Free Sample Libraries that urgently need .SFZ mapping

[kinwie]

Headroom Piano by Bengt Nilsson
Yamaha C3 Grand Piano :
https://github.com/sfzinstruments/Bengt ... droomPiano

Originally in Kontakt nki format
Two mic positions
5 velocity layers
300 samples
Wav size 875 MB, converted to flac 156 MB

*Edit
You can peek the used MIDI CC number by clicking the 'blue box' (Open in Text Editor) in sforzando's Info page because I didn't label the numbers to the Controls page.

Here is the sample author webpage for this piano, for more info :
http://www.bengtnilsson.com/samplelibraries.html

[JeffLearman]

Thanks! That's a really fun piano to play, and appropriately named. The dynamics kick ass. It's the first digital piano I've played that really works correctly for the piano part to Tubular Bells, where a few of the highest notes are played FF or FFF and really ring out. Plus it's really cool the way we can change the sound of the piano using the controls.

I didn't realize earlier that the two mics were both stereo mics, so we have a close stereo mic and a room stereo mic, for a complex sound that you can easily tailor to your needs. Were I playing this live, I'd probably kill the room mic (too much ambience doesn't work well with a loud blues band!) But for recordings or solos the room mic is great.

BTW, in region.txt I changed ampeg_release opcodes to "ampeg_release=20" and now the undamped notes work correctly. I also mapped around C4, which just sounds bad on the piano, especially in the close mic. It sounds way better without the C4 samples, and the extra stretch on the adjacent notes is hardly noticeable -- it's a really even/smooth sampling job plus an otherwise well-regulated piano.

[enroe]

I also think version B is better.

Why? Because this arrangement is the same as you find in
many equalizers. It's more the "usual" arrangement.

[kinwie]

I also think version B is better.

Why? Because this arrangement is the same as you find in
many equalizers. It's more the "usual" arrangement.

Yes, thank you Enroe. Version B is used

[kinwie]

Thanks! That's a really fun piano to play, and appropriately named. The dynamics kick ass. It's the first digital piano I've played that really works correctly for the piano part to Tubular Bells, where a few of the highest notes are played FF or FFF and really ring out. Plus it's really cool the way we can change the sound of the piano using the controls.

Nice! All the controls are made matching its original kontakt version. Only the Velocity Curve feature that we can't yet achieved in sfz because it's using Script and involve gui controls

I didn't realize earlier that the two mics were both stereo mics, so we have a close stereo mic and a room stereo mic, for a complex sound that you can easily tailor to your needs. Were I playing this live, I'd probably kill the room mic (too much ambience doesn't work well with a loud blues band!) But for recordings or solos the room mic is great.

Yeah, that's also the reason I lowered the Decca Tree volume to 50% (-12dB) as initial load state to have more Close mic sound, while the original Kontakt version has the Decca Tree initial volume at full 0 dB. Playing with the combination with the Width and Pan controls can meet many nice sounds also.

BTW, in region.txt I changed ampeg_release opcodes to "ampeg_release=20" and now the undamped notes work correctly. I also mapped around C4, which just sounds bad on the piano, especially in the close mic. It sounds way better without the C4 samples, and the extra stretch on the adjacent notes is hardly noticeable -- it's a really even/smooth sampling job plus an otherwise well-regulated piano.

Yeah you can do that. That's why you can super-easily change things in the sfz version
The original kontakt version didn't have the Undampened-highnotes, so I add that, but with initial load state follow the kontakt version.
You can just press the sforzando's Left pedal (cc67) to turn it on and off. And this control is reversed. No-press = dampened. Pressed = undampened
There are two easier other workarounds to have the initial Undampened
1. Change the set_hdcc$DAMPER=0 ...to... 0.01 under <control>
2. Change the curve (index=7) to : v000=1 v001=0 v127=0

Change anything in the text files to meet your need, that's the beauty of open sfz format. Thanks for the feedback and enjoy the piano, Jeff
I'll post another piano again LOL

[kinwie]

@Kazi7
Btw, lockdown time is almost finish.
Next Monday will get back to office work and normal life again.
But I'll made those sfz mappings whenever I can.
Have them downloaded already in my harddrive.

[JeffLearman]

Yeah, that's also the reason I lowered the Decca Tree volume to 50% (-12dB) as initial load state to have more Close mic sound, while the original Kontakt version has the Decca Tree initial volume at full 0 dB. Playing with the combination with the Width and Pan controls can meet many nice sounds also.

Excellent choice; 100% + 50% is what I like best for general playing.

You can just press the sforzando's Left pedal (cc67) to turn it on and off. And this control is reversed. No-press = dampened. Pressed = undampened
There are two easier other workarounds to have the initial Undampened
1. Change the set_hdcc$DAMPER=0 ...to... 0.01 under <control>
2. Change the curve (index=7) to : v000=1 v001=0 v127=0

Aha, thanks. I have two suggestions:
1) make the default undamped like a real piano. I think that's what people want, when they download a piano: a piano, not an exact as possible copy of some previous sample set.
2) Document the damped/undamped in the readme. You have a statement, but it's not clear what it means or what to do.

[kinwie]

Aha, thanks. I have two suggestions:
1) make the default undamped like a real piano. I think that's what people want, when they download a piano: a piano, not an exact as possible copy of some previous sample set.

As a blues pianist, your suggestion must be good! I also ask a friend, a pianist, she also prefer the undampened mode. So I've made an update and change the initial load to Undampened and reverse the CC value. Now, unpress=undampened, press=dampened

2) Document the damped/undamped in the readme. You have a statement, but it's not clear what it means or what to do.

So, I just learn how to edit the git things. And I've update the readme also.
It's a great idea, so thanks for the suggestions!

[JeffLearman]

Note that I never said I was a good blues pianist.

A toast to editing all the git things!

Thanks again for your extremely valuable contributions.

[Obsolete462444]

@Kazi7
Btw, lockdown time is almost finish.
Next Monday will get back to office work and normal life again.
But I'll made those sfz mappings whenever I can.
Have them downloaded already in my harddrive.

@kinwie
Thank you for all the work you made in the recent weeks, in fact months. Without your contribution this project would have never gone anywhere. Our SFZ Instruments GitHub has turned into a great reference and repository and it will be of great value for the music making community due to your efforts.

Thanks also particularly to @DSmolken and @redtide for the logistic support with the GitHub repos and the great advice you gave.

I'm convinced we will maintain and improve the GitHub, of course at a slower pace now that many of us get back to regular business.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the Pianobook mappings on their corresponding instrument's pages, but there were some issues (other people who tried to submit their libraries or mappings to Pianobook reported similar problems). But I'm sure that that will be sorted. I'll definitely get back to it.

[kinwie]

Yeah, we should thanks to DSmolken and redtide and the Discord.
And also thanks to the samples authors : Mats, Greg, DrumGizmo, Bengt, etc.
And of course thanks to you also Kazi7, for starting the idea
And more to come...

[kinwie]

Note that I never said I was a good blues pianist.

A toast to editing all the git things!

Thanks again for your extremely valuable contributions.

I only said a blues pianist, the 'good' word came later. Btw, do you need a guitarist?
Okay...toast!

[kinwie]

Updated Headroom Piano :
https://github.com/sfzinstruments/Bengt ... droomPiano

[kinwie]

Updated Maestro Concert Grand Piano :
https://github.com/sfzinstruments/MatsH ... GrandPiano

Thanks to JeffLearman for reporting the issue, due to the use of CC133 that's not yet working properly for poly-instruments in current version of sforzando.

[DSmolken]

It's not so much that it's not yet working. It's that CC 133 is MIDI note number, but might be the note number of some other note, because a CC is the same across the whole instrument at any given moment. I know, I know, I need to document that, and explain it clearly - also what it might mean for controllable keytracking and velocity tracking.