Free VST SoundFont Player
Sunday, November 23rd, 2003 at 12:47 pmYou email us, we hear you.
Here is the rgc:audio VST SoundFont player. And it’s free. And it’s good.
(screen shot in ACID)
Of course FL Studio embedded SoundFont loading into the main application, no plug-in needed.
[UPDATE May 8, 2008] It seems Cakewalk bought up sfz, but the simple sfz is still free, I’ve updated the link above.
[UPDATE Jun 11, 2009] CW keeps sliding the URL around, the link above is now working again (thanks rtk in comments below)
December 11th, 2003 at 5:14 pm
YES,I WAS JUST LOOKING FOR THE SOUNDFONT PLAYER.
IF IT NOT A PROBLEM I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU WOULD SEND THE FREEWARE SOUNDFONT PLAYER TO MY E-MAIL ADDRESS
December 12th, 2003 at 8:26 am
…or you could click on the link in the entry.
Thanks for stopping by.
January 1st, 2004 at 6:49 am
the link doesn’t work!
January 1st, 2004 at 7:54 am
Works ok here. You can always search Google for “rgc vst soundfont” and find it as well.
If anyone else is having a problem let me know(!)
January 16th, 2004 at 10:11 pm
Thanks
January 18th, 2004 at 9:39 am
is this the best player?
January 18th, 2004 at 11:44 am
Now that is a great question!
Of course it depends on what your criteria is. Based on Google search keywords, “free soundfont player” seems to be at the top of the list. “Best soundfont player” doesn’t make a showing ;0
Personally what I really care about is authenticity of the original sound: i.e. I want a “pass-thru” operation with no meddling the wavs in the soundfont.
rgc’s synths have Hermode Tuning ™ technology ( http://www.hermode.de/ ) which does dynamic harmonic tuning (how the real world works) but there is no mention whether they use in there sound font players. That would be important if they did.
I have not tried every single player, but for the most flexibility I’d go with VSampler ( http://www.maz-sound.com ) which imports SF2 and allows you to manipulate them extensively. Again, this was never a huge criteria for me.
There are many bells and whistles in the SF2 format that some players try to respect (including rgc) but few soundfont *authors* actually pay attention to so in the real world I don’t consider these “features” all that important.
February 11th, 2004 at 8:06 pm
…a truly wonderful item. Most of the other free .sf2 players don’t do anything on my computer. However am having some difficulty finding all the instruments in very large soundfont banks. Thanks again for the gift!
February 13th, 2004 at 12:38 am
he, of course I agree. It’s a total abuse of the menus.
February 14th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Thx for the great stuff!
February 18th, 2009 at 3:05 am
You fucking cunt whatever link i just downloaded from you was a fucking virus… people like you are fucking cunts
February 18th, 2009 at 3:26 am
I offer my apologies for my last post.. But when i d/led and intstalled the first time, my comp did some pretty wierd stuff. Also when i checked the file name sfz197.exe i was alerted of a virus.. I did a reinstall as process of elimination and it worked.. Im still a little sceptical. Has anyone else had anything wierd happen when installing direct from d/l?
To Victor, again i am sorry for my initial outburst!!
February 18th, 2009 at 3:32 am
Er apology accepted. I guess. Perhaps in the future you could freak on cakewalk?
April 19th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
anyone need a laughter soundfont?
May 8th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
The link above, as well as every other link I can find with google for downloading the free sfz player seems to lead to a 404 not found error and a Roland Cakewalk site error page. Have Roland decided to kill off the free player ?
May 8th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
they must have killed it then - ridiculous as that is. If you get confirmation for that from R/CW let me know and I’ll update it here.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I was searching for it too and ran across your website. I found it here:
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/project5/sfz.aspx
June 11th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
perfect, thanks!
August 19th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
1st many thanks to original poster and rtk for new link. Also I wonder are BKdigi laughter soundfonts recorded live as he read chris’s comments??????????? @ chris its common knowledge now that certain antivirus products (norton or anthing with no free option) tend to class ANY FILE not created by monopolysoft (or its buddies) as a virus. Quite often if something is free I imagine it goes in the dangerous list by default. You’ll be telling me next that microshites malicious software removal tool wont hunt any media that’s not copy protected……. Seriously dude get some knowledge, your already sitting in front of the largest gathered collection of facts the human race has ever amassed, so surely you can dare to think for yourself and not allow symantwat to do it for you…… And hey research Karl Jung’s theorys on verbal and/or written abuse, very interesting, man, very interesting. Live long and prosper*/live fast die young*
delete as applicable..
April 22nd, 2011 at 11:00 am
I don’t make it a habit of goin’ for “free” items, but I do have a need for a soundfont player to use with my Cubase. Thanks in advance for your help!!!
E.T.