Some SoundFonts will have a cheesy old school sound that is pretty outdated for modern electronic music. It can be as simple as a new wavetable instrument set or even as complex and in-depth as the vocals for a song. This file format has a wide range of sonic possibilities. Think of the MIDI notes as the “letters” and the audio as the “new look”. Similarly, they're used to select different types of audio modulated by midi notes. In some ways, this file format is a lot like text typing fonts.Ī text font will take the words and phrases inputted into a computer and give it a new look.
You will always see SoundFonts in PCM format, which is a specific file format that allows the SoundFonts to be read by sample-based MIDI synths. SoundFonts are a file format that uses sample-based synthesis to play MIDI files.ĭeveloped in the early 1990s by E-mu Systems and Creative Labs, its first use was on the Sound Blaster AWE32 an ISA sound card that supported some of the first MIDI configuration.