| Are you a beat maker or producer who makes | | | | instrumentals during creation, and sometimes during |
| instrumentals on computer, either through music | | | | rendering, even on the fastest computer. However, |
| production programs such as FL Studio, Reason, or | | | | with Soundfonts, you can have high quality musical |
| Orion Pro? Or perhaps you're more of a Cubase | | | | instrument sounds on one file that will be easier to load, |
| user? Have you come upon hip hop samples as | | | | and generally use less PC power even with several |
| Soundfonts without really knowing what they are or | | | | soundfonts loaded. |
| what they can do? Well, the next time you come | | | | Another benefit of Soundfonts is that you can have |
| upon them, you may want to reconsider using them | | | | high quality sounds in a smaller compact size. |
| before passing them up. | | | | Depending on the creation of soundfonts (as with any |
| To briefly summarize what a Soundfont is, a | | | | sound, whether Virtual Instrument plugin or otherwise), |
| Soundfont is an audio file created through the | | | | you may find high quality sounds with smaller file sizes, |
| composition of several WAV Samples that are added | | | | which can help you store a large amount of |
| into one file known with an extension of .sf2 which are | | | | Soundfonts onto a DVD for transport to use in |
| called soundfont files. If you are a Reason user, and | | | | another studio set up. You can't easily take your |
| are familiar with Reason Refills, they are somewhat | | | | Virtual Instrument plugins, but you can take soundfonts |
| similar, except that Reason Refills are more complex | | | | more easily. |
| and only used in Reason. | | | | Soundfonts come in a large variety of different musical |
| Soundfonts however, can be used in any beat maker | | | | instrument samples, from bass sounds and guitar |
| program or music production program that either has a | | | | soundfonts, to string samples, brass section sounds |
| built in Soundfont player, such as FL Studio, or that | | | | and horn samples, world instrument sounds, piano |
| utilizes the file extension, or a Virtual Instrument plugin | | | | sounds, synth sounds, and other unique creations. |
| that allows you to load soundfonts within the plugin. If | | | | Some soundfonts may even be a compilation of drum |
| you use Reason, you can load up Soundfonts within | | | | samples. |
| Reason via the NN-XT tool. This is a great benefit | | | | Soundfonts are definitely worth their weight in gold, and |
| that Soundfonts have over other sound formats or | | | | are sometimes overlooked for other more "glamorous" |
| Virtual Instrument plugins. | | | | programs or formats. However, whether you make |
| Soundfonts have other great benefits. While some | | | | hip hop beats, rap beats, r&b beats, or even |
| Virtual Instrument plugins are of great quality, some of | | | | movie scores or video game music, the next time you |
| them can be rather large, take forever to load, and | | | | come upon soundfonts and think of passing them by... |
| sometimes slow down the processing speed of your | | | | you might just want to give them a try... they may |
| PC. This can have adverse problems to your | | | | work wonders in your next instrumental creation. |