How to use SFZero?

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DWW256
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How to use SFZero?

Post by DWW256 »

So I heard that LinuxSampler isn't great with SFZ support and that SFZero is better, so I went to the osxmidi/sfzero GitHub repository and downloaded the release, but all it gave me was a .so file. I have no idea how to use that. All I want to do is pipe the output from Frescobaldi through it (something like Qsynth but for SFZ) but I have no idea how to do this. I'm kind of hesitant to use Carla because it and the rest of the KXStudio repository are unsupported right now, so I'd like to just run SFZero as itself for now, but I have no idea how. Help is much appreciated. Thank you!
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noedig
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Re: How to use SFZero?

Post by noedig »

LinuxSampler actually has more complete SFZ support than SFZero. SFZero has very limited support at the moment.

The .so file is possibly a VST (haven't tested it myself). Try putting it in your VST directory, such as ~/.vst (that is, the .vst directory in your home directory) and then scanning for plugins using your plugin host.

Carla and KXStudio repositories are not unsupported. They are still being maintained, as far as I know the creator is just on a much needed holiday. However, he was even still making some KXStudio package and Carla code updates during December.
DWW256
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Re: How to use SFZero?

Post by DWW256 »

Hmm...then why did Carla switch to SFZero? And also, is there any standalone way to run the VST so that it just accepts MIDI input from an arbitrary client?
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Re: How to use SFZero?

Post by noedig »

Carla switched possibly because the LinuxSampler licence has some restrictions which does not make it pure GPL. There was also some stability and high memory issues with the LS plugin that Carla was using.

You could load it in Carla (the VST, or the SFZ directly) or in another host, like Ardour, QTractor, Reaper, etc.
Refresh/scan in the host in order to detect the plugin.

I don't know of another simple stand alone recent VST host.
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Re: How to use SFZero?

Post by ubuntuuser »

DWW256 wrote:So I heard that LinuxSampler isn't great with SFZ support and that SFZero is better, so I went to the osxmidi/sfzero GitHub repository and downloaded the release, but all it gave me was a .so file. I have no idea how to use that. All I want to do is pipe the output from Frescobaldi through it (something like Qsynth but for SFZ) but I have no idea how to do this. I'm kind of hesitant to use Carla because it and the rest of the KXStudio repository are unsupported right now, so I'd like to just run SFZero as itself for now, but I have no idea how. Help is much appreciated. Thank you!
You use it as a plugin in a DAW.

There are different versions of SFZero floating around.

The original SFZero is pretty basic and that's been around for quite a while but there are a few other versions that have had some additions added.

The SFZero at the osxmidi/SFZero GitHub repository has had some more opcodes added to it and therefore it can (theoretically at least) handle more sfz files/libraries than it did before and in a more accurate way, but some sfz files floating around are not sfz original spec accurate (strange opcode values etc) so some editing of the sfz file to bring it in line with the sfz original spec might help (see opcode references http://www.sfzformat.com/legacy/ http://www.drealm.info/sfz/plj-sfz.xhtml) and then there are the so called sfz 2.0 spec sforzando sfz files which are different again and have additions to the original sfz spec and are really for sforzando and maybe some of those sfz files could be edited to be more sfz original spec compatible if someone knows how to do it.
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