.SF2 - EMU SoundFont v2.x banks
.SF3 - Compressed SoundFont banks

SoundFont 2 files were originally created using EMUs Vienna 2 editor, which used the following terminalogy:

* Vienna instruments may contain zones with overlapping key-ranges, in which case they will be read in as more than one layer.

There are currently three revisions of the SoundFont 2 specification - v2.00, v2.01 and v2.04. They are bi-directionally compatible, i.e. a v2.04 file will be read just fine by a v2.00 application (although it will ignore any newer features) and vice versa. Here's what's different between the revisions:

Awave Studio will write v2.01 files if you select 'PCM 16-bit' as data format, or v2.04 files if you select 'PCM 24-bit' as data format. Note it is not possible to mix data formats - if you want one waveform to be stored as 24-bit, then all other waveforms in the same SoundFont file will have also have to be stored as 24-bit.

The SF3 format is an unofficial extension to SF2 where you can choose to have all, or just selected waveforms compressed with OGG Vorbis.
If you want to save all waveforms using the same compression level, then select it in the Data format list in the save file dialog.
If you want to mix different compression levels and/or uncompressed waveforms, then leave that set to Auto and instead set the Preferred data format in the properties for each individual waveform.
You can also use FLAC compression in SF3 files, but as this is not supported by all synths who reads SF3, you must explicitly select FLAC as the data format if you want this (it will select between 16 and 24-bits depending on the Preferred data format for each waveform).

Features:

Supported by: