## SoundFonts

Chordzy plays SoundFonts on your MIDI keyboard, on the website and in the desktop app, with nothing extra to install. SoundFonts are files that contain an entire synthesizer inside: recordings of an instrument, plus the rules for stretching them across every key. Pick one for your keyboard and each key you press plays that sound.

Every sound comes from the built-in set of 779 instruments. GeneralUser GS and FluidR3 GM supply more of them than any other SoundFont. The app shows the source in square brackets before each name, so **[Fluid] Upright Piano** comes from FluidR3. The [instruments](/help/synthesizers/instruments.md) page lists what is in each group.


## Picking a SoundFont on the website or in the app

You can configure your MIDI keyboard to use just about any instrument in Chordzy.

1. Plug in your keyboard and connect it. [MIDI keyboards](/help/hardware/midi-keyboards.md) covers cables and browsers.
2. Click the person icon in the upper-right, then **Hardware Settings**.
3. Your keyboard has its own row, with a button showing its current sound. Click that button.
4. Under **Synth Engine**, pick a category, then an instrument. **Volume (Levels)** sets how loud it plays.

It even works right inside the web browser, though it sounds better and works faster in our [app](/install). The website plays a lighter sampled copy of each instrument and gives every note the same short fade when you let go. The desktop app plays the full SoundFont file, and its **Speakers** tab has a **Latency (milliseconds)** slider for trimming the delay.

Chordzy saves the instrument and volume you choose for each keyboard. It keeps them separately for every install of the app, so a second computer starts again from the default sound. Accounts are free.


## Using your own SoundFonts

Loading a SoundFont of your own is not possible yet. Every built-in instrument comes from an `.sf2` file that ships with Chordzy, and there is no button to add another.

In [the future](/about/roadmap.md), Chordzy will allow you to upload your own SoundFonts and create more sophisticated keyboard mappings, such as a different sound on each half of the keyboard. [Feature support](/help/synthesizers/feature-support.md#split-ranges) says where splitting stands today.

Until then, a keyboard with its own sounds can still play them through its speakers or headphone jack. Turn Chordzy's **Volume (Levels)** down for that keyboard so you do not hear two pianos at once.