sfz toolbox readme

1. Introduction 
2. Installation
3. Features
4. Usage
5. Known problems, missing bits, and so on
6. todo, planned features

1. Introduction:
This toolbox can be used to build a new sfz file from scratch. It lets you access (almost) all of the sfz opcodes through conviniently designed dialog boxes. The opcodes are grouped in a sensible way to facilitate the most common tasks like creation of keyboard splits or velocity layers for example.
The user only needs to insert the desired values while the macro takes care of the sfz syntax. There has even some limited value checking been implemented to help avoid errors that might otherwise happen by oversight.

2. Installation: 
(1) Install notetab 6 (free, std or pro. Any of the versions will do)
    http://www.notetab.com
    http://www.fookes.com/ftp/free/ntfree.zip
(2) copy sfz-toolbox.clb and sfz-toolbox.exe from this zip archive to 
    the Notetab\Libraries\ folder
(3) copy sfz.tpl to the Notetab\Templates\ folder.
(4) for auditioning you will need the sfz sample player. 
    It is freely available from: 
    http://www.cakewalk.com/support/project5/sfz.aspx


3. Features:
- load currently edited sfz file in the sfz sample player
- audition audio files (by selecting the sample=../audio/file opcode)
- create new instrument definition 
- add sample reference (use existing samples)
- add sample reference (create copy of sample in new subfolder)
- create keysplit
- create velocity layer
- create Midi CC layer
- create envelopes and LFOs 
  (all envelope or LFO parameters in one dialog)
- help on all macros is now available
- ...

4. Usage:
Start Notetab. The sfz toolbox is now available from the Libraries bar at the bottom of the main window. Use the "View > Libraries Bar" menu command in case the bar is not visible.
After clicking the sfz toolbox button in the libraries bar the clip library will show up as a column at the left side of the document view. Double click a clip name to start the macro.
The sfz toolbox combines all the relevant parameters for a certain task within a single dialog box. 
- After calling the desired Dialog box the parameter values can be filled in easily. 
- Opcode parameters that are not required are simply left blank. 
  A parameter field that is empty will not produce an output.
- press the shift key while doubleclicking the clip name to get help on the topic.


5. Known problems, missing bits, and so on:
- Make sure that the sample file path does not contain blank spaces. 
  Otherwise the audio files might not be found. 

- the sfz toolbox tries to correct minor problems like swapped lo and hi values. This does unfortunately only work with numbers and not with note names. For this reason midi note input is restricted to note numbers only. Note name input may be enabled in a future version of the toolbox.

- The sfz toolbox is not really good at editing existing sfz files. It can be used best for building new sfz instrument definitions. 
The editing of an existing sfz file can be a bit clumsy since the toolbox can not parse the contents of the sfz file. So if You fix something in a group or region make sure that this does not get in conflict with the settings that are present on the underlying region or overlying group paragraph.

6. todo, planned features:
- nicer dialogs for envelopes splits and lfos
- I'll probaly use Scite or another scintilla based editor insted of notetab for future versions.
- access to toolbox macros through hotkeys user configurable
- macro to edit sfz/microhost registry settings
- chm help file

I hope You find the sfz toolbox useful. If You happen to create something worthwhile using this macro collection I would be pleased to know about it:

Andreas Sumerauer

mailto:info@soundbytes.de
http://www.soundbytes.de/
________________________________________________________
NoteTab is a trademark of Fookes Software, Switzerland 
sfz  is property Cakewalk Software.
