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• SF2Load

SF2LOAD

SF2LOAD v2.1 (April 23. 1999)

• Introduction
• User's guide
• What's new ?
• Downloading and installation
• Known limitations and bugs
• Planned extensions
• Feedback
• License

Introduction

SF2LOAD is a small program that controls the SoundBlaster Live!/AWE32/SB32/AWE64 soundcard. It's main purpose is to load SoundFonts into the memory of the soundcard. There is of course nothing remarkable about that, you can achieve the same thing using the SoundFont - AudioHQ [SBLive] or AWE Control Panel [AWE] program included with your soundcard. The reason I made this program was that I got tired of manually loading a different set of SoundFonts for every song I made - it's a lot of clicking when you use the SoundFont - AudioHQ [SBLive] or AWE Control Panel [AWE], which are standard windows programs. SF2LOAD on the other hand is a command-line dos program which require no user interaction, and thus can be used in a dos batch file. I use SF2LOAD to automagically create a batch file containing all the SoundFonts the song uses, and I then run this bat file whenever I want to work with or listen to the song. SF2LOAD is also ideal for preparing distribution of songs that use SoundFonts.

User's Guide

SF2LOAD is run from the command-line, and the syntax is

SF2LOAD  [<option>] [<bank number> <soundfont filename>]

Available Options:

-h                Help
-d <filename>     Create a bat-file for loading all soundfonts currently
                  in memory. Use full pathnames.
-dist <filename>  Create a bat-file for loading all soundfonts currently
                  in memory. Use filenames only (suitable for distribution)
-distm <filename> Create a bat-file (filename.bat) for loading all soundfonts
                  in memory. Use filenames only and include a line to
                  play the MIDI file (filename.mid) using mediaplayer
-c <bankno>       Clear the specified soundbank (remove it from memory)
-C                Clear all soundbanks currently in memory
-n <deviceno>     Set AWE device number (for users with multiple cards)
-l                List all soundfonts currently in memory
-L                List all soundfonts currently in memory (with filenames)
-p <bankno>       List all (melodic) presets in bank
-i                Print information about the AWE card
-v                Enable verbose mode
-nt               Do not print the program title
-t                Print the program title

Examples

To load the soundfont vox.sf2 into bank 3, type

SF2LOAD 3 vox.sf2

To load the soundfont n:\music\sbk\drums\Sub Techno Drums.sf2 into bank 1, type

sf2load 1 "n:\music\sbk\drums\Sub Techno Drums.sf2"

To create a batch file to remember the soundfonts used in a song, type

sf2load -d songname.bat

The batch file created might look like this:

@ECHO OFF
REM This bat file was created at Tue May 12 15:26:13 1998 by SF2LOAD v1.3
REM SF2LOAD is (c) 1998 Thomas Hammer thammer@pvv.org
REM http://www.pvv.org/~thammer/HammerSound

sf2load -t

ECHO Clearing all User Banks
sf2load -nt -C

ECHO 
ECHO Loading SoundFonts
sf2load -nt 1 "N:\music\sbk\4opfm.sf2"
sf2load -nt 2 "N:\music\sbk\sizzle.sf2"
sf2load -nt 5 "N:\music\sbk\dv01.sf2"
ECHO 

When you want to continue working on the song, or just listen to it. Run this batch file to load the neccessary SoundFonts

To distribute your new masterpiece (masterpiece.mid), do the following:

1. Make sure all the soundfonts your song uses are loaded into the soundcard memory (use sf2load or the AWE Control Panel)
2. Create a new directory
3. Copy your midi file (masterpiece.mid) to this directory
4. Type SF2LOAD -L to list all the soundfonts your song uses, and copy all those soundfonts to this directory
5. Type SF2LOAD -distrm masterpiece. A batch file called masterpiece.bat has been created.
6. (Optional) Create a small text file (masterpiece.txt) describing the song, yourself and your contact-info.
7. (Optional) Copy sf2load.exe to this directory to distribute it with your song (the url for the HammerSound site, where SF2LOAD can be found, is included in the batch file, so the people who haven't got SF2LOAD yet will be able to download it from there)
8. Compress (zip) all the files in the directory (masterpiece.bat, masterpiece.mid and all the soundfonts, optionally sf2load.exe and masterpiece.txt)
9. Send the compressed file to all your friends, and to Jordan van Bergen's site.

The batch file created, named masterpiece.bat, might look like this:

@ECHO OFF
REM This bat file was created at Tue May 12 15:29:51 1998 by SF2LOAD v1.3
REM SF2LOAD is (c) 1998 Thomas Hammer thammer@pvv.org
REM http://www.pvv.org/~thammer/HammerSound

sf2load -t

ECHO Clearing all User Banks
sf2load -nt -C

ECHO 
ECHO Loading SoundFonts
sf2load -nt 1 "4opfm.sf2"
sf2load -nt 2 "sizzle.sf2"
sf2load -nt 5 "dv01.sf2"
ECHO 
ECHO Starting MediaPlayer for playing MIDI file masterpiece.mid
start mplayer.exe masterpiece.mid
ECHO 

Downloading and Installation

First, read the license agreement below. If you agree, just click this link to download (sf2lv21.zip, 82kB). DOWNLOAD

Unzip the compressed file and place the file SF2LOAD.EXE in a directory in your search-path (you can put it in the c:\windows directory if you like),

You also need the SoundFont Management System from Creative Labs, available here. Please install this before starting to use SF2LOAD.

What's New ?

Known Limitations and Bugs

SF2LOAD will not work if any other program is currently accessing the soundcard. This includes some sequencers (but Vienna is ok). I don't know how to overcome this limitation. If anyone can give me a tip, please do so.

Planned extensions

• For distribution: Create a batch file that checks to see if SF2LOAD (is that possible?) is installed. If it's not, the batch file prints the URL (internett address) where people might get SF2LOAD. Then the list of which soundfont goes into which bank is displayed, so the user can use the AWE Control Panel to load the banks
• For distribution: Automatically copy all the soundfonts needed, together with midifile and batch file (and optionally a text-file) into a new directory and compress it.=> one-step zip-file creation for distribution.
• Just for fun: Sending MIDI commands directly to the card. For 'Multimedia batch files'. ;-)
• Setting effects type and mix, trebble and bass. I've had great trouble setting this using the windows AWE manager API, although I'm sure I've done this some years ago. Maybe a bug in Creative's driver?
• Setting synth type and path. Same here, tried it with no success. The soundcard loads the emulation soundfont but the driver does not use the loaded soundfont.

Feedback

Feedback, such as bug-reports, questions or praise ;-), can be sent to thammer@pvv.org. Please include the word SF2LOAD in the subject of the mail.

SF2LOAD v1.3 (May 16. 1998)

For those of you wanting to use the old version using the aweman.dll, only compatible with AWE32/AWE64/SB32, here it is.

First, read the license agreement below. If you agree, just click this link to download (sf2ldv13.zip, 82kB). DOWNLOAD

License

SF2LOAD (the software) is copyright (c) 1997, 1998, 1999 Thomas Hammer (the author)

SF2LOAD is freeware for non commercial purposes. If the software is to be used for any commercial purpose, an agreement has to be made with the author in advance.

The author hereby grant permission to use, copy and distribute the software for any non commercial purpose, provided that existing copyright notices are retained in all copies and that this notice is included verbatim in any distribution. The software can not be sold (separately, together with other software, as a bundle) without written permission from the author (Thomas Hammer).

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, ITS DOCUMENTATION, OR ANY DERIVATIVES THEREOF, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

THE AUTHOR SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE AUTHOR HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.

The complete HammerSound website, including all text, images and databases,  is copyright (c) 1997-2000 Thomas Hammer
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