In https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=3674, Barry Graham mentioned the Synthfont program. http://www.synthfont.com/. It is really quite a nice complement to NWC and deserves special mention. It readily allows downloaded soundfonts and soundfont families to be reviewed and used in NWC files (saved as midis) preparatory to recording (which it also facilitates). No fuss or bother in loading the soundfonts via Audio Headachequarters, and the like.
Added bonus: allows me to avoid the horrible microsoft soundfonts in my laptop (I can see why the more musical Allen left the fold), and doesn't require a proprietary card (like Creative) as long as the onboard can support soundfonts.
Barry likes http://www.hammersound.net. Good site, although some of the links were broken. However, found those soundfonts and many more at http://www.sf2midi.com/. Particularly like the Cadenza Srings and Symphonic Strings (the one at hammersound)
Anyway, Thanks Barry!
Quick correction. Apparently the onboard sound need not support soundfonts. It's all done via CPU power!
I guess that means you like it!
And you're right Steve - all you need is a sound device that can produce wave output.
Thanks for the link to the soundfonts.
Barry Graham
Top Brass Events Band
Melbourne, Australia
Don't forget TiMidity++ (http://earth.prohosting.com/saxguru/), especially since I have added a new TiMidity Soundfont Configurator (http://earth.prohosting.com/saxguru/configure.shtml). TiMidity is a more mature product, and while SynthFont is great, I still find bugs in it and it seems to have some trouble with large soundfonts like the Titanic_200_GMGS_1.1.sf2.