How to pull samples from SF2 files

[beatsgo]

How to pull samples from SF2 files

• This is something I’ve been pondering for ages, how the hell do I extract the audio samples from a soundfont (specifically SF2 files)?
• It bugs me Renoise has the capability of extracting SFZ files and use them as instruments from the get go.
• Using

Why?

• Renoise has a feature to record audio samples from VSTs.
• I wouldn’t do this for soundfonts, because soundfonts are just instruments with audio samples to begin with.
  • There might be situtations where the complex instrument layering and fine tuning on the preset may make this unreasonable. However this shouldn’t stop you from looking.
• And I hate dealing with perfect looping an audio sample which was done by someone else.

The tools

• There’s multiple methods to this madness:
  • As previously mentioned, Renoise built in audio recording feature for VSTs. (Select and highlight the VST instrument, then CTRL+F it)
  • Using application such as SF2extract from libgig to extract all samples from
  • Use an application called Polyphone to managed
• In this particular case, Polyphone is the more intuitive, easier option to use from my person opinion.
  • If you hate command line stuff.
  • If you’re left wondering why SF2extractdoesn’t work on all SF2 files or doesn’t understand the concept of sample offsetting in soundfont specifications. (See page 38 with SF2 parameter startAddrsCoarseOffset, bugs me all the time)

So how is it done?

• Open up a soundfont in Polyphone.
• Expand samples and search
• Select the samples you want to extract.
• Click on the ToolBox Icon and extract from there.
  
  
• If some of the audio samples have nonsensical looping issues, you can use either the auto loop feature in the toolbox to auto detect possible looping points in the sample. Either Polyphone or Renoise’s cross-fade feature is there.
• Not sure which files were used in the instrument? Matching the preset, then the instrument(s) from the SF2 player is pretty simple determining which audio samples were used.
  
  
  
  
  

[Iconoklast]

I always used Extreme Sample Convertor for such buggery… Plus can save SF2 as XRNI if wanted or XRNI to SF2 but mostly for my ‘HighLife’ frozen instruments where I sample every semitone… yes, makes for large SF2s but quality is high & we all have larger HDDs SSDs these days… Also use for making SF2 into AKAI for SkaleTracker…

But loaded a SF2 in SVArTracker’s Anti-Wave sampler one can export any WAV… MaCaW is probably the swiss army knife for SF2’s as the DAW is basically built around them with many panels/pages of editing for each & every sample as well as modulations, very mind-boggling the feature set… MaCaW is the newest version of Oscillastation which used to be DeltaSP…

[dave]

I’ve only ever used this on linux, but Swami has an export samples function from a loaded .sf2 file. It’s capable of way more than that, though

It’s reportedly cross-platform and it is free.

You’ll possibly need to OK the “this site hasn’t got an https certificate” message - maybe they didn’t bother when they moved to github or something

Swami Project | MIDI Instrument Designer Software

[esaruoho]

let’s have a look at if my sf2 importer in Paketti can just be modified to import the samples only. i’ve got a bunch of sf2 so could be interesting

[tkna]

I recall looking into that method to some extent a long time ago. At the time, I believe using Polyphone via the command line was the simplest approach.

EDIT: No, I misunderstood. What I was doing seems to have been a method for converting one specific soundfont into another soundfont.

polyphone(1) — Arch manual pages