Support for the SFZ virtual instrument format
I think it would be great for there to be a way we could use SFZ files instead of a General Midi. Mattias Westlund's Sonatina Symphonica Orchestra is amazing, but regretfully, cannot be harnessed by Musescore. Sonatina is lightyears ahead of the Fluid soundfont.
Theoretically, we'd be able to assign a unique SFZ file to each instrument instead of having one large GM file: that way, if we find a better solo violin, we can reassign the violin to this new file and leave all the other instruments untouched.
Comments
See #10085: Adding SFZ playing capabilities to Musescore - Improving Audio output
In reply to See #10085: Adding SFZ by [DELETED] 5
Thank you.
In reply to See #10085: Adding SFZ by [DELETED] 5
I'm curious if something about the sfz format makes this possible, or if it's just that this happens to be the format used for that particular package. That is, is there a tehcincal reason why results just as good couldn't be obtained in the soundfont format?
Note to OP - there are soundfonts available for musescore that are better than the one shipped. It was chosen becausemit is small, not because it is the best. The best may not ne too far behind the one you mentioned in sfz format. Also, note GM is just a standard for the selection of instruuments; it isn't a format per se. Soundfont is the name of the format used by musescore, if you want to start looking for other options. Fluid is the name of the package that plays the soundfonts.
In reply to I'm curious if something by Marc Sabatella
"I'm curious is something about the sfz format makes this possible"...what's do you mean by "this"? Makes what possible?
Also a concern about free soundfonts online is one never really knows, in most cases, where it *really* came from. Somebody may well have lifted it from a synthesizer. I just want to be careful of that. :)
In reply to "I'm curious is something by Botnivik
I meant, is there something about SFZ that is inherently better than Soundfont, such that something like Sonatina Symphonica could only have been created in SFZ format but could not have been created in Soundfont format? Although it's certainly possible, it seems much more likely to me that SFZ just happened to be the format Matthias chose for his project, and he could probably just have well have chosen Soundfont instead. Meaning that while his package may the best right now (I don't know for a fact that it is - his site seems to indicate he doesn't think it is), it could well be that next month someone else comes up with a package in Soundfont format that is even better. So all the work that goes into supporting SFZ would have been largely wasted.
Another reason why the answer to this question is relevant: it may well be that converting Sonatina Symphonica to Soundfont format would be easier than adding SFZ support to Musescore. I have no idea if that's true or not, but I'd certainly guess it would be. Probably many, many times easier - assuming, again, that the Soundfont format is *capable* of doing the same things that can be done in SFZ format. Converting between formats is often easy. But adding directly support for SFZ might writing a whole new synthesizer module, since Fluid doesn't support SFZ. Now, if Fluid were to start supporting SFZ, then presumably MuseScore would pick up that support automatically.
As for free soundfonts online, why would matter if some of the sounds were lifted from a synthesizer? And why does this seem to concern you less about that regarding Sonatina Symphonica than any other Soundfonts?
In reply to I meant, is there something by Marc Sabatella
Looking around a bit, I found this:
http://www.extranslator.com/
It purports to convert an SFZ file to a SoundFont file (SF2). I downkoaded the demo, downloaded a copy of Sonatina (that thing is HUGE), and tried a conversion. It basically worked, although it put each instrument into a separate file. Presumably there is a straightforward way to combine them. I tried playing back a passage with MuseScore set to use one of those instruments, and it worked,but the volume was extremely low even with the synth and mixer settings turned up. I'm sure there's a setting somewhere that would have fixed that.
The program isn't free (but it isn't expensive, either). The demo version inserts noise into the sounds so you can play with it to see how it works, but you'd need to buy it to actually use it. Someone who is interested in this might consider contacting Matthis to see if he would be OK with an SF2 version being made available.
However, reading about Sonatina on Matthias' site, lisening to samples, and thinking about some of the other SoundFonts I've heard, I'm not at all convinced it really is better that some of best SF2 SoundFonts. Apparently Sonatina doesn't even use velocity multi-sampling, which is a very basic technique. And the samples themslves were just scavenged from other public domain (or presumably so) sources, as are most SoundFont collections. No denying it sounds very good, but so do some of the larger SoundFonts out there. So if you're in the market for orchestral sounds that are much better than the defaults shipped with MuseScore, and don't mind that it isn't a complete GM set (no saxophones, no guitars, etc), and don't mind the size, you might want to try out some of the better orchestral SoundFont options before going to all that trouble. You might be surprised at what is already available. Not that I have any specific recommendations. Unfortunately, most of the best soundfonts I have found are for individual instruments or groups of instruments, and the work involved in packaging them into a full orchesta - well, that's where Matthias has done a very good job.
In reply to Looking around a bit, I found by Marc Sabatella
Can you not combine all the smaller soundfonts into one larger one with Synthfont?
In reply to I meant, is there something by Marc Sabatella
Marc, I'm concerned about using lifted sounds because that's theft (unless it's licensed to allow redistribution). I cannot use something like that that's been stolen.
And I may be going about this completely wrong, I'm not sure. Perhaps Soundfont is the way to go. Honestly though, I'm not too worried about multi-velocity layers: while an excellent and often necessary feature, I'd much rather have one velocity that sounds good than a dozen velocities that sound horrid. But that may be just me.
I may look into Soundfont some more.
In reply to Marc, I'm concerned about by Botnivik
All I can say is, Sonatina seems exactly like other free soundfonts with respect to borrowing from exiting sources. Matthias even admits right on his site that he can't be sure about the legality of some of the samples. That's about the same story you'll see for other free SoundFonts.
I'm not saying SoundFont is a better format, BTW - just that I wouldn't assume it is worse just because the one SoundFont that comes with MuseScore happens to be worse than this one particular SFZ package. I do think it would be worth trying some of the SoundFont options out. And do post if you come up with anything you particularly like!
In reply to I meant, is there something by Marc Sabatella
The website (http://sso.mattiaswestlund.net/), the creator states:
"As I don't have a real orchestra to sample, I settled for building virtual sections from solo instruments. For this I used the sfz+ soundfont player. Some sections were subtly layered with synths (ZebraCM, Synth1) for added lushness. The sections were then placed in an artificial space using LiquidSonics Reverberate and a scoring stage IR from Samplicity's Bricasti M7 library. The instrument ranges were rendered at highest possible quality, split up into individual notes, normalized and then mapped as sfz files. The programs used were Cockos REAPER, Steinberg Wavelab 4, sfZed and Metapad."
-imazi643