Performance for 64 bit hardware?

[ccherrett]

Alex,

Very helpful! Thanks!

dahnielson,

I started to write some music. Then I grew frustrated with the programming of my strings and started reprogram them. Then I grew frustrated with the limitations of programming GIGs and started implementing SFZ...

SFZ? can you elaborate on the limitations?

[dahnielson]

Alex,

Very helpful! Thanks!

dahnielson,

I started to write some music. Then I grew frustrated with the programming of my strings and started reprogram them. Then I grew frustrated with the limitations of programming GIGs and started implementing SFZ...

SFZ? can you elaborate on the limitations?

Oh, there's a lot to say.

You can only crossfade between two layers. So it's either a vibrato fade or a dynamics fade. Here's an example on how you can get around it, but I want to do it directly in an instrument and not with a band-aid solution:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=180

There's plenty that GIG can't do that SFZ can, and it can do a lot of what Kontakt can. My long term plan is to try convert Kirk Hunters stuff from Kontakt to SFZ. Kirk Hunter have e.g. very expressive and playable strings and blend together several layers of samples, like separate attack samples added to sustain samples so you can control the attack separately from vibrato.

Here's the topic about SFZ:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=186

SFZ have built-in support for legato transitions etc. It's not a monolithic format, so you don't have to worry about big files and samples can be shared between an unlimited number of instruments. It's possible for the community to convert commercial libraries (Kontakt and EXS) and share them as you only have to share the instrument definition and not the actual samples (similar to NKI and EXS files). And the SFZ instruments are just text files so you can write scripts to generate/rebuild them when you come up with a new idea how to program an instrument. Which is nice if you're building big instruments with both different attack samples, sustain samples in different dynamics and vibratos, release samples, legato transition samples and what not.

[ccherrett]

I take it a switch from Giga format to SFZ would kill my VSL setup. Not that I have any issues with the VSL setup. They have done a fantastic job of their library.

[dahnielson]

I take it a switch from Giga format to SFZ would kill my VSL setup. Not that I have any issues with the VSL setup. They have done a fantastic job of their library.

Yes, if you happy with the setup then there's no point in switching. But with SFZ there's no need for a performance tool, it can all be done in the instrument and be more flexible.

[ccherrett]

The way VSL did the legatos was to sample the transition notes for all possible combinations within an octave of your current keystroke and remaps the midi realtime to create the transition. It makes for the most authentic legatos around. It would be cool if the performance tool was not needed. I will look more into it.

[dahnielson]

The way VSL did the legatos was to sample the transition notes for all possible combinations within an octave of your current keystroke and remaps the midi realtime to create the transition. It makes for the most authentic legatos around. It would be cool if the performance tool was not needed. I will look more into it.

Yes, that's doable directly in SFZ without any scripting (see what I mean, not even Kontakt can do that) and one reason for my peaked SFZ development.

[ccherrett]

hmm it would be worth looking into converting once performance instrument from VSL.

[Eddy G]

Meanwhile my SSD crashed under Suse 11.0.
I'm awaiting a replacement SSD promised to me...

So no benchmarks for the SSD yet.

Good luck,
Eddy

[dahnielson]

Ouch. That is sad.