Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your SFARK file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert SFARK to another file type
To convert SFARK SoundFont files to another format, you need Polyphone or other Compressed software.
Convert a file to SFARK
To convert other file formats to the "SoundFont Archive" file type, you need software like Polyphone or a similar tool.
About SFARK files
A .sfark file is a proprietary, lossless compressed audio archive created specifically to store SF2 (SoundFont 2) files. Musicians and composers historically used this format to drastically reduce file sizes when sharing large digital instrument libraries over slow internet connections. The original compression utility was developed by Melody Machine, but modern SoundFont editors like Polyphone and synthesis engines like FluidSynth also interact with the uncompressed payload. Users face major challenges with the .sfark format today because it is functionally obsolete and heavily restricted. Modern Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) and software samplers cannot natively read or load .sfark files. Furthermore, the original Windows-based sfArk software is severely outdated and often fails to run on modern 64-bit operating systems. To use the instruments, users must convert or extract the .sfark container back into an uncompressed SF2 file. In many cases, it is highly recommended to further convert the SF2 into the open SFZ standard for maximum compatibility across modern audio plugins. Because the compression algorithm is proprietary and highly specialized for PCM audio arrays, standard archive software like 7-Zip or WinRAR cannot extract these files. Standard online converters frequently fail because they lack the specific audio decoding libraries required.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SFARK file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert SFARK file to SF2, you can use Polyphone or similar software from the "SoundFont Audio Compression" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to SFARK, try Polyphone or another comparable tool in the "SoundFont Audio Compression" category.
The SFARK Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our SFARK converter.