Floe coming from Frozen Plain

[bermudagold]

I was going to post about Floe, but found there is already a thread!

Here's an update on the project. We're gearing up for full release in the next couple of weeks. For now, we have an alpha version just released. It's CLAP only for now but VST3 will be coming in another alpha soon. I wrote a devlog here about the latest changes: https://forum.frozenplain.com/d/137-dev ... march-2025

Give it a try - we'd love to fix any bugs you find.

The goal of project is to offer a sample library engine that's robust, high-quality and 100% free and open source. It's got a very ergonomic Lua API for anyone to create sample libraries (programming required). And we intend to expand Floe's capabilities often.

depends who is your goal end user and their dominant use case...are you going after casual sample based sound designers who want to quickly mock up expressive instruments from one shots,...or people who want to create forensically sampled hyper realistic versions of real world instruments?

for the former you need to be able to do the majors with a GUI without scripting...the majors to me are:
1. robust event trigger engine (one of the most important that most sampler s forget)
a. key mapping/velocity mapping
b. envelope triggering/stealing/muting and voice triggering/stealing/muting options/controls to support legato, portato, hi hat choking etc...all the most desired performance use cases
c. midi noteon delay for temporal waveseuencing
d. midi noteoff trigger for release sounds
e. triggering layers by midi cc(mod wheel, aftertouch, breath controller, expression pedal) for performance wavesequencing...and the ability to create keyswitches
f. Trigger by modulator for wavesequencing between layers
These are major upgrades in musicality over just standard key/velocity splits...and many pcm implementations forget about event trigger engines
2. Fast, flexible envelopes with curves
3. modulatable sample markers
4. Variable power loop crossfades
5. Decent quality time stretch if cost effective unless you have a proprietary algo you been developing...there are open source options as well
6. A harmonic editor...makes creating expressive instruments from one shots easy and fast (overlooked by almost everybody)
7. keep pcm interpolation quality high or at least allow manual setting and offer highest quality for offline rendering...another detail skipped over by many samplers

there is already sforzando, maize, and Hise in this low cost space...kontakt, falcon, and halion at the high end...that's why I asked about target end user...there are way more people who are gonna want to do sound design from layering and wavesequencing one shots than folks who are going to want to sample real world instruments at 10 velocity levels and use scripting to create a realistic facsimiles of said instruments...both are very necessary but they are currently unlikely to use the same tool

[enroe]

Floe's sample library format is a bit like SFZ except you write using the Lua programming language. It's a hugely nicer experience and allows you to make complicated sample library configurations in a manageable way. The sample library development features are all still early days though, but it's usable.
...
I would just say though that Floe is not trying to be a generalist. It's trying to offer a curated, opinionated experience for users: no-hassle, integrated, and standardised. To achieve that it's very helpful to develop the sample library format alongside the plugin. Hence our focus on the Floe sample library format and not others at the moment.
...

Yes, with a new "standard", i.e. a new sample format, it's a
tricky thing:

When you invent a new standard yourself, it's incredibly fulfilling
and exciting as a developer: You can avoid all the mistakes
others have made that have so often annoyed you. You can even
creatively invent your own "very own" logic and notation and use
it as a new format. That's exciting, creative, and fulfilling!

--------- However, it is also somewhat dangerous -------- :

31 new standard 01.png

Whether the "new standard" will actually spread and be adopted
by users is a completely different question. Unfortunately, the
answer is: Mostly not! There have been several other people
who have done exactly the same thing: They have come up with
a new standard. And so, in the past, several "standards" have
proliferated and improved our world — and made it more diverse.

Sure, you probably don't want to set a new "standard," but rather
simply create a new sampler — one with its own format. That
alone is a great and fruitful idea — and will undoubtedly enrich
the world of samples.

However, it's important to keep in mind that when it comes to
sample formats, we quickly start talking about standards. For
many users, it's important to be able to exchange samples
across studios and have a future-proof sample library.

Nevertheless—or perhaps precisely because of this—I wish you
all the best and success with the new "Floe Sample Standard"!

[FrozenPlain]

Floe is primarily aimed for musicians, producers and composers - anyone from someone just starting out making music to professionals on a deadline. I expect 95% of users will not care about the underlying sample library format, they will just download a sample library and use it to make music.

A secondary use-case is for sample library developers. People who want to create a product for musicians, producers and composers. I expect these users to be technically proficient, and familiar with programming and developing sample libraries. They can create a professional product for an open source platform in a painless way. They just focus on writing a sample library configuration and preset packs. Floe provides a standard GUI for the library, tools packaging the product, standard methods for installation, etc. In the end, the musician using the library has a reasonable amount of control over shaping the sound further and standard ways to set up their preferences (such as MIDI CC mappings - Floe is aiming to offer more preferences like this in the future).

For sample library developers, Floe currently offers features for creating moderately complex multisampled instruments as well as a few 'sample-based synthesis' type instruments. However, it doesn't yet have all the features for hyper-realistic stuff, and there still some gaps in areas particularly related to supporting percussion sampling. Your list of features, @bermudagold, is very interesting. We aim to keep improving Floe for years to come.


Floe not really concerned with trying to make a new standard for the wider world. It's just trying to fulfill those 2 use-cases. The Floe sample library format allows developers to create a professional product painlessly and still provides portability: it's an open-folder of audio files with an adjacent sample-library config file (Lua file). The Floe format really is quite simple, it just requires parsing some Lua code - the door is open if other programs want to parse this format too.

[Uncle E]

The Floe sample library format allows developers to create a professional product painlessly and still provides portability: it's an open-folder of audio files with an adjacent sample-library config file (Lua file).

nki, fxp, exs, and sxt already do exactly that. Sample Robot is the most painless way for developers to create products and it already outputs to those formats.

[FrozenPlain]

Maybe one day I will create some videos about the sample library development features. Go over some of its more interesting, unique features.

But for now, if someone was considering if the Floe platform was a good fit for them I'd suggest downloading some existing free libraries - such as the Celtic Harp or the Music Box Suite Free - looking at the Lua file, and more generally, review the experience as-a-whole of the product, and see how it compares to other options as you've suggested. Maybe it's a good fit or maybe it's not! Maybe you want to wait a year or so for Floe to mature (probably a good idea either way).

[Uncle E]

I did as you suggested. Existing formats can already do this:

local library = floe.new_library({
name = "Music Box Suite Free",
tagline = "Multisampled victorian music box",
library_url = "https://frozenplain.com/product/music-box-suite-free",
author = "FrozenPlain",
author_url = "https://frozenplain.com",
background_image_path = "Images/background.jpg",
icon_image_path = "Images/icon.png",
})

local instrument = floe.new_instrument(library, {
name = "Music Box",
description = "Realistic victorian music box with 4 round robins.",
tags = { "acoustic", "tonal percussion", "solo", "metal", "cinematic", "world" },
})

local round_robin_groups = {
{
{ root_key = 44 },
{ root_key = 46 },
{ root_key = 48 },
{ root_key = 51 },
{ root_key = 51 },
{ root_key = 58 },
{ root_key = 60 },
{ root_key = 63 },
},
{
{ root_key = 46 },
{ root_key = 48 },
{ root_key = 48 },
{ root_key = 51 },
{ root_key = 51 },
{ root_key = 56 },
{ root_key = 57 },
{ root_key = 58 },
{ root_key = 60 },
{ root_key = 73 },
},
{
{ root_key = 46 },
{ root_key = 48 },
{ root_key = 49 },
{ root_key = 51 },
{ root_key = 51 },
{ root_key = 56 },
{ root_key = 57 },
{ root_key = 58 },
{ root_key = 73 },
},
{
{ root_key = 46 },
{ root_key = 48 },
{ root_key = 51 },
{ root_key = 51 },
{ root_key = 53 },
{ root_key = 57 },
{ root_key = 57 },
{ root_key = 60 },
{ root_key = 61 },
{ root_key = 74 },
}
}

for i, rr_group in ipairs(round_robin_groups) do
local rr_index = i - 1
local group_name = "rr" .. rr_index
for _, region in ipairs(rr_group) do
floe.add_region(instrument, {
path = string.format("Samples/RR%d/victorian_music_box_rr%d_%d.flac", rr_index, rr_index, region.root_key),
root_key = region.root_key,
trigger_criteria = {
velocity_range = { 0, 100 },
round_robin_index = rr_index,
auto_map_key_range_group = group_name,
}
})
end
end

return library

[FrozenPlain]

Great, use another format if you prefer!

[FrozenPlain]

Floe has officially left beta!

For those who haven't tried it yet, Floe is a sample-based instrument platform - think of it as a modern ROMpler or sample-based synthesizer rather than a traditional sampler. You browse and play professionally crafted sample libraries through an intuitive interface, with powerful sound-shaping tools to make the sounds your own.

The sample libraries really make the platform. There's a small collection of free libraries:
https://floe.audio/packages/available-packages.html

As well as the first 2 paid libraries from FrozenPlain: Music Box Suite and Dulcitone.
https://www.frozenplain.com/product/dulcitone
https://www.frozenplain.com/product/music-box-suite

I've built Floe alongside my work with FrozenPlain, but it's open source and the tools for making sample libraries for the platform are open for fellow developers who see it as an interesting platform.
https://floe.audio/develop/develop-libraries.html

[audiojunkie]

Will you support linux at some point in the future? Please?

[FrozenPlain]

Will you support linux at some point in the future? Please?

Just added in version 1.0.4: https://floe.audio/installation/downloa ... -floe.html

[audiojunkie]

Will you support linux at some point in the future? Please?

Just added in version 1.0.4: https://floe.audio/installation/downloa ... -floe.html

This is awesome!!!! I will pass the info on to other Linux users!!

[NWSM]

Version 1.0.6

Yes it runs on Linux and it looks nice, it sounds beautiful (they use lossless flac)...its a no-brainer. CPU usage is low...Even if I bang on the keyboard like a disabled teenager.
I read maybe there can be issues on Bitwig - on Linux but for me it works.

Sadly we can not use own Samples?!?

And these Packages could be expensive all together, thankfully i am not that poor.
There are two FREE Package.

I am curious how to use or ADD Waveforms and my own Wavetables or Samples...that would be nice...maybe later?

Code: Select all

System:
    Kernel: 6.16.12-1-liquorix-amd64 [6.16-11~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5 tk: Qt v: 5.15.8 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM
    Distro: MX-23.6_ahs_x64 Libretto - Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
    Audio: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 
    1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 
    3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl

[FrozenPlain]

Really pleased you like it! Yes there's a couple of reports on Linux that we'll get round to fixing.

For now, there isn't really a way for musicians to add their own samples. We do have extensive features though for sample library developers to make custom libraries for the platform (Lua programming required): https://floe.audio/docs/develop/develop-libraries