Playing with soundfonts

As I mentioned earlier, I "revived" my old toy: Akai EWI-USB. With too much free time, I decided to experiment with different instruments ("virtual" of course) I am already bored with the ones that came with the Aria software. This software actually allows user to import new MIDI soundfont in .sfz format. I tried the few available ones. And I realized there are more MIDI soundfonts in .sf2 formats. So obviously I put my Com Sci hat on and look for any sf2->sfz converter, turns out there is a Mac software that can do that (plus more): Sforzando. I believe it actually shares some underlying code/library/engine with Aria and I can play my EWI with it instead of Aria (simply need to choose the EWI as the MIDI input) And adding instrument is easy: drag the .sf2 to it when the software just started. It would automatically convert .sf2 to .sfz.

Enable MIDI Input here

Finally, there is yet another way to play with .sf2 directly, via the free DAW software LMMS (of course I would assume many Mac users have chosen Garage Band as the DAW) According to the documentation, one can add VST instruments to LMMS (which I haven't really tried as I have only downloaded a .dll which is for Windows of course) LMMS has a built-in "instrument" called "Sf2 Player" which I just need to drag to the Song-Editor to use it. Then under the "piano" tab, choose the EWI as the MIDI input. Then load your .sf2 file under the "plug-in" tab and pick your instrument. I experimented with a Chinese DiZi sound that is really nice (I used to play DiZi when I was a kid) The Dizi is actually a VST instrument that I downloaded here. The download is a zip file and it contains a .sf2 file (as well as the aforementioned .dll that I cannot use on my Mac)