Free samples, sample-players, and where to find them

[Shane Sanders]

Sample Squad is giving away a nice Guiro/Woodblock set. I hope you enjoy it.

edit: The free period has ended.

[Debutante]

http://voxxlab.org/page.php?menu=&id=79&category=94

[frankiben123]

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

Somebody seems to need this information every five minutes so a very kind moderator made it a sticky.

Free VSTi SoundFont(sf2)/sfz player (Windows):

• sfz - Single-core version (http://www.cakewalk.com/support/project5/sfz.aspx)
• sfz - Dual-core/Multi-core/hyperthreading version (somewhat buggy) (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?bmm0dcw1hzi)
  
  sfz is the only free SoundFont player (other than the one below) which accurately plays SoundFonts and uses the internal loop/ADSR characteristics. Its CPU usage in draft mode (still very good quality) is quite low. Turn 'effects' off for even better CPU usage.

Free VSTi Gigasampler/SoundFont player (Windows):

• VSTSynthfont (http://www.synthfont.com/)
  
  Synthfont is more advanced than sfz and can handle one soundbank to every MIDI channel, but has almost double the CPU usage. However, it plays GigaStudio files.

A variety of other sample players are available here, - some wav, some soundfont - be aware that the other soundfont players are either incompatible with a wide variety of sf2's, buggy, or do not implement internal ADSR or looping (tested).


Free soundbank convertor:

• Chicken System's Translator Free (http://www.chickensys.com/downloads/translator_free.php)
  
  Has some limitations, but can convert soundbanks from one format to another seamlessly.
  Often a good way to utilise free Gigastudio/Kontakt files is to translate them to rgc:audio's sfz format, then use the sfz VSTi above to play them. Low CPU usage, and free.

Free SoundFonts(sf2):

• sf2midi (http://www.sf2midi.com)
  
  Sf2midi is often the fastest way to find the kind of SoundFont you're looking for, requires free, painless registration.

There are, of course, an absolute ton of other sample sites out there on the net, as detailed in many, many other threads, for example here (SoundFonts only), and here (samples in general).


Realtime Midi manipulation VST's
I have personally found Tobybear's Midibag (http://www.tobybear.de/p_midibag.html) VST plugins to be absolutely life-saving for MIDI-manipulation. The humanisator, in particular, comes in handy.
Another one is NiallM's ndcMIDI Pack (http://www.niallmoody.com/ndcplugs/ndcmidi.htm).

Cheers,
M@

3
wow nice post there...thanks..

[Shamanix]

http://www.buzzchurch.com/viewtopic.php?t=3728

68.1 megs (ziped) of single cycle waveform goodness , linked by me on another forum, just too lazy to rewrite it here

[VSTJuNkiE]

http://www.buzzchurch.com/viewtopic.php?t=3728

68.1 megs (ziped) of single cycle waveform goodness , linked by me on another forum, just too lazy to rewrite it here

Thx for tha headz up Shamanix Never have a nuff' waveforms

[505]

I'm giving my (quite many and continuosly updated) samples away @http://www.synthesizers.se. I hope you enjoy them.

[keyman_sam]

Is there any sampler out there (or converter) that will CORRECTLY translate gigastudio 3 instrument files? I know Kontakt can import gig files (as well as other samplers), but many parameters are missing. I'm building a wonderful piano sound in GS3 right now, and I love having individual control of filters, envelopes, volume and tuning for EACH sample. This allows me to precisely voice each piano note to my taste. I think Kontakt is no good for this since everything in Kontakt is based on groups, and it offers little individual control over all those parameters for each sample used. I have to have seperate settings for all velocity layers and releases.

What I really want is the Giga Virtual Instrument VSTi to become open source, or at least it should be made available to developers for a nominal fee. I've yet to find a sampler out there that offers so much control over the individual samples. For doing group edits and special programming, Kontakt is great. But for my pianos, I need a lot of control for voicing.

Any thoughts?!?!?

Unbelievable that no one has responded to this query. I present to you the linuxSampler which can natively read GS3 files

www.linuxSampler.org

This is what I use for all my gigastudio libraries in vista and reaper.

[DarkSideoftheTune]

http://www.darksideofthetune.com/free_d ... /index.php

[thecontrolcentre]

SAMPLES
www.signaltonoize.com/
http://machines.hyperreal.org/
www.thecontrolcentre.com/samples
http://samples.kb6.de/downloads.php

SAMPLE PLAYER
http://www.yellowtools.us/cp21/cms/inde ... ownews=593

[hollowsun]

... there's a difference between being cautious and being stupid. Most SF2's are user-made. Very few are rips.

Sorry, I think you're being a little naive there.

I find my stuff in SoundFonts quite a lot. The SF2MIDI site was awash with them at one point with commercial libraries from major developers converted to SF and available there for all to get for free. The mods were contacted, the offending stuff removed and there was outcry, especially from those who did the conversions saying "I did all the conversion work - I can make them available if I want". Errrmmmm ... no you can't!

Admittedly, some (maybe a lot) of this is done in all innocence by kids who simply don't understand IP and copyright and cannot see any harm in it. They believe they are being nice people for "sharing" without realsiing the long term impact their actions can have...

A friend of mine (a respected developer) ploughed around $50,000 into a new library. I worked on it. A year's work, hiring venues, hiring musicians, hiring equipment, hiring editors and programmers and testers and graphic designers, etc.. It was released and initially did well for a short while and then it all stopped - sales dried up...

Someone had converted it to a SoundFont and put it up on a dodgy website for all to get. Nearly cost him his business, his house and his marriage!

Now, I don't know if this was a malicious action by some nutjob trying to 'stick it to the man' (because so many people think sound lib developers are vile capitalists driving round in Ferraris at our Caribbean holiday home) or some naive 14-year-old just being nice but either way, it nearly lost the industry a talented developer.

I am sure many SFs ARE homemade but...

When you see Steinway SoundFonts ... or choir or orchestral or brass section, whatever, SoundFonts available for free download on a website, you HAVE to question the provenance of the samples used because most SF creators giving away their work for free just cannot afford to record a Steinway or a choir or a string section or a brass section and then just give it away for nothing. Those samples almost certainly have to be someone else's IP be they samples sampled from, say, a Roland Fantom or a Korg Triton or a commercial library.

Of course there ARE people who sample their household piano and of course there are people who have old Prophet 5s or a MiniMoog or guitars or Rhodes or whatever who DO create and make available their homemade SoundFonts altruistically but it's wrong (or at least naive) to say "Very few are rips" because they are. I speak from experience. Just this evening I visited SF2MIDI after looking at this thread and I stumbled on something I am pretty sure is one of mine. That site is so populated with other SFs, who knows how many IP contraventions are lurking in there


Steve

[wikter]

Hollowsun had some years ago a free vintage machines sample library, nowadays it's not available for free, but it was around 450Mb multisampled akp patches... well maybe some akp were created by me, can't remember.

[DarkSideoftheTune]

I agree it isn't cheap to make sample libraries. I am an owner of one myself. If its questionable material why do it? There are great soundware companies out there and many people like you who work on them. Its basically like stealing from your own family. I personally don't see the reason behind vast libraries anyway thats why mine are smaller and more focused. Check out our free sample pack!
http://www.darksideofthetune.com/free_d ... /index.php
http://www.myspace.com/beatfreq

[hollowsun]

Hollowsun had some years ago a free vintage machines sample library, nowadays it's not available for free, but it was around 450Mb multisampled akp patches... well maybe some akp were created by me, can't remember.

Yeah. S'ok ... water under the bridge and all that.

But back then, there were people converting it to SoundFont and making it available. Which was fair enough at the time I suppose but when I withdrew it (as was my right) they continued.

I know it's tricky and a real grey area but just because something is free in one format, it does not give anyone the right to re-distribute it in another format. The author may only want it available in one specific format for whatever reason. In my case, at the time, it was to support sales of the Akai S5/6000 ... I didn't want every Tom, Dick and Harry with a SoundBlaster to have it - it was for people who bought the Akai S5/6000.

Perhaps the worst thing around that time was people actually taking those freebies of mine and selling them as their own on eBay. Some naive 14-year-old with no knowledge of IP and copyright converting them to SoundFont thinking they're being a nice kid for 'sharing' is one thing; cynically ignoring IP and copyright, taking my freebies and selling them for £20, £30, £40 (whatever) on eBay is another (actually, maybe even worse than that was that eBay couldn't give a sh!t ... but that's another story!)

But that was then and this is now. It's a major overhead for a developer to be constantly on the lookout for infringements and it distracts us from developing new products ... which is why the major manufacturers and developers have whole departments dedicated to this ... which has to paid for and the legitimate customer bears the brunt with added costs, draconian copy protection, etc.!

But my point is that you cannot just suppose or assume that SoundFonts which are apparently - or claimed to be - (ahem) 'legal' are actually 'clean'. There ARE lots of extremely dodgy ones out there, believe me!



Steve

[alphabetgreen]

... there's a difference between being cautious and being stupid. Most SF2's are user-made. Very few are rips.

Sorry, I think you're being a little naive there.

I find my stuff in SoundFonts quite a lot. The SF2MIDI site was awash with them at one point with commercial libraries from major developers converted to SF and available there for all to get for free. The mods were contacted, the offending stuff removed and there was outcry, especially from those who did the conversions saying "I did all the conversion work - I can make them available if I want". Errrmmmm ... no you can't!

Admittedly, some (maybe a lot) of this is done in all innocence by kids who simply don't understand IP and copyright and cannot see any harm in it. They believe they are being nice people for "sharing" without realsiing the long term impact their actions can have...

A friend of mine (a respected developer) ploughed around $50,000 into a new library. I worked on it. A year's work, hiring venues, hiring musicians, hiring equipment, hiring editors and programmers and testers and graphic designers, etc.. It was released and initially did well for a short while and then it all stopped - sales dried up...

Someone had converted it to a SoundFont and put it up on a dodgy website for all to get. Nearly cost him his business, his house and his marriage!

Now, I don't know if this was a malicious action by some nutjob trying to 'stick it to the man' (because so many people think sound lib developers are vile capitalists driving round in Ferraris at our Caribbean holiday home) or some naive 14-year-old just being nice but either way, it nearly lost the industry a talented developer.

I am sure many SFs ARE homemade but...

When you see Steinway SoundFonts ... or choir or orchestral or brass section, whatever, SoundFonts available for free download on a website, you HAVE to question the provenance of the samples used because most SF creators giving away their work for free just cannot afford to record a Steinway or a choir or a string section or a brass section and then just give it away for nothing. Those samples almost certainly have to be someone else's IP be they samples sampled from, say, a Roland Fantom or a Korg Triton or a commercial library.

Of course there ARE people who sample their household piano and of course there are people who have old Prophet 5s or a MiniMoog or guitars or Rhodes or whatever who DO create and make available their homemade SoundFonts altruistically but it's wrong (or at least naive) to say "Very few are rips" because they are. I speak from experience. Just this evening I visited SF2MIDI after looking at this thread and I stumbled on something I am pretty sure is one of mine. That site is so populated with other SFs, who knows how many IP contraventions are lurking in there


Steve

Good post. It's almost unbelievable, the amount of money involved creating library collections of acoustic instruments. Piracy should be stamped on at all costs.

[core]

Various loops and samples available here: http://rekkerd.org/loops

I hope you'll enjoy them!