[linux-audio-user] tool for unpacking .sfArk soundfonts

[Nigel Henry]

On Saturday 29 October 2005 21:12, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On 10/29/05, Nigel Henry <cave.dnb at tiscali.fr> wrote:
> > On Saturday 29 October 2005 10:55, Bill Allen wrote:
> > > Nigel Henry wrote:
> > > >Hi. Got myself a load of soundfonts from hammerfall. I'm ok for
> > > > unpacking the .zips and .rar's on my Linux box, but I've never seen
> > > > .sfArk files before. Is there a tool I can install on my Linux box to
> > > > unpack these? Nigel.
> > >
> > > http://melodymachine.com/sfark.htm
> > >
> > > Note that the native linux util is only for sfark version 2 files. You
> > > can use the windows version through wine.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Bill
> >
> > Hi Bill. I sort of take back what I said about wine. SfArk works under
> > wine on FC2, and so does the sfpack program, although that won't start
> > from the wine menu, but anyway it works. So, sort of a thumbs up for wine
> > for these two fairly basic programs. I suppose it's moving forwards,
> > rather than backwards. Nigel.
>
> I run the full version of Battery in Wine. I know Geoff Beasley runs
> the full version of Kontakt. Wine functions at a very high level if
> you find the right applications.
>
> I 'trick' is knowing to pull in real Windows dll's once in awhile.
> That helps a lot. It got Savihost running for me.
>
> If we had an audio developer willing to look after the Wine Jack
> driver then Wine would be even more useful.
>
> - Mark

Hi Mark. Right. I'm having another go at wine. The software mixed in with a 
bit of the liquid version. Wine on one of my FC2 installs is 20041019-1. This 
is the one I've got Seti at home running on, and the two soundfont 
decompressers. That doesn't seem to handle music apps very well, but I got 
some stuff that was on the Audigy2 soundblaster cdrom to run on it. I've just 
DL'd version 0.9-1 for FC1,2 and 3. Also for Debian Sarge with apt-get. This 
seems to be getting a lot better. No more config file for a start. I set 
winecfg's MS version as Win98, as suggested. Audio is auto detected as Alsa. 
I did run config for that after a while, as the apps I had running were just 
showing Sigmatel Stac9721/23, but after running config then showed emu10k1. 
Madtracker installs ok, setting a desktop icon, and an entry in KDE's menu 
under Wine. Mod Plug Tracker will run under wine, but doesn't create an entry 
in c's program files, so I effectively have to reinstall it each time I want 
to use it. Anyway. It works. Making Waves, the step sequencer that I actually 
paid the licence fee for, for use on XP, creates a GUI, but uses a lot of 
CPU. This mainly seems to be when it's searching for sound files. When I 
eventually get a .wav onto a track the CPU useage settles down. The .wav 
plays ok, but as soon as I want to add another track, the CPU hits the roof 
again. The strange thing about Making Waves is. When I install it, it asks 
where I want to put it, so I choose c's program files, but it puts it in 
c/windows/temp, in a directory named ckz.tmp60f. 60f isn't constant, as each 
time I reinstall it the suffix added to .tmp changes. Also, and a bit weird, 
stuff disappears out of the directory each time I start the program from that 
directory. For instance it had a directory "VST-Plugins" , also a binary 
named setup.exe. As soon as I ran the Making Waves.exe through wine from this 
directory, these two items, and others disappeared from  the directory, never 
to be seen again. In conclusion, wine is getting better, and it must be an 
horendous problem for the wine folks trying to get all these windows apps 
running on Linux. Not giving up on wine. Nigel.

ps: Mark. Can you post the link for .dll's . I thought I'd kept it, but can't 
find it.