/**
@mainpage libgig
@section Intro
libgig is a C++ library for accessing audio-sample based instrument files,
as they are shipped for various software samplers, hardware sampler devices
and synthesizer keyboards.
This C++ library was originally created to access Gigasampler files, but in the
meantime grew to much more than that. At the moment libgig consists of the
following four major parts:
- @b 1. @ref gig classes: These provide convenient access to
@b Gigasampler / @b GigaStudio files (for all known format version, that is
from Gigasampler v1 to GigaStudio v4), allowing to load, modify and save
existing .gig files, as well as creating new .gig files from scratch.
Since the gig file format was originally designed based on the DLS Level 2
format, the gig classes in this library are derived from the DLS classes of
this library, where the gig classes provide the necessary extensions for the
Gigasampler file format.
Besides the fact that libgig supports all aspects of the original
Gigasampler / GigaStudio format, it now also provides some own extensions of
that original format. Most notably libgig provides an extension to save
@ref gig::Script "real-time instrument scripts" with .gig files.
Those custom extensions are
however currently only supported by the graphical instrument editor
application @b gigedit and by @b LinuxSampler, those extensions will
obviously not work with the original GigaStudio software.
- @b 2. @ref sf2 classes: These provide support for loading and modifying
@b SoundFont version 2 files. Even though being an older format, the
SoundFont format is still one of the most popular sample based instrument
file formats and is widely supported by a variety of hardware and software.
- @b 3. @ref Korg classes: These provide support for loading sample based
instrument files of KORG's synthesizer keyboard models Kronos,
M3, Oasys, Triton and Trinity. There is
currently no support for modifying KORG files yet.
- @b 4. @b AKAI classes: These provide support for loading sample based disks
(CDROMs, hard disks, ZIP disks) and disk image files of AKAI's hardware
sampler series S1000, S01, S2000 and S3000.
The AKAI classes are a branch of libakai. In the AKAI classes of
libgig, libakai's original dependency to the so called Carbon C++
library has been removed and has been replaced by using ordinay
C++ STL
classes instead. Further, this branch of libakai also provides support for
Linux and other POSIX based OSes (the original libakai was limited to Mac
and Windows).
Currently the AKAI classes don't have their own dedicated C++ namespace.
Refer to class @ref AkaiDisk as toplevel entry class for accessing AKAI
sounds.
Besides the mentioned major parts above, libgig also provides the following
three other components:
- @b 5. @ref DLS classes: Provide convenient methods to access
@b DLS (Downloadable Sounds) Level 1 and 2 files. The DLS file format
has been designed as open file format to be adopted by various keyboard
manufacturers for their sounds. However it never really made it to a broad
standard. You can use the DLS classes of libgig to load, modify and create
DLS files from scratch, however you will probably not find many DLS files
and/or software or hardware that supports this file format. The main reason
why these classes exist in libgig, is because of the fact that the
Gigasampler / GigaStudio file format was designed as extension on top of the
DLS file format (with quite some radical modifications though).
- @b 6. @ref RIFF classes: Provide convenient methods to parse and access
arbitrary RIFF files. The "Resource Interchange File Format"
provides universal data containers ordered in a tree-like structure
and can be compared to XML, but with the difference that RIFF is
binary encoded.
The DLS file format, the gig file format, the sf2 file format and KORG's
file format are all based on RIFF on lowest level of their file format. And
consequently all those classes mentioned above are using the RIFF classes
for that purpose.
- @b 7. @ref Serialization classes: This is a separate framework on its own,
which allows efficient and powerful serialization and deserialization of
native C++ objects and is used by @ref gig classes and i.e. the gigedit
application for implementing a preset system.
@section License
Most parts of libgig and its tools are released under the terms of the
GNU General Public License (GPL).
This applies to the @ref gig classes, @ref sf2 classes, @ref Korg classes, @ref DLS classes,
@ref RIFF classes and all of their tools and example programs. We may offer you a
commercial license for using libgig in commercial products. If you are
interested in a commercial license,
contact us!
The @b AKAI classes and their tools / example programs are released under the terms
of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
If you have any questions regarding license aspects,
contact us!
@section Examples
Beside the actual C++ library, there are the following example applications
which demonstrate how to use the library:
- @b gigdump:
Prints out the content of a .gig file.
- @b gigextract:
Extracts audio samples from a .gig file as .wav files.
- @b gigmerge:
Combines multiple .gig files to one .gig file.
- @b gig2mono:
Converts .gig files from stereo to mono.
- @b gig2stereo:
Converts .gig files from mono sample pairs to true interleaved stereo.
- @b wav2gig:
Creates a new .gig file from a set of .wav files.
- @b dlsdump:
Prints out the content of a DLS file.
- @b rifftree:
Prints out the RIFF tree of an arbitrary RIFF container file.
- @b sf2dump:
Prints out the content of a .sf2 file.
- @b sf2extract:
Extracts audio samples from a .sf2 file as .wav files.
- @b korgdump:
Prints out the content of KORG sound files (.KSF, .KMP).
- @b korg2gig:
Converts KORG (.KSF, .KMP) sound files to GigaStudio (.gig) files.
- @b akaidump:
Dump an AKAI media i.e. from a CDROM drive as disk image file to your HD.
- @b akaiextract:
Extracts audio samples from an AKAI media or from an AKAI disk image file (as .wav files).
Currently libgig ist most prominently used by LinuxSampler and gigedit.
@section Portability
This library is developed and optimized for POSIX compliant operating
systems like Linux and Mac OS X, as well as for Windows. It is written as cross
platform C++ library, so libgig should also compile for other operation systems
as well. Due to this it works on all architectures (i.e. 32 bit x86, 64 bit x86,
PPC and many more). It works on
little endian and big endian
systems.
@section Bugs
Please report bugs on http://bugs.linuxsampler.org/ and/or subscribe to the
LinuxSampler developers mailing list.
@section Outro
For compilation instructions, requirements and further details please refer
to the README file et al.
That's all folks. Happy hacking!
-- Christian Schoenebeck
@see http://www.linuxsampler.org
*/