imports the human readable XML file from and to Native Instruments Kontakt .nki instrument articulation files. So far, Kontakt v1 to v4 format versions are supported by this tool. nkitool is released in binary and source code format in the public domain.

H2Drumkit


Giga




  • Gigedit - a graphical instrument editor for sample based virtual instruments, based on the GigaStudio/Gigasampler file format. The GigaStudio/Gigasampler (.gig) file format is one of the major sampler formats supported by LinuxSampler and hence you can use Gigedit both as stand-alone instrument editor, or in conjunction with LinuxSampler for editing such instruments "live" while playing them with the sampler.
    • http://doc.linuxsampler.org/Instrument_Scripts/NKSP_Language - NSKP is a script language specifically designed to write real-time capable software extensions to LinuxSampler's sampler engines that can be bundled individually with sounds by sound designers themselves. Instead of defining a completely new script language, NKSP is leaned on the Kontact's KSP properiatary script language.


  • libgig - a C++ library for loading, modifying existing and creating new Gigasampler (.gig) files and DLS (Downloadable Sounds) Level 1/2 files, KORG sample based instruments (.KSF and .KMP files), SoundFont v2 (.sf2) files and AKAI sampler data. The source code package includes a couple of command line tools based on the library. The library and tools are released in source code format under the GNU General Public License, except the AKAI classes which are released under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

DrumGizmo


FSB

  • Luigi Auriemma - files extractor for the FSB (FMOD Sample Bank) archives used by the FMOD library. it supports FSB1, FSB2, FSB3, FSB3.1, FSB4 and FSB5 and also the encrypted archives that can be cracked easily because it's possible to see parts of the original password.

EXS

Logic.

  • The Joy Of EXS - When Logic 9 introduced the facility to create an EXS24 instrument out of a drum loop in one move, the buzz of excitement turned into disappointment for those who didn't notice the small print. Yes, this 'Convert Regions to New Sampler Track' feature is brilliant, but you have to understand how to use it effectively. This is what we'll explore later on in this month's workshop — but let's first look at why we'd want to use EXS24 at all in 2013.

XRNI

Renoise.

Bitwig


SASBF

Self-contained

x42 AVL Drumkits

  • http://x42-plugins.com/x42/x42-avldrums - avldrums.lv2 is a drum sample player plugin dedicated to Glen MacArthur's AVLdrums. This self-contained plugin provides a convenient way to rapidly sequence and mix midi-drums.

DSK Music Box

  • DSK Music Box – Beautiful old music box sound. No parameters! Just a little toy

gmsynth.lv2

MT Power Drum Kit

  • MT Power Drum Kit Sampler - a free drum sampler offering the powerful, high-quality sounds of an acoustic, realistic drum kit. Samples have been specially recorded and processed to make them ideally suited for use in pop, rock and metal productions. The MT Power Drum Kit Sampler differs from other, expensive drum samplers in that we have already pre-processed the sounds with compressors and EQs to make them a perfect fit for any mix. This is precisely where many drum sample programs fail. Some of the expensive plugins available on the market deliver a highly natural and dynamic drum kit sound as a solo instrument, but many fail as soon as they are supposed to be used for a complete mix in a powerful pop or rock production. Either the kick drum suddenly sounds much too slack or fuzzy in the mix, or the snare drum, which initially sounds natural and dynamic in solo mode, suddenly gets lost in the background in the overall mix, drowned out by the guitars and other instruments. But this is exactly where the MT Power Drum Kit is strongest. Its kick and snare drums come through clearly in any mixing situation – and still sound natural and not overly compressed.

Players / libraries

LinuxSampler

  • LinuxSampler - modular design, decoupled from any user interface. LinuxSampler itself usually runs as own process in the background of the computer and usually does not show up anything on the screen, or at most it can be launched to show status informations and debug messages in a console window.
  • LinuxSampler Control Protocol - Main focus of this protocol is to provide a way to configure a running LinuxSampler instance and to retrieve information about it. The focus of this protocol is not to provide a way to control synthesis parameters or even to trigger or release notes. Or in other words; the focus are those functionalities which are not covered by MIDI or which may at most be handled via MIDI System Exclusive Messages.


  • Qsampler is a LinuxSampler GUI front-end application written in C++ around the Qt framework using Qt Designer. At the moment it just wraps as a client reference interface for the LinuxSampler Control Protocol (LSCP).
  • JSampler is an opensource, platform-independent, GUI front-end for LinuxSampler, written entirely in Java. The main goal of the JSampler's design is to be extensible and more flexible regarding the integration of different GUI implementations. JSampler consists of two parts: JSampler core - handles the LSCP command processing and event notifications, sent by LinuxSampler, and provides convenient data models and controllers to be used instead. The core also provides the necessary interfaces that should be implemented by all JSamler views. JSampler view - an extension to the JSampler core, which provides the user interface part of JSampler.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fluid-soundfont


FluidSynth


  • Qsynth - Qt GUI Interface for FluidSynth


  • EMAP (Easy Midi Audio Production) - a graphical user interface for the fluidsynth soundfont synthesizer. It functions as a Jack compatible 1) stand alone application (gtkmm) or 2) an lv2-plugin (gtk2 or gtk3) that can be used inside any lv2 host such as ardour and qtractor. EMAP is meant to be a simple alternative to the popular qsynth UI and puts a majority of the control of the fluidsynth into the hands of the connected midi device. It is especially useful for working with a large collection of soundfonts.



  • http://freshmeat.sourceforge.net/projects/gluid - a very small graphical interface to fluidsynth with minimal features. It runs in the system tray. It allows you to set the audio and MIDI drivers, toggle reverb and chorus, and start fluidsynth. 2009


  • fluadity - Synthesiser and midi-to-wav converter using the Fluidsynth library. The name fluidity would be a great variant on timidity (which in turn is a magnificent variant of audacity), but 'fluidity' is already a one-person Nintendo video game, released 6dec2010.

FluidLite


DrumGizmo

  • DrumGizmo is an open source cross-platform drum plugin and stand-alone application. It is comparable to several commercial drum plugin products. Features include: Stand-alone, Lv2 and VSTi versions available. Open drumkit file format, allowing the community to create their own drumkits. Drum velocity, allowing for several different hit velocities for each drum. Multichannel output, making it possible to mix it just the way you would a real drumkit. Optional built-in humanizer, analyzing the midi notes, adjusting velocities on-the-fly. Stand-alone midi renderer, generating .wav files, 1 for each channel. Stand-alone midi input, making it possible to use DrumGizmo as output for an electronic drumkit.
drumgizmo -i jackmidi -o jackaudio [drumkitfile.xml]



  • DGEdit - the DrumGizmo drumkit editor


Konfyt

  • Konfyt - a digital keyboard workstation for Linux which allows the user to easily and quickly set up patches, each with multiple layers, and instantly switch between these patches for seamless live keyboard playing. Patches may consist of multiple layers of Soundfonts (.sf2), SFZs, audio input ports and MIDI output ports. Konfyt features a searchable library that scans the filesystem for soundfonts and SFZs. Soundfont programs are included in searches and can be viewed with a single click, giving immediate access to all programs within a soundfont.

SF2

Calf Box

  • https://github.com/kfoltman/calfbox - Open source musical instrument/library, command-line jack app and python module to load SF2 and GIG files. lisalo[Qt], Laborejo, Patroneo and Fluajho use it [1]

sf2cute

libsf2

Fluajho

  • Fluajho - a sample player for sf2 soundfonts. This is a legacy file format for making MIDI signals audible through virtual instruments. There are many soundfont samplers for Linux, most of them based on Fluidsynth; Fluajho was written for a clearly defined use case: Load an .sf2 in the Non Session Manager.You can load one soundfont file per Fluajho instance. Each instance holds 16 of the soundfonts instruments that can be assigned to 16 MIDI channels. Each channel creates a stereo JACK output pair.

TinySoundFont

jnoisetype

fluidjack

SFZ

SFZero





OpenSFZ

ZamSFZ

Sfizz

liquidsfz

  • https://github.com/swesterfeld/liquidsfz - an attempt to implement an free and open source sampler that can load and play .sfz files. The main goal is to provide a library that is easy to integrate into other projects. Right now the API is still changing, but in the long term goal is to provide a library API that is stable.


Hydrogen

DrMr

  • DrMr - LV2 sampler plugin that plays Hydrogen kits. It's main reason to exist is to give a way for lv2 hosts to have a built in drum synth that can save its entire state (i.e. no need to go out to external tools and no need to save extra state). See the wiki (click the wiki tab above) for some screenshots.

Composite Sampler

  • Composite Sampler - an LV2 plugin that acts as a MIDI-controllable sampler. It is best suited for drum samples, and supports Hydrogen drum kits.

Hydrumkit

  • https://git.autistici.org/ale/hydrumkit - a LV2 drum sampler plugin. It can load Hydrogen drum kits and play them,with minimal runtime controls. It will use settings (volume, pan, envelopes, etc.) from the drumkit itself, and downmix the instruments to a simple stereo output.


juicysfplugin

  • https://github.com/Birch-san/juicysfplugin - a cross-platform audio plugin for playing MIDI music through a soundfont synthesizer. It's well-suited for making videogame music. If you have a soundfont of your favourite game, you can write your own melodies with its instruments. JUCE is the framework for making audio plugins. fluidsynth is the soundfont synthesizer.


Non-Linux

sforzando

  • sforzando is a free, highly SFZ 2.0 compliant sample player. Advanced sample hobbyists now have a powerful tool to experiment and share instruments without relying on proprietary formats. sforzando has only one instrument slot; no fancy UI, effects or mixers. Every tweak has to be done at the SFZ file level, no cheating!sforzando is also a name given for a sudden change in music dynamics which, in musical notation, is represented by the “sfz” symbol - Windows, macOS only

Sobanth

  • Sobanth - the soundbank instrument for Windows systems Finally available for your home computer: The brand new software multitimbral soundbank instrument VSTi – programmed by Benjamin »BeRo« Rosseaux. Since it is in the beta state you may encounter incompatibilities with some VST hosts. This version is successfully tested with BeRoTracker and Reaper.

SFZPS

Creating

synthclone

  • https://github.com/pdesaulniers/synthclone - a tool that allows you to create sample-based instruments. You can create sample-based instruments by sending MIDI messages to your MIDI-capable gear or software that instructs an instrument to emit sounds for a series of notes, velocities, controls, and aftertouch values, or by recording your own samples. After the sampling is done, you can apply effects to your samples, and finally save this data as a sample-based instrument that can be loaded by sampler software. Distributed with plugins that support the JACK Audio Connection Kit (with JACK Session support), PortAudio and PortMidi, trimming of samples, reversing samples, LV2 effects, the creation of Hydrogen, SFZ, and Renoise instruments, automated zone generation, and loading samples from your local filesystem!

SampleScanner

SampleMapBuilder

wavdir2sfz

  • wavdir2sfz - create sfz soundfonts from directory containing wav audiofiles with notes in their filenames

Editing


Project SWAMI

  • Project SWAMI - Sampled Waveforms And Musical Instruments, is a collection of free software for editing, managing and playing musical instruments for MIDI music composition. Current focus is primarily the SoundFont format, which is an open file format for digital audio “sample” based instruments. Swami – Instrument editor application, libInstPatch Instrument file software library, PatchesDB – Web interface for instrument sharing sites. Uses FluidSynth, a SoundFont based software synthesizer, which works with most any sound interface.

Polyphone

  • Polyphone - a free software for editing soundfonts in format sf2. These files contain a multitude of audio samples put together and configured so as to form musical instruments that can be used by synthesizers such as fluidsynth and played using a MIDI keyboard.

JMAGE Sampler

  • https://github.com/jmage619/jmage-sampler - a Linux based sampler. It can be run as stand alone JACKapplication or as an LV2 Plugin. The goal of JMAGE Sampler is to be able tocreate many zoned, multi layered patches quickly from scratch, with all thecontrols up front and tweakable in real time.What JMAGE Sampler is NOT is a disk streaming sampler. All samples are loaded inmemory. JMAGE Sampler can read SFZ files, but only parses the fields itcurrently supports. There are NO guarantees that an arbitrary SFZ file will notcrash the sampler, especially if the patch is intended for disk streaming.Patches can be saved in SFZ or JMZ format, an extension to SFZ that also storesJMAGE Sampler specific fields. JMZ should be preferred for normal usage.

roxang

emacs-sfz-mode

  • https://github.com/sfztools/emacs-sfz-mode - This is a major mode for editing SFZ files using GNU Emacs. It provides syntax coloring, as well as an ability to identify opcodes which are not part of public specification, and display them in a distinct color.

Non-linux/free

  • SynthFont - a commercial program for editing and playing midi files using various sound source files like SoundFonts, GigaSampler files, SFZ files and more. VST instruments can also be used instead of a sound source file. A midi file is different from - for instance - a MP3 file in that the file does not contain any audio data. The file is a collection of notes and instructions for how to play them. SynthFont combines this data with the audio data in a SoundFont to produce ("render") an audio version of the song. - $
  • SyFonOne - a tool for playing midi in real time from a midi input port. Connect SyFonOne to your keyboard port or to a virtual midi relay port like loopMIDI by Tobias Erichsen (tested on Windows 10) (other alternatives are: MIDI Yoke and LoopBe1).


  • Zampler - VST/AU sample Workstation for Windows and OS X that can compete in terms of sound and equipment loosely with the major operators. Besides REX loop and SFZ-enabled Sample oscillators offering Zampler // RX a sound modeling at its best: the integrated multimode filter types lowpass, highpass, bandpass and bandstop and various combinations thereof are to choose from. And three LFOs, three ADSR envelopes and a complex modulation matrix Liven up the sounds. Of functions through an extensive effects section, in the tube saturation, two equalizer, phaser, chorus, delay and reverb.

Downloads

mostly sorted into the above formats. these links are for collections of soundfonts


SF2




  • Soundfonts 4U - Free Quality SoundFonts (sf2) - bs-16i SoundFonts. This aim of this site is to provide high quality SoundFonts (virtual musical instruments in sf2 format) that can be played using a midi keyboard connected to a computer, tablet or smart phone. Emphasis has been placed on real or acoustic instruments particularly piano and other favourites for keyboard players (pads, strings, electric pianos, organs and orchestral) but some SoundFonts here also include high quality guitars, some synths and ethnic instruments. There is also a nice GM set for playing general midi files. The SoundFont format sf2 is widely supported by lots of programs/apps and devices.


  • GeneralUser GS - a GM and GS compatible SoundFont bank for composing or playing MIDI files. There are currently versions for use with FluidSynth (or Qsynth), MuseScore, Sound Blaster Live!/Audigy/X-fi sound cards, and other SoundFont-compatible hardware and software synthesizers. For owners of Sound Blaster audio cards, GeneralUser GS can greatly enhance the sound quality of GM/GS compatible MIDI files when loaded into the sound card's RAM. Compared with the default SoundFonts that Creative Labs ships with their sound cards, the instrument sounds in GeneralUser GS are far more realistic.
  • https://github.com/ad-si/GeneralUser - a friendly fork of the FluidSynth version of the GeneralUser GS soundfont originally developed by S. Christian Collins.The FluidSynth version is tweaked for maximum compatibility when used with FluidSynth or Qsynth (which uses FluidSynth as its backend). FluidSynth version 1.0.9 or later is recommended as earlier versions will not reproduce all of the instruments accurately.


  • FatBoy SoundFont - A free GM/GS SoundFontfor classic video game MIDI,emulation, and general usage. [2]


  • Orchardoo.com Soundfonts - Each link points to a zip archive file which contains an SF2 font, a midi file to demonstrate the font and details about the file.


  • Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra - a free orchestral sample library. While not as advanced or ambitious in scope as commercial offerings, SSO contains all the basic building blocks for creating real virtual orchestrations. It's primarily aimed at beginners, but also more experienced composers looking for something lightweight and/or portable might find it useful.


  • Guitar & Bass Virtual Instruments - Fender BG29 Acoustic/Electric Bass, This fantastic SoundFont was originally created by Marc Wielogroch. It includes multi-samples and release samples as well. There aren't a lot of SoundFonts that make use of release samples, so kudos to Marc for including them here! I haven't made any changes to this SoundFont except to tune the samples. I had noticed they were quite off-pitch when I tried to use the bass in a project of mine. Musical Box Fingered Bass










  • JEUX - a Pipe Organ SoundFont


SFArk

  • Guitar Soundfont Central - Library - These soundfonts are optimized for use in TablEdit to provide a more realistic guitar sound. All soundfonts are compressed with SFArk to obtain the smallest download size.



SFZ


  • Freepats is a project to create a free and open set of instrument patches, in any format, that can be used with softsynths. We would like to collect and host samples and instrument patches in any format so if you are interested in contributing to the project then send a message to the freepats mailing list. Needless to say, any uploaded content must either be in the Public Domain or have an open and free redistribution license.










  • SCC Expressive Strings - a virtual string ensemble programmed for maximum expressiveness. To get the most out of this library, it is recommended to have an expression pedal connected to an 88-key MIDI keyboard. The samples have been collected from various free SoundFont banks I have found online. More details on this can be found in the readme.txt file inside the download.


  • Salamander C5 Light - Grand Piano SoundFont (SF2 version). 24.5 MB (versus 1.12GB!sFz; or 650MB sf2). Very close to the original sound quality. New: 7 velocity layers!: 1."ppp", 2."pp", 3."p", 4."mp", 5."mf", 6."f", 7."ff-fff". (MuseScore compatible) All samples are looped. 16 bit, 44.1kHz Sample Rate. Free for personal use.








  • SCC Taiko Drums - Free Taiko Drum Rack by Subaqueous. Unfortunately, none of my students use Ableton, so I decided to use the samples to create an SFZ instrument instead. I also added some samples I found on freesound.org.


  • Sunshine Studios Drum Soundfonts - "various hits on the following: Remo Djembe 14", Toca Mini Djembe, Natural Wooden Drum from the Islands, Homemade PVC Drum, and two Shekeres."


SF3


Gig

  • Mats Helgesson Maestro - a big gigasampler bank using 792 stereo samples of a concert piano, a Yamaha CF3, recorded with two Neumann KM84 microphones, disposed in X/Y, with 5 velocity layers, and weighs 932 MB ! The piano alone, without release samples, weighs 887 Mb and 440 samples. The release samples are 352 and weigh 45 MB. You can play with or without them.
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