SF2TEXT(1)

💖 SF2TEXT(1) — the AWE32 manual, bestie edition 💖

ok so this is the sf2text page from the AWE32 manual, and honestly? it's giving ✨niche vintage audio lore✨. sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, we're doing this.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

sf2text, text2sf — a program to convert between SBK or SF2 (SoundFont)</> and text format 🦋

no literally that's it, that's the whole job, converting back and forth between SoundFonts and a lil text file. iconic honestly.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

sf2text soundfont [outputfile]
txt2sf text-file original-file output-file

ok so quick heads up bestie, the NAME section says text2sf but the synopsis is out here spelling it txt2sf 😭 that's just how the page is, we don't question the elders, we copy them exactly. periodt. 💅

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

This manual page documents briefly the sf2text, and text2sf commands. (like, briefly briefly. we're not writing a thesis here.)

This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution (but may be used by others), because the original program does not have a manual page. so yeah, someone had to do it, and here we are 🫶

All these programs are used for converting from various common patch file formats (SoundFont) into a proprietary format used by older versions of the AWE32 driver. okay so real talk: although newer versions of the driver and utilities are still compatible with these formats, these formats do not support multiple layer voices, and in general, you should use sfxload(1), and gusload(1) to load SoundFonts or GUS patches directly. like, highkey just use those, no cap.

sf2text is a program which converts SoundFont (.SBK and .SF2) files into an intermediate text format used by text2sf. ✨

txt2sf is a program which converts the text format output by sf2text into a binary format "sf2" file. This file can be read by sfxload(1). 🔥

so the whole vibe is: binary → text → binary again, a little glow-up round trip, she ate 💅

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💜 OPTIONS 💜

sf2text, and text2sf do not support any options.

that's it. that's the section. zero flags, zero options, zero drama 😌 the void stared back and it had nothing to say. honestly? refreshing. no -h, no --help, nothing. just vibes and arguments.

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• sfxload(1)
• gusload(1)

go read those bestie, they're the main characters here, we're just the prequel 💖

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

This manual page was written by Tom Lees <tom@lpsg.demon.co.uk>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system.

The AWE32 driver and utilities were written by Takashi Iwai <iwai@dragon.mm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp>.

shoutout to the devs, absolute legends, we love them fr fr 🌸

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎀 this one's from the awesfx package, version 0.3.3, dated Sun Mar 2 10:13:22 GMT 1997 — yes, 1997, she's a vintage queen and she's still serving. no cap. 💅✨🦋