Subject:Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Posted by: iain_m

Date:4/15/2011 10:29:57 AM

Hi all,

I'd like to sample from a VST instrument and am wondering if this is possible using the "Sampler" in Sound Forge 10 Pro.

I've been reading the manual and can see there are some details about using this with hardware samplers, but the exact process -- and whether it could work with software synths -- seems obscure.

With a hardware sampler, how does the MIDI-triggered playback get recorded into Sound Forge? (The sampler dialogue itself gives no options for audio input.) Is there a way of doing something similar with a software instrument, either as a standalone application or a plug-in within a host?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: musicvid10

Date:4/15/2011 12:46:36 PM

Sound Forge is an audio workstation.
Look at the companion software Acid for midi instrument support.

All you could do in SF is record an analog line out from an external HW or SW synth

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: iain_m

Date:4/15/2011 1:49:39 PM

Thanks for the reply. I already have a DAW which I use to host VST instruments when composing.

The issue is that a DAW is not very suitable for automated sampling of each note of a VST instrument.

From what I can see, the "Sampler" tool in Sound Forge does send MIDI to trigger samples. So I'm curious as to whether I could get this to talk to a VST instrument (via some kind of MIDI port routing?) just like an external synth.

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: jackn2mpu

Date:4/18/2011 9:33:06 AM

I have SF9 and can't send MIDI from it, but then again, with a daw like Sonar, why would I want to?

Seriously - why would you even want to sample a vst instrument? If you want to play a vst instrument (properly called a vi or virtual instrument) live you just lower your latency as far as it can go without crackles or pops and play away. Plenty of musicians do that in a computer-based live setup.

Jack

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: iain_m

Date:4/18/2011 10:16:51 AM

Hello,

I'm developing a sample library and I want to include some sounds generated with VST instruments.

In any case, I did some internet searching about the meaning of "SMDI or SDS capable sampler" specified in the SF Sampler dialogue. In brief, these do involve SF sending MIDI signals, but only using specific "sample dump" protocols. VST instruments won't respond to these.

(I had initially thought that the Sampler played a scale of notes over MIDI and recorded the results, but this isn't the case.)

There's a fuller description of SMDI and SDS here:
http://www.spsamplesite.com/HTMLobj-27/Discription_of_SMDI.htm

Regards,
iain

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: jackn2mpu

Date:4/19/2011 6:10:04 AM

What you are wanting to do would be illegal according to most EULA's (end user licensing agreements). You would have to get permission from the people that developed the vst instrument (again more properly called a vi or virtual instrument), such as if say you were going to use sounds from NI's Absynth program. This would be the same thing as a sample library not being able to be used in a sample set an end user would be developing - you see that kind of restriction in the licensing agreement.

Jack

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: iain_m

Date:4/19/2011 11:43:32 AM

It's not against an EULA to sample sounds synthesised from scratch.

However, resampling samples (which is not what I'm doing) would go against most an EULAs.

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:4/19/2011 3:26:41 PM

You could use a 'Record What You Hear" setting on soundcard mixer applet if is has one. Alternatively use an audio loopback driver like VAC [link]http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm .

But you'd need to manually trigger the VSTi notes.

geoff

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: iain_m

Date:4/20/2011 3:38:04 AM

Thanks for the tip!

It looks like Chainer is the answer (http://www.xlutop.com/html/chainer.html). Unfortunately it's not been developed for years, but it still works (for now...) so this is an easier solution than triggering the notes manually.

Thanks, all, for the posts.

Subject:RE: Sampling a VST instrument w/SF Pro 10 - possible?

Reply by: granted

Date:6/18/2011 4:03:44 PM

I use Extreme Sample Converter (ESC). It's great! Not really an answer to your questions about using SF Pro 10 but it works great and is still in development.