Samplicity v0.5

Samplicity is a command line sample convertion tool created to transform .SFZ sample packs to .XI (Fasttracker 2 eXtended Instrument) format, supported by a number of music creation software. Designed to deal with SunVox music tracker.

Thanks to Alex Zolotov for help and materials.

If you encounter any problems — contact me here, on SoundCloud or just email me andrew.magalich@gmail.com

Changelog

v0.5 April 12th, 2014

Various WAV types support thanks to scikits.audiolab.SndFile (including 24bit!)
Runtime option "--play": play all samples converted
Runtime option "--verbose %": set output verbosity to % (0/1/2)
Excess samples are no longer added to resulting .XI file
New notice about omitted excess samples
Conversion speed increased dramatically
Case insensitive path matching to deal with SFZ-files created on different platforms

v0.4 September 27th, 2012

Added sample count constraint (no more than 128 per file) – -1 observed error
Moved temp files to system temp dir – job done clear now
Fixed envelope length and seconds-to-ticks conversion parameter — no more SunVox crashes

Disclaimer

Samplicity is in early beta status and does not support all features in intersection of .SFZ and .XI. Now it is tested only in SunVox tracker v1.6 and v1.7.2 with 59 sample packs (in 16bit format) I've got.

Crashes of SunVox are known to me for wrongly encoded .XI-instruments, so you should save your files every time before loading an instrument

But what the hell! It helped me to write some songs!

Formats

eXtended Instrument

This format was created in 1990's for DOS music tracker called Fasttracker 2. It's binary, old and rusty, but still useful.

SFZ

Open format by Cakewalk company. Designed for creation in notepad. Sample pack contains .sfz textfile and a number of samples nearby. So, you can create your sample pack without any specific software. See more here

Usage

Samplicity is written in python v2.7.3. To use this tool Python v2.7+ should be installed on your computer.

Installation

It is highly recommended to use pip for installation because manual installation can be rather complicated

Pip installation docs

If you have pip, you can just

pip install samplicity

To manually install this package, simply download and run in its directory:

python setup.py install

Now you're ready to use Samplicity! Try:

samplicity

Sample convertion

To convert single sample pack, navigate in terminal/bash/commandline to sample pack folder and run the following command:

python samplicity "<SAMPLE PACK NAME>.sfz"

If python is installed, path to samplicity is right and sample pack is a valid .SFZ file, you'll see something like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Converting " Keys - Grand Piano.sfz "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
////////// Notice: some regions are overlapping and would be overwritten
c1, c#1, d1, d#1, e1, f1, f#1, g1, g#1, a1, a#1, b1, c2, c#2, d2, d#2, e2, f2,
f#2, g2, g#2, a2, a#2, b2, c3, c#3, d3, d#3, e3, f3, f#3, g3, g#3, a3, a#3, b3,
c4, c#4, d4, d#4, e4, f4, f#4, g4, g#4, a4, a#4, b4, c5, c#5, d5, d#5, e5, f5,
f#5, g5, g#5, a5, a#5, b5, c6, c#6, d6, d#6, e6, f6, f#6, g6, g#6, a6, a#6, b6,
c7, c#7, d7, d#7, e7, f7, f#7, g7, g#7, a7, a#7, b7
////////// Notice: some notes are out of range and ignored
c8
////////// Notice: some regions are not used, skipping:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,
23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29

29 samples, 54225 kB written during 0.347247 seconds

1 files converted in 0.352371 seconds

You can control verbosity of output using --verbose command:

$ samplicity Keys\ -\ Grand\ Piano.sfz --force --verbose 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Converting " Keys - Grand Piano.sfz "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

29 samples, 54225 kB written during 0.35783 seconds

1 files converted in 0.362867 seconds

$ samplicity Keys\ -\ Grand\ Piano.sfz --force --verbose 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Converting " Keys - Grand Piano.sfz "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
////////// Notice: some regions are overlapping and would be overwritten
c1, c#1, d1, d#1, e1, f1, f#1, g1, g#1, a1, a#1, b1, c2, c#2, d2, d#2, e2, f2,
f#2, g2, g#2, a2, a#2, b2, c3, c#3, d3, d#3, e3, f3, f#3, g3, g#3, a3, a#3, b3,
c4, c#4, d4, d#4, e4, f4, f#4, g4, g#4, a4, a#4, b4, c5, c#5, d5, d#5, e5, f5,
f#5, g5, g#5, a5, a#5, b5, c6, c#6, d6, d#6, e6, f6, f#6, g6, g#6, a6, a#6, b6,
c7, c#7, d7, d#7, e7, f7, f#7, g7, g#7, a7, a#7, b7
////////// Notice: some notes are out of range and ignored
c8
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-c1.wav " 1493336 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-d#1.wav " 1516008 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-f#1.wav " 1509820 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-a1.wav " 1498120 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-c2.wav " 1481792 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-d#2.wav " 1449812 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-f#2.wav " 1439776 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-a2.wav " 1417312 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-c3.wav " 1261156 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-d#3.wav " 1303952 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-f#3.wav " 1243268 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-a3.wav " 1182584 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-c4.wav " 1153464 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-d#4.wav " 1079780 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-f#4.wav " 1025388 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-a4.wav " 953004 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-c5.wav " 918164 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-d#5.wav " 840008 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-f#5.wav " 753584 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-a5.wav " 698204 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-c6.wav " 676156 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-d#6.wav " 573092 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-f#6.wav " 512252 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-a6.wav " 425984 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-c7.wav " 404128 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-d#7.wav " 270348 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-f#7.wav " 246012 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-a7.wav " 224744 kB
* pcm16 stereo sample " samples/grand piano/piano-p-c8.wav " 211276 kB
////////// Notice: some regions are not used, skipping:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,
23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29

29 samples, 54225 kB written during 0.346783 seconds

1 files converted in 0.351817 seconds

Batch conversion

To convert more than one .SFZ file you can specify as many arguments to Samplicity as you want. Or even use a wildcard

samplicity "<SAMPLE 1>.sfz" "<SAMPLE 2>.sfz" "<SAMPLE 3>.sfz"
samplicity *.sfz

Reconversion

If there is corresponding to your sample pack .XI file, Samplicity won't convert it again. To force reconversion, add --force attribute:

samplicity "<SAMPLE NAME>.sfz" --force

Package

Repository contains:

samplicity.py
xi_reader.py — tool to verify your .XI if something went wrong. Usage: python "<PATH TO SAMPLICITY FOLDER>/xi_reader.py" "<SAMPLE NAME>.xi". It will show you full info, contained in .XI file (but not samples binary data). It is useful for bugtrack.
xi_specs.txt — specifications of eXtended Instrument edited and improved a bit. Thanks Alex Zolotov
Cakewalk DevXchange - Specifications - sfz File Format.pdf — specifications of .SFZ saved from Cakewalk website.

Notices and errors

Notice: some notes are out of range and ignored — .XI supports only 96 notes from C0 to B7, so some notes in your sample pack cannot fit in this range. Consider editing .SFZ file.
Notice: some regions are overlapping and would be overwritten — .SFZ format supports velocity maps. But .XI doesn't. Consider splitting your .SFZ file into separate files. For example, I've got Grand Piano (Piano).sfz and Grand Piano (Forte).sfz
Notice: some samples are not used, skipping – Some SFZ-regions did not make it to the final key mapping, so they will be skipped to reduce the file size
Too long envelope, shrinked to 512 — .XI does not support envelopes longer than 512 ticks (~10.24 seconds), so you instrument envelope was modified to fit this range
Too many samples in file — .XI does not support more than 128 samples in instrument. Consider splitting your file or removing some.

ckald / Samplicity

readme