A free Kalimba for my Garritan friends -an instrument for Aria!

[rbowser-]

UPDATE - NEW IMPROVED KALIMBA NOW ON LINK

http://rbowser.tripod.com/kalimba.jpg


I'm sure all of us are looking forward to the upcoming release of The Garritan World Instrument Library.

As a way of getting us even more in the mood for that great collection coming your way, I've created a Kalimba SFZ file which works in Aria.

I had fun sampling an Alto Kalimba from South Africa which I've had since around 1970, and putting together an SFZ file using the samples.

Each of the instrument's 15 tines were sampled twice, in all their slightly-out-of-tune glory. That makes for two velocity layers, switching depending on your velocity values. There are also release samples for a natural sounding decay.

This Alto Kalimba, pictured above, was made by the Hugh Tracey African Musical Instruments company in South Africa. The box is of a beautiful medium tone wood, and the metal tines, six painted blue, are all slightly oxidized now, giving the instrument a nice aged look. You can hear plenty of body resonance as the tone of the tines reverberates in the approximately 6" X 8" body.

The link below is to a small 5.7 meg Zip file. Just download it and unzip it to a logical instrument folder. You'll have the set of samples plus an SFZ file.

In Aria, click Import, and select the SFZ file. - Instant Aria Kalimba.

THE ALTO KALIMBA (http://www.box.net/shared/static/fc2947ukkd.zip)*

Gary's World Library has a very nice set of Kalimba samples. My humble offering gives you a hint at the kind of new sounds you'll soon have in your Aria players.

Have fun with it!

Randy

*UPDATE - A major error in the first version of the file has been corrected. If you've downloaded the first version, delete that file and start over, just to make it error-proof. MARCE improved the SFZ file with volume control via CC1, and I corrected part of the script which was ignoring the second layer of samples! Trust me - just do it again, and you'll have a much more expressive Kalimba.

[reberclark]

Randy! This very cool, but I cannot find the Aria "import" button! ;)

EDIT: nevermind - found it. Duh.

[rbowser-]

Randy! This very cool, but I cannot find the Aria "import" button! ;)

EDIT: nevermind - found it. Duh.
AH--You already found it. I came here to answer your question, but you've edited your post. I could have been a bit more specific in my first post.

Y'all - when you click an empty slot in Aria, the second choice on the menu list is "Import." With that you can bring in any SFZ file. There'll be limitations about how an instrument behaves, depending on its programming. My Kalimba is simple enough, so it works as programmed in Aria. And you'll notice the Aria volume slider stays at the bottom and doesn't effect the instrument. Volume needs to be controlled in your music software.

Let me know if it works for you, Chip - and thanks for the post.

Randy

[reberclark]

Let me know if it works for you, Chip - and thanks for the post.

Randy

It works great! I put the folder in my 64bit Garritan folder. It works in 32bit ARIA as well as 64bit ARIA. Great sounds - Ab to Ab chromatic! Never heard a chromatic kalimba. It's fun to play with. I tried making a short recording but they all turned out kind of lame. The two layers of volume you decided on work really well.

Have you ever seen (heard) the kalimbas with little aluminum tubes (1/4" long or so) near the mounted ends of the tines? Gives the whole thing a nice buzz effect.

Great job.

P. S. So...how do I go about sampling and assembling my own SFZ files?

[rbowser-]

It works great! I put the folder in my 64bit Garritan folder. It works in 32bit ARIA as well as 64bit ARIA. Great sounds - Ab to Ab chromatic! Never heard a chromatic kalimba. It's fun to play with. I tried making a short recording but they all turned out kind of lame. The two layers of volume you decided on work really well.

Have you ever seen (heard) the kalimbas with little aluminum tubes (1/4" long or so) near the mounted ends of the tines? Gives the whole thing a nice buzz effect.

Great job.

P. S. So...how do I go about sampling and assembling my own SFZ files?

Nice! Thanks for letting me know you got it running and that you like it, Chip. Playing the SFZ really sounds just like playing the actual instrument.

The Kalimba is of course a pitched percussion instrument, but even though it plays that scale, I think the emphasis is on Percussion when it comes to playing it characteristically. When you listen to recordings featuring Kalimbas, they're basically playing rhythmic little phrases that use just a few notes and keep repeating. If you try to play a more traditional melody line on it, the results are odd. I think you need to think simple, primitive, and rhythmic when you play it.

MARCE is one of the Forum's prime SFZ wizards. I hope he sees this thread and chimes in. Awhile back he was encouraging me to work with SFZ - but I have to admit that while I have fun toying with programming and sampling once in awhile, it's not really my thing. I'm not technically oriented enough. It can be so time consuming and "fiddley"--I'd rather leave that work to people who enjoy it, and I just have fun using what they come up with.

BUT here's the free SFZ editor which seems to be the standard:

sfZed (http://audio.clockbeat.com/sfZed.html)

It's a nifty app, logically laid out. The basic process is to make/collect your samples, then assemble them in a logical way across a keyboard, and cook up your SFZ. As you can see from looking at the Garritan Aria files, all SFZ instruments consist of two components - the SFZ itself is a text file giving instructions for how the second element, the folder of samples, is to be played in an SFZ capable app. Aria uses SFZ, and Sonar's Dimension and Rapture synths play SFZs. Of course the standard, free SFZ player uses them - and the download for that is also on that link above. The editor needs the SFZ player so the user can test out his work.

I made a Dimension version of this Kalimba also, but posted the Aria version because I meant it as a gift to the users here. One improvement with the Dimension version is that using editing tools in Dim, I added a Tremolo on notes as they're held. A Kalimba has two holes in the back which are played with the fingers as you grip the instrument, giving notes Trem when wanted. Being a newbie with SFZ, I didn't manage to program that in the Aria version.

Getting decent recordings and trimming those to length was the first step of course. You can do that in any sound app you have.

Thanks for responding, Chip!

Randy

[Tony Monaghan]

Randy, this is just crying out for a do it yourself SFZ tutorial *()

[rbowser-]

Randy, this is just crying out for a do it yourself SFZ tutorial *()
Oooh no, I've done it now - might have created more work for myself. Well!--I'm going to write to Marce, who really is a whiz at this stuff. I'll see if he could put together a good little tute, or help me with one, - or point out a good one that already exists.

Because it really is a nifty thing for us to be able to cook up our own instruments/sounds to move into Aria alongside the Garritan instruments.

I'll see what we can do!

Randy

[Heckler]

I'm from SA by the way.
Real nice looking Kalimba! I still play mine from time to time.
I remember when I was small, my grandparents used to teach me how to play it. Fun!

I would play on these things till my fingers bled...:D

Thanks for this...Brings back very fond memories.

[Tony Monaghan]

Oooh no, I've done it now - might have created more work for myself. Well!--I'm going to write to Marce, who really is a whiz at this stuff. I'll see if he could put together a good little tute, or help me with one, - or point out a good one that already exists.

Because it really is a nifty thing for us to be able to cook up our own instruments/sounds to move into Aria alongside the Garritan instruments.

I'll see what we can do!

Randy

Thanks Randy, this would be one very useful tutorial - imagine the tenor banjo lib I could come up with! All those velocity layers for that required subtle expression...

[rbowser-]

Nice, Heckler! What a fun memory, whacking your fingers on Kalimbas when you were growing up in South Africa. Try mine out, see how it sounds to you!

YEeeeah, Tony - now that's very good motivation to get a tute together - we could have a special Banjo SFZ from you!

OK --I've written to Marce. Give us some time, something should eventually emerge.

Randy

[Tim Perry]

Randy, thanks squeezing some of your Kalimba into an sfz for us. You've got me searching around my place for things to sample, but there is nothing simple and sweet kicking around (an accordion and a poorly built balalaika in the ethnic department... too big and tedious and conventional for me to want tackle in spare time).

I do have a sword that would make an interesting Dark Ages in Europe instrument patch. But making such a patch would undoubtedly damage numerous things in my house--including perfectly good vegitables, likely the sword itself, and almost certainly my damage deposit.

[reberclark]

Randy - Thanks for the SFZed info. I installed it and was able to convert two old sf2 files to sfz's that I can now use in ARIA. Way cool! In my converted files Aria did throw some error messages related to "unknown opcodes" so I went into SFZed and deleted those codes from the samples (they were "effects" that really were just placeholders) and all works great!

[rbowser-]

ALERT! - A VASTLY improved Kalimba is now on the original post link, and the link on this post.

TIM--Your post totally cracked me up, "...I do have a sword that would make an interesting Dark Ages in Europe instrument patch..." Sounds good to me! Record that thing so we can play the Swoosh, Clang, Tink of a sword. I'd love it!

You reminded me of when I bought my first sampling keyboard back in the '80's, an Akai X7000, and for quite some time I was running around the house finding things to sample. I'd grab pots out of my girlfriend's hands so I could bang on them with a hammer and sample them. I'd go out and bang on the clothesline poles - I distinctly remember That experiment. I remember another time when I ran my finger up and down some Venetian Blinds to capture the rattling sound.

All you had to do was plug a mike directly into the keyboard, push a button and capture whatever you wanted. Then mapping the samples over the keyboard was simple - It's actually pretty amazing how straight forward sampling was 25 years ago--much simpler than it is now!

I was tempted, but I stopped short of making a sample set of body noises. OK, so I belched into the mike one night and laughed myself silly over being able to play the belch up and down the keyboard, but I figured that every other guy in the country my age with a sampling keyboard was busy recording his body noises, so I didn't need to carry on more with that. :p

But it is interesting to think--we had that kind of instant sampling available to us decades ago, and now it's a hassle to do the same thing with our computer set ups.

Reberclark (Chip) said, "...- Thanks for the SFZed info. I installed it and was able to convert two old sf2 files to sfz's that I can now use in ARIA. Way cool!..."

That is EXcellent - I hope more people here at the Forum notice your post--Because that is one of the cool and simple things to do with sfZed- Take some Sound Font files and convert them into SFZ so you can have those sounds available in Aria. How cool is that? There are thousands of sounds available for free online, many of them quite good. Convert them with this program to what works in Aria, and you've just added a lot of punch to your set up.

The reason you had some codes that didn't work with Aria, and so you had to delete them, is that sfZed creates an older version of SFZ files and not all of its parameters are compatible with Aria. You discovered that already. The best advice is to keep your files simple, and they'll work with Aria.

NOW---PLEASE NOTICE - The original Kalimba file has been replaced. I did that for two reasons.

#1 - Marce, the guy who has more experience with SFZs than me has already improved my little Kalimba experiment. He's added the ability of CC1 to control volume! --It's subtle, but using the Mod Wheel now controls the volume of the instrument at least to some extent. This is great - because you now have volume control not only via Velocity, but to another degree also with CC1.

#2 - I made a mistake in the original version. >gasp!< Randy made a mistake?!?!?! --yes, he did. All the samples are there in the file I first posted, the high velocity layer and lower velocity layer, but the SFZ script itself was wrong. Dang! Now in the new version you will hear a dramatic difference between low and high velocities, but not so much that it will be jarring - The high velocities have that metallic Twang characteristic of the instrument when your thumbs are strumming the tines strongly. But the lower velocities now have that softer sound when you just kind of pet the tines.

That was the layering effect I referred to when I first posted this, not realizing that my script had an error in it, making the second layer non-functional.

To reiterate - the samples were all there, but the script mistakenly skipped reference to the lower velocity samples.

To avoid confusion, I strongly recommend you just delete what you've already downloaded and start again. It's still a small 5.7 meg file, so it only takes seconds to download and install.

Here it is again--the VASTLY improved Kalimba.

MUCH MORE BETTER KALIMBA! (http://www.box.net/shared/static/fc2947ukkd.zip)

Randy

[reberclark]

Randy- Wow! That is a much better instrument! Thanks for the upgrade!

[Jerry W.]

Thanks Randy! This is very cool! :)

[Nick Harvey]

Wow! Amazing timing. I'd only just bought the Tonehammer Kalimba for a job I'm working on, when I came across this thread.

I'd love to be able to take advantage of this kind offer, but don't have Aria unfortunately. Is there another sample player that can play the sfz file on a Mac? I've tried Kontakt and EXS24 to no avail.

Many thanks.

Nick

[rbowser-]

Wow! Amazing timing. I'd only just bought the Tonehammer Kalimba for a job I'm working on, when I came across this thread.

I'd love to be able to take advantage of this kind offer, but don't have Aria unfortunately. Is there another sample player that can play the sfz file on a Mac? I've tried Kontakt and EXS24 to no avail.

Many thanks.

Nick
Hi, Nick - SFZ format is used in a number of instruments now. Do you use Sonar, by any chance? Both its Dimension and Rapture synths use SFZs. And there's the free SFZ player from Cakewalk. I think it's compatible with Macs-? --here 'tis:

SFZ Player (http://www.cakewalk.com/support/project5/sfz.aspx)

Randy

[Heckler]

Love it!!!!
1 very tiny thing though....It needs a little bit more finger noise.
It sounds a tad too clear and perfect for my liking. But it's nevertheless perfect!!!
I made you guys a traditional Kwaito shortpiece with it...
Enjoy!



http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php/71723-Mapaseka-s-Watermelons....A-traditional-Kwaito-piece.?p=652716#post652716

[Nick Harvey]

Hi, Nick - SFZ format is used in a number of instruments now. Do you use Sonar, by any chance? Both its Dimension and Rapture synths use SFZs. And there's the free SFZ player from Cakewalk. I think it's compatible with Macs-? --here 'tis:

SFZ Player (http://www.cakewalk.com/support/project5/sfz.aspx)

Randy

Great. Thanks for that Randy. I'll check it out.

Nick

[marce]

Great. Thanks for that Randy. I'll check it out.

Nick

Unfortunately there is no free sfz player for MAC afaik. LinuxSampler, that work on Mac, has planned support for SFZ (or they have a beta working of it, i believe) so can be a solution for the future.
Currently, Dimension and Rapture from Cakewalk, and ARIA from Garritan are the only SFZ players that work in Mac. The sfz vsti free player is only for Windows.

[Michael135]

Now if only someone would do the same with some recorders....

[rbowser-]

Chip "Reberclark" sed, "...Randy- Wow! That is a much better instrument! Thanks for the upgrade!..."

You betcha - and it was a FREE upgrade. - (first one's free-hehe)

Jerry sed, "...Thanks Randy! This is very cool!..."

Hope you try it out, Jerry. The new-improved version - which is the only one on the links now. I just made a goof the first time, using an older, incorrect SFZ file. But then Marcelo fixed it up even more.

Heckler sed, "...Love it!!!! 1 very tiny thing though....It needs a little bit more finger noise.
It sounds a tad too clear and perfect for my liking. But it's nevertheless perfect!!! I made you guys a traditional Kwaito shortpiece with it...Enjoy!..."

I recorded the samples several times until I had the amount of thumb-on-tine sound that appealed to me. Kalimba's are noisy! The noisier samples were too cacophonous for me. I also played the instrument very close to the mike to get as clean and dry a sound as possible in my little home studio. I think it will work in mixes best this way.

And speaking of mixes, I sure enjoyed the piece you put up in The Listening Room using this. I appreciate the credit you gave me, that'll help others investigate my freebie if they want.

Nick sed about the SFZ Player info, "...Great. Thanks for that Randy. I'll check it out..."

But Marce sed, "...Unfortunately there is no free sfz player for MAC..."

Dang - well, I wasn't sure. That does it, Nick, you gotta upgrade your GPO so you can get in on the great Aria! You're behind the times!

Michael sed, "...Now if only someone would do the same with some recorders..."

AH, well I've heard them with my own ears - I can say with confidence that a great set of Recorders are in the up-coming Garritan World Library! So, you won't have to wait long for those.

ANother post will follow with more on SFZs.

Randy

[Michael135]

Hmm... very nice....


I had been thinking that I would eventually need to get EWQL Silk to have some good world/ethnic instruments, but I do think this may change my mind on this issue. There's a decent chance that I'll get Silk one day, but I'm almost certainly going to get the Garritan world collection first now that I know it has RECORDERS! YES!!!!!!!!!!

Any idea on when we can expect 1 or 2 short demos from this very promising sounding library?

[rbowser-]

Hmm... very nice....


I had been thinking that I would eventually need to get EWQL Silk to have some good world/ethnic instruments, but I do think this may change my mind on this issue. There's a decent chance that I'll get Silk one day, but I'm almost certainly going to get the Garritan world collection first now that I know it has RECORDERS! YES!!!!!!!!!!

Any idea on when we can expect 1 or 2 short demos from this very promising sounding library?
That's great, Michael, that you have the World Library at the top of your wish list now. I've been pitching in a bit as a Beta tester, and I'm really impressed by the work the developers have done.

I totally sympathize with your want/need for Recorders. When I was recording the virtual orchestra for my stage show, "Dorian Gray," Recorders were needed. Sitting along side the otherwise GPO driven tracks, I used an Alto Recorder Sound Font I found, and it was fine.

But NOW - get this - you want Recorders? Here's the lineup in World as it is right now:

Alto Recorder
Bass Recorder
Piccolo Recorder
Sopranino Recorder
Soprano Recorder
Tenor Recorder

--Think that'll do ya?

And I can testify - they all sound great.

There are keyswitches on these woods, as with all the World woodwinds, and they give you:

Pitch Bend Up
Pitch Bend Down
Flutter
Chiff Attack

Those pitch bends are nice little, natural sounding scoops, appropriate here and there during most any piece.

You asked about demos. Gary made what I think is a wise decision some time ago, and that's to not have demos in advance of a Library's release. Having them can invite premature "reviews" and confusing expectations.

So there aren't any official demos yet. I'm sure as soon as World is released, there'll be a lot of people inspired to create projects, some of which will become demos. They'll be able to use African, South American, Chinese, Celtic, Native American - and many other ethnic instruments.

Awhile ago, for St. Patty's Day, I posted an unofficial "demo" - a version of the Irish folk song, "A rovin'" using some of the Celtic instruments in World - Shepherd's Flute, Bodhran, Celtic Harp and other things. Here's the link to the music video I made of the World project, coupled with Irish imagery:

"A Rovin'" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDMAzUGUMb4)

Randy

[Michael135]

In that case, is there any time frame for when we can expect a release? For example, are we talking about months, or sometime into next year?

As for that list of recorders....

http://s.bebo.com/app-image/7926040444/5411656627/PROFILE/i.quizzaz.com/img/q/u/08/03/22/spongebob.jpg

[rbowser-]

Well then, Sponge Michael - I would be surprised if World isn't released in the next few months. Much more than the basic ingredients are lined up. The library is being fine tuned.

Perhaps you saw this post from this General Discussion Forum, but here's the link:

More "World" Beta Testers Needed (http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/showthread.php/71700-World-library-beta-testers-wanted)

The developers are hoping to get input from people who are expert at using ethnic instruments with as wide a base of experience as possible. If you or someone you know qualifies, they would like to hear from you. See that thread for more details.

Randy B.

[Michael135]

Must have missed that thread somehow...

Anyway, can't wait to see it when it comes out.

[rbowser-]

Another unofficial "World" demo

Michael's curiosity about the up-coming World Library inspired me to post what can be considered another unofficial demo.

My latest project has been designing sound for a production of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." We developed a concept which is working well for underscoring the monologues of Chief, one of the play's central characters.

Unlike the movie version, Chief has quite a few lines in the play. As in the book, he's the story's narrator. In day-to-day life at the mental hospital, he's almost catatonic and unresponsive. But that's his defense mechanism, developed to protect himself from horrific memories.

When he's around the other characters, Chief is slumped over and mute. But when he's alone, his mind is very alive. In the play, he gives voice to his inner monologue.

Chief is an American Native, and being from a tribe that lives in in the Columbia Gorge area of Oregon is one of his central connections with life.

I developed music based on traditional American Native musical motifs as interpreted by Carlos Nakai, probably the most well known American Native Flutist.

The tracks use the American Native flute in the upcoming Garritan World Library. In the show, the flute tracks are combined with various other sounds, but here's the first flute cue in the show, featuring the flute by itself.

I think the developers have done a fantastic job with this instrument, as they have with all of them in World.

"CUCKOO'S NEST" - American Native Flute (http://www.box.net/shared/static/gqmd22vfuy.mp3) from The Garritan World Library.

Randy

[reberclark]

Randy - First of all Cuckoo's Nest is one of my favorite plays/films. I saw it first as a film with Jack Nicholson (in my days as a projectionist) and then a few years ago with Gary Sinise as McMurphy at the Goodman Theatre here in Chicago. Tim Samson, Will Samson's son (who played the Chief in the movie), played the Chief in the play. Great stuff.

Secondly I used to live in Tulsa, Oklahoma near the Cherokee Nation and drove 60 miles each way each day to Bartlesville, OK to teach music and band. In Bartlesville I taught several Native American kids and one - I can't recall his name or tribe - turned me on to the indian flute recordings of Stan Snake. They are excellent and Stan makes his own flutes - as per tradition.

The samples you had in the audio example were right on the money. This makes me so excited about the new World Music Library.

[rbowser-]

Wonderful post, Chip -

"Cuckoo's Nest" really is one of the great 20th Century stories. Ken Kesey, who wrote it, lived here in Oregon. At least part of his inspiration for the novel was the State Hospital located here in Salem, Oregon, where I live, and the play version is being done for the first time in over 30 years.

I envy you the experience of seeing the marvelous Gary Sinese as McMurphy. And Will Samson's son! - wow, what a cast.

The movie version was filmed here in Salem. Very recently, within the last year, the building where most of it took place was torn down. But pieces of it, window frames, pieces of walls, are being kept for the State Hospital museum.

Even though much of the story was an indictment about the conditions in mental hospitals of that era - late '50's into the '60's, I guess enough time has passed now, conditions have improved enough, that the hospital is now proud to be part of "Cuckoo's" history. They'll be providing a display of artifacts in the lobby during the run of the show.

And Kesey's nephew contacted the theatre, he has tickets to see the show - Hope to meet him.

Responding to more of your post - I was born in Oklahoma! I hadn't thought of Bartlesville in ages before reading your post.

I'm proud to say that I have sufficient Cherokee blood that a cousin of mine, Ron Mitchell, has become a very prominent Native American graphic artist.

Because of the American Native connection, and because I love "Cuckoo's Nest" - (I played Billy Bibbit in a stage production many years ago!) - I wanted to work on this production. Having Gary's new American Native flute available to me for the sound made it work out really nicely. Really for the first time I had the opportunity to explore this haunting, primitive, Pentatonic music which was the sound my ancestors knew so well.

I used all the keyswitches in the sound plot - you can hear the flutter tongue in the sample I posted, and I used the pitch bend scooping keyswitches now and then, and of course the breath sound control. There's a lot we can do with these samples to make them come alive.

Glad you found my track inspiring!

Randy

[Michael135]

This flute is quite impressive. The vibrato felt a little odd to me, but I think that's mostly just because I'm a classical flautist, and we in general never play vibrato quite as heavily as that. Very very impressive indeed... I think this would fool almost any non flautist out there into thinking it's the real thing. If the rest of the library is as good (or hopefully, even better ;)) as this, I can say that I will definitely be buying it.

[rbowser-]

This flute is quite impressive. The vibrato felt a little odd to me, but I think that's mostly just because I'm a classical flautist, and we in general never play vibrato quite as heavily as that. Very very impressive indeed... I think this would fool almost any non flautist out there into thinking it's the real thing. If the rest of the library is as good (or hopefully, even better ;)) as this, I can say that I will definitely be buying it.
Hello again, Michael

It was a very satisfying challenge, to emulate the American Native flute stylings of Carlos Nakai in these "Cuckoo's Nest" tracks. This called for a lot of editing work in the Piano Roll View of Sonar, working with the keyswitches and continuous controllers, and the insertion of "ghost notes."

I understand what you're saying about the amount of vibrato in the opening part of the track I posted. It is really intense!-- But it's characteristic of how Nakai and other American Native flutists play their instruments.

This is interesting - Here are the first seconds of a Nakai recording which was what I based the opening of my track on:

NAKAI FLUTE VIBRATO (http://www.box.net/shared/static/i76f3ru0as.mp3)

How about that! - That's a low rez recording, but you can hear the vibrato I emulated in my recording.

Randy

[rbowser-]

I've finished writing a long document, an introduction to working with SFZ. I'll start a new thread with that, and hope other people contribute SFZ information to it so the whole Garritan community can have a chance to learn more.

See you all at the new thread.

Randy

[Heckler]

A while back I purchased Extreme sample converter...
It works wonders for converting old .gig files and sfz files to other major formats.
I basically just use it to convert soundfonts to kontakt.
It's a tad pricey at 75 euros, but it was really worthit for me.

[rbowser-]

A while back I purchased Extreme sample converter...
It works wonders for converting old .gig files and sfz files to other major formats.
I basically just use it to convert soundfonts to kontakt.
It's a tad pricey at 75 euros, but it was really worthit for me.
Nice! Thanks for the info, Heckler, I'd never been to the Extreme Sample Converter site (http://www.extranslator.com/index.php?page=exsc) before. Impressive looking program, and appealing to those of us who really don't want to get bogged down in programming.

I see that one of the formats this program can generate is SFZ, so the results could played in Aria.

Randy

[Heckler]

Nice! Thanks for the info, Heckler, I'd never been to the Extreme Sample Converter site (http://www.extranslator.com/index.php?page=exsc) before. Impressive looking program, and appealing to those of us who really don't want to get bogged down in programming.

I see that one of the formats this program can generate is SFZ, so the results could played in Aria.

Randy

Yes, It is in fact very impressive... It has a manual vst converter too..It works in a recording manner..So lets say you have EZdrummer or Realguitar, You can 'record' and convert them to SFZ, nki, gig or even Sf2 and Halion for that matter. Dunno if it is legal though...I guess the only illegal thing regarding that is converting and uploading it....which is a very stupid thing to do. lol.

[rbowser-]

Marce, Chad and I have been working together this morning on Marce's thread with his neat Recorder SFZ for Aria.

I'm boosting this thread of mine to remind people they can also get the free Kalimba Aria instrument I posted. According to the auto-emails I get from Box where it's located - only two people have downloaded it.

So, go get the Kalimba - it's very easy - just grab the file, unzip it where it makes sense to you, and use Import in Aria to open it and play it. And the same for Marce's nice Recorder.

Get yer free Aria sounds--Step right up!

Randy

[englishgent]

That's great, Randy, thanks! Even I managed to get it to work no problem!

Regards
Been-away-too-long Owen

[rbowser-]

Great to see you here, Owen - And glad my little Kalimba works for you!

Randy

[Lars Nova]

I'm new at this, but I can't import the Kalimba samples into my ARIA player. It is v. 1.091 and came with the GPO4 that I bought for use in Sibelius. When I try to import the files the box says,"Aria Import - File type (wav) not recognized." Any suggestions? Will my version of ARIA player not import these soundsets like 'Kalimba', 'Kitchen Sink', & 'Recorder'?

Thanks a million, Lars XYZ

[rbowser-]

I'm new at this, but I can't import the Kalimba samples into my ARIA player. It is v. 1.091 and came with the GPO4 that I bought for use in Sibelius. When I try to import the files the box says,"Aria Import - File type (wav) not recognized." Any suggestions? Will my version of ARIA player not import these soundsets like 'Kalimba', 'Kitchen Sink', & 'Recorder'?

Thanks a million, Lars XYZ
Hi, Lars - Your post made me rush to see if everything was OK--It is. So let's try to figure out the problem you're having.

The Aria Player is actually on version 1.02. Then there's the Aria Engine which is on 1.098. It looks like you're one upgrade behind.

But that shouldn't effect importing an SFZ instrument.

You're clicking the "Import" option, right? It sounds like you are since you used the word Import. Just make sure you're using that second option in the menu that pops up when you click on a slot in Aria - the first option is "Empty"--to clear something you may have loaded, and the second option is Import.

Aria has to recognize .wav file types. That's what the Garritan instruments are.

Since there should be no issues, if you're doing the loading as I've described here, then there's something scrambled in your Aria installation, I'm sorry to say. The first thing to do in that case would be to delete it from your computer, and re-installing it.

Randy