[LAD] Writing a library?

Darren Landrum darren.landrum at sbcglobal.net
Wed Jul 23 14:41:20 UTC 2008


gordonjcp at gjcp.net wrote:
> It's not XML, it's a sort of flat-text-ish thing with various keywords
> for setting keys, keygroups, mutegroups and so on.
> 
> Having briefly skimmed the spec over lunch, I'm not in much of a
> position to say how good it is, but it "looks right".
> 
> Essentially an SFZ file is a text file describing what to do with a
> bunch of .wav or .ogg files.  It's almost worryingly clueful.

It wasn't actually created by Cakewalk, but by a small company that 
Cakewalk had bought, and rather than closing up or quelching SFZ, they 
decided to keep it open. That's the story best as I was able to divine 
it, anyway. And now with the news that Tascam is discontinuing all 
Gigastudio-related development (http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=1738 and 
confirmed on the "Legacy" section of Tascam's web site: 
http://www.tascam.com/legacy;37,7.html) it's possible that SFZ might 
become a new standard for sample libraries to use. Garritan is 
apparently releasing, or getting set to release, their libraries in SFZ now.

My issue now, though, is I clearly do not have the skills to create a 
good, usable library. Nor do I want to; I'd rather spend that time 
creating a working application, even if it's a monolithic one. I'm here 
because I'm broke and scratching my own itch. If I had the money, I'd go 
off and buy NI Komplete and be happy actually making music. It can be 
argued that learning programming and DSP is making me a better person, 
but it certainly isn't making me a happier one.

So now I'm working out a plan for a code framework for making software 
synths and samplers, likely directed graph based. I might release that 
framework separately, but no one will likely get a library out of me. I 
can only do what I can do with the tools I have, and "scratching my own 
itch" comes first.

Maybe someone with those skills would like to jump in and help? I 
realize that code says more on this forum than talk, but surely I can 
try to gather a team together for a larger project. Right? Maybe?

-- Darren Landrum



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