Skip to content

sfplaym

Plays a SoundFont2 (SF2) sample preset, generating a mono sound.

These opcodes allow management the sample-structure of SF2 files. In order to understand the usage of these opcodes, the user must have some knowledge of the SF2 format, so a brief description of this format can be found in the SoundFont2 File Format section.

Syntax

ares sfplaym ivel, inotenum, xamp, xfreq, ipreindex [, iflag] \
             [, ioffset] [, ienv]

Initialization

ivel -- velocity value

inotenum -- MIDI note number value

ipreindex -- preset index

iflag (optional) -- flag regarding the behavior of xfreq and inotenum

ioffset (optional) -- start playing at offset, in samples.

ienv (optional) -- enables and determines amplitude envelope. 0 = no envelope, 1 = linear attack and decay, 2 = linear attack, exponential decay (see below). Default = 0.

Performance

xamp -- amplitude correction factor

xfreq -- frequency value or frequency multiplier, depending by iflag. When iflag = 0, xfreq is a multiplier of a the default frequency, assigned by SF2 preset to the inotenum value. When iflag = 1, xfreq is the absolute frequency of the output sound, in Hz. Default is 0.

When iflag = 0, inotenum sets the frequency of the output according to the MIDI note number used, and xfreq is used as a multiplier. When iflag = 1, the frequency of the output, is set directly by xfreq. This allows the user to use any kind of micro-tuning based scales. However, this method is designed to work correctly only with presets tuned to the default equal temperament. Attempts to use this method with a preset already having non-standard tunings, or with drum-kit-based presets, could give unexpected results.

Adjustment of the amplitude can be done by varying the xamp argument, which acts as a multiplier.

Notice that both xamp and xfreq can use k-rate as well as a-rate signals. Both arguments must use variables of the same rate, or sfplay will not work correctly. ipreindex must contain the number of a previously assigned preset, or Csound will crash.

The ioffset parameter allows the sound to start from a sample different than the first one. The user should make sure that its value is within the length of the specific sound. Otherwise, Csound will probably crash.

The ienv parameter enables and determines the type of amplitude envelope used. The default value is 0, or no envelope. If ienv is set to 1, the attack and decay portions are linear. If set to 2, the attack is linear and the decay is exponential. The release portion of the envelope has not yet been implemented.

sfplaym is a mono version of sfplay. It should be used with mono preset, or with the stereo presets in which stereo output is not required. It is faster than sfplay.

These opcodes only support the sample structure of SF2 files. The modulator structure of the SoundFont2 format is not supported in Csound. Any modulation or processing to the sample data is left to the Csound user, bypassing all restrictions forced by the SF2 standard.

Examples

Here is an example of the sfplaym opcode. It uses the file sfplaym.csd.

Example of the sfplaym opcode.
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
<CsoundSynthesizer>
<CsOptions>
; Select audio/midi flags here according to platform
-odac  ;;;realtime audio out
;-iadc    ;;;uncomment -iadc if realtime audio input is needed too
; For Non-realtime ouput leave only the line below:
; -o sfplaym.wav -W ;;; for file output any platform

; By  Menno Knevel - 2020

</CsOptions>
<CsInstruments>

sr = 44100 
ksmps = 32
nchnls = 2
0dbfs  = 1 


gisf    sfload  "07AcousticGuitar.sf2"
        sfplist gisf
        sfpassign 100, gisf         ;in this case, the number 100 is assigned to the preset

instr 1 

inum    =       p4
ivel    =       p5
kamp    linsegr 1, 1, 1, .1, 0
kamp  = kamp * .000001                  ;scale amplitude- small value due to 0dbfs = 0
a1      sfplaym ivel, inum, kamp * ivel, p6, 100, 1  ; flag = 1 so frequencies is used intead of midi pitch
        outs    a1, a1

endin

</CsInstruments>
<CsScore>

i1 0 1 60 127 100  ; use sample of this key and set new frequency
i1 + 1 62 <    <
i1 + 1 65 <    <
i1 + 1 69 10   70

e
</CsScore>
</CsoundSynthesizer>

See also

Soundfonts

More information on soundfonts is in the Floss Manuals: https://flossmanual.csound.com/midi/reading-midi-files

For other information on soundfonts look in the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundfont

Credits

Author: Gabriel Maldonado
Italy
May 2000

New in Csound Version 4.07

New optional parameter ienv in version 5.09