Sound Fonts : Are Those Free?

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Hi!
I got about 2 gigs of .sf2 files.I downloaded most of them from SoundFonts.it.Are those files royalty-free?
Thanks!

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That depends on where the people who posted them got them from, but I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

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Well, they are all free, as you did not pay for them, but they are not all royalty free.

Many of the soundfonts there were ripped from commercial soundfonts and many others were ripped from free but restricted soundfonts. As an example, I'm not sure if you downloaded the nskit, but that one has a restriction that you may not use it for commercial purposes without permission (or buying the commercial version). There may be many such restrictions on others.

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nskit also has the restriction that it shouldn't be redistributed as a sample set without explicit permission of the author. So if you didn't get it from the author's website...

As Sepheritoh points out, there's lots of stuff posted that shouldn't be, really. Try to find the licence. If there isn't one, you're not really allowed to use it -- that's the default position. Not worrying about it is one approach, of course - until someone spots that you've used their soundfont for your number one chart topping hit and come calling for unspecified damages... :D

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Thanks guys!!!

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soundfonts.it is the site of our fellow MrRay, MrTramp, etc developer ZioKiller.
I'm 100% positive that these are made by himself, so I'm sure you can just use them for whatever you like, assuming you don't re-distribute them.
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.

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(Sorry for the late response...)
So the SoundFonts from his site are all O.K.?
Thanks!

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I have not been to his site for a while, but there used to be a note from him warning that most of the samples have not been verified as to source.

He then has a seperate section where he put his own samples and let us know that they are his and royalty free.

Look carefully.

Most SF2 at most sites are ripped from commercial sample packages.

Some are made by individuals.

If you are worried about copyright and royalty you would be better off buying from a trusted supplier.

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Do not worry at all.
Guido aka ZioKiller chose VERY carefully the contents on his website, so ... go & make some music, and don't forget to D/L his fantastic plugins.
They all sound great and are CPU-friendly.

I'm not a ZioKiller affiliate ;-) !
TPM
____________________________________
... ekylaspysyga!

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