sfz based instrument ideas

Cakewalk now have two instruments (Dimension Pro and Rapture) based on the same sfz file format and engine, and René's recent post more than strongly hints that more are on the way. Now, I'm sure they are not short of ideas for what to release next, but there's no harm in putting a few new thoughts into their heads. I think the whole idea of basing multiple instruments on the same engine with an open file format has huge potential.

Here are some of my ideas:

1. An acoustic drum sampler with multiple outputs. This would be shipped with a multi-sampled drumkit, with one sfz file per kit piece (and per microphone on that kit piece). Thus (similar to BFD), you could add ambience by simply mixing the sounds from those multisamples. Direct from Disk mode might be a necessity if the multisamples were too large. It could even include some MIDI grooves and fills that can be dragged from the interface into the host app.

2. A multi-effects unit. There are already a good number of effects included in the engine, so why not make these available on their own, for us to pass our own sounds through. The thought of being able to exactly control the parameters of each effect through an sfz file is great, and sharing patches between users on the forums would be much easier than with existing effects.

3. Customised instruments / effects. Imagine if there were a few new sfz opcodes to specify a customised GUI. For example, the ability to add knobs, faders, buttons and meters, each with either default or customised graphics. They could be attached to different parameters in the sfz file. This would mean that people could not just program their own sounds, but effectively create their own instruments or effects. Again, they would be very easy to share on the web (not to mention safer than downloading dlls from unknown sources), and would not require your VST directory to fill up with hundreds of freeware SynthEdit VSTs.

I could go on, but that's enough for now. I hope similar ideas are in the pipeline. As René says:

I can't talk about the final plans for it, but it'll become huge, when the right time comes.

Great thoughts, guys.

My first vote goes to the Cakewalk version of Battery. Using the DimPro engine, I don't even think this would be all that hard to create. Just rearrange the GUI more like Velocity / Battery, with the engine that effectively already exists, and there you are. Especially - and this is the 'killer' part - interchangability of samples / sfz's between them all.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts with this sfz concept.

I think I'm beginning to see where René and Cakewalk are going with this ... freakin smart ...

I got it! RXP PRO! It already loads the sfz format and giving it multiple outputs and allow us to view and tweak each sample and layer plus the ability to manual or automatically create slices and it's there.

Guess I got a little carried away but it would be my go to drum machine period.

I can not imagine Cakewalk not having a SFZ based drum synth. And soon ;)+) Chrisma. It just has to be. And while Dimension Pro can do drums. I just can't see Cakewalk passing on this.

oh, multiple outputs: ok, sorry sorry

That's the sticky point, right there: multiple outs for extra missing and processing options.

Now if I could just find a plugin reverb that René would deem worthy of his interpolation engine…