SF3CONVERT(1)

💖 SF3CONVERT(1) 💖

okay bestie, listen up — this is sf3convert, from the General Commands Manual, and it's literally your SoundFont conversion utility. she does it all and she does it cute. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

sf3convert — SoundFont conversion utility. that's it, that's the whole vibe. 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

sf3convert [-cdsxz] [-a ampl] [-p pres] [-S number] [-q qual] infile
           [outfile]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so the sf3convert utility converts an SF2 format SoundFont 💅 and it's got RANGE. it can compress it into SF3, encode it as C for embedding into a binary, or as XML. pick your fighter, babes. 👑

the options are as follows:

• -a ampl — sets the pre-compression amplification to ampl (default -1.0) dB. yes default is negative, no she's not being shady, that's just the number. 🙈
• -c — output C code. slay for embedding.
• -d — dump presets. just, like, show me everything. 👀
• -p pres — append pres to the list of presets.
• -q qual — set the Vorbis quality to qual (default 0.3).
• -S number — use number as the OGG stream serial number instead of a time-based random one. not me overriding the randomiser 😭
• -s — create a small soundfont (one instrument/preset), pan to 0. she's petite, she's minimal, she's main character energy.
• -x — output XML.
• -z — compress the soundfont. the whole point tbh.

⚠️ okay important: the -c, -d and -z options are mutually exclusive. you cannot have all three, bestie, that's not how this works. 💀

also — XML output needs -z but does not seem to compress. iconic behaviour honestly. it said "I'm here" but did not do the job. 🫶

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💀 CAVEATS 💀

raising the quality to 0.6 might be necessary to avoid artifacts; this however increases the size of the generated SF3 by about a third (to about fifteen percent of the SF2 size). so like, better sound, chunkier file. trade-offs, babes. ⚖️

there is no formal specification of the SF3 format yet. no cap. so here's the tea on the differences:

• the samples' waveform data is stored using the OGG container format with the Vorbis codec. (other codecs supporting the OGG container could be used, but the current code uses OGG Vorbis. so that's the one. periodt.)
• loop start and end are stored based on the beginning of the corresponding sample, not based on the beginning of the smpl chunk. note the difference, she's subtle but she matters. 🎀
• 24-bit mode is disabled. gone. not invited to the party. 💅
• sample links are removed.

note that this list is incomplete. yes really. that's in the original. I'm as shook as you are. 😭

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one's from Debian, dated March 5, 2018 — genuinely a classic, she's been serving since 2018 and still eats. go convert something gorgeous. 🦋🌈💜