Phenome

I haven't used soundfonts for a while - partly for lack of a decent SF player in my current set-up - so I was very pleased to stumble across this freeware SF2 player from Prodyon and here's why:
GUI
Professional-looking without being flashy, the GUI is well laid out with all functions clearly labelled & easily accessible. The top panel is where you can load up to eight SF2 into eight seperate 'layers' and also adjust MIDI channel, pan & volume for each one. From here you can also load & save individual layers as a preset or all layers together as a multi. The right-hand panel is a browser giving you quick access to all your SF2s and presets. The rest of the GUI displays all the various editing options for the currently selected layer.
Sound
The sound is excellent - all my SF2s loaded without any problems and sounded as expected - there are several quality settings available and the included soundbank (see below) is also vey good.
Features
Each of the eight loaded layers can be edited with different settings for filter, drive, chorus, reverb and delay. You also get envelopes for amp, filter & pitch, a simple arpeggiator and a couple of modulation options per layer. This all adds up to a fair amount of sonic manipulation and, as an extra bonus, virtually everything can be automated via MIDI.
The layer structure is well implemented and, as each layer can have it's velocity and key range adjusted, it is very easy to make complex multis using several layers. You even get a keyswitch mode allowing you to dynamically switch between layers.
Most impressive is how this is all achieved vey simply and with minimum CPU. I can easily run all eight layers at reasonable polyphony at about 25% CPU on my laptop - much better than comparable plugins I have tried.
Documentation
There is currently no manual but this is largely compensated by the simple GUI and tooltips. I beleive a full manual is planned for the future.
Stability
Rock-solid on my set-up.
Presets
This is one of several areas where this plugin really stands out from the crowd. Unusually for freeware, it comes with a full soundbank of over 100 presets and soundfonts. This is excellent quality & covers basses, pads, leads etc. Two further banks are available to buy (with more planned) and these are both quality collections available for a very cheap price.
Support
Again unusually for freeware, the support for Phenome is very good. The developer has shown a willingness to respond to even trivial support queries and is very receptive to feature requests.
VFM
It's free so the value for money is 10 out of 10. The expansion soundbanks are also well worth the money.

In conclusion I really can't recommend this highly enough. For my money this is the best SF2 player available.Read Review