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Decent Sampler
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I'm a follower of the Pianobook free sampled instruments (I've tried a few in AudioLayer, but had to adjust things after importing) and noticed they converted a lot to Decent Sampler format, which I'd never heard of...then noticed there's an iOS app!
I've ready through the main Decent Sampler thread on this forum, but could quite figure out the specific steps to download and then install a Pianobook instrument on Decent Sampler app.
Can anyone elaborate?
Thanks!
Comments
The pianobook.co.uk site has added a "DecentSampler" option to expose downloadable
zip's for this Sampler. You need to create an account to download the zip file packages.
After downloading you need to up zip the files into a folder. Then using the files app go into that folder and look for a "dspreset" file to click on. Clicking on it will load the instrument and
often expose a menu of presets to choose to install. As i recall, you need to save the instrument inside DecentSample to skip the need to click on the *.dspreset file every time.
Inside DecentSampler there will be a list of previously saved instruments.
NOTE: The DecentSampler developer has created a default option to expose instruments he has created that are for sale. The Piano Book instruments are all free and need to be download as stated above from that site. The DecentSampler developer has not made that process any easier since he gets his revenue from giving away the app and selling instruments he has made. I have several dozen instruments all from Piano Book.
DecentSampler has scalability issues as do most AUv3 samplers... but for some interesting and reasonable quality instruments it's a nice option to have in your toolkit. The number of
DecentSampler downloadable instruments at Piano Book has been growing quickly. The bulk of instruments on Piano Book are in Native Instruments Kontakt (which doesn't offer an IOS option), EXS24 and SFZ packages but the free sampler is getting traction.
Thanks for the reply. Let me make sure I'm understanding correctly.
If you click on a downloaded zip file in the files app it will unzip into a folder in that location.
So, my "downloads" folder as configured in Safari is where all my unzipped folder live.
You could elect to move the zip to a specific local or iCloud location and NOT use Downloads.
Your choice. Where ever you finally click on the *.dspreset (or *.dsinstrument?) file it will
install an instrument into the app.
I think there's also a *.dsinstrument file type that also triggers a DecentSampler start and upload process.
Got it! Thank you.
Will try later after work
Is DS any more stable on an iPad Pro or similar high powered device? I have an iPad 6th gen (2018), and ended up deleting the thing as it seemed to have more bugs than a tramp's hammock. Multiple crashes while importing libraries, multiple crashes of the AUv3 while reloading AUM projects with it included, and if the AUM projects load then DS usually doesn’t load the patches it should, so you end up reloading all the instances manually every time you open the project. When it worked the sounds were nice, but it was seriously bad for my wellbeing. It’s not often I give an app a 1-star review, but this one drove me to it with the incessant problems.
Awesome. thanks @McD i was putting this very thing off. Not for any reason, just was. I Recently re-downloaded the app, and was going to try it, so the timing of this thread is almost too perfect. It’s a sign. Lol.
M1 iPad Pro user, and sorry, the answer is no. I’ve experienced most of the issues you mentioned. There have been a few updates lately that have improved things somewhat, but it’s still very hit-and-miss with loading patches.
I got into this when it first came out but gave up as it was too buggy on my Air 2.
Doug's video is probably worth taking a look at. From memory I think he talks about downloading and installing the various instruments:
AudioLayer is far from perfect but it's the best we've got right now when it comes to AUv3 samplers. The bundled orchestral library is also far from perfect, but it does have some very usable instruments and articulations. But you will need recent hardware to get the best out of AudioLayer with larger instrument libraries.
I’m torn, because AudioLayer seems finicky, particularly when importing stuff like EXS24 instruments, whereas DecentSampler, when it actually loads its instruments, just does its thing in its barebones way.
I love that there’s a growing selection of stuff for DS in Pianobook, and now that the site has updated its tagging to make that DS instruments more searchable, that’s an added bonus. I wish it felt more native, though. And, you know, worked consistently.
In my experience (basic Ipad 8th gen) the main issue is simply a limit with how many RAM Audio Units are allowed.
It's quite important to set your preferences right. In the file menu, open the preferences, go to Engine and check "Disk streaming" (not auto, not RAM). This will reduce the footprint on RAM. Now try to lower the Buffer size. Mine are set to 28672.
With this in place and by avoiding too large sound libraries, I get pretty stable results. But the more you'll add instruments to AUM, the more DecentSampler will be limited in RAM. After some time, it will give you a warning that the system forced it to reduce its RAM footprint, hence unloading your sound. Just reload your library and you should be done.
For more stability, I'm using 4 pockets chameleon which you can set to sample automatically your audio unit. It's way much simpler but for simple sounds such as glockenspiel, you'll get good results. And it's super stable.
Thank you for this, I’ve given it a try with your suggested settings, and it’s not crashed yet, though I’ve not used it for long. The failure to load presets when you reload your AUM project is still there, and doesn’t seem to be related to how many instances you have - even with just one, it’s like roulette whether it loads again.
If it was completely stable it would be the most beautiful thing
The developer has set a pretty big target for his free technology:
Then he hopes to pay some bills by selling some instruments in the store. I don't envy the maintenance
effort to keep all these apps functioning without a lot of bugs. I suspect he spends a lot of time making instruments. He has 36 for sale and 23 of them are free on his web site and in the app's store.
The stability and scaling complaints are pretty standard for most IOS sampling products and many AUv3
apps in general since we all want to push the limits of the technology.
Hi all,
I found a slightly modified step list works well...
1. Download zip file in DS format from Pianobook
2. Using files app, move file from downloads folder into AudioShare area
3. Rename Zip file and uncheck "keep extension"
4. Change extension to ".dslibrary"
5. Using the files app, move the .dslibrary file to the Decent Sampler folder in "on My iPhone" area
6. Open DS app, and select File>Load
7. Select the .dslibrary file
8. Say YES to import question
9. Select File>Rescan libraries
10. Select Browse>My libraries to load new DSPreset
When using as Standalone or as AU plugin, I use step #10 to load libraries, and not File>Load.
I really like Soft String Spurs on Pianobook. It has three libraries or DSPresets - Core, Harmonics, and Swells. You can load 3 AU instances of DS in a DAW or other host and setup MW control of dynamics. Sounds great!
Latest updates seem to have fixed a lot of issues. In particular it’s much better at reloading presets when you open a project file in AUM, so I’m hoping it’s the same for other hosts.
This app is by far the most unstable app I have ever used on iPad OS. Running iOS 15 on an iPad Pro M1. It's a crash fest no matter what I do.
Hours of fun! for FREE!
I also dug in on downloading more Piano Books instruments and quit in frustration.
It does work pretty well on my MacBook. I was auditioning new instruments and got excited
but when I started downloading them to the iPad, I was deflated.
Yeah...I was hoping we'd have Kontakt-esque experience on the iPad because of it...but I fear there are some serious memory issues with the app on the platform which is making it unstable...
Ho hum...will try it out with every update. Hopefully we'll see some rock solid stability at some point...but for now, it doesn't work well for me and my setup on 15.1 on iPadOS
I think I'll try a few Piano Book instrument installs and some of the free instruments available in the Decent Sample "store" and share my findings... document the packages that succeed and those that I can't get to install.
I downloaded the latest Update... hoping... but nothing is installing. I have renamed a bunch of instruments I downloaded and installed before. I still have all those instruments loaded on my iPhone that has 512MB of space.
But my 128MG iPad unloaded the app and I can't reload anything or install
anything. Something seriously broken for me. I hope someone crack the code.
I'm using IOS 14.8.
Sorry to hear that...I like a lot of the Pianobook sounds so far. Hoping to finish a track with DS soon. Using Auria Pro and iOS 14.8 - will put my experience here later.
I believe that's partly how the DS project got started. There might even be an old thread on this forum started by the developer along the lines of "why isn't there a 'KONTAKT' on iOS"...
As an aside, for developers, iOS already has a semi-decent sampler. It's developed by Apple, it's also an AudioUnit and can load EXS files - whoop! However...
It's about 1% documented, buggy as hell (no fixes or changes that I can see since iOS 9) and some things around the way it's been implemented make no sense at all, at least not to me.
It took me months to figure out what works (and how) and what doesn't. FWIW it's the sampler / sound engine used in touchscaper, mood units and the "Waverley" apps.
In theory, it would be possible to create an app using the Apple sampler that allowed user samples / import and I did think about doing that for a while. In practice I would probably spend the rest of my life tech supporting and trouble-shooting it. I'm sorry to say, that just wouldn't make sense / be viable in my current situation.
Also, in theory, the same Apple sampler should run just fine on the M1 Macs and I was quite excited about porting my apps to macOS, briefly... In practice, it doesn't run just fine at all. It's an absolute poop show.
Anyhoo, apologies for the digression. Thought you might find this interesting from a (grumpy) developer perspective
@McD Just a suggestion. If installing a file requires Sharing it from another app, a 3rd-party file manager, like Documents by Readdl or FE File Explorer Pro, may work better than the iOS Files app. It's worth a try.
For sampled instruments I prefer to use AudioLayer. It works and SFZ import is fine for me. So the problem is basically solved for me.
I didn't know that there is an Apple sampler. I mean I saw these Apple AUs in Zenbeats but other hosts seem to ignore them. So, I loaded the AUSampler in Zenbeats but the UI seems to be pretty useless. I can't even load a sample.
If that UI is created by an AU host using the parameter tree exposed by the AUSampler, then yeah, useless it will be.
It totally doesn't work like that. This goes back (I think) to the old EXS24 sampler that got "absorbed" into the Logic ecosystem a long, long time ago... We're talking pre-AUv3 here.
The way it works is that you basically expose parameters as MIDI CCs and map those to the internal workings of a sample-based instrument using the Sampler in Logic. This gets saved in the EXS file. Some of it works, some of it doesn't... It was fun figuring it out. You then map your AU parameters to MIDI CC messages to change stuff under the hood. Pretty crazy, huh?
@moodscaper fwiw, if anyone could create a reliable and amazing Sample Based player on the iOS platform it would be you sir
Just tried Air Piano from PB on DS…nope.
Stutters and hangs. Not sure the issue, maybe AU RAM limit? There are a lot of samples playing at the same time, as I think it mixes several mics recordings together.
Today there was an update.
DS does not work anymore in AUM for me.
In standalone mode everything is fine.
What about you?
Yes, totally broken. Seems to have some internal feedback loop or something, causing it to produce crazily hot signals. sigh
I’ve emailed the dev.