Soundplant

Soundplant plays sound files using the computer keyboard as a live instrument Soundplant can be used to mix tracks in realtime, to quickly sketch sound designs, or as a presentation software for sound files.

Soundplant is a self-contained digital audio performance program that turns your computer keyboard into a fully customizable sample-triggering device.

Soundplant allows the assignment of sound files of unlimited size to virtually all keyboard keys, with no external devices needed and no MIDI involved.

Soundplant can be used as a drum pad, to add a live track to an already made song, to mix together tracks in realtime, to create music or loops from scratch, to quickly sketch sound designs, to give new life to old sounds, or as a performance or installation tool.


Soundplant is not a synthesizer and instead uses its own digital samples, so it is a virtually limitless electronic instrument.

Soundplant's simple graphic interface provides for drag-and-drop, point-and-click configuration of each key, including several options which control the way each sound is triggered, along with pitch, offsets, looping, volume, and panning; keyboard configurations can be saved and loaded.

Here are some key features of "Soundplant":
72 keyboard keys can be used to trigger sounds, all with low latency
drag and drop sound files on to keyboard keys for quick and easy key assignment
samples can be loaded to RAM for instant cueing, or played from disk, allowing for minimal RAM usage and unlimited sound length; RAM management can be controlled by the user
pitch adjust allows micro-tuning to the 100th of a semitone and a 10 octave range; batch assign the same sound to multiple keys at varying pitches with complete custom scale control
auto-'splice' pieces of a sound across multiple keys (for example, easily extract individual drum sounds from a drum loop); precise sound start and end offset control to the 100,000th of a second
memory-efficiently copy key configurations onto other keys
realtime volume and panning control for each key
no MIDI needed or involved; only a sound card is required, preferably one compatible with DirectX
customizable sound triggering, allowing for looping, sustains, restarts, muting, pausing, and off-triggering
on-screen display of the keyboard can be color-coded to create visual metaphors; keys are highlighted as they play
a true performance program in which sounds can be played and triggered even while configuring, and multiple instances of the program can be opened
capable of playing 8 stereo or mono samples simultaneously (i.e., 8 * (L+R) = 16 channel polyphony) at 16-bit, 44.1 KHz mixed stereo output
freeware version plays .wav, .aif, and .au files; those who support this freeware will get an .mp3-playing registered version
saves and loads keyboard configurations as .keymap files; loads old keymaps from all older versions of Soundplant


Requirements:
The program runs optimally when using a 450MHz or better CPU, a full duplex PCI sound card supporting DirectSound (or Quicktime if DirectSound is unavailable), and at least 64 MB RAM; but it also runs acceptably on much lesser-configured systems. Processor cache memory tends to have a significant effect on program performance, i.e. Athlons and Pentiums will perform noticeably faster than Durons and Celerons.