Hi Guys,
 
   Yes I know the X-Fi is a rubbish card for music but needed a cheap one for a surround project!
Anyway, having had the card for over a year needed to do something in Vienna (Soundfont Editor). Downloaded it and err... hello something wrong. No soundfont support in Sonar 8. Checking in Win Xp Sounds and Audio devices, and only creative soundfont synth is listed. No X-fi A and B synths shown. I thought this card (X-fi Extreme Audio) had them? Without them then soundfonts are greyed out in Sonar/options.
Note all creative drivers fully up to date and soundfont manager installed.
 
Anybody any ideas??
 
Thanks,
Willy

If I remember from my Sound Blaster days, you have to be in MME mode to use those. 

I cannot comment on Sonar 8, but you probably would have an easier time using a softsynth to play your SF2 files.
 
There are plenty of free ones out there, and most of the commercial ones will play sf2 also. Cakewalk has a free sfz available player that also plays sf2 as well. A benefit of of using a softsynth is the elimination of offset timing issues, since there no need to patch the soundblaster output back into Sonar if you're you're trying to record the synth's output.

Hi Guys,
 
 Appreciate the free SF player route and if I wanted too could load them in Kontakt. However do the soft SF players respond to filter cut off cc's?
I do'nt believe that I can't  load and construct a Soundfont in Vienna and not play it back on the X-Fi extreme audio? Why soundfont I here you ask.... err different story!
 
 
Willy
 

The only way to find out if a particular softsynth repsonds to filter cutoff and other CC's is to give it whirl and see if they do. I'm sure the better one's do.
 
I understand that creative's Vienna editor only works in the presence of a Sound blaster card, but I'm assuming that Vienna saves it's sound fonts in SF2 format - so any SF2 capable player can load and use it.

Hi Guys,
 
 No diss to you all but thanks, wont bother with the X-fi havn't got the time. Will make a .nki(Kontakt) and convert it to SF! Its for a friend. Creative not used for music on my daw.
 
Thanks,
Willy

Just for the record if a free but fully featured software sampler that supports SF2 is requires this is very good. http://www.tx16wx.com/

I had an Xfi installed on my old PC - the model with the I/O unit that mounted in a CD drive bay.  Every time I started Sonar, the Sonar program would pick up the Xfi as the default playback device and not my regular USB connected recording interface.  Apparently had to do with the fact the Xfi had ASIO drivers.  I finally had enough and dumped the Xfi in favor of an HT Omega "Striker 7.1" sound card that did not have ASIO drivers - fixed the problem.

Hi Guys,
  Well, sorted now. As I said in original post 'cheap card for surround' and that is exactly what I bought. It dont do soundfonts! Never mind have been using Kontakt for years even for .sf's. As I said earlier sorted new instrument in latter and converted it to sf.
Willy