23 Jul
2008
23 Jul
'08
12:41 p.m.
gordonjcp(a)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