SF2LOAD v1.2beta
by Thomas Hammer
March 8. 1998


SF2LOAD is a small program that loads soundfonts into the bank-memory of a SoundBlaster AWE32/SB32/AWE64 soundcard. There is of course nothing remarkable about that, you can achieve the same thing using the AWE Control Panel program included with your soundcard. The reason I made this program was that I got tired of manually loading a different set of soundbanks for every song I made - it's a lot of clicking when you use the AWE Control Panel, which is a standard windows program. 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 (actually, it's a win32 console application). SF2LOAD can also automagically create a batch file containing all the soundfonts currently in AWE memory. I run SF2LOAD (to create this batch file) whenever I have created a song, and the next time I want to play the same song, I just run the batch file and all the neccessary soundfonts are loaded.

!!! This is beta software. Be sure to regulary check the HammerSound site for newer (non-beta) versions. http://www.pvv.org/~thammer/HammerSound/

!!! Please Report Bugs and Successes to thammer@pvv.org 


User's Guide

SF2LOAD is run from the command-line, it has two different syntaxes
(A) To load a soundfont into AWE memory:
    SF2LOAD <bank number> <soundfont name>
(B) To create a batch file containing all soundfonts currently in AWE memory:
    SF2LOAD -d filename.bat    

To load the soundfont vox.sf2 into bank 3, type
SF2LOAD 3 vox.sf2

The batch file for one of my songs look like this
sf2load 1 "n:\music\sbk\drums\SubTechnoDrums.sf2"
sf2load 3 "n:\music\sbk\bass\SubBass.sf2" 
sf2load 4 "n:\music\sbk\synth\Hammer Synth Collection I.sf2"
sf2load 5 "n:\music\sbk\synth\voxy.sf2"

The batch file was created by typing
SF2LOAD -d subtechno.bat


Known Limitations and Bugs

SF2LOAD will not work if any other program is currently accessing the soundcard. This includes the AWE Control Panel, Vienna, and some sequencers. This limitation might be fixed in a later version if users request it, or if it starts getting on my nerves.


Installation

First, read and agree to the license agreement below. Place the file SF2LOAD.EXE in a directory in your search-path (you can put it in the c:\windows directory if you like),


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.


History

19980308 Version 1.2b released. This version creates .bat files containing all soundfonts currently in AWE memory.

19971117 Version 1.1 released. This versions does only one task: loads the specified soundfont into the awe memory.


License

SF2LOAD (the software) is (c) 1997, 1998 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. 
