Questions & Answers

Can you please bring back SFZ file support in the new version of Presence XCT in Studio One 3.0?

+12 votes
2,644 views
asked Jun 28, 2016 in Studio One Feature Requests by markminassian (240 points)
I've seen this problem discussed on other forums. The common SFZ file format is is no longer supported in the new version of Presence XT in Studio One 3.0. Another user claimed he imported his setting from version 2 and was still able to use sfz files in the latest version of Presence. Others without that luxury are stuck looking for a plugin to handle them. It is still a common file type and see no reason to disable it's use in Presence. It should be a simple fix to bring back the feature. Bring it back.

5 Answers

+2 votes
answered Jul 4, 2016 by sirmonkey (2,730 points)

I agree 100%. However, I may have a work-around for you. You can download a free program called "Polyphone". Polyphone is used to create SF2 soundfonts, which do work in the new version of Presence. You can open your SFZ files with Polyphone, and simply save as SF2. Check it out here: http://www.polyphone.fr/index.php?lang=en&page=features

I have done this successfully a few times: I created a drum kit with the free "SfZed" program: Creating a brand new instrument is easier to do with SFZed than it is with Polyphone. However, once created, you can open the instrument with Polyphone, and tweak the instrument in any way that you like. *It seems to me that the Sf2 format will do everything that SFZed will do....and more.

Good luck! I'm hoping this works for you!

+1 vote
answered Jul 7, 2016 by j4ck fl4sh (620 points)
As sirmonkey says, Polyphone will convert SFZ to SF2 which should be more portable as the sounds are embedded in the SF2 instead of referenced by the SFZ file.

Enjoy!
+1 vote
answered Mar 31, 2017 by ShikiSuen (1,570 points)
edited Mar 31, 2017 by ShikiSuen
You said that the SFZ sample is editable by a text processor.

Here comes some intel which could help you manually convert your SFZ samples into Presence XT Editor presets:

1. You make a new instrument with random contents of new instrument zones. Then do not save the preset or patch BUT save your Studio One song file.

2. Copy the song file and rename the extension of the new file as *.zip format.

3. Use WinZip (available at Mac App Store) to open it, then find the preset file for the Presence XT Editor instance you added in your song, extract it.

4. You will find that this preset file (not like the typical presets saved by Studio One per plugin window) is written in an XML format, helping you engineer the content format.

5. You then will find a way to write a Presence XT Editor instrument definition preset file in XML.

================

Similarly, the Presence XT patches (*.soundx), if not password-protected, could also be extracted by WinZip. It consists of 3 xml definition files and all attached sample files. However, you couldn't install them back as "*.soundx" file. According to what I tested, a readable "*.soundx" patch file MUST be a "Presence XT Editor"-generated file intact with no external editings by other approaches.

# EOF.
+1 vote
answered Sep 19, 2017 by Marthins (300 points)
Hello, I am trying the StudioOne3, and my first disappointment has been seeing as not recognizing the SFZ format, I have seen that in programs like polyphone, you can load the SFZ and save it as SF2, for use in StudioOne3.
I've done all this, and yes, StudioOne3 recognizes the new SF2, but it does not sound, has anyone had the same problem ?.

I also do not understand how Presonus has stopped supporting this format.
0 votes
answered Feb 24, 2021 by javedmansur (170 points)

I think they removed sfz-support because these patches are very easy to edit and Presence XT with sfz-support was capable of playing user's 24-bit wav-files and thus, was more potent sampler than developers wanted it to be in free Prime.

All you have to do is choose a basic sfz-patch, locate the folder with the samples and copy these samples' names. After that just rename your wav-files by copy/paste patch names and replace original patch wav-files with your newly renamed wavs. Or you can just open sfz-file with Notepad and edit it like a regular text file, i.e., replacing the original sample names with the names of your personal samples.

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