peastman / sso

Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra

Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (SSO) is a free library of sampled orchestral instruments. The original version was created by Mattias Westlund in 2011, and quickly earned a following for its excellent quality and wide selection of instruments. This repository hosts the ongoing development of the library. Mattias is no longer directly involved (although he has given his permission for continuing to develop it) and has not personally reviewed all of the changes. In other words, don't email him with questions about it!

Download SSO

The instruments are packaged in SFZ format. They can be used with any compatible player. They are tested on Sforzando and sfizz. Other players often have less complete support for the format, so some features may not work correctly on them.

Instruments

SSO includes the following instruments and articulations:

Strings

Instrument	Articulations
1st Violins	Sustain, Marcato, Staccato, Legato, Pizzicato, Tremolo, Harmonics
2nd Violins	Sustain, Marcato, Staccato, Legato, Pizzicato, Tremolo, Harmonics
Violas	Sustain, Marcato, Staccato, Legato, Pizzicato, Tremolo, Harmonics
Cellos	Sustain, Marcato, Staccato, Legato, Pizzicato, Tremolo, Harmonics
Basses	Sustain, Marcato, Staccato, Legato, Pizzicato, Tremolo
Solo Violin 1	Sustain (non-looped, looped), Marcato (non-looped, looped), Spiccato, Legato
Solo Violin 2	Sustain, Sustain non-vibrato, Marcato, Marcato non-vibrato, Spiccato, Legato, Legato non-vibrato, Pizzicato, Tremolo
Solo Cello	Sustain (non-looped, looped), Legato

Brass

Instrument	Articulations
Trumpets	Sustain (looped, non-looped), Marcato (looped, non-looped), Staccato, Legato
French Horns	Sustain, Marcato, Staccato, Legato
Trombones	Sustain (looped, non-looped), Marcato (looped, non-looped), Staccato, Legato
Tuba	Sustain (looped, non-looped), Marcato (looped, non-looped), Staccato, Legato
Solo Trumpet	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo French Horn	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Tenor Trombone	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Bass Trombone	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato

Woodwinds

Instrument	Articulations
Flutes	Sustain (looped, non-looped), Marcato (looped, non-looped), Staccato, Legato
Oboes	Sustain (looped, non-looped), Legato
Clarinets	Sustain (looped, non-looped), Legato
Bassoons	Sustain (looped, non-looped), Legato
Solo Piccolo	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Flute 1	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Flute 2	Sustain, Sustain non-vibrato, Staccato, Legato, Legato non-vibrato
Solo Alto Flute	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Cor Anglais	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Oboe	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Clarinet	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Bass Clarinet	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Bassoon	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato
Solo Contrabassoon	Sustain (non-looped, looped, decay), Legato

Pitched Percussion

Instrument	Variations
Timpani	Right hand hits, Left hand hits, Rolls
Glockenspiel	-
Xylophone	-
Chimes	-

Percussion

Instrument	Variations
Bass Drum	Soft hit, Hard hit
Snare Drum	Left hand hit, Right hand hit, Roll
Cymbals	Hit, 4 Rolls
Conga	Muffled, Open, Slap
Bar Chimes	3 Variations
Tamtam	3 Variations
Triangle	Mute, Half-open, Open, Roll
Tambourine	Soft hit, Hard hit, Shake, Roll
Wood Blocks	High, Low
Cabasa	2 Variations
Shaker	3 Variations
Sleigh Bells	Soft hit, Hard hit
Castanets	2 Variations
Ratchet	-
Vibraslap	-
Bell Tree	-

Miscellaneous

Instrument	Variations
Grand Piano	-
Concert Harp	-
Chorus	Mixed, Large
Harpsichord	4', 8', Full

Instruments with multiple articulations are packaged in two ways. Use whichever one is more convenient for your workflow.

• As a separate SFZ instrument for each articulation.
• As a keyswitched instrument with all articulations in a single file. You can switch between articulations by pressing keys outside the range of the instrument.

Most solo instruments have three versions:

• A non-looped version that simply plays each sample once. This gives the most natural sound, but sets a strict limit on how long any note can be held.
• A looped version that can be held indefinitely, but sounds less natural than the non-looped version.
• A looped version that adds a gradual decay and gentle modulation. This tries to give a more natural sound than the simple looped version, but still not place a strict limit on how long notes can be held.

There are two different solo violin instruments, and likewise two different solo flutes. In each case, one of the two instruments has the standard three versions listed above. The other has many more articulations, but does not offer a looped version. The sustained notes are held long enough that the lack of looping is usually not a problem.

Many instruments are provided in separate "notation" and "performance" versions. They differ in how they are controlled.

• Notation instruments use a control system convenient for use in notation programs.
  • All instruments use velocity to set the volume.
  • Marcato articulations use the mod wheel (MIDI control channel 1) to adjust the strength of the initial attack. This lets you smoothly blend between a gentle sustain and a strong marcato.
• Performance instruments are better for use in live performance.
  • Long articulations use the mod wheel (MIDI control channel 1) to set the volume. This allows you to continuously shape each note. Many long articulations also use velocity to control the attack rate.
  • Marcato articulations use the mod wheel to set the overall volume and velocity to control the strength of the initial attack.
  • Short articulations use velocity to set the volume.

Here are definitions of the most common articulations.

Sustain: This produces long notes, often with a gentle attack. The sound continues as long as you hold the note down (or for non-looped versions, until the end of the sample is reached). In many cases, the attack rate can be controlled with key velocity.

Marcato: This is similar to sustain, but with an accented attack at the beginning. The strength of the attack can be controlled with key velocity (for performance instruments) or the mod wheel (for notation instruments).

Staccato: Short, strongly accented notes.

Legato: This is a monophonic articulation: the instrument can only play one note at a time. If you press a new note before releasing the previous one, it smoothly transitions between them with no break in the sound. On some instruments this is typically described as "slurred" rather than "legato", but for consistency all instruments use the same name for corresponding articulations.

Pizzicato: The player plucks the string with their finger instead of using the bow.

Tremolo: More precisely, this is an unmeasured tremolo. All the musicians in the section move their bows back and forth over the string as quickly as possible, not trying to synchronize with each other. The result is a pulsing, shimmering sound.

Harmonics: More precisely, this is the playing technique known as "artificial harmonics". The player lightly touches their finger to a point one quarter of the way along the free part of the string. This suppresses many of the vibrational frequencies, leading to a note two octaves higher than written with a thin, ghostly sound.

Technical Details

All samples are stereo, 16 bit, 44 kHz. Most instruments are sampled in minor 3rds. Staccato and pizzicato articulations use 2x round robin.

Most samples have only a small amount of reverb baked into them, so adding a realistic reverb is important for producing a good overall sound. Given that the samples came from a variety of different sources, this is also important for making them sound like a unified orchestra.

License

SSO may be used and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 license.

Mattias Westlund included the following statement with SSO 1.0 regarding the sources and licensing of the samples:

SSO was created from the following free/CC-licensed/public domain instrument samples: The University of Iowa MIS, MSLP, Philharmonia samples, OLPC project, The Complete K2000, ldk1609 violin, stamperadam Kelon Xylophone, Corsica_S Cello Pizzicato, davidjwoll cymbal rolls, Satoration Castanets, Thores Triangle, Mystified 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 different people and included in countless GM banks and other soundfont compilations over the last decade, I'm assuming that they are to be considered public domain 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.

Related Projects

SSO was the first high quality, free orchestral library. More recently, a few others have become available. Each one has its own sound, so try them all out.

• Virtual Playing Orchestra
• Versilian Studios Chamber Orchestra Community Edition
• BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover Edition

sso's Issues

License change

SSO currently uses proprietary license called CC-Sampling-Plus. Since Matthias no longer maintains SSO, maybe he can change the license to something free such as CC-BY or CC-BY-SA?

Also, the sources of the files are not clear and if some original files are CC-BY-SA (which falls under "CC-licensed") then Matthias doesn't have permission to relicense them as CC-Sampling-Plus.

Some SFZs not working on Linux due to case sensitivity

Some paths in SFZ files are in all lower cases while the real path contains capital letters. To reproduce, try loading Brass - Bass Trombone Solo KS.sfz in Carla 2.2.0 on Linux.

sso/Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra/Brass - Bass Trombone Solo KS.sfz

Line 19 in 04c387f

sample=samples\bass trombone\bass_trombone-e1.wav

Add warning to readme about bad license

Currently, the license conditions cannot be met, which means those with power of attorney can sue anyone who uses the samples. This has been explained in two other issues: #4 and #1.

The problem

The license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling+/1.0/legalcode.en) has conditions that can't be reasonably met, and which pose a massive legal risk to those who use the work. Here are the main reasons.

Prohibition on advertising

All advertising and promotional uses are excluded from the above rights, except for advertisement and promotion of the Derivative Work(s) that You are creating from the Work and Yourself as the author thereof.

If you use SSO to make some music, and you put that on your bandcamp, and you have other music on your profile that doesn't use SSO, you are advertising it with SSO derivative works and are in breach of the license. If you use SSO to make some music, and then you post that on your youtube channel, and you have other random videos on your channel, you are in breach. If you play music created with SSO while streaming on twitch or making a video on youtube or doing a podcast, with a banner or a product review or a paid promotion, you are in breach. Any use of music made with SSO that isn't on a blank webpage with no links and no information given about the artist, could be considered a breach. It all depends on what a judge defines "advertising" as.

Attribution and Notice

If You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work or any Derivative 
Works or Collective Works, You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and give the Original 
Author credit reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing by conveying the name (or pseudonym 
if applicable) of the Original Author if supplied; the title of the Work if supplied; to the extent reasonably 
practicable, provide the Uniform Resource Identifier, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the 
Work or a Derivative Work, unless such Uniform Resource Identifier does not refer to the copyright notice 
or licensing information for the Work; and in the case of a Derivative Work, provide a credit identifying the 
use of the Work in the Derivative Work (e.g., "Remix of the Work by Original Author," or "Inclusion of a 
portion of the Work by Original Author in collage"). Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable 
manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Derivative Work or Collective Work, at a minimum such 
credit will appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as 
prominent as such other comparable authorship credit. 

"Derivative Works" and "Work" are mixed all together in this, so it's vague as to what you need to do, but here we go.

You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties

This means a license.txt must go with the music, but that means if it gets separated you could still be in hot water. Then there's metadata, but that's not "keeping intact all notices" now is it.

The rest is basically indecipherable because it's just a giant list of conditions mixed with alternatives, so you'll need to read it all. The gist though is you need to display (any, in order of priority)

Name or pseudonym of SSO (including later contributors..?), title of the Work

and

Uniform Resource Identifier (NOT defined anywhere in the license, we have to assume URL)

Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable manner

There is no reasonable manner, this license is broken. Does this mean putting the credit on your music page but NOT in the music meta / folder is acceptable?

What to do then?

I suggest, that until someone finds out exactly where all the samples came from and recreate the SFZs under a permissive and not broken license, a warning is added to the readme to warn people of the license issues. These are not paranoid speculation, but represent real potential future legal threats to the users of the samples. You can argue all you like that "the people behind it are in good faith and won't sue you" sure, but that doesn't mean you're not vulnerable, with a threat hanging over your music forever. You can still be extorted for example if the power of attorney is passed to an heir or other party, and they notice you're making lots of money off your music or something. A possible warning could be:

Warning regarding copyright

The license in this project has been retired by Creative Commons, and poses some legal problems to people using the samples and plugins. Even though litigation over this is astronomically unlikely due to the good faith of the creators of the work, caution should be taken and the license should be read and understood before making a decision to distribute music made using the works.

this library doesn't provide neither easy nor copyright-safe usage

as per #1 , sampling+ is a bad license choice , but perhaps even more importantly there is no easy way to use it . there is no single complete list of contributors that needed to be attributed per license requirement in every song that uses these samples ; failing to do so exposes one to law-suites (however good-willed original authors of samples were , their heirs might be a different story and with current fucked up copyright laws you'll only get in the clear 70+ years later) at any moment . furthermore , any changes made after initial release by original author violate sampling+ license , and by proxy would any composition using them (even if some form of attribution given is deemed acceptable) . i'm not a lawyer , so i'm not sure if these violations can be prosecuted without authors' consent , but again , their "intellectual property" heirs may decide it's worth extorting billions dollars from free culture enthusiasts

High pass filter cutoff value cuts out Celli sustain

The cutoff value for the high-pass filter on the Celli sustained instrument is wrong. This causes no audio to render. Removing the filter entirely works, but I'm not sure what value you were actually going for. Also seems to be wrong on the KS version.