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How to Use Soundfonts Without a Sound Card

In this post-MP3, post-iTunes universe, most readers will shudder at the idea that, at one time, the average PC user's idea of rocking out to awesome tunes involved playing back raw MIDI files after loading up the latest soundfonts into their PCI-based soundcard. Though for a time soundfonts found a second life in the realm of music production, the format has largely been replaced by Apple's Audio Units and Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology. Though digital music has changed significantly in the years since E-Mu first introduced the format, free soundfont repositories still on the Web contain usable sounds. To incorporate soundfonts into your sonic arsenal, you will use a free soundfont player plugin. Download and install a free soundfont-player plugin. Among Windows users, rgc:audio's SFZ+ is by far the most popular. OS X users should use the highly regarded bs-0.

Things You'll Need

  • VST- or AU-capable digital audio workstation (DAW)
  • Soundfont player in VST or AU plugin format
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Instructions

  1. SFZ+ Professional for Windows

    • 1

      Download SFZ+ and launch the installer. When prompted for a location, choose your DAW's default directory for VST plugins.

    • 2

      Launch your digital audio workstation of choice and create a new track. Launch the plugin loader for the track in question and choose SFZ+.

    • 3

      Click on the empty space next to the "File" box, then browse to the directory containing your soundfonts in the window that appears. Select the soundfont you would like to load and click "Open." Click "Program" to change between individual instrument patches included in the soundfont in question.

    • 4

      Drag and drop a MIDI file onto the track and click "Play" on the DAW transport to hear your soundfont in action.

    Bs-0 for OS X

    • 5

      Download bs-0 and launch the installer. When prompted for a location, choose your DAW's default directory for AU plugins.

    • 6

      Launch your digital audio workstation of choice and create a new track. Then launch the plugin loader for the track in question and choose bs-0.

    • 7

      Click "File," then "Open" in the bs-0 dialog box that appears. Browse to the directory containing your soundfonts and choose one to load. If the soundfont contains multiple banks, click "Bank (MSB/LSB)" to change between them.

    • 8

      Drag and drop a MIDI file onto the track and click "Play" on the DAW transport to hear the soundfont.

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