Hi,
I am installing SONAR X3 Producer on a new computer and have some questions about Dimension Pro relating to flac files vs wavs files, and to what degree they can co-habitate in a DimPro install, as well as learning the differences between "sfz" files and program ".prog" files. Not being familiar with DimPro too much yet, I am hoping someone will clarify this for me, i.e. how ".wav", ".flac", ".sfz" and ".prog" files are used in DimPro.

First off, I realize that DimPro is employing flac multisamples nowadays vs wavs files it used to be using in the past, likely because they are smaller while still being lossless. I am assuming DimPro will play either wav or flac files for backward compatibility's sake. I installed DSF Symphonic strings onto my DimPro install and DSF SS has all wav multisample files, not flac files, but but am I correct in thinking that some wav files are still used in some, if not many, multisample categories in a DimPro install?

Also, I have read that sfz files map the wavs (or flac) files to make a keyboard preset. So what do the program ".prog" files point to? sfz files only, or do they also point to flac or wavs files directly? I am thinking programs (.prog files) are presets of several sfz files plus additional info as to how they are to be used in DimPro, LFOs, effects' etc., and that only sfz files point to wavs or flac fies. Is this correct?

I wish to learn about this for curiosity's sake, but also because I wish to copy DimPro packages obtained from older versions of SONAR, Producer 8.5 in this case, and I want to be certain everything will work fine after copying the files. If I install(i.e. copy) these old packages, DSF Classic keys, DSF Proteus Examples and Hollywood FXs in my new system, will they work? I would like to just copy the multisamples and program files from the old install, paste them in my new computer, then hit F5 in DimPro.

Cheers, :-)

Dan

DimPro prog files are made of up to 4 element. An element can contain an audio file or an sfz file. An sfz is a collection of audio files and other instructions. DimPro can play wav, aiff, ogg, flac and rex files. You can integrate old mutlisamples and programs into a new installation by copying the files into the appropriate directories and then refresh the program browser with F5.

"prog" files are a little mysterious. They're binary files so you can't create or edit them outside of Dim Pro, AFAIK. Their role is to tie multiple sample sets together into a multi-layered combination, along with envelope, filter and effect settings. Functionally similar to what we'd call a "multi" in the Kontakt world.

Functionally similar to what we'd call a "multi" ...

 
To add, a .prog file also saves the current state of the Modulation / MIDI Matrix and global settings & effects. It will reference the numbered slot of a user-defined LFO (Rapture), but not the LFO waveform itself.  Any synth-specific MIDI Learn settings are saved independently of the .prog file, but apply across all instances.

I appreciate your replies, thanks.
 
So if prog files can point to audio files directly,
does this mean these audio files could not be changed from wav to flac
without "breaking" the patch, or program?
 
For example, say I take a prog file from an old intall where the files were wavs.
Then I copy this prog file into a new install where the audio files have been converted to flac.
Will the prog patch still work in the new install, or not?
 
Dan

AFAIK, all the original content was created using sfz files so it should never happen. In any event, I just created the following test case.
1) Create a program directly referencing a wav in the multisample directory tree. Program loads the wav and plays OK.
2) Convert the wav into a flac, remove the wav
3) Initialize DimPro and load the program created in #1. The program played OK. Now the element shows loading the flac.
 
I wanted to test it but I recall reading that DimPro was written to handle this case. Note, the opposite does not hold. If a program was written using a flac and the flac is missing, DimPro will not load the wav with the same name. Given the history of the synth, this is not a likely case.

Awesome, scook! Thanks for that.
This means it is easy to copy and paste files from an older install to a new one;
just don't overwrite flac files with wavs, I guess.
 
It seems the software people did a pretty good job making sure in transitioning to flac, that DimPro is fully backward compatible.
 
Now I can go ahead and transfer my files with confidence... :-)
Cheers,
Dan