DimPro is awesome - I use it all the time. I use it mainly for my meat and potatoes sounds, like if I'm looking for a good rock bass or a decent piano patch.  For my electronic sounds I go to Z3ta +2.
 
If you haven't done it before, one cool thing to do is to drag and drop a Rex file into Dimension. It separates the file into it's individual componenets and opens up a lot of possibilities. Craig Anderton wrote an article on it a while back http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun09/articles/sonarworkshop_0609.htm?vm=r
 
I have some DSF stuff that is similar in quality to the original patches.
 
I also have Kontakt free that I use with my Ocean Way drum library, but that is the limit of my experience with it.
 
I'd definitely support any further developement!
 
Vernon

I rate Dim Pro and use it all the time however I have to agree with Timidi that the file system is a pain in the arse. A simple search box would be great.

It seems most common that folks focus on Dimension Pro's sample-playback capabilities and tend to compare it with something like Kontakt .  There is some overlap with those types of instruments, but Dimension Pro is really a combination instrument with sample playback capability, WaveTable Synthesis, WaveGuide Synthesis capability.  I keep that in mind when I'm making comparisons to Kontakt or other sample-playback-based instruments.
 
Dimension Pro started life as "Dimension" and was originally introduced exclusively with Cakewalk's Project5 softsynth DAW.  It was then later made available as a stand alone instrument and eventually bundled with SONAR.  The old Project5 Wiki had quite a number of tutorials and tips for Dimension/Dimension Pro written by the software developers and by end users, all nicely indexed and gathered into one place.  Some time ago the Project5 Wiki server was hijacked and the maintainer just let it go.  At that point this information was formally "lost" to the Dimension Pro enthusiasts.  I have built a new Dimension Pro enthusiast site and am pulling in the old information as I encounter it from what I had downloaded from the old P5 Wiki in the past.  Perhaps some of the information that is there so far may prove useful to you as you work with Dimension Pro:  http://dimension.technetos.com/
 
 

Thanks Bob. I will check your link.

techead


It seems most common that folks focus on Dimension Pro's sample-playback capabilities and tend to compare it with something like Kontakt .  There is some overlap with those types of instruments, but Dimension Pro is really a combination instrument with sample playback capability, WaveTable Synthesis, WaveGuide Synthesis capability.  I keep that in mind when I'm making comparisons to Kontakt or other sample-playback-based instruments. 
 

From Craig Anderton, SOS magazine:
 
"First, any sound that is less than 4000 samples long is read as a single-cycle wavetable, just like an ordinary synthesizer oscillator; Dimension Pro generates an image of the sample that eliminates digital aliasing so it can be used across the entire keyboard. There is also a waveguide generator, for plucked-string instruments. "
 
Again, by no means an attempt to discredit DimPro but in reality it appears the "Wavetable" abilities could be duplicated in any decent sampler. Rapture functions similiarly in terms of importing waves to use as oscillators. It`s quite easy to find literally thousands of short "wavetable" files from vintage and modern gear alike not to mention some cool programs that will let you draw any wave shape you like. The wavetables (wave files) included with DimPro and Rapture can quite easily be loaded into Kontakt, to name the obvious comparison.
 
The only unique feature I can see is the plucked-string waveguide generator although the LFO abilities are cool. Not saying there aren`t more but that`s all that jumps out at me. I would be curious to know what is specifically meant by "Dimension Pro generates an image of the sample that eliminates digital aliasing".
 
For anyone who owns DimPro the issue is a moot point. For someone looking to purchase a new sampler the price has to be weighed against the benefits and prices of other synths/samplers. I`ll re-iterate once more - this is not to cut down DimPro as it seems to be a good product but as a person who has sampled for years and had several prior samplers (AudioCompositor, Gigasampler/Gigastudio, Kontakt etc.) before encountering DimPro I didn`t find a whole lot in DimPro to grab my attention but I did find it a little cumbersome and time-consuming to use for my needs. YMMV.

AT


DimPro is pretty much a straight ahead synth compared to Kontact.  There are some rhythmic presets, but not the same.  Also it is only 4 different voices.

SFZ is a great, but text-based definition system.  You can do a lot w/ it, like NI's scripting, but it is a lot of right-side brain work.  The biggest flaw w/ Rapture/Dimpro etc. is the lack of a visual editing system.  Of course, René said that this allowed flexibility and an ever-evolving system.  However, I think most users would have prefered a scheme that was easy, point and click, rather than typing (or copying and pasting) for something as simple as note-range.

Many of the settings in the SFZ file can be seemingly over-written from the GUI, for example filter settings. If such is the case I can`t see why features like a sample-mapping editor can`t be incoporated into the GUI. That would go a fair ways towards making DimPro more user-friendly.

I would really love to be able to put the Multisamples somewhere more easily than having to edit the registry. Since the 1.5 update i still  haven't been able to get it to work properly. I did a fresh install by the way.

You should be able to tell Dim Pro where the Programs are and where the Multisamples are.

SToons

techead


It seems most common that folks focus on Dimension Pro's sample-playback capabilities and tend to compare it with something like Kontakt .  There is some overlap with those types of instruments, but Dimension Pro is really a combination instrument with sample playback capability, WaveTable Synthesis, WaveGuide Synthesis capability.  I keep that in mind when I'm making comparisons to Kontakt or other sample-playback-based instruments. 
 

From Craig Anderton, SOS magazine:
 
"First, any sound that is less than 4000 samples long is read as a single-cycle wavetable, just like an ordinary synthesizer oscillator; Dimension Pro generates an image of the sample that eliminates digital aliasing so it can be used across the entire keyboard. There is also a waveguide generator, for plucked-string instruments. "
 
Again, by no means an attempt to discredit DimPro but in reality it appears the "Wavetable" abilities could be duplicated in any decent sampler. Rapture functions similiarly in terms of importing waves to use as oscillators. It`s quite easy to find literally thousands of short "wavetable" files from vintage and modern gear alike not to mention some cool programs that will let you draw any wave shape you like. The wavetables (wave files) included with DimPro and Rapture can quite easily be loaded into Kontakt, to name the obvious comparison.
 
The only unique feature I can see is the plucked-string waveguide generator although the LFO abilities are cool.

Wavetable Synthesis and Sample Playback are different, not the same.  Wavetable Synthesis is, as Craig Anderton described, a short sample (4KB or less) modified to become a single cycle waveform played back by an oscillator.  This single-cycle waveform is repeated thousands of times per second to become a generated tone.
 
Sample Playback is a very large (usually several MB up to several GB) and is played through once by an oscillator with the possibility of a section of the sample being played repeatedly in a long sustain loop if such is enabled.  A single sample in this case has thousands of cycles contained in a single run through of the sample from beginning to end by the oscillator.
 
Dimension Pro changes between Wavetable Synthesis mode or Sample Playback mode automatically depending upon the size of the source sample being loaded (<4KB = Wavetable, >4KB = Sample Playback).  However, this behavior can be overridden if desired by the sound designer using opcodes in the SFZ file.
 
Dimension Pro's sample playback sample set is simply RIFF formatted audio samples stored in standard Microsoft .wav containers and can easily be used in almost any software-based sample playback instrument.  But for another instrument to make good use of its Wavetable sample sets would require that instrument to be able to perform wavetable synthesis--loading a small 4K or less sample from Dimension Pro's wavetable sample set would result in a short single cycle burst of noise unless it were repeated thousands of times per second by the oscillator to build a tone and filtered appropriately.

mudgel


I would really love to be able to put the Multisamples somewhere more easily than having to edit the registry. Since the 1.5 update i still  haven't been able to get it to work properly. I did a fresh install by the way.

You should be able to tell Dim Pro where the Programs are and where the Multisamples are.

Now, I thought you could redirect DP and point it to where your samples live without delving into the Registry. Can't check now, but I will later.

Also, I had all sorts of trouble with version 1.5 until I went  into the registry and removed the entries relating to 1.2- it's been rock solid ever since.

People tend to get hung up on SFZ and the complexities of it.  Once you load in a sample DimPro acts just like any other rampler w/ the full complement of filters, LFOs and effects.

For most jobs, the most SFZ you'll need is for multisamples - and you can just copy the text from some other multisample and edit it for your use or open a preset that matches your samples and load in your new ones.

SFZ should be thought of as an extra layer of control that most of us don't really need to worry about other than speading multisamples across the keyboard.  Once that is done, there are plenty of hands on ways to define your sound.  Still, as I said above, this was a big problem w/ SFZs wider acceptance.  For most users, a graphic interface would have been easier and therefore better, esp. for something as mundane as mapping.  The rest of the "hidden" controls would have been gravy.  I imagine Cake didn't pursue because of the costs for a primarily DAW company and needing to constantly update the interface as new functions were added w/in SFZ.

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