Reason 12 dropped support for SF2 files!!!!

[Catblack]

Just saw this on fb this morning. Confirmed it. You can no longer open SF2 soundfont files in the NNXT in Reason 12.

[Arrant]

Bah. I don’t use soundfonts often but I have a collection of old converted hardware sampler disks I need sometimes.
Do you know how existing projects containing soundfonts are handled, I assume they will work?

As a workaround we can always use VST sf2 players I guess.

[Billy+]

[guitfnky]

so, I’m not familiar with this, but that means you could previously—I wonder how this affects older projects?

[zabukowski]

Pure speculation, but it might be because of upcoming support for Apple Silicon platform. If library ((including its dependencies) they are using for SF2 loading is not available in Silicon native format (arm64) and/or porting would take too much time/resources, they didn't have much choice i guess.

Other than that, I can't think of any other obvious reason for doing it.

[FatJ]

It's years since I have used SF2 files but according to the Reason 12 manual you can still load them - page 1007:

Loading SoundFonts
The SoundFont format was developed by E-mu systems in collaboration with Creative Technologies. It is a standardized data format containing wavetable synthesized audio and information on how it should be played back in wavetable synthesizers - typically on audio cards. The SoundFont format is an open standard so there is a vast amount of
SoundFont banks and SoundFont compatible banks developed by third parties.
Loading SoundFonts is no different from loading NN-XT Patches. As with NN-19 Patches, the NN-XT does its best
to map all the SoundFont settings to NN-XT parameters.
You can load SoundFont presets by using the patch browser, and single SoundFont samples by using the sample
browser

[zabukowski]

It's years since I have used SF2 files but according to the Reason 12 manual you can still load them - page 1007:

Loading SoundFonts
The SoundFont format was developed by E-mu systems in collaboration with Creative Technologies. It is a standardized data format containing wavetable synthesized audio and information on how it should be played back in wavetable synthesizers - typically on audio cards. The SoundFont format is an open standard so there is a vast amount of
SoundFont banks and SoundFont compatible banks developed by third parties.
Loading SoundFonts is no different from loading NN-XT Patches. As with NN-19 Patches, the NN-XT does its best
to map all the SoundFont settings to NN-XT parameters.
You can load SoundFont presets by using the patch browser, and single SoundFont samples by using the sample
browser

I just checked - you can still browse SF2 file, but loading a preset triggers "Unknown exception" error. This seems more like a bug than removed feature to me.

[Billy+]

Just saw this on fb this morning. Confirmed it. You can no longer open SF2 soundfont files in the NNXT in Reason 12.

Strange I just downloaded a sf2 file and no matter how I try I can't open them, however if I load R11 and create a nnxt patch using the sf2 preset it will open and work in R12.

So it shouldn't hurt old projects being opened in the new R12 version
But you're not going to get the sf2 files to function in R12 without first creating them using a lower version of Reason.

Someone should probably create a ticket

[MrFigg]

It's years since I have used SF2 files but according to the Reason 12 manual you can still load them - page 1007:

I just checked - you can still browse SF2 file, but loading a preset triggers "Unknown exception" error. This seems more like a bug than removed feature to me.

I’ve been getting that “unknown exception error” a lot today trying to use SampleTank.

[DaveyG]

I just checked - you can still browse SF2 file, but loading a preset triggers "Unknown exception" error. This seems more like a bug than removed feature to me.

I’ve been getting that “unknown exception error” a lot today trying to use SampleTank.

There were some exceptions mentioned on the Beta channel that I don't think were ever sorted. I guess a point update will fix them soon

[QVprod]

From same Facebook post. It’s definitely a bug. Someone said they were able to open a SF2 file once and then not again afterwards.

[jlgrimes]

Just saw this on fb this morning. Confirmed it. You can no longer open SF2 soundfont files in the NNXT in Reason 12.

It is not just Props dropping this though. Ableton and NI dropped this as well. I guess alot of work must go into keeping this format going. That said there are better plugins that support this format. Plogue sforzando has almost perfect compatibility and it's free.

NI, NNXt, and Ableton had poor implementation of this anyways (Ableton's sucked big time). NNXT was ok though as the sampler was probably closest to the SF2 format than the other samplers but certain programs loaded completely off and NNXT completely ignored effects which can be a big part of certain patches.

SF2 is a somewhat abandoned format now.

20 years ago soft samplers main selling point was being able to load various formats but mostly these were just selling points.

NNXT did a great job with the Akai format though using Reload but they dropped that years ago. Pretty much now they want you to use 3rd party translation programs which probably does a better job for these anyways.

[esselfortium]

I hope this will be fixed soon.

[Hashmoder]

Before I upgraded to Reason12, NNXT was able to load SF2 presets just fine, even in all previous versions of Reason.
Now, after having installed Reason12, every time I try to load any SF2 preset, I get an error message "Unknown exception."

Here's the link to the screenshot I made -- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MMGy40 ... sp=sharing

[bxbrkrz]

Is SF2 an open format like SFZ?

[Billy+]

If you have access to a previous version of Reason you can create the patches and they are loadable in V12, I tested a confirmed today.

[Hashmoder]

If you have access to a previous version of Reason you can create the patches and they are loadable in V12, I tested a confirmed today.

Damn, I am so sorry. I reported your post by accident. I thought that i was replying back to you. My sincerest apologies.

However, thank you for your reply.
Unfortunately I do not have access to any previous version of Reason on any other computer. Even if I did, I don't think I would want to re-save all tens-of-thousands of SF2files to NNXT presets.

I am confident that this bug might be fixed in the near future.

[Billy+]

Damn, I am so sorry. I reported your post by accident. I thought that i was replying back to you. My sincerest apologies.

Well hopefully I don't get banned

[Hashmoder]

I went ahead and created a ticket.

This bug needs to get fixed asap. I have 35+ years of thousands of mine and 3rd party Emu sample-banks (EII+, EIII, Emax-II) which I've converted to SF2. I use them all the time in NNXT.

I'm going to have to roll back to R11 until this silly little bug gets taken care off. There was no need for me to have upgraded to R12 in the first place. Don't really care of the new Mimic RE or the high-res graphics (I use Mac's accessibility zoom option anyway).

If it's really true that SF2 format was completely dropped in R12, then that's ultimately a huge deal-breaker for me and a crying shame. No need for Propellerhead to have done that. And if SF2 won't come back to R12 or that I can't find another VST sampler as good (or better) than NNXT, then I'm going to have to stick to R11 and later jump ship to Cubase, Logic, Performer, or anything else works for me.

I've been a Reason user since version 1.0. I really don't want to leave.

Just saw this on fb this morning. Confirmed it. You can no longer open SF2 soundfont files in the NNXT in Reason 12.

Strange I just downloaded a sf2 file and no matter how I try I can't open them, however if I load R11 and create a nnxt patch using the sf2 preset it will open and work in R12.

So it shouldn't hurt old projects being opened in the new R12 version
But you're not going to get the sf2 files to function in R12 without first creating them using a lower version of Reason.

Someone should probably create a ticket

[Hashmoder]

I found a better way to translate all my SF2 files to NNXT format by using Chicken System's Translator app. It just converted/translated an entire SF2 with 100 sub-banks in a matter of seconds. This way, I can translate my entire collection of SF2 in no time. So I guess I will remain using R12.

[Hashmoder]

I found a better way to translate all my SF2 files to NNXT format by using Chicken System's Translator app. It just converted/translated an entire SF2 with 100 sub-banks in a matter of seconds. This way, I can translate my entire collection of SF2 in no time. So I guess I will remain using R12.

[drno]

ticket open:
version: Reason 12.2d36 (stable channel)
Load any SF2 file with NN-XT-> error: unknown exception

[Hashmoder]

UPDATE:

After opening a ticket about this issue, I got response from RS.

This seems to be a regression bug that the developers now have confirmed. It's on the fixlist for the upcoming update. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

I am glad RS acknowledged that SF2 is a bug and DID NOT drop support of it.

[moneykube]

UPDATE:

After opening a ticket about this issue, I got response from RS.

This seems to be a regression bug that the developers now have confirmed. It's on the fixlist for the upcoming update. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

I am glad RS acknowledged that SF2 is a bug and DID NOT drop support of it.

indeed

[Gothi]

Thanks for the head up. We use soundfonts2 too and have more than a few that we would like to have at hand. This adds to my reasons not to update. Don´t need Mimic, don´t need new combinator, hi res or missing sf2 support in NNXT.

Edit: Oh, I see, it will be fixed. Well, I am not in the hurry for 12, so I can wait.