[LAU] What kind of sample(er)s etc for classical music

[Lorenzo]

Dear Josh,

> and had VERY deep pockets, 
>   
Not that deep :)... Also I guess one would have to further invest in the 
samples/plugins.

So to try and summarise (please take this as a completely 'neutral' 
consideration no 'linux, gnu extremist' etc simply trying to clear the 
situation):

Software-wise the only sample technology supported 'natively' in Linux 
is SoundFont and Giga.
The former offering many freebies of different quality and some 
commercial products, the latter possibly offering good better sound and 
performance (?) quality but hoard to find (albeit commercially) due to 
current 'executable plug-in' hype.

Midi-driven hardware is of course 'supported' (be it dedicated sampler, 
windows/mac machine used asmidi  'hardware', keyboard sampl etc.) with 
all the costs and benefits of having an external dedicated piece of 
hardware of course.

Does this depict the picture fairly enough?

This brings to another question:
What is the situazion of the SFZ standard 
(http://www.cakewalk.com/DevXchange/sfz.asp) and the alleged 
collaboration and will to work on this by Garritan 
(http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/04/01/garritan-rescues-giga-sampling-technology-talks-open-standards/)?
Support for sfz in linuxsampler seems to be alive but slow: 
http://bb.linuxsampler.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=186&start=30
And again what support will there be for the format?

Hope I haven't bored anyone :)
Lorenzo