Are you a music producer or beat maker into making various hip hop instrumentals, rap beats, or other types of instrumentals?  Have you ever come across the term “soundfont” or the file “.sf2″?  Have you ever wondered what they were, or how they were used?  Or did you bypass them when making hip hop beats in hopes of finding WAV audio files for your production needs instead?  Ever wonder if those soundfonts you passed by would’ve been helpful in making beats or instrumentals?

Exactly what is a Soundfont?  Well, while I won’t go into the detailed programming logistics of it all, I will summarize to say that Soundfonts are files labeled as “SF2″ files that are simply a combined number of WAV audio files put together into one file called a Soundfont.  Whether the audio files are hip hop samples, music instrument sounds, or even drum samples and sounds, any of these types of files can be combined into Soundfonts as long as the files are WAV files.  You can compare Soundfonts in similiarity to Reason Refills which are also a various assortment of different WAV audio files combined into a Refill file and used with the Reason music production sequencing software.

So, now that you have a bit more information on what a Soundfont actually is, what makes soundfonts beneficial to use?  Some people shy away from them because they say that the quality is greatly reduced.  This is not actually the case however.  While WAV files will more than likely be the most clear audio files to use in making music, Soundfonts are also very close in quality (unless you’ve managed to get your hands on some low end soundfonts), and have benefits as well that WAV files do not.

One of the great benefits of soundfonts is that you can rely on one SF2 file format to create a completely rendered music instrument sound for use in your music instrumentals, rather than several WAV files.  Let me clarify.  Let’s say for example, you want to use guitar samples in your next rap beats.  With WAV files, in order to best simulate the guitar you’re aiming for, and to recreate the guitar instrument on your instrumental, you would have to load up several WAV files in your music production software, and then play your keys accordingly to simulate the guitar riff or guitar melody you want.  However, with a guitar soundfont, you would only need to load up the guitar soundfont you obtained, and you can play accordingly without having to load up many WAV files.  Also, some soundfonts have multiple hip hop samples and loops placed into one file, so that you are able to easily use the soundfont without having to load up several more samples.

Another benefit of Soundfonts is that they don’t use as much RAM (memory) on your computer when you are creating beats or instrumentals in your music production software, whether it’s FL Studio that you are using, Reason, Orion Pro, or any other program.  Using Virtual Instruments (VSTi’s) can sometimes drain alot of PC memory, causing your computer to go slower the more programs are opened in your music production software.  But with Soundfonts, it would take opening up several before you start to feel your computer lag.

And, although WAV files are universal in most programs, Soundfonts are compatible with many different programs as well.  With FL Studio, soundfonts work using the FL Soundfont Player.  With Reason, you can load a soundfont up nicely into the Reason NN-XT plugin.  In Orion Pro, you can use their soundfont player.  With other programs like Cubase, Sonar, or similar music production software, you can load up a soundfont if you can find a soundfont plugin.  Most of these can be found for free on the internet doing a simple Google search.

Finally, soundfonts are easy to manage and to keep on your PC in a particular folder, and are easy to transport to other programs as well.  You can burn your soundfonts onto a CD or DVD and take them with you, whereas with VSTi music program synthesizers, that would be virtually impossible.  Soundfonts are easily used, and easily managed, and are of high quality.

So, the next time you are working on hip hop beats, rap instrumentals, r&b beats, movie scores, video game music, or any other types of beats or instrumentals, especially if you’re working in FL Studio or Reason, and are in need of some sounds for beats or instrumentals, look for some soundfonts and try them out.  Whether you’re in need of hip hop samples, piano samples, guitar samples, string sounds, bass samples, brass and horn sounds, world instrument sounds, or other types of music instrument sounds, you’re sure to find soundfonts on the internet in a large variety of different sounds and samples.  Some of them are lower quailty, some of them are well created, where as some soundfonts are free and others have to be paid for, which is no different than going to a website and purchasing some hip hop samples in WAV format and only liking a couple of them, or liking most of them.  Some say soundfonts are dead, but on the contrary, they are very much alive and very useful if you know how to use them, and the right ones to use as well.  Don’t overlook them, give them a chance.  You may be happy you did.