Creating SoundFonts in Polyphone

Coming from MPC land, one of the limitations I found with the Zynthian was there being no obvious way to capture a sample, and easily pitch it out across a keyboard or set of pads.

Although it requires an extra step on the computer, I found a solution in Polyphone, an opensource soundfont editor that allows you to create SF2 files that can be used as sample banks in FluidSynth.

As is often the case the documentation was lacking essential details, and the apps interface isn't particularly intuitive. Nevertheless, I managed to import a sample, create an instrument, and bind the sample to the instrument. Trying to use my newly created SF2 file on my Zynthian however, resulted in silence.

Thankfully I stumbled across this thread on the Zynthian forums, with an outdated but nevertheless detailed and straightforward rundown on using Polyphone to create a soundfont. Although the screenshots no longer resemble the apps current interface, the guide is easy to follow, and explains the necessity of creating a preset for your instrument. Ahah!

At first I was a little disappointed in needing to return to my computer at all, but I'm now considering it a net benefit. I'll be building a small library of SF2 files from my own samples that will hopefully become a kind of default palette for any future tracks.

Posted: 2021-01-31

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