SFZ free does not recognised bank/program changes - why?

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GaryWalker
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2009/10/09 05:18:11 (permalink)

SFZ free does not recognised bank/program changes - why?

I have downloaded SFZ free and have it loaded as a VSTi within Sonar, and have opened a GM soundfont in SFZ. My problem is that I am unable to select patches in the normal way in the Track view - I have to navigate through each channel in SFZ itself. This is fine during the session, but when I re-open the project I have to go through the process of navigating each part and selecting the patches again.

How can I have SFZ recognise program changes from Sonar? Every other Softsynth I have does...

Cheers,
Gary.

Current configuration:
Core i3 Laptop / 8GB RAM; Sonar Platinum (replaced with REAPER); Roland Quad Capture interface; Alesis Micron; Roland XP30; Akai Mini MPK; Akai S2000
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    chad
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    Re:SFZ free does not recognised bank/program changes - why? 2009/10/09 08:45:16 (permalink)
    GaryWalker


    I have downloaded SFZ free and have it loaded as a VSTi within Sonar, and have opened a GM soundfont in SFZ. My problem is that I am unable to select patches in the normal way in the Track view - I have to navigate through each channel in SFZ itself. This is fine during the session, but when I re-open the project I have to go through the process of navigating each part and selecting the patches again.


    How can I have SFZ recognise program changes from Sonar? Every other Softsynth I have does...

    What version of SONAR are you using?  I would use the version of SFZ that is included with SONAR.

    SFZ loads samples into memory so that is why it doesn't support program changes... loading samples into memory during playback or export would equal silence.


    PatchArena | fisound
    #2
    GaryWalker
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    Re:SFZ free does not recognised bank/program changes - why? 2009/10/12 07:18:12 (permalink)
    I'm using Sonar LE at present, with a view to going to Home Studio 7.

    What I'm looking for is a way to change a preset in a sondfont that has multiple instruments from a MIDI track by sending Bank CCs and Program changes, but this doesn't seem to work.
    #3
    chad
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    Re:SFZ free does not recognised bank/program changes - why? 2009/10/12 09:19:26 (permalink)
    GaryWalker


    I'm using Sonar LE at present, with a view to going to Home Studio 7.

    What I'm looking for is a way to change a preset in a sondfont that has multiple instruments from a MIDI track by sending Bank CCs and Program changes, but this doesn't seem to work.

    If you use .sfz files instead of .SF2 soundfonts you could create a 'master' sfz file that contained multiple instruments, and change which groups of instruments are triggered based on an incoming MIDI CC. 

    For example:

    \\ group 1 piano
    <group>
    \\ will only play when MIDI CC1 is within 0-63 value
    locc1=0 hicc1=63
    \\ your samples here:
    <region> sample=piano.wav
    <region> sample=piano1.wav
    <region> sample=piano2.wav
    <region> sample=piano3.wav
    <region> sample=piano4.wav
    <region> sample=piano5.wav

    \\ group 2 organ
    <group>
    \\ will only play when MIDI CC1 is within 64-127 value
    locc1=64 hicc1=`127
    \\ your samples here:
    <region> sample=organ.wav
    <region> sample=organ1.wav
    <region> sample=organ2.wav
    <region> sample=organ3.wav
    <region> sample=organ4.wav
    <region> sample=organ5.wav



    more on sfz programming here:

    http://www.cakewalk.com/DevXchange/sfz.asp


    PatchArena | fisound
    #4
    GaryWalker
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    Re:SFZ free does not recognised bank/program changes - why? 2009/10/15 17:23:36 (permalink)
    Thanks for this, but it still doesn't explain why patch selection from a MIDI track that outputs to SFZ has no effect. If anyone has any bright ideas, I'd really appreciate it...
    #5
    techead
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    Re:SFZ free does not recognised bank/program changes - why? 2009/10/16 22:49:36 (permalink)
    SFZ is a sample playback instrument that loads samples (possibly large long-loading samples) into memory.  This is not something that should be done during playback and is not conducive to MIDI Patch-change or bank select on-the-fly.  Thus, MIDI patch change and bank select are not implemented and are ignored by the software.

    Bob
    Dimension Users 
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    René
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    Re:SFZ free does not recognised bank/program changes - why? 2009/10/20 17:44:19 (permalink)
    Actually, if the SoundFont is loaded in SF32 or SF16 mode, the samples for all programs are loaded at once, and Program Changes MIDI messages should be processed.

    Here's a brief checklist:

    - Make sure you have a MIDI Channel set for that MIDI Track. Tracks don't have a MIDI Channel per default.
    - Make sure you have a Bank selected in the track

    That should make the track Program widget work. I can confirm it works in 8.5, just tested.
    #7
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