5 Free piano instrument in SFZ, Decent Sampler format

[luiscameron]

Guys,

I have just completed improving the Decent sampler version of the following piano instruments, and created both the SFZ (and when possible the SF2 versions) of them and provide the download links here:

1. Yamaha C2 MVP piano
https://apiano.co.uk/free-soundfont-yam ... and-piano/

2. 88 Keys Baldwin piano
https://apiano.co.uk/free-piano-instrum ... mpler-sfz/

3. Yamaha DiskLavier Pro piano
https://apiano.co.uk/free-piano-instrum ... tic-piano/

4. Improved Yamaha C3 Grand Piano (provided by Bengt Nilsson and Sfzinstruments)
https://apiano.co.uk/free-piano-instrum ... oom-piano/

5. Yamaha C3 Grand Piano
https://apiano.co.uk/free-piano-instrum ... mpler-sfz/

More piano instruments will be improved and converted to both Decent Sampler and SFZ later and I will keep you guys posted.

[phreaque]

Appreciate your hard work on that, thanks for the efforts

[enroe]

Fantastic: Not only that the piano has 2-fold velos and is available in the formats
"decent", "sfz" and "sf2". The files - at least the sfz - is very meticulous and
programmed with many controllers.

Great work! Thanks alot!

[luiscameron]

Glad that you like it! Just added an 88 keys Baldwin piano to the website. Here is the link

https://apiano.co.uk/free-piano-instrum ... mpler-sfz/

[enroe]

Waaoh, this is a real monster: 1 Gigabyte, 3-fold-velocity.
Thank you so much!

[luiscameron]

Today, added the Yamaha Disklavier pro piano here

https://apiano.co.uk/free-piano-instrum ... tic-piano/

[enroe]

Yeah, this one is small - only 53 mb zip-compressed. But
nevertheless it sounds beautiful with its 5 velocity layers!
Thank you so much!

[Obsolete462444]

Can you enlighten me on the scope of the project? I mean, there already exist either SFZ or Decent Sampler versions of all the three pianos you feature on your website! Have you made sure you have permission from the copyright owner to share the sample content?

There was a similar undertaking within the last year of mapping a number of non-SFZ libraries to the SFZ format and to avoid copyright issues, it was made sure no samples (only the mappings) were shared:

viewtopic.php?t=543363&start=180

https://github.com/sfzinstruments/mappi ... book%20SFZ

[rasmusklump]

I would love to try them but falcon refuses to load the sfz. Any clue why. I just get a red message that the instrument can't be loaded.

[enroe]

Can you enlighten me on the scope of the project? I mean, there already exist either SFZ or Decent Sampler versions of all the three pianos you feature on your website! Have you made sure you have permission from the copyright owner to share the sample content?

There was a similar undertaking within the last year of mapping a number of non-SFZ libraries to the SFZ format and to avoid copyright issues, it was made sure no samples (only the mappings) were shared: ...

I'm not the developer of the sample sets, and I don't know the developer either.
But I can say something about it:

For all free sample sets that Luis Cameron makes available here, the license
conditions and the authors are explicitly named. For the Yamaha Disklavier Pro,
for example, the license is a "Creative Commons Attribution 3.0". This license
expressly allows the samples to be distributed if the author is named. I see
absolutely no problem there - it is really legally watertight. And it is entirely
in the spirit of "Free Culture".

For most of these piano samples there are already sfz files, that's correct.
But Luis Cameron's sfz files are programmed completely differently, i.e. they
have different controller assignments and thus offer completely different
options. E.g. the Disklavier in Sforzando looks like this:

pno yamaha disk klavier pro in sforzando 01.gif

I think it's great that someone is making alternative sfz definitions freely
available to everyone. And the more freedom of choice there are at SFZs,
the better. In this respect, the question of the "scope of the project" does
not actually arise.

And that's exactly why I write again expressly: Thank you Luis Cameron,
these are great SFZs!

[luiscameron]

@enroe
Thank you for your explanations, thoese are what we think.

@Kazi7
We summarize your questions and put them into the FAQ here: https://apiano.co.uk/faq/

Also, for the license of the samples, we make some changes of our website and follow your method not to include samples in the download section, only the mappings for those non-Creative Common samples. Thank you for your suggestions!

[luiscameron]

I would love to try them but falcon refuses to load the sfz. Any clue why. I just get a red message that the instrument can't be loaded.

Currently the SFZ format is developped and tested with sforzando, a free, highly SFZ 2.0 compliant sample player by Plogue. Other players are not tested. Therefore it may not work properly on Falcon.

[luiscameron]

Today, we added this improved version of Yamaha C3 Grand Piano, which is from Kazi7's project:

https://apiano.co.uk/free-piano-instrum ... oom-piano/

@Kazi7, please feel free to include this version and the link into your repository.

[Obsolete462444]

@Kazi7
We summarize your questions and put them into the FAQ here: https://apiano.co.uk/faq/

Also, for the license of the samples, we make some changes of our website and follow your method not to include samples in the download section, only the mappings for those non-Creative Common samples. Thank you for your suggestions!

You are welcome. Good to see more people supporting free formats like DS and SFZ! I guess you have already joined the SFZ Discord where technicalities and specifics are discussed?

Below I answered enroe with a few additional remarks. Just my 0,02 € of course

For all free sample sets that Luis Cameron makes available here, the license
conditions and the authors are explicitly named. For the Yamaha Disklavier Pro,
for example, the license is a "Creative Commons Attribution 3.0". This license
expressly allows the samples to be distributed if the author is named. I see
absolutely no problem there - it is really legally watertight. And it is entirely
in the spirit of "Free Culture".

For most of these piano samples there are already sfz files, that's correct.
But Luis Cameron's sfz files are programmed completely differently, i.e. they
have different controller assignments and thus offer completely different
options. E.g. the Disklavier in Sforzando looks like this:

That's fair, except that for example the Pianobook libraries are not covered by CC BY or similar non-restrictive licenses afaik.

Personally I'm okay with the original versions of these libraries (I really like the new Pianobook Baldwin), since too many controls actually tend to overwhelm me. I prefer to do EQ settings, panning and such in the DAW mixer rather than the instrument's interface. The generic interface of Sforzando doesn't help, unless you keep the number of parameters concise, but maybe the new, very promising SFZ player Sfizz will offer better solutions here.

Why not create SFZ or Decent Sampler versions of libraries that not yet have any SFZ or DS version instead of creating redundancy (I know, they are enhanced versions!)? There are for example many Kontakt only libraries on Pianobook, that could benefit from a mapping in one of these "free" sample formats. And why restrict to pianos only?

Here are a few currently Kontakt-only libraries listed in the Highlights section of Pianobook:

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/the-hoffman/

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/marimba/

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/con ... t-celeste/

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/joshuas-martin/

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/hohner-guitaret/

[Obsolete462444]

Today, we added this improved version of Yamaha C3 Grand Piano, which is from Kazi7's project:

https://apiano.co.uk/free-piano-instrum ... oom-piano/

@Kazi7, please feel free to include this version and the link into your repository.

Thanks. Ours was a collaborative project and most of the actual SFZ mappings have been done by Kinwie, who deserves credit if you base your enhanced version on his work (something like "original SFZ mapping done by kinwie"). I mainly supported the project logistically and by contacting some of the original sample library developers to obtain permissions / clarify license conditions.