Samples, soundfonts, gigfiles, oh my!

[briandc]

Hi everyone,
could someone give me a short, simple explanation about the differences between these sample types? I have a Motif and I am aware that the samples in it are quite complex, in terms of layering, scaling, etc. But I think soundfont and other similar formats can do similar things. Correct?

(Please keep links to a minimum; I'd just like to hear your own explanations.)
Thanks!

brian

[desmond]

Well, basically, any sampler can load a single sample, which is easy to deal with.

However, you often want to load multiple samples, so you can map them across the keyboard, or layer them and so on. That's what instrument formats like Soundfont, Gigasampler are, they are basically files that contain a list of samples usd, and the mapping parameters for that sound. Usually, the samples themselves are also packed into a single file for convenience, but some formats can just be the mapping data and refer the the samples on disk as separate files.

[meatballfulton]

The short answer is that a raw sample is what in the Motif architecture are called keybanks and waveforms.

Things like SoundFonts and files for other samplers (like Gigasampler, but also in formats for Kontakt, Akai, etc. are equivalent to Motif voices. They would include settings for the enevelopes, filters, etc.

There are some programs out there that can translate from one instrument format to another, letting you create Motif voice files. Here's one: Motif Translator Otherwise, you must manually extract the individual samples (if possible) from the other files, load them into the Motif and then create voices that use them. That is tedious!

[briandc]

Hi guys,
thanks for the info. I'm actually more interested in understanding what advantages and disadvantages the two methods have (Motif vs. soundfont/gig/other). I'm not as interested in transferring sounds into the Motif as perhaps transferring them out (although that's not what I want to do, but just understand better the various approaches and their respective pros/cons. I've found some apps for making soundfonts/gig files, but is it a complicated thing to do, making soundfonts?

brian

[gmeredith]

I am the soundfont expert

I use soundfonts all the time, and mostly make my own. Soundfonts are good in that they are a somewhat universal standard (invented by E-mu/Creative) that many software players will recognise, and some hardware players. They are a neat package of whole instrument setups. Here are a bunch of free soundfonts - download a couple and open them in a player, and have a look at their structure - that will give you an idea of what you can do with them:

http://rkhive.com/banks.html
https://trisamples.com/free-soundfonts

To make your own, I use Synthfont Viena:

http://www.synthfont.com/Viena_news.html

It's freeware and very powerful, it can do samples on every key and velocity layered samples, envelopes etc. A bit tricky to use but once you get it its a breeze. I use them in Samplelord, a sample/soundfont player, which is loaded into my V-Machine, a hardware VST host (like a small Receptor) so I can play them live without a computer:

http://www.samplelord.com

[briandc]

Coming back to the Soundfont realm, I also came across a similar app to Viena, called Polyphone:
Polyphone

It's cross-platform including linux, (yay!) and includes a lot of soundfonts for download.
Anyone ever tried this one?

brian