Soundfonts
Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2016 11:36 am
I think SFZ is probably the superior format, so if I could find a reliable way to convert SF2 to SFZ on Linux that'd be great. However, I haven't found any method to do that and there's also many more apps that support SF2 (Caustic, Audio Evolution, Grand Piano ...) than do SFZ (only G-Stomper that I know of on Android) so even with conversion it would mean I would have to have duplicates on the 16 GB device storage. And I already have to be selective because my SF2 collection is something like 12 GB.
So it would be great to have support for SF2 soundfonts in G-Stomper. Unlike Caustic, G-Stomper actually supports velocity layers, and unlike Audio Evolution, you can actually see and edit these parameters. Not to mention the obvious benefits of being able to use such soundfonts in songs.
I don't know how much work that would be but since support for the most important parameters is already there I imagine that you could find some library to read SF2 files, add a UI to load them (needs some special UI to select bank and patch) and map to VA-Beast PCM parameters. I don't mean to say it's trivial but it doesn't seem impossible?
However I have a sneaking feeling that you have already considered this and there's a reason it's not supported... A minor issue I can foresee is what do to with the arrow buttons to select the next preset. I would think the most logical thing to do then, when an SF2 file is in use, is to select the next patch within the current bank of that soundfont. But another option might be to select the next file, as normal, and if it's a soundfont file simply select the first bank and patch.
So it would be great to have support for SF2 soundfonts in G-Stomper. Unlike Caustic, G-Stomper actually supports velocity layers, and unlike Audio Evolution, you can actually see and edit these parameters. Not to mention the obvious benefits of being able to use such soundfonts in songs.
I don't know how much work that would be but since support for the most important parameters is already there I imagine that you could find some library to read SF2 files, add a UI to load them (needs some special UI to select bank and patch) and map to VA-Beast PCM parameters. I don't mean to say it's trivial but it doesn't seem impossible?
However I have a sneaking feeling that you have already considered this and there's a reason it's not supported... A minor issue I can foresee is what do to with the arrow buttons to select the next preset. I would think the most logical thing to do then, when an SF2 file is in use, is to select the next patch within the current bank of that soundfont. But another option might be to select the next file, as normal, and if it's a soundfont file simply select the first bank and patch.