Has no one ever written an SFZ editor? Something laid out like Kontakt's mapping editor, where you can just drag files in? Seems like there would be a demand for that.

techead

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.
 

As I said, having sampled for many years I am well aware. So if one loads a short waveform into any sampler and plays it in loop-mode you now have an "oscillator". Samplers have done this for decades now, nothing new here. Again I point out, this is hardly unique to DimPro.

 
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.
 

 And in any sampler one simply has to click once to enable or disable looping the sample.

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.

And as I already pointed out several times, this behaviour can be duplicated in any decent sampler.

I think Dim Pro is full of a lot of useful sounds but Kontakt is the way to go if your wanting a more robust product. DP is free with producer as is Z3ta and Rapture "the full version" and for all three plus a DAW and lots of useful FX and many other tools its a very compelling set up to use. Of course you might already have your DAW and just looking for synths and samples and go that route but Z3ta is a monster VA synth probably my favorite. Rapture has a lot of useful sounds as well. Adding in DIM PRO and SONAR with BREVERB and TH2 plus V Vocal and the many FX as well as the pro channel is a bargain. X1 is $299 plus you get X2 free and expanded is now a part of producer as well and the DSF offer is a decent bonus. I plan on getting Komplete in the future as well anyway so I guess we will see when I get there. East West has some products calling my name and MOTU mach V3 is looking good as well. Wusikstation seems cheap for $80 but I haven't heard enough about it yet. Then as far as conversion goes there are programs like sample robot and extreme sample converter.

I should also mention IK multimedia has a sale going on for almost everything they have at audiodelxe for like $225 all the synths the TREX and Amplitube stuff is included. Add that to Sonar X1/X2 and for $500 you have a lot of synth and FX firepower.

Dear all,
Thank You for all you who have responded. So now I understand that Dim Pro does earned a fair amount of respect from Cakewalk users.
 
I did tried Wusikstation demo before but I felt that I like Dim Pro better. So I bought the DSF expansion 1-13 through Elite Upgrade plus seasonal 20% discount. So I spend a bit less 200 bucks for the whole deal. This is a HUGE library of sounds. I believe I have not tried out all the sounds till today. I had come to appreciate dim pro when I started to build some tracks with it.

This is my 50 cent of contribution for this thread. I like the acoustic bass sound from the 3rd free expansion, download from Cakewalk website.  The DSF made a lot of easy to use sounds. The DSF expansion packs that are I had used includes the studio orchestra, good variety of strings articulation like trills. But a bit low in brass and woodwinds and percussion. The Symphonic strings(X2 presale freebie) is excellant and expressive.

The other packs that I like are Ultra Modern Synth which can cut through anything and Atmospheric Energy for long evoving sounds. Since I am a classical trained pianist I would naturally picked a dedicated Piano software like the IVORY II over any DSF piano sound. 


 

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;

 
With all due respect to everyone's mentor Craig Anderton, and also for Simon Cann's excellent Cakewalk Synthesizers first edition, this inaccuracy just keeps getting repeated and re-referenced.  It's less than 3000 samples.  Anything 3000 samples and up gets played back as a one-shot (unless the parent .sfz file overrides that with an 'oscillator=on' opcode).
 
I point this out so that no one drives themselves crazy trying to make 3K-4K work.