I'm not sure how useful the sfz plugin is, but I'm trying to get it to work anyway.
I understand that it's a 64 bit plugin, unlike sfz+ which is supposed to be 32 bit.

The plugin will play the "Dimension Mini Piano.sfz" file that is located in the sfz folder in Vstplugins no problem.

But if I load any other sfz file, and I've tried a bunch, no sound is produced and no activity whatsoever.
If I reload the Mini Piano file everything works fine again.

I see nothing odd about this sfz file.

Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong ?

The name of the plugin is misleading and so is the fact that it plays the "Dimension Mini Piano.sfz." From the help file:
sfz is a high-quality multitimbral SoundFont player. sfz can play SoundFont (.sf2), wave (.wav) and ogg-vorbis compressed (.ogg) files.

If you are looking for an sfz player other than the CW synths like DimPro and Rapture maybe http://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando/ might be of interest.

wow,that's a great soundfont player, I just watched all the videos on the site and rally am digging this.
any advice paul where I should start out if I want to begin creating my own sfz files ?

Another free one that will play SFZ and SF2 files is TX16Wx http://www.tx16wx.com/home

I have not tried this one out (i usually load SFZ into Kontakt these days) but it looks like a pretty powerful sampler in its own right. The extra features make the Pro version attractive. Non commercial pricing is only $20.

http://www.cakewalk.com/D.../article.aspx?aid=108, Simon Cann's book http://noisesculpture.com/cakewalk-synthesizers and all the examples already installed on your machine are good references. At least that is how I started learning about sfz files. To edit sfz files I use a text editor but http://audio.clockbeat.com/sfZed.html is a nice dedicated sfz editor. For Session Drummer, I started by copying existing sfz files and used search and replace functions in the editor to build new drum kits using my own wav files.

thank you scott, this is a great place for me to start.

scook : "The name of the plugin is misleading and so is the fact that it plays the "Dimension Mini Piano.sfz.".


I'm speechless.

From the mouth of Craig Anderton :

"The SFZ Player included in Sonar 7 is a VST plug-in that works with any VST-compatible host, and is available as a free download from www.project5.com/products/instruments/sfz_player/default.asp. The interface isn't fancy, but it will play back SFZ files and it also offers built-in effects and several modes for loading sounds (including streaming from disk)."

The sfz plugin I'm talking about is identical :

SFZ was one of Rene's first (if not his first) and an attempt to expand the Soundfont engine.  Back when SFs were the main soft synth and file system.  SFZ will play the samples, it just doesn't understand all the extra bits of information in an SFZ file.  Since few synths these days will play SFs and don't have Creative boards which included the hardware to process them, SFZ is a handy tool if you have a lot of these files from days of yore.

@

Paul P


scook : "The name of the plugin is misleading and so is the fact that it plays the "Dimension Mini Piano.sfz.". 

The name of SFZ+ is misleading as it does not play SFZ files, SFZ does play SFZ files (or it should, in your case something seems to be wrong.).
 
SFZ+ predates the SFZ format. It plays SF2 soundfont files. SFZ is a newer program. A never ending source of confusion.