Much to my dismay after shelling out the (very reasonable) US$60, I find that it does not, despite its name and history, support the .sfz format.
Shame on Cakewalk and egg on its face for ripping such a great feature out of it. Next time I'll hesititate 6 times before buying any of their products.
Admittedly, if I'd read all the literature carefully, I'd have seen that it only mentions .sf2 files. Also, it's still a great player and well worth the bucks, esp. since good old free sfz doesn't work with my stereo Rhodes soundfont (free HERE) -- I get nasty crackles.
This isn't a showstopper for me, just a nuisance, adding a step between adjusting one of my instruments and setting it up in my rig for playing live or recording.
ACK! SFZ+ doesn't support SFZ format!
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- KVRian
- 500 posts since 13 Oct, 2004 from Durham, NC USA
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- KVRian
- 932 posts since 26 Oct, 2005 from The Void
Kinda stupid that it doesn't support the format it's named after. I would have been surprised too.
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- KVRAF
- 3476 posts since 9 Apr, 2003 from NE Ohio, USA
This was known back when sfz+ was an RGCAudio product.
My impression of what happened:
sfz started out as a basic soundfont player, and sfz+ became the deluxe version.
Rene started developing the sfz format at some point, and added that to sfz. For whatever reason it never got added to sfz+ - which has been a stagnant product for some time.
Unfortunately that doesn't help you with a purchase that doesn't work for you. I don't know how clear the product docs are, but it probably would have shown up in the trial version if you'd tried it (again, that doesn't help you now).
Doug
My impression of what happened:
sfz started out as a basic soundfont player, and sfz+ became the deluxe version.
Rene started developing the sfz format at some point, and added that to sfz. For whatever reason it never got added to sfz+ - which has been a stagnant product for some time.
Unfortunately that doesn't help you with a purchase that doesn't work for you. I don't know how clear the product docs are, but it probably would have shown up in the trial version if you'd tried it (again, that doesn't help you now).
Doug
Logic is a pretty flower that smells bad - Spock, in "I, Mudd"
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- KVRAF
- 7413 posts since 8 Feb, 2003 from London, UK
SFZ was named after SF2.
SFZ+ was named after SFZ.
The sfz file format was named after the SFZ player.
There was a big gap in development of SFZ 1.(low x) and SFZ 1.(high x) -- 1.(low x) was testing the SF2 engine that went into SFZ+; 1.(high x) was testing the new format processing that went into Dimension, etc, when rgc:audio got bought. SFZ+ was never involved in any of that, it had been a "dead" product for ages. (The last beta was the addition of Giga support and that never was released.)
SFZ+ 1.00 was released 24-Dec-2003; SFZ+ 1.10 beta in May 2004 with a final bug fix in August.
My oldest copy of SFZ dates back only to June 2004 (1.89 -- which I think was the start of SFZ format support). The final was October 2004.
Why is my hard disk full?
SFZ+ was named after SFZ.
The sfz file format was named after the SFZ player.
There was a big gap in development of SFZ 1.(low x) and SFZ 1.(high x) -- 1.(low x) was testing the SF2 engine that went into SFZ+; 1.(high x) was testing the new format processing that went into Dimension, etc, when rgc:audio got bought. SFZ+ was never involved in any of that, it had been a "dead" product for ages. (The last beta was the addition of Giga support and that never was released.)
SFZ+ 1.00 was released 24-Dec-2003; SFZ+ 1.10 beta in May 2004 with a final bug fix in August.
My oldest copy of SFZ dates back only to June 2004 (1.89 -- which I think was the start of SFZ format support). The final was October 2004.
Why is my hard disk full?
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- KVRian
- 820 posts since 15 Dec, 2004
Well, the "real" SFZ+ is the Dimension sampler. There is where all the improvements to the SFZ file format are done and will work flawsly, until i know.
Also, the Garritan Aria sampler, that is not sold separately yet, supports extensively the sfz format.
There are other samplers that works with the sfz file format, Highlife, shortcirtuit, both free, but they dont support some advanced features like random and keyswitching, if im not wrong.
Also, the Garritan Aria sampler, that is not sold separately yet, supports extensively the sfz format.
There are other samplers that works with the sfz file format, Highlife, shortcirtuit, both free, but they dont support some advanced features like random and keyswitching, if im not wrong.
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- Beware the Quoth
- 35517 posts since 4 Sep, 2001 from R'lyeh Oceanic Amusement Park and Funfair
Cakewalk describe sfz+ as 'SFZ+ Professional SoundFont Player'
Soundfont player. As in sf2 soundfonts. Which is what the sfz soundfont soundplayer started off as. sfz+ was an expanded version of the sfz soundfont player before there was an sfz file format.
sfz was then changed afterwards to play sfz format files.
http://www.kvraudio.com/news/1304.html
The CW product page for sfz+ says:
'Reads SoundFont files (.sf2), 16/24/32-bit wave files (.wav), mono or stereo'
Doesnt mention sfz at all.
And there's a demo version.
The OP could have checked the spec and the demo of this in advance.
Oh, and all of this happened when it was an RGC product, so the 'blame CW' poll is just nonsense.
Soundfont player. As in sf2 soundfonts. Which is what the sfz soundfont soundplayer started off as. sfz+ was an expanded version of the sfz soundfont player before there was an sfz file format.
sfz was then changed afterwards to play sfz format files.
http://www.kvraudio.com/news/1304.html
The CW product page for sfz+ says:
'Reads SoundFont files (.sf2), 16/24/32-bit wave files (.wav), mono or stereo'
Doesnt mention sfz at all.
And there's a demo version.
The OP could have checked the spec and the demo of this in advance.
Oh, and all of this happened when it was an RGC product, so the 'blame CW' poll is just nonsense.
Last edited by whyterabbyt on Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRAF
- 2975 posts since 18 Sep, 2006 from Rosehill Cemetery
And Rapture, Dropzone, Alchemy, and now Wusikstation all support sfz as well.marce wrote:Well, the "real" SFZ+ is the Dimension sampler. There is where all the improvements to the SFZ file format are done and will work flawsly, until i know.
Also, the Garritan Aria sampler, that is not sold separately yet, supports extensively the sfz format.
There are other samplers that works with the sfz file format, Highlife, shortcirtuit, both free, but they dont support some advanced features like random and keyswitching, if im not wrong.
"a confession without need of absolution, without need of redemption"
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- KVRist
- 335 posts since 11 Feb, 2008 from The Mountains of VT
For $35 you can download Music Creator 4 which includes DropZone, which could serve as an excellent sfz player. It has 2 elements, REX support, and the keyboard gives visual representation of the keymapping used in the loaded sfz file. You should try contacting Cakewalk customer service, maybe they'd give you an exchange since sfz+ wasn't exactly what you wanted...
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 500 posts since 13 Oct, 2004 from Durham, NC USA
OK, I stand corrected, and withdraw my barb at Cakewalk. The correct vote seems to be "none of the above".
Also, too bad they didn't make that a bit clearer in their product literature. (Yes, it does say "soundfont player", but it's NAMED SFZ, and I was unaware of the complicated history, only being familiar with good ol' sfz.) If I had known, I would have shelled out th $99 for Dimension, and got Garritan in the bargain.
My apologies it Cakewalk in any case.
Also, too bad they didn't make that a bit clearer in their product literature. (Yes, it does say "soundfont player", but it's NAMED SFZ, and I was unaware of the complicated history, only being familiar with good ol' sfz.) If I had known, I would have shelled out th $99 for Dimension, and got Garritan in the bargain.
My apologies it Cakewalk in any case.