The NRE and storage for additional samples isn't that much cost - now. 20 years ago, yeah. Cost is way dominated by the number of parts in the MIDI controller u

The NRE and storage for additional samples isn't that much cost - now. 20 years ago, yeah. Cost is way dominated by the number of parts in the MIDI controller used. Piano sample sets can now run into the gigs of memory - a now-defunct product that pioneered this was actually called Gigasampler. For a file format that describes how samples relate to MIDI notes, google for "SFZ files".