It's pretty common to see questions about mapping samples into instruments and soundfont players on the various Cakewalk forums. I just stumbled on this free / donationware product which way be of use to those without a fully featured sampler program like Kontakt or Independence.
http://www.tx16wx.com/home I have not tried it but it looks very good on paper. There is also a paid version with more features in the pipeline with a Reaper type pricing strategy $20 for non commercial use (your gross revenue than 10,000 Euros /year) or $80 for commercial use.
Features Multitimbral, Multi-out operation
Built in browser
Extensive modulation and sound shaping
Full Undo/Redo
Loop slicing + MIDI export
Built-in sample editor with extensive tools and sound shaping
Samples audio straight into the sampler.
Imports many wave and sample bank formats
Graphical mapping editor with automatic sample layout
Full drag & drop
64-bit support
Formats WAV/AIFF/AIFC
SoundFont 2
SFZ Files
Ogg Vorbis
FLAC
Typhoon compressed AIF files
Original Yamaha OS Wave files