Maybe, maybe not. I think it may just be a matter of time until someone somehow finds a way to make a softsynth that is able to "interpret" a wide variety of sounds.Ingonator wrote: Easiest way is publishing as WAV files which could be used by almost any sampler including hardware.
Anyway in that way you would be very limited in terms of sound design. With Kontakt you have tons of options including scripting.
A problem with free samplers is either that they are discontinued, no longer supported or are limited to Windows only. BAsed on that you could forget evyerything done with SynthEdit or SynthMaker as those could not be used with a Mac.
The only common format since around 30 years was sampling but with a sample it will be hard doing tweaks of the original sound like e.g. changing the Pulsewidth etc.
You mentioned a free synth that could use different formats. How about the Absynth format then. Do you think NI would allow to have the Absynth engine included in a free synth?
Another way would be having a free synth that includes all existing synthesis techniques in a single plugin and is available for all platforms. But which developer would offer such a synth for free?
Not to mention how much time and effort it would need to reprogram sounds of other synth with that one and if they would even sound the same.
One synth close to this could be a modular synth like e.g. Mutools MUX which is also quite cheap but there are many additional modules needed to make it able to do everything. Same about BLOK Modular: http://www.blokmodular.com/
I guess that a common format which everyone could use will remain a dream...
Ingo
In fact, it seems to me that many VSTs use a similar file name already "fxb" or something...
Wouldn't this mean that presets of one synth could be opened in another? This would be neat, since a synth like Crystal would be able to modify them in ways that Synth1 would not...
brian

