[freepats] Using samples in sound trackers

[Roberto]

On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 11:30:59AM -0800, ml at distasis.com wrote:
> I don't know how active Milkytracker development is now.  It used to be
> very active, but I haven't seen updates in a while.

In my opinion, it's quite unlikely that classic trackers will ever want
to add support for SFZ. MilkyTracker says very clear that don't want to
deviate too much from Fasttracker II heritage:

"MilkyTracker is and will stay a 2nd generation tracker. There are
already several good 3rd generation trackers out there."

In the same way, Schism Tracker will probably want to stick to
ImpulseTracker generation. I was a happy user of ImpulseTracker in the
90s. I can't use it nowadays because attaching lv2 or ladspa plugins,
synchronizing with other software or hardware synthesizers and using
multi-layer instruments has become an indispensable part of my workflow,
but I still have strong appreciation of those programs and a nostalgic
feeling of the 90s way of doing computer music.

Sound banks in SFZ format can still be useful in classic trackers even
if not directly supported. Samples are kept separate and can be easily
loaded into samplers, classic trackers, and modern trackers as well
(Renoise, OpenMPT, Radium...).

Take, for example, this bass uploaded just today:

 http://freepats.zenvoid.org/Synthesizer/synth-bass.html#SynthBass2

It is a faithful simulation of the famous Yamaha DX7 bass sound used in
many popular songs from the 80s ("Take On Me" by A-ha, also used by
Michael Jackson, Depeche Mode... countless tracks from many artists).

To load it under any tracker or sampler:

* Download the SFZ+WAV tarball and unpack it

* If your favorite software can't use 24 bit samples, downsample all
  files in samples/*.wav from 24 to 16 bits (can be done automatically
  with sox -b 16)

* Load the required samples in the tracker/sampler

* If samples contain loops (not the case of this bass), they are inside
the SFZ file (it's a text file), copy loop_start and loop_end values
into the sample configuration page of the tracker and enjoy the sounds.

I would want to update the automatic conversion utility eventually, but
loading manually will continue to be a good method. Unlike MIDI
sequencers, trackers will save all samples inside the output file so
converting and importing a whole sound bank may not be the best way, it
would waste a lot of space when only a few samples are used (or may be
not possible, depending on the sound bank).

I think it would be very useful to create a "Using FreePats samples with
trackers" page in the Documentation section of the Wiki.

If you encounter any difficulty to use it under your favorite tracker
please let me know, I would want to keep them compatible whenever
possible.


> Don't know if everyone else is aware, but was surprised on the ogg vorbis
> list (at Xiph) when they mentioned ogg vorbis was deprecated.  I think the
> ogg container format is still actively supported though.

I'm not a fan of lossy formats for samples, but I usually use it for the
final music, so I'm surprised too. If vorbis is deprecated, what is the
alternative that they consider we should be using instead? Can you
please paste the link to the full discussion?


> By the way, I have a series of build tools I'm working, so if anyone needs
> build scripts (similar to Slackbuilds scripts but cross-platform) to get
> something specific to build, let me know.  I may already have a script for
> it.

Thank you Laura. Do you have a git repository?

Speaking of trackers, I remember many trouble while trying to build
Radium months ago. Building without the proprietary dependencies for VST
plugins would be even better, but don't know if it's possible. Maybe you
have some experience building Radium?