NOTE: The Salamander has been updated! The new V2 release adjusts a few things, and also comes in a much smaller 44.1Khz, 16-bit version. I’ve updated the link below with the new version — the smaller version is here.

After a bit of a wait, what’s perhaps the ultimate free piano sample library, the Salamander Grand Piano (that’s a direct download link, so don’t click it unless you mean it!) is available! One of the guys on the linux-audio-user spent I’d-hate-to-think-how-long recording every note on a Yamaha C5 grand at 16 different volume levels with a pair of stereo mics, and the result — all 1.9GB of it — sounds lovely.

Getting it running, however, is a bit fiddly right now. Due partly to its heft, it’s distributed in SFZ format, instead of the more common GigaSample “.GIG” format. Linuxsampler supports SFZ in CVS, but it’s buggy, and the instrument needs to be set up just right to load without crashing Linuxsampler. Once you’ve installed Linuxsampler from CVS — a bit of effort, but fairly straightforward, especially since it comes with Debian package scripts — follow these steps, in order, to get the Salamander up and running:
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