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Is there a command line tool to convert sfz soundfonts to sf2 soundfonts?

I know there is the polyphone app, but it doesn't seem to have a command line interface.

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  • 1
    I would try contacting the Polyphone developers and asking them if it has an API.
    – wwww
    Oct 18, 2016 at 16:51
  • 1
    What's the exact reason you want to do this? SF2 was created back in early 1990s for the Sound Blaster AWE32. They released the specification hoping others would adapt it as standard. SFZ is actively maintained by Cakewalk, a major player in the audio industry, and is open and royalty-free. Since it has way more features, it is currently the standard, and unless you use software that supports only SF2, there's no need to convert. Even if you need to, you will lose some data, which is probably why nobody has created a simple converter so far
    – Qrchack
    Nov 9, 2017 at 17:40
  • "SFZ is actively maintained by Cakewalk" - Did I miss something? It's neither maintained nor is there a real authoritative specification as far as I know.
    – adius
    Nov 10, 2017 at 9:08
  • @adius us, you must have missed it: ariaengine.com/overview/sfz-format
    – Rory Alsop
    Dec 1, 2017 at 20:13
  • @Qrchack I am interested in this in order to play and convert with timidity -- a command-line tool that has worked well for me with SF2 but not SFZ.
    – mherzl
    Jun 25, 2018 at 14:18

1 Answer 1

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Yes, this is possible.

The same question was asked in one of the forums, with an answer available: https://www.polyphone-soundfonts.com/forum/support-bug-reports/255-convert-sfz-sf2-via-command-line.

According to the conversation, it appears to work for PC and Mac.

In the article, the steps outlined are:

Yes there is! But I never documented it. Here are command lines to run in a powershell that convert from sf2 to sfz and from sfz to sf2:

cd C:\Program Files\Polyphone
.\polyphone.exe -3 -i C:\Path\To\Your\Soundfont.sf2
.\polyphone.exe -1 -i C:\Path\To\Your\Soundfont.sfz

You can set the output directory with "-d" and the output file with "-o". -1 is for a conversion to sf2 -2 is for a conversion to sf3 -3 is for a conversion to sfz

On mac you can write "polyphone -h" or maybe "man polyphone" and the documentation should appear.

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