So, not sure if any of you are experienced with this or not, or even know what it is, but heres the backdrop:

I need to make a midi instrument thats capable of producing sound, and was thinking of using soundfonts, except I have no idea how it works, nor how to program something to access it, as I cant seem to find any documentation on how it works/making programs with it due to it probably not being used anymore. Can anyone point me to the right direction? Using decent audio samples in soundfonts beats trying to generate sound samples for all 128 general midi instruments when I only have an effective time of 2 weeks to do this (Electronics and all other parts worked out, just the actual audio sample and editing/modifying/playing it is the issue)

You're talking about making a soundfont, right? Not tracking audio clips like FL Studio (http://flstudio.image-line.com/) or Reason (http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/)?

Creative has a tool (http://www.creative.com/soundblaster/soundfont/downloads.asp), but I think it can only be done on a computer with a creative soundcard. The one that I've heard of that has a more recent update is synthfont's Viena (http://www.synthfont.com/Viena_news.html).

Well, not really make a new soundfont, but to take an existing one, and be able to play the corresponding audio track based on MIDI interpretation. IE. If I were to write my own program, How do I read a soundfont file such that I can play middle C on piano set 2, or a middle C on strings.

If you want to load and play a soundfont, what you need is a soundfont player. Some DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) support soundfonts. An example of this is FL Studio's soundfont player: http://flstudio.image-line.com/documents/soundfontplayer.html

You can edit all your MIDI notes in FL Studio's piano editor. Also you can add external effects from the mixing panel.


Edit:


Here is a free to use soundfont player. You just need to install the font included and add the .DAT and the .dll to a DAW's plug-in folder.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jez.price/synths.htm (Font! 1.2)


I do not know if this soundfont player is stable. But it worked to me in the few minutes I tried it in FL Studio.

If you have finale garritan works pretty good