[linux-audio-user] sf2 soundfont spec license

[tim hall]

Last Thursday 10 March 2005 22:21, Lee Revell was like:
> On Thu, 2005-03-10 at 17:08 -0500, Eric Dantan Rzewnicki wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 10, 2005 at 10:53:58PM +0100, Christoph Eckert wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > > If it is not open enough to take advantage of then is there
> > > > any truly open soundfont-like standard anywhere on the
> > > > planet?
> > >
> > > for me it somehow looks as there's need to define a new,
> > > absolutely free file format for sampling data.
> > > Unfortunately, this would need lots of time and resources, and
> > > as 'we' are not enough users, it wouldn't be spread widely
> > > enough.
> >
> > I don't know how featurefull it is, but specimen's beef bank format
> > might be worth looking into. I chatted with the author a while ago on
> > #lad at freenode. My fuzzy memory is that it uses xml and wouldn't be
> > too hard to script.
>
> The result won't be useable by any emu10k1 soundfont loader.  Or
> fluidsynth.  Or anything.
>
> Please, is it REALLY necessary to reinvent the wheel here, when there
> are so many other outstanding issues with Linux audio?

No, it's not necessary to re-invent the wheel. However, this is a discussion 
I've been waiting for for a while and I think it's useful to explore the 
possibilities. I would like to see the development of a standard GNU/Linux 
soundbank that is freely distributeable, so it could be bundled with DeMuDi 
and PlanetCCRMA etc. For this we need tools and to be sure we're using the 
right format. From what I understand, there is no limit on using the sf2 
specification, but we wouldn't be able to change it.

It is possible that new sample bank formats may come into existence naturally, 
but they would be unlikely to replace .sf2s at the present time. Any format 
will only catch on if there is a genuine need for it. I'm interested in some 
of the more peripheral issues that mostly affect new and non-technical users 
and I'm quite happy to work on it so that people dealing with core parts of 
the system don't have to bother with it. Remember we're on the user's list 
here. ;-)

cheers,

tim hall
http://glastonburymusic.org.uk