Mildon Studios has released SFZ Designer, a powerful and easy to use freeware visual tool for creating SFZ instrument mappings for your sample libraries.
SFZ is not a hard format to work with, however the sample mappings had to be created in a text editor up until this point. This brand new release from Mildon Studios will make things so much easier, since it features a lovely user interface with intuitive controls and visual guides for creating SFZ mappings with less effort and time wasted on typing.
SFZ Designer supports all SFZ 1.0 opcodes and outputs your work directly to SFZ format. It is also possible to save your SFZ Designer project for later editing. Inside your project, you can literally just import your samples to the editor and adjust all of the parameters with your mouse, much like you would do in a sampler instrument. The program was completely stable on my test machine and didn’t crash or cause any performance hiccups, even though stability issues are to be expected in early beta releases such as this one. Still, it would be wise to save your project regularly, just in case (the current release is v0.21 Beta).
Samples can be added to the same note range and used as velocity layers or round robin variations (multiple round robin variations per velocity layer are supported). It is also possible to use multiple opcodes for the same group, or apply an opcode to all groups. Full SFZ 2.0 support will be included in one of the future updates. The developer recommends using sforzando (a freeware VST plugin by Plogue) for checking your project while working with SFZ Designer.
The program also features global amplitude envelope controls and transpose/pan/volume controls per group or per individual sample. Group cloning is also supported, so that you don’t have to build each group from scratch. Also, the sample paths will be auto-converted to relative paths, making it much easier to export your mappings in a way which will make them compatible for other users.
Although the user interface is really well design, the whole patch creation process might be a bit confusing if you’re completely new to working with the SFZ format. If that’s the case, it’s highly recommended to watch the intro video (embedded below) in order to make your first steps with SFZ Designer less frustrating. Generally speaking, the program is really well designed and it will make the SFZ format available to a much broader audience.
Video Demo
Check out the SFZ Designer intro video:
Download
SFZ Designer is available for free download via Mildon Studios (23.0 MB download size, EXE installer, 32-bit & 64-bit application for Windows).
8 Comments
I spotted this on KVR last night. This is really exciting. I still have yet to make me own SFZ instruments, but I think this will remedy that :)
condy
onThis is what the sfz format needs imho. I’ve always wanted to try making an sfz instrument but editing a text file was too much of a road block for me.
uzi
onhi i like it but its not working :( when i lode samples the one sample button dont work and the only way is to make it on two keys that is the minimom :(
how do you lode round robin samples on it? whan i lode on a new group it taks the first sample from the last and combine it with the first (i lode 2 bd on c1 and then lode on group two 2 toms or 3 toms on f1 and when i lode it on kontact it plays on c1 2 bd and 1 tom i click on c1 3 times) i hope you will make a movie on round robin soon :)
tylab
onI am really excited that SFZ designer might attract more people to the SFZ standard. Very cool! The only true progress that technology achieves is through the creation of more open systems, which is why I hope the SFZ standard gets used more widely!
McLennonPaullJohnCartney
onI hope that finally we will see more SFZ libraries, since it’s gotten so easy now to sample your own instrument. To all those who have a cool instrument at home and some time left: make more SFZ libraries :-) Or do whatever you like to do!!