.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 2	Awave Studio
Preset	Instrument
Instrument	Layers*
Zone	Region
Sample	Waveform

* 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:

• SoundFont v2.00 was an open standard that followed the earlier undocumented SoundFont v1.x format (.SBK files). It stores instrument parameters as a fixed set of generators, all of which are supported by Awave Studio.
  
• SoundFont v2.01 added optional 'modulator' routings - a more generalized way of specifying a articulation connections in a synth. A sub-set of all possible modulator routings are supported.
  
• SoundFont v2.04 added support for 24-bit waveforms. Applications that doesn''t support this will simply ignore the lowest 8-bits.
  

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.

Features:

• 16 / 24-bits, loop, name, lfos, envelopes, layers, instruments, drum kits, collection, sample start & end offsets, low-pass filter.

Supported by:

• Awave Studio (read + write).