"THE KITCHEN SINK" - a free percussion library for Aria!

**rbowser-** · 07-15-2010, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by FLWrd

I was reminded of freesound because of the sound packs and the high quality and good work there. But I haven't been able to find out if you could upload your sfz files there too.

I know there are sites that publish sfz packs, but usually the quality varies so much. I'll take a look again when I get home.

Freesound really is a great site, but as far as I can see, when people post multi-samples of a sound or instrument, it's the raw data. That would be something at least, but really makes the samples much less practical to use.

If there are sites with SFZs posted, I'd go for that. As with any user-generated data, I'm sure the quality varies a lot. Fine with me! It'd be fun for a broader audience to find this stuff I've put together. Thanks for the idea, FLWrd.

Randy

**marce** · 07-15-2010, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by rbowser-

Freesound really is a great site, but as far as I can see, when people post multi-samples of a sound or instrument, it's the raw data. That would be something at least, but really makes the samples much less practical to use.

If there are sites with SFZs posted, I'd go for that. As with any user-generated data, I'm sure the quality varies a lot. Fine with me! It'd be fun for a broader audience to find this stuff I've put together. Thanks for the idea, FLWrd.

Randy

It would be cool be able to store them in some place as a .zip file. But, the interesting thing is that being sfz a text file, even you can attach it to the comments the wav files in freesounds.org

**Denzel Parker** · 07-19-2010, 08:33 AM

Great work Randy. It's really interesting. Thanks for posting such an interesting article in this forum. Keep working on this nice kitchen sink.

Denzel Parker

**rbowser-** · 07-19-2010, 09:46 AM

Thanks, Denzel! - Glad you're enjoying my little home-made percussion set. It would be fun to do some more work like this.

Randy

**FLWrd** · 07-19-2010, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by rbowser-

If there are sites with SFZs posted, I'd go for that. As with any user-generated data, I'm sure the quality varies a lot. Fine with me! It'd be fun for a broader audience to find this stuff I've put together.

This is a good site for SF2 files (or: soundfonts, as they are widely known): http://www.sf2midi.com/soundfonts/, and it allows uploading; www.hammersound.net and www.soundfonts.it, also seem to allow it. However, everything seems focussed on sf2 files, and I don't really understand the relation between sf2 and sfz. I get the idea that sfz players can play sf2 files, but not vice versa. Hmm, further research required...

**marce** · 07-19-2010, 01:20 PM

Originally Posted by FLWrd

This is a good site for SF2 files (or: soundfonts, as they are widely known): http://www.sf2midi.com/soundfonts/, and it allows uploading; www.hammersound.net and www.soundfonts.it, also seem to allow it. However, everything seems focussed on sf2 files, and I don't really understand the relation between sf2 and sfz. I get the idea that sfz players can play sf2 files, but not vice versa. Hmm, further research required...

Sampling is really fun, and i enjoy seeing when someone evolves his own project and share when others. I like the way Randy documented what he did, and the info he give us about the real "instrument".
The bad thing about some soundfonts sites is that you cant really know the source of the samples. Hammersound and soundfonts.it are nice ones but not active anymore, afaik. The only working is SF2midi.com. It has lots of samples ripped from differents commercial libraryes. So, when a legit project is put there, well, you really dont know.

**Sonare Coeli** · 07-19-2010, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by FLWrd

I don't really understand the relation between sf2 and sfz. I get the idea that sfz players can play sf2 files, but not vice versa. Hmm, further research required...

Here's the difference:

SFZ files are files that accompany a set of samples, or waveforms. A Sampler will open the SFZ file, which tells it how to use the the waveform samples. So, for example, let's say we have a very basic piano sample set that uses SFZ. You'll have a folder with 88 waveforms (one is a recording of each piano key), and an SFZ file. In your sampler, instead of you having to load in each waveform, map them to the keys, etc, you open the SFZ file, which includes all the information that the sampler needs to load all of the waveforms to the right keys, change their volume levels, define key switches for more complex instruments, etc.

You can think of Soundfonts as simplified Sample Sets - They're meant to be somewhat of a middle ground between samples and MIDI banks. Soundfonts include all of the sample files (they use waveforms as opposed to synthesized sounds) and the header (the part that tells the sampler what to do) all in the same package - a single file. The way the format works is supposed to be lightweight, so this does reduce quality. They're great for use in notation programs as a nice way to upgrade from the basic MIDI bank, and for lightweight computers if true sample sets are beyond system specs.

**fred Holmes** · 07-19-2010, 06:04 PM

I am in AWE with all this stuff. Have to admit I had trouble getting "Hello World" to work in Basic so when I see all this stuff about sfz etc my head just goes into a tailspin.

Anyway - CONTRATULATIONS to all of you for this effort!

Fred

**rbowser-** · 07-21-2010, 11:50 PM

Originally Posted by fred Holmes

I am in AWE with all this stuff. Have to admit I had trouble getting "Hello World" to work in Basic so when I see all this stuff about sfz etc my head just goes into a tailspin.

Anyway - CONTRATULATIONS to all of you for this effort!

Fred

Hiya, Fred - You really gotta trust me on this - I am not a techno kind of guy at all. I learn what I need in order to do what I want to do with a computer. But the ins and outs of programming of most any sort leaves me cross-eyed, bored, and grumpy.

So, imagine my surprise when I took a deep breath, had a look at the SFZ thing, and discovered that in essence it's a very uncomplicated thing. It's great that the Aria Player and Sonar's Dimension and Rapture synths are using SFZ - it's a real break through in making things powerful yet simple enough for end-users to dig in and do something with the technology.

Sound Fonts, very ably explained by Sonare on this thread, are much more complicated since the end result is a single file with all the programming hidden - But SFZ is a step back in simplicity of interface. There's a folder of samples and a text file that controls how they're played. Both can be accessed by the user.

So if there's something bothering you about something in GPO, for instance - with a bit of patience, you can figure out how to re-do the programming.

It's fun stuff - That's the bottom line.

Randy B.