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User manual

Welcome to the User Manual of Polyphone! To quickly discover what soundfonts are and how to edit them with Polyphone, you can start with tutorials or watch videos on YouTube  (special thanks to Polyphone users for their useful videos). And if you'd like to learn all about the software's features, simply read on.

If you need more help, or if the reading of these pages puts you off, you may find assistance in the forum.

Home screen

The first screen of Polyphone is basically made of 3 parts:

• a left part, containing a file history and shortcuts;
• a right part, dedicated to the soundfont repository;
• a top area, containing tabs and a menu.

Left part

Opening a soundfont

Three ways for opening a soundfont:

• a click on Open soundfont opens a file browser, the allowed file to select having the extension sf2, sf3, sfArk or sfz (the different formats are described here);
• a click on New soundfont opens an empty soundfont, everything is to be done from scratch;
• a double-click on a soundfont from the history re-open it.

When a soundfont is open, a new tab appears with a soundfont editor inside.

Shortcuts

Three buttons are located at the bottom of the left part:

• Documentation: open a web browser for reading the Polyphone documentation.
• Forum: open a web browser with the URL of the Polyphone forum.
• Settings: open the settings of the software in a new tab.

Right part

Online repository

A click on the button Online repository opens a tab with the soundfont browser.

Daily soundfonts

Every day, 5 random soundfonts are displayed here. This is made for inciting people discovering new soundfonts. Double-clicking on one of them opens a new tab with the corresponding soundfont description.

Search

It is possible to write a keyword here for searching specific soundfonts and the results will be displayed in the soundfont browser.

Top area

Tabs

The tabs provide a quick access between:

• the home screen (first tab — always open),
• the editor of an open soundfont,
• the software settings,
• the soundfont browser,
• a soundfont description from the repository.

Navigation between tabs can be performed using keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl+Tab to go to the next tab, excluding the home screen tab,
• Ctrl+Maj+Tab to go to the previous tab, excluding the home screen tab,
• Ctrl+H to go to the home screen.

Menu

The menu, located in the top right corner, contains general functions and is described here.