Instruments, Samples, and Sound Effects

This is the central page where you can find sampled instruments, recorded snippets, sound effects, and other resources to help render your ideas and MIDI data to real audio output.

What are samples, sampled instruments, synthesizers, soundfonts, and samplers? How do they interact with sequencers and JACK? What is physical modelling?

Sound synthesis is the artificial generation of sound. It can be done via spectral or physical modelling. A synthesizer is a tool used for sound synthesis. Sound synthesis is not yet well-developed enough to realistically render orchestral pieces.

Sampling is the use of samples to produce audio. Samples are soundfiles of individual notes and articulations an acoustic instrument can produce. They serve as sources for sampled instruments, files a sampler can use as virtual instruments for sound production. Formats for sampled instruments, currently supported by LinuxSampler, include GIG, SF2, and SFZ. An SFZ instrument comes with samples separately (which is not the case with the GIG and SF2 formats). It instructs the sampler on how to utilize the samples. The term soundfont (or SoundFont) is associated with the SF2 format. Sampling is currently the only way to produce acceptable renditions of orchestral music.

LinuxSampler is presently the only sampler in Linux. However, Calfbox is another development in the works. See Soft Synths/Samplers for a list of tools.

A sequencer is tool for playing and manipulating note information, most commonly in MIDI form.

For more practical information, see Peter Schaffter's MuseScore tutorial, and another page in this wiki, The composer's toolbox.

What licenses can be expected? What is the “ideal” license for sampled instruments?

As it stands, most Linux users build their own ad-hoc collections by scavenging fragments from around the net. See the section How to create instruments below.

• Sf2Midi.com
• HammerSound

The sinfon36.sf2 soundfont (from Sf2Midi.com) might be the best free orchestral soundfont on the net. For playbacks of well-known classical pieces, check misterdls's SoundCloud page. The audio was produced simply with MuseScore and the sinfon36.sf2 soundfont.

The Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (SSO) is an SFZ orchestral sample library. It is currently the best open orchestral sample library - although there are a number of known issues with it. Unfortunately, it is not under development, and there is no structure put in place to help improve it. Mattias Westlund, the author, is only one person. A project like this requires collaborative effort.

There is a need in the Linux community for an open sample library. It is the missing link that hinders otherwise good tools, like LinuxSampler, from developing. What good is a sampler if there is no sample library?

Nils Gey's project is one such effort to fill in the void: https://github.com/nilsgey/sfz.

For an outdated list, see List of sample libraries at the LinuxSampler forum. Check also the Sample Libraries section of the same forum.

(Please note, it would be useful to have such information integrated and updated here.)

Digital Sound Factory offers sample libraries in 2 formats that can play on Linux:

• SoundFont (SF2)
• Cakewalk Dimension (SFZ)

Cakewalk Dimension is an SFZ player, and the files play on LinuxSampler.

Check their free example downloads.

Relevant forum discussion: Thousands of SFZ samples for LinuxSampler.

See Free audio data

See Soft Synths/Samplers.

This section provides unverified, unchecked links to other instruments. Warning: Most of the licenses are bad, and some downloads on collection sites are straightforward illegal. If there are instruments with good licenses around, we would like to integrate them here and mirror on our own download server: download.linuxaudio.org.

This section discusses tools, methods, and resources for the creation and editing of instruments.

• gigedit

• Swami
• Polyphone