The sfz player is a high-quality sample playback engine featuring: Nine quality settings to allow control over CPU usage Two-hundred fifty-six voices of polyphony with unlimited layers per voice Multi-timbral operation Different loading modes to control memory usage and CPU overhead A multi-mode filter (6dB/octave low-pass and high-pass filters, 12dB/octave low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and band-reject filters) Three LFOs Three envelopes Stereo chorus and stereo reverb effects ASIO microhost The sfz player can load and play: sfz format (.sfz) files SoundFont (.sf2) format Banks Wave (.wav) files Ogg-vorbis (.ogg) compressed files Single wave and ogg-vorbis files can be loaded directly and will then be playable over the whole keyboard.
You also can download it for free from rgc:audio ( Figure 4.1 The sfz player: One of the highest-quality sample playback tools on the market, available for free from rgc:audio and bundled with SONAR version 5 and SONAR Home Studio version 4. The player is bundled with SONAR version 6 (as it was with version 5) and SONAR Home Studio version 4 (but not SONAR Home Studio version 4 XL, which has Dyad bundled with it).
What Is the sfz Player? The sfz player (see Figure 4.1) is a high-quality multi-timbral software synthesizer. The sfz format is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 17, The sfz Format. 71ΔΆ _CH04_72_09/19/06 CHAPTER 4 } sfz and sfz+ SoundFont format files can include a range of programs in the monolithic file, whereas sfz format files do not. sfz format files are non-monolithic each wave is separately stored, and the mapping file (which references the wave files) is a separate document. There are differences between the two formats, most notably: SoundFont format files are monolithic the waves and the mapping information are stored together in one file. The SoundFont format was developed by E-MU, and the sfz format was developed by Cakewalk (rgc:audio). Within the file format, a group of samples can be structured and arranged so they can be loaded into a synthesizer and deployed for a performance. A Word or Two about sfz Format Files and SoundFont Format Files The sfz format and the SoundFont format are ways of arranging files so they can be replayed. These are both discussed in this chapter.
This a commercial instrument with a more sophisticated interface. The sfz player this is a freeware instrument. There are now two versions of the component: sfz.
What started out as a component has found a life for itself as a high-quality SoundFont and wav/aiff/ogg file player. The sfz engine in its current incarnation as the Expression Engine has also been used as the basis for Cakewalk s most recent synthesizer: Rapture. We now know the synthesizer to be Dimension (which is essentially four sfz players on steroids, strapped together).
The sfz player was originally developed as a component for what was to be rgc:audio s next synthesizer. To prevent confusion as much as possible, I will refer to the sfz player and the sfz format (from which we can create sfz definition files). One is an instrument, and one is a file format (which the sfz player recognizes). 1 _CH04_71_09/19/06 4 sfz and sfz+ First, let s deal with a bit of confusion: sfz and sfz.