sfizz : An Open-source SFZ Engine/Player in development

[alcomposer]

Having watched sfizz, and contributed to the discussion, here are some of my thoughts:

First, more SFZ players = more SFZ players. Which is better for the ecosystem, and creates choice for users, and sample lib creators.

Sfizz itself is licensed under BSDc2. Which means that not only is the project open source, but also it can be used in a proprietary plug.

sfizz is more SFZ, and can make more SFZ players. There are already other projects using sfizz as a sample engine.

Sfizz is inspired heavily by cakewalk. And will have an effects graph. While being controversial, effects in synths/samplers can not only be time saving, but it is possible to place specific effects per voice. Which means if one were to place the effect inline as a plugin, it would have a completely different influence.

SFZ has always been a loose implementation specific standard.

It is hard to find any two SFZ samplers that claim to be the same version, and sound/behave similar. I do hope that V3 is able to clear things up. To that end sfizz, being possible to use in proprietary projects for free, heavily researched and open to community discussions could serve as a reference SFZ implementation.

What has been found is that due to the complexity of opcode design, and interaction with other opcodes, documentation of opcodes (for development) is almost nonexistent.

Saying that, sfizz can provide a playground for developers to test opcode ideas, discuss and improve the standard.

Sfizz strives to not only make a SFZ sample player, but to allow easy creation and experimentation with SFZ scripts.

With a little bit of SFZ research, (www.sfzformat.com is a great place to start) one can assemble almost any sound one dreams up. With full CC/Automation support.

Personally I'm very excited about how sfizz is developing.

[alcomposer]

Having watched sfizz, and contributed to the discussion, here are some of my thoughts:

First, more SFZ players = more SFZ players. Which is better for the ecosystem, and creates choice for users, and sample lib creators.

Sfizz itself is licensed under BSDc2. Which means that not only is the project open source, but also it can be used in a proprietary plugin.

sfizz is more SFZ, and can make more SFZ players. There are already other projects using sfizz as a sample engine.

Sfizz is inspired heavily by cakewalk. And will have an effects graph. While being controversial, effects in synths/samplers can not only be time saving, but it is possible to place specific effects per voice. Which means if one were to place the effect inline as a plugin, it would have a completely different influence. Per voice effects are able to be controlled via FlexEG, hence can become part of the instrument character. René of RGC Audio (the inventor of SFZ) is a supporter of effects in samplers for this exact reason.

Effects would normally contribute a huge burden to development, however sfizz uses Faust extensively for effects, hence reducing the development time by an order of magnitude, and also allowing experimentation, discussion and testing to be trivial.

SFZ has always been a loose implementation specific standard.

It is hard to find any two SFZ samplers that claim to be the same version, and sound/behave similar. I do hope that V3 is able to clear things up. To that end sfizz, being possible to use in proprietary projects for free, heavily researched and open to community discussions could serve as a reference SFZ implementation.

What has been found is that due to the complexity of opcode design, and interaction with other opcodes, documentation of opcodes (for development) is almost nonexistent.

Saying that, sfizz can provide a playground for developers to test opcode ideas, discuss and improve the standard.

Sfizz strives to not only make a SFZ sample player, but to allow easy creation and experimentation with SFZ scripts.

With a little bit of SFZ research, (www.sfzformat.com is a great place to start) one can assemble almost any sound one dreams up. With full CC/Automation support.

For anyone interested in creating their own synths / instruments SFZ is a great choice. sfizz works perfectly as a DAW plugin, yet also allows similar sound creation tools as CSound, Supercolider.

A synth with 20 sine oscillators would take no time to create, with full CC control, effects etc.

Personally I'm very excited about how sfizz is developing. And look forward to the discussions that it can facilitate in the sample / synth community.

[FriskyRingo]

Looks really cool. The dev notes are an interesting read

[sambaji]

Great news about Sfizz! I am a strong supporter of open-source software/formats.

[kinwie]

Sfizz is now version 1.0
https://github.com/sfztools/sfizz/releases/tag/1.0.0

[MTorn]

Sfizz is now version 1.0
https://github.com/sfztools/sfizz/releases/tag/1.0.0

I'm contemplating migrating my whole sample library to the SFZ format, so this is very exciting to me!
I've hesitated doing this massive undertaking with Sforzando being the only real option for reading them.

However, I'm afraid that I don't have any programming skills (other than SFZ), and have no idea how to compile anything. Being that Sfizz a 1.0 release, do you still need to perform under-the-hood magic to be able to run it, or is there a ready-to-run VST and AU (preferably, since I use Logic on a Mac) version hidden somewhere?

Thanks to the programmers for helping to keep the format alive and moving into the future. If there was a future mid-priced (maybe $50-75) paid version coming up, perhaps with a built-in specialized code editor, I'd be happy to buy it.

[DSmolken]

Sfizz is now version 1.0
https://github.com/sfztools/sfizz/releases/tag/1.0.0

This is a huge milestone. And in time for people to possibly use this as the platform for their KVRDC entries.

[JeffLearman]

Sfizz is now version 1.0
https://github.com/sfztools/sfizz/releases/tag/1.0.0

...
However, I'm afraid that I don't have any programming skills (other than SFZ), and have no idea how to compile anything. Being that Sfizz a 1.0 release, do you still need to perform under-the-hood magic to be able to run it, or is there a ready-to-run VST and AU (preferably, since I use Logic on a Mac) version hidden somewhere?
...

Follow Kinwie's link above and scroll down to "Assets" and you'll see sfizz-1.0.0-macos.dmg, which is probably what you're looking for. According to the README on the sfizz github project page, they support AU/LV2/VST3.

[melomood]

*stops grazing for a sec to read about this thing*

[ghettosynth]

Sfizz itself is licensed under BSDc2. Which means that not only is the project open source, but also it can be used in a proprietary plug.

^this. All serious music tools licensed under permissive open source licenses are welcome and should be encouraged.

[MTorn]

Follow Kinwie's link above and scroll down to "Assets" and you'll see sfizz-1.0.0-macos.dmg, which is probably what you're looking for. According to the README on the sfizz github project page, they support AU/LV2/VST3.

Yes, there it is! Thank you so much - I had totally overlooked that part of the page.
The plugins are unsigned, so on a Mac, Catalina and onwards will put up a fuss, but managed to get them accepted. I'm using the AU in Logic Pro right now on some of my homemade SFZ files, and they are running beautifully (with a couple of glitches). The plugin feels quite tidy and professional.

I'm starting a list of improvements and concerns, but I'm guessing that this isn't the best place to discuss that kind of thing? (or is it?)

[limeopolis]

Just saw that it could load DecentSampler files as well, might check it out. I like keeping the clutter to a minimum best I can.

[JeffLearman]

I'm starting a list of improvements and concerns, but I'm guessing that this isn't the best place to discuss that kind of thing? (or is it?)

If you sign up for a free GitHub account, you can file issues at the sfizz GitHub page (which you can find from the same link above.) There's also a discussions page there, though it's not very active.

I'll leave it to the sfizz folks to say whether to discuss things here. Frankly, KVR is a great forum for this kind of discussion. For example, for some issues it would help to have input from folks who don't use sfizz but use similar applications.

[MTorn]

If you sign up for a free GitHub account, you can file issues at the sfizz GitHub page (which you can find from the same link above.) There's also a discussions page there, though it's not very active.

I'll leave it to the sfizz folks to say whether to discuss things here. Frankly, KVR is a great forum for this kind of discussion. For example, for some issues it would help to have input from folks who don't use sfizz but use similar applications.

I signed up for their Discord channel, and have been reading up on the discussions about the development. There's still a lot of exciting improvements in the works!

I haven't posted any feedback yet. Being a non-programmer, I feel a little like an impostor there!

[kinwie]

I'm starting a list of improvements and concerns, but I'm guessing that this isn't the best place to discuss that kind of thing? (or is it?)

You can do any discussion regarding sfizz here of course. And better, also if anybody else interested chimed in. You can do that also in sfizz issue tracker and yes, the best place is the discord channel afaik