![]() SF2 format ( SoundFont 2.0), which got a further update to 2.01 in 1998. ![]() A development of this occurred two years later in 1996 with the. SBK files (probably meaning SoundBank), also sometimes called SoundFont 1.0 files. With the release of the Sound Blaster AWE32 by Creative Labs in 1994, the "SoundFont" format was born. In this part 1, I will start by exploring Creative Labs' version of a software patchset, the "Soundfont".Ĭreative Soundfonts. For the most part, patchsets conform to the General MIDI standard but each hardware manufacturer went their own way when it came to how they stored instrument samples in their files. Today I will explore a variety of the patchset formats, and where possible give my impression as to their quality. In each family are 8 specific instruments. The General MIDI Level 1 instrument sounds are grouped by families. The General MIDI standard is one such table that many manufacturers conform to: Typically some form of table in the file points an 'instrument' to a specific sample in the file, with an ID or a location. The patchsets themselves contain a list of instruments, but the majority of the file are base samples that are typically stored in PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) format, in addition to parameters such as effects. Two sound cards that use onboard RAM to store samples:Ĭreative Labs' AWE32 (top) and Advanced Gravis' Ultrasound (bottom) ![]() ![]() That, and it's cheaper to manufacture a sound card without a large ROM chip on it. There is no reason having a patchset in software means it is of less quality than a ROM-based patchset - the only difference is that the sound samples within the patchset need to be loaded into RAM, thus taking up more system resources - it is for this reason that some sound cards came with RAM banks which the sound card could use for temporary storage of patches instead of using valuable main memory. Typically the larger the size, the better quality of sound you can expect, since they either had different, higher-quality samples, or are non-compressed versions of the same samples. 512 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB, 4 MB or 8 MB usually. The size of a software patchset matches up with what would have been the ROM chip's capacity if the patches were stored in a ROM IC on the sound card itself, i.e. ![]() These files are loaded at the time a game or music application calls for it, or when the audio device driver is first initialised. Software wavetables or software patchsets are files that contain the patches (sound samples or soundfonts - yes there are about 3 names for everything in the world of wavetable synthesis!). Note that I am not an expert in this subject, or audio fidelity in any way - I am just an enthusiast, very much on the learning curve. If you are new to wavetable synthesis for DOS I highly recommend you start by visiting my page on wavetable audio, and then come back to this one. ![]()
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