How to Separate sf2 into Multiple Insturments
I have downloaded a sound font (.sf2) to use in Musescore and have got it into the app, but the only problem is, it uses the same violin sound for every type of instrument. How do I get all of the different instrument sounds from the sound font into Musescore?
Comments
Side note: I have downloaded Polyphone and can see that there are multiple insturments inside the sf2 file.
In reply to Side note: I have downloaded… by Perefalcon_07
I think that you need to name the instruments in your score the same as in your font. That means that if the font name is "trumpet" but your score says "trumpet in C", MuseScore will default to the top of the list because there is no trumpet in c in the font. You can use Polyphone to see how the instruments are labeled.
There may be a movement afoot to be able to separate sf2 fonts. Not sure how far along they are.
See the manual
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/soundfonts#selectionworkarounds
In reply to See the manual https:/… by graffesmusic
Does this mean that I cannot use multiple forms of the same instrument? Like, if I have a passage for staccato violins, and my soundfont is Legato violins, will I have to switch to Staccato violins in the mixer?
In reply to Does this mean that I cannot… by Perefalcon_07
Might be simplest to reassemble the soundfont to follow General MIDI standards - then the standard pizz/arco markings will work right out of the box. Not sure what soundfont it is, but pretty much none will be as realistic as Muse Sounds or any decent VST instrument. So also consider just using one of those. Muse Sounds will also handle pizz/arco automatically. With a VST, you would normally use keyswitches to switch between sample sets.