Any good free SF2 readers still available?

[musiclover55547]

Hi Guys,

I used SFZ+ lately, but it's not for download anymore.
I've been looking for other free SF readers but they are all gone (sfz+, DiscoDSP,...)
I'm looking for one with reverb, chorus, and ADSR etc added.
So, the basics.

Any ideas?

Fruity Loops does support sf2, I believe. Ableton's & Bitwig's Samplers do as well, and Logic will load the files in its EXS24 (just as it will load GIGA.)

If you're using one of these, then you can modulate all the parameters too. I'm not sure about other DAWs (DP, Cubase, etc.)

[layzer]

Jeskola XS-1 is working perfect for me in Cubase 8 64bit.
It's very small and easy, but has basic effects and ADSR envelopes.

It's really worth a try!

Wow. This is everything I want in an sf2 player. Simple, light, and surprisingly powerful. I wish it were better at displaying sf2s with lots of banks, but apart from that it's killer.

+1

forgot all about this lil gem

[TrekStar]

Jeskola XS-1 is working perfect for me in Cubase 8 64bit.
It's very small and easy, but has basic effects and ADSR envelopes.

It's really worth a try!

Wow. This is everything I want in an sf2 player. Simple, light, and surprisingly powerful. I wish it were better at displaying sf2s with lots of banks, but apart from that it's killer.

+1

forgot all about this lil gem

+1 yep, jeskola was cool - I remember I even bought it as it was payware...

[mridlen]

Yeah I swear by Jeskola XS-1 for SF2. You can even create 16 layer patches by assigning them all to the same MIDI channel, and assign them different key ranges (like a nice keyboard workstation might). This is great for orchestral stuff.

[.jon]

http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4 ... 51-zampler

Zampler works with SFZ format, not SF2.

Many people believe they are the same thing, but they are not. Totally diferent stuff.

SF2 format never was really well implemented in software samples. It was created to be used with old Creative soundboards, and the file format includes not only samples mapping, but also envelopes, filters and LFO configurations (because the SoundBlaster boards has filters and envelopes). NONE of the software implementations seems to deal with all those parameters. They just read the sample mapping.

My bad, I confess I thought they were just different versions of soundfonts.

[layzer]

http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4 ... 51-zampler

Zampler works with SFZ format, not SF2.

Many people believe they are the same thing, but they are not. Totally diferent stuff.

SF2 format never was really well implemented in software samples. It was created to be used with old Creative soundboards, and the file format includes not only samples mapping, but also envelopes, filters and LFO configurations (because the SoundBlaster boards has filters and envelopes). NONE of the software implementations seems to deal with all those parameters. They just read the sample mapping.

My bad, I confess I thought they were just different versions of soundfonts.

correct. even cakewalk thought they were the same when they named their plugin "SFZ+" yet it only supports SF2.

SFZ may have come along AFTER cakewalk produced SFZ+ vst.

[aMUSEd]

http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4 ... 51-zampler

Zampler works with SFZ format, not SF2.

Many people believe they are the same thing, but they are not. Totally diferent stuff.

SF2 format never was really well implemented in software samples. It was created to be used with old Creative soundboards, and the file format includes not only samples mapping, but also envelopes, filters and LFO configurations (because the SoundBlaster boards has filters and envelopes). NONE of the software implementations seems to deal with all those parameters. They just read the sample mapping.

My bad, I confess I thought they were just different versions of soundfonts.

correct. even cakewalk thought they were the same when they named their plugin "SFZ+" yet it only supports SF2.

SFZ may have come along AFTER cakewalk produced SFZ+ vst.

No it came out before, Cakewalk were just being dumb.

[kx77free]

http://kx77free.free.fr/English-page-vst.html

There two VA with stereo SF2 player : Kx-Modulad and Kx-PolyMod





The SF2 player inside is called SFO and its use is like a VCO.
I use them to build complex or simple presets for pad and drum.
Actually they are x86 vst but I hope to build x64 versions this year.

[tonedef71]

Although not a VSTi plug-in, the CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth driver is a virtual Windows MIDI OUT driver that comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. It is a higher quality virtual MIDI driver than the one that ships with Windows. It is capable of loading a whole chain of up to 32 SoundFonts together. Check out the full specifications at the web site.

[sig-ex]

DSK SF2 players (2 versions)
http://www.dskmusic.com/category/samplers/
Has effects features like ADSR, Filter, LFO, etc.

VSTSynthfont
http://synthfont.com/VSTSF_news.html
The creator also made an SF2 editor, so I'm guessing this is highly compatible, format-wise. I have used this as a multi instrument player with routing in Reaper.

[whyterabbyt]

[correct. even cakewalk thought they were the same when they named their plugin "SFZ+" yet it only supports SF2.

SFZ may have come along AFTER cakewalk produced SFZ+ vst.

Except that it wasnt Cakewalk. It was RGCAudio, the guy who created the sfz format in the first place. And yes, the SFZ format came after the SFZ+ plugin.
The SFZ+ plugin was written as an expanded version of the SFZ plugin, which was a soundfont player, but because soundfont was a close, proprietary, binary format, RGCAudio went on to create the open, shared, text-based SFZ format.
SFZ format support was later added added to the SFZ plugin as the 'proof of concept' player for SFZ files, but was never added to the SFZ+ plugin (though a version of that did have very good Gigasampler file support).

Cakewalk hired the developer behind RGCAudio after all of that happened; they didnt 'name' or 'produce' SFZ or SFZ+ at all, they just kept them available, then made them free.

[whyterabbyt]

No it came out before, Cakewalk were just being dumb.

sfz+ and sfz plugins released 2003
http://www.kvraudio.com/news/rgc_audio_ ... eased_1304

sfz format announced for sfz plugin, 2004.
http://www.kvraudio.com/news/rgc_audio_ ... eased_1734

CW didnt acquire RGC until 2005.

[fischkopf]

VSTSynthfont
http://synthfont.com/VSTSF_news.html
The creator also made an SF2 editor, so I'm guessing this is highly compatible, format-wise. I have used this as a multi instrument player with routing in Reaper.

Buggy as hell unfortunately, I never got that thing to work without crashing in FL Studio.

[phreaque]

BS-0 from Bismark small, cool, freeware, nice & straight forward

[layzer]

[correct. even cakewalk thought they were the same when they named their plugin "SFZ+" yet it only supports SF2.

SFZ may have come along AFTER cakewalk produced SFZ+ vst.

Except that it wasnt Cakewalk. It was RGCAudio, the guy who created the sfz format in the first place. And yes, the SFZ format came after the SFZ+ plugin.
The SFZ+ plugin was written as an expanded version of the SFZ plugin, which was a soundfont player, but because soundfont was a close, proprietary, binary format, RGCAudio went on to create the open, shared, text-based SFZ format.
SFZ format support was later added added to the SFZ plugin as the 'proof of concept' player for SFZ files, but was never added to the SFZ+ plugin (though a version of that did have very good Gigasampler file support).

Cakewalk hired the developer behind RGCAudio after all of that happened; they didnt 'name' or 'produce' SFZ or SFZ+ at all, they just kept them available, then made them free.

ahhh thx for clearing that up, Sir!