SFZ Designer Project (0.25)

[ArranD]

Hi, I'm running Beta 0.25 32bit on XP, I'm finding that the more regions I add the more laggy the program becomes; it can take 30 seconds or more to scroll, or open a layer. CPU isn't high when this occurs.
Also, how do you delete a velocity layer?

Thanks,
Arran

[uzilevi]

hi i made a movi on how to make sfz files uzing sfz designer and the text editor, i didnt find one on the net so after i find my way i did a tutorial on it. i guess it was my time to give back enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK5Kiaz_13Y.

[Mc UB]

Hey Mildonm,

Very nice program you made there! I was looking for an easy way to create sfz's from my samples to use in Zampler. The best way for me sofar was a combination of Tx16wx sampler and an addon from another developer, tx16w2sfz (or similar, hehe...). Then I could build my sfz in the sampler, and use the addon to convert the program to an sfz. But it was not perfect and the sampler was not built to do this.

And creating them by hand is just too cumbersome. Although I have some 'template' sfz's that made it easier, but still.

I just read about you program in this months Computer Music Magazine, and have it installed and running now. Onwards to my first sfz with it!! First impression is that it looks very clean and easy to navigate, very nice.

My advice to people wanting to make their own: build your own library of many sfz's. I think the best way to do this is to create 1 base library folder, and populate it with other folders containing the samples for the sfz's. The sfz files get saved to the base folder, and all samplefolders are referenced 1 folder up. It's basically what you said already, only taking into account you probably don't just make 1 sfz, and it's advisible to organise it a little for ease of use later on.

Like this:

-Library
|piano.sfz
|drumkit.sfz
|violin.sfz
|_[folder piano]
|_[folder drumkit]
|_[folder violin]

This makes it real easy to move around, share, possibly sell or backup all your sfz's. and from the instruments you use them in, you can browse all sfz's in the same folder.

I think sfz can have a real bright future, since it's accessible to everybody. I hate closed libraries myself, I think open source is the way to go

regards, Frank

[Mc UB]

First impressions:

Well, basically it works, so great A couple of points I'ld like to mention:

- When I constructed a drumkit, I created a number of 1-shot groups, each on a different key, and populated them with samples. Apparently there were some samples with loop-points, and SFZD packed them also in the sfz, but they result in error messages in Plogue. One of them now plays looped (bassdrum machinegun effect), which was not my intention. (EDIT: But looking in the sfz, I don't see any reference to looppoints... is it Plogue itself that reads them from the sample?)

- When I tried to maybe correct it in the sfz file itself, via Notepad, it looks like the whole sfz file contains only 1 single continuous line of text, with a lot of tabbed spaces, making it hard to edit. If I open it in Wordpad though, it looks better formatted. Now I'm not sure, but if it opens well formatted in Wordpad, can it be there are some hidden formatting codes embedded in the textfile? Like those pesky Word codes that get copied as well sometimes?

- The drumkit didn't load well in Zampler. It only gave me 1 of the samples, chromatically stretched across the entire keyboard. Not one-shots. Now Zampler only supports basic sfz codes, no opcodes. See here on first page: http://www.zampler.de
Since I only created the most basic sfz, just single regions and samples, that should be all there is in the sfz. could you make it so that only information that has been altered get's written to the sfz? So if I don't touch general settings ampeg, volume, pan, transpose or others, they don't get written into the file? They are like default settings then in any case.

I've included screenshots from the Plogue warnings, and of a created sfz in both Notepad and Wordpad.

Nevertheless... essentially all worked, and the sfz's are playing in Plogue. They are also very easy to create, with good visual aids. I like when you drag a marker, a vertical line let's you visualise it's position across all groups. So no accidental overlaps

regards, Frank

[Parduz]

Hello from Italy
I'm just trying your program to try to have drumkits compatible with my old Ensoniq SQ1.

I'd have some questions and, as a (lazy) programmer myself, some suggestions about useabilty:
Question:
- samples: how can i set the sample offset, end and loop-start point? by just using opcodes? (this 'cause my SQ1 ROM waveform are stored in an unique WAV file)
Suggestions
- hotkeys for everything.... like CTRL-Arrow to move ranges by one key, CTRL-Page for one octave, keys to open "sub-windows", to add-remove fields etc.
- a SFZ preview window
- it doen't IMPORT sfz? really?
- more "standard" ways to close "sub-windows" (samples, opcodes) with a tiny icon somewhere on the windows top bar
- an option to automatically let new groups have range starting next from the previous group.

Anyway, that's great work. Many complments

[Mc UB]

Is this project even still alive? I would very much like to see a stable 1.0 version?

regards, Frank

[Pytchblend]

Any news on this please?