What is a .SFZ file?
SFZ is an open text format describing a sampled instrument and how to play it.
- Did you know
- SFZ was created by rgc:audio in the early 2000s - later acquired by Cakewalk, which published the spec - as a plain-text, human-editable way to map sampled instruments.
- Being just text, an SFZ holds no audio itself - it points to separate sample files and describes how to play them.
- Because the SFZ specification is open and royalty-free, dozens of free and commercial samplers support it, making it a common format for shared instrument libraries.
- What Analyser reads
- Identify many more audio formats: lossless/hi-res codecs (Monkey’s Audio, WavPack, TAK, True Audio, DSD/SACD, Musepack), pro containers (Core Audio, RF64/BW64, Wave64, Sun AU, Broadcast Wave with timecode), speech/mobile (Speex, AMR-WB, QCP, 3GA, M4R, GSM), MPEG Layer I/II, instrument banks (SoundFont, SFZ, DLS, RIFF MIDI, GigaStudio), ringtones (RTTTL, iMelody, SAP), tracker modules (MOD, XM, IT, S3M, OctaMED, 669, Oktalyzer), chiptunes (NES NSF, SNES SPC, VGM, Game Boy GBS, AY, YM) and Audacity projects. DJI waveform peak sidecars (PKF - the overview a DJI recorder writes beside its audio) are drawn as a waveform; Adobe Audition peak caches (also PKF) are identified.
- Depth of analysis
- .SFZ is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .SFZ file
- Drag a .SFZ file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.