Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

a creative commons-licensed orchestral sample library

download | user forum | mp3 demo
about
Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra is a free orchestral sample library. While not as a
dvanced or ambitious in scope as commercial offerings, SSO contains all the basi
c building blocks for creating real virtual orchestrations. It's primarily aimed
at beginners, but also more experienced composers looking for something lightwe
ight and/or portable might find it useful.
format
SSO comes in sfz format, which is a powerful, open, non-monolithic sample format
. It consists of a plain text file with an sfz extension that holds all sample p
layback parameters, and a set of sound samples in wave format which are referenc
ed by the sfz file. This means that sfz files can be edited with any plain text
editor, and the samples can be edited with any audio editor that loads wave file
s.
compatibility
Many samplers allow you to load sfz files, but few support all the format's feat
ures. SSO works properly on Cakewalk Dimension Pro/LE, ARIA Engine, and the free
SFZ Player. The library has also been tested on Shorcircuit 1, discoDSP HighLif
e and WusikStation 6, all of which appear to have very poor sfz support and are
not recommended.
samples
The SSO samples are stereo, 16 bit, 44kHz. Melodic instruments and chromatic per
cussion are sampled in minor 3rds. Staccato/pizzicato patches have 2x round-robi
n. All samples have varying amounts of stage ambience, depending on their front-
to-back placement, but in addition to that a good hall reverb is a must.
licensing
SSO is a free (as in speech, and beer) library released under the Creative Commo
ns Sampling Plus 1.0 license.
sections and instruments
Below is the instrument selection in SSO 1.0. Samples marked with an * are consi
dered sub-par and will be replaced in future revisions (if possible).
strings articulations
16 violins (1st) sustain, staccato, pizzicato
12 violins (2nd) sustain, staccato, pizzicato
11 violas sustain*, pizzicato
10 celli sustain, staccato, pizzicato
8 basses sustain, staccato, pizzicato
1 concert harp pluck
1 solo violin sustain
1 solo cello sustain*
brass articulations
3 trumpets sustain, staccato
4 horns sustain, staccato
3 trombones sustain, staccato
1 tuba sustain, staccato
1 solo trumpet sustain
1 solo horn sustain
1 solo tenor trombone sustain
1 solo bass trombone sustain
woodwinds articulations
3 flutes sustain, staccato
3 clarinets sustain
3 oboes sustain
3 bassoons sustain
1 piccolo flute sustain*
1 solo flute sustain
1 solo alto flute sustain
1 solo clarinet sustain
1 solo bass clarinet sustain
1 solo oboe sustain
1 solo cor anglais sustain
1 solo bassoon sustain
1 solo contrabassoon sustain
keys articulations
grand piano -
chorus articulations
male chorus sustain
female chorus sustain
chromatic percussion articulations
timpani left hand/right hand hits, rolls
glockenspiel -
xylophone -
chimes -
percussion articulations
bass drum soft/hard hit
snare drum left hand/right hand hits, roll
cymbals 4 rolls, 1 hit
conga muffled, open, slap
bar chimes 3 variations
tamtam 3 variations
triangle mute, half-open, open, roll
tambourine soft/hard hit, shake, roll
wood blocks high, low
cabasa 2 variations
shaker 3 variations
sleigh bells soft/hard hit
castanets 2 variations
ratchet -
vibraslap -
bell tree -
sources
SSO was created from the following free/CC-licensed/public domain instrument sam
ples: The University of Iowa MIS, MSLP, Philharmonia samples, OLPC project, The
Complete K2000, ldk1609 violin, stamperadam Kelon Xylophone, Corsica_S Cello Piz
zicato, davidjwoll cymbal rolls, Satoration Castanets, Thores Triangle, Mystifie
d timpani, Eddie's English Horn and a variety of classic soundfonts by Campbell
Barton, Nando Florestan and Ethan Winer.
In the case of a few very old soundfonts I have no idea who the original authors
were or what licensing might apply. But as these files have been modified by di
fferent people and included in countless GM banks and other soundfont compilatio
ns over the last decade, I'm assuming that they are to be considered public doma
in or at least free to use for sampling projects.
I have done my very best to avoid samples of questionable legality, but as it is
impossible for me to know the exact origin of everything (i.e. I have no way of
knowing if a soundfont labeled as "public domain" isn't actually sampled from a
proprietary source), I would appreciate if you let me know if you find anything
fishy.
faq (fully anticipated questions)
How was the library created?
As I don't have a real orchestra to sample, I settled for building virtual secti
ons from solo instruments. For this I used the sfz+ soundfont player. Some secti
ons were subtly layered with synths (ZebraCM, Synth1) for added lushness. The se
ctions were then placed in an artificial space using LiquidSonics Reverberate an
d a scoring stage IR from Samplicity's Bricasti M7 library. The instrument range
s were rendered at highest possible quality, split up into individual notes, nor
malized and then mapped as sfz files. The programs used were Cockos REAPER, Stei
nberg Wavelab 4, sfZed and Metapad.
Why no chromatic multisamples?
While it would certainly be possible to render and map all sections chromaticall
y, it would mean a marginal increase in quality at the price of a tripled file s
ize. I simply didn't think it was worth it, as any good sampler will be able to
stretch a sample one semitone up and down without any significant sound degradat
ion. Also, many of the instruments were not chromatically sampled to begin with.
Why no velocity layers/additional articulations?
Very few free samples come in different velocities, and I deemed it better to fo
rego velocity layers completely than to have it on a few sections and not the ot
hers. As for articulations, I have done what I could with the samples I had to w
ork with. Some section staccatos were possible to fake with truncated sustain sa
mples and some layering/doubling voodoo, others were not.
Why 16 bit and not 24?
First of all, SSO has no ultra-soft velocity layers that might require a lower n
oise floor so the benefits of distributing the samples as 24 bits are debatable.
Secondly, SFZ Player doesn't like 24 bit samples so it's a question of compatib
ility as well. Having said that, all samples were of course rendered and edited
in 24 bits and if there's interest I might release a 24 bit version later on.
Why loops on some sections and not others?
Only sections that can sustain indefinitely have loops, i.e. strings. Sustained
brass and winds have a a set duration, just like in reality.
Why are some solo samples so short?
An aesthetic choice, plain and simple. In my opinion, nothing ruins the expressi
veness and realism of a solo instrument more than a looped vibrato. A short note
with a natural decay is much preferable to a looped one, even though it does li
mit the usefulness of the solo instruments somewhat.
Why are some solo instruments missing?
Because I have not been able to find any samples of good enough quality in the f
ree realm.
What about different sample formats?
Other formats (e.g. Kontakt, Gigastudio) might be made available later on, provi
ded that someone offers to convert/test/tweak everything, as I have no way of do
ing this myself.
contributing
If you would like to contribute to this project, there are several things you co
uld do. 1) Make sure to report any bugs you may find so that they can be fixed.
2) Http mirrors of the download would be very welcome, so that's something to co
nsider if you have web space and bandwidth to spare. 3) If you make any cool cus
tom patches, please submit them! 4) More demos for showcasing the library are ne
eded, so if you compose something nice with SSO I'd love to hear it. 5)
If you have any samples that you think would be a good addition to the project,
please bear in mind that I can only accept material released under a compatible
license, i.e. free for reuse/modification/distribution. So, "I found these files
on the net" isn't going to cut it. I will need some hard facts on where the sam
ples are from and how they may be used.
bug reports and feedback
If you want to report bugs, ask questions or simply discuss the project in gener
al, please join the SSO User Forum.
credits
A big thanks to Lender, crisis-at-music, Sheppola, MusicMan74, Third Son, keys,
bystrano, Serenitynow, chip mcdonald, rosleck and richie43 for beta testing. Th
anks also to marce and Matthias King for providing samples and valuable feedback
. Finally a tip of the hat to zakk for looping the section strings and saving me
some gray hairs.
***