# Literature, Scientific Papers and Analysis of Virtual Instruments



## S.M.F (Mar 31, 2022)

Hey, 

I didn't really know which category was the right to post this thread, so I'm just going with the Welcome to VI one. 

I'm currently doing a lot of research on the matter of Virtual Instruments for my bachelor thesis, and what I can find is very limited or outdated. 
There is lots of literature on analogue or software synthesizers, most a bit outdated, but overall very little I can find regarding sampled, hybrid and virtual orchestral instruments. 

Does anyone know any literature or good databases for extensive research? 
Hope to hear from you guys. 

All the best, 
Sebastian


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## Paj (Mar 31, 2022)

State your hypothesis (H0 or H1) and you'll get more specific responses.

Paj
8^)


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## rhizomusicosmos (Mar 31, 2022)

Are you researching commercially available mainstream products or academic projects?

Perhaps this is something @jbuhler would be able to help with.


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## S.M.F (Mar 31, 2022)

Paj said:


> State your hypothesis (H0 or H1) and you'll get more specific responses.
> 
> Paj
> 8^)


right now its about fundamental research, so everything regarding the creation of virtual instruments, with the focus on orchestral virtual instruments. That's the step before creating a specific hypothesis 8^)


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## d.healey (Mar 31, 2022)

S.M.F said:


> everything regarding the creation of virtual instruments,


That's a big topic with many sub-topics, it would help if you could narrow down the information you're interested in.


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## S.M.F (Mar 31, 2022)

rhizomusicosmos said:


> Are you researching commercially available mainstream products or academic projects?
> 
> Perhaps this is something @jbuhler would be able to help with.


Both! The idea is to get an overview of all possibilities when creating a software instrument.

So for example Mark Vail in the book "The synthesizer" historically categorizes electronically created instruments by evolution of 
a) Control
b) Sound
C) Performance
D) Interface
E) Composition

where he discusses how through inventions of electronical instruments different functionalities are explored and developed.(some inspired by acoustic instruments, some with new functionalities)

For example:
When creating the ondioline Georges Jenny experimented with Vibrato Control, After - Touch and Instrument Transposition. All functionalities that are very common in any modern software instrument.

But I cannot find any literature discussing or analyzing the functionalities and possibilities of virtual instruments within the last decade.

So basically I'm interested in everything regarding the creation of virtual instruments: concepts, recording and working with samples, combination of samples and synthesis, scripting etc.


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## d.healey (Mar 31, 2022)

https://thesamplinghandbook.com/


There used to be a good site called TweakHeadz that had several good articles about sampling but it seems the site now redirects to an online store. However there is an archived version of the site that might contain some info you can use.


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## gamma-ut (Mar 31, 2022)

The AES digital library. I'm guessing you will have access via your institution.

Have you tried Google Scholar with basic search terms like "sample library"/"virtual instrument"? You get false positives but I found a couple of papers and theses that offer up citation and reference chains that would expand out into a reasonable list.


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## S.M.F (Mar 31, 2022)

Works that I've read so far or I am currently reading: 

The Synthesizer - Mark Vail (2014)
Sound Synthesis and Sampling - Martin Russ (2019)
Software Synthesizer : the definitive guide to virtual instruments - Jim Aikin (2003) 
Designing Software Synthesizer Plug-Ins in C++ - Will C. Pirkle (2014) 

and few scientific papers or magazine articles 

It's all with the focus on Synthesis, because I couldn't find any books regarding sampled virtual instruments. 

My focus is on sophisticated sampled instruments. So string libraries from orchestral tools, spitfire audio etc. would fall into that category.


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## Kent (Mar 31, 2022)

There was a similar thread a few years ago that might help:






History of the Orchestra Sample


Hi everyone ! For my thesis, i'm looking for some informations of the history of the sample (basically, all the virtual orchestral instruments). I wanna know how the first ones were conceived etc If you can help me, I would gladly appreciate :) Also I will have some question on how you guys...




vi-control.net





and a more fun-based one:






Is there a timeline of the history of the releases of significant orchestral libraries since the beginning?


I'm new and quite interested in the history of sample library usage, feel free to be as in depth as you like please




vi-control.net





And some more:






Credible sources on history of VI's


Dear Forum I need some academically trustworthy online sources on the history of samplers, virtual instruments, and physical modeling plugins; in addition, the history of using the aforementioned musical devices in: film scores and music for media (union disputes), musical theatre, various...




vi-control.net










Is there a timeline of the history of the releases of significant orchestral libraries since the beginning?


I'm new and quite interested in the history of sample library usage, feel free to be as in depth as you like please




vi-control.net





Here's a great, seminal paper on the *Hyperorchestra*, by Sergi Casanelles:








The Hyperorchestra: A Study of a Virtual Ensemble in Film Music that Transcends Reality


This dissertation analyzes how Contemporary music for audiovisual media integrates with the concept of Hyperreality, as defined by Jean Baudrillard. The study begins with a philosophical investigation for the ontology of the concept of hyperreality,



www.academia.edu





And in general you should check out academic journal-resources like *MAMI*:





Music and the Moving Image on JSTOR


Music and the Moving Image is an online journal dedicated to the relationship between the entire universe of music and moving images (film, television, music vi...




www.jstor.org





And *JSMG*:


https://online.ucpress.edu/jsmg



Some practical-textbooky options:

*Gilreath*


*Huber*


*McGuire/Matějů*


*Pejrolo/Derosa*


Some miscellaneous resources I used for my graduate creative research challenge grant:

*History of the Fairlight*


Fairlight The Whole Story



*Basic Sampling Timeline*





New Series: The Art Of Sampling


Part 1: The Pioneers Of Sampling (Video)




sonicstate.com





*'Pre-Virtual Instrument' History*


https://www.opasquet.fr/dl/texts/Hugh_A_History_of_Sampling_1996.pdf



Also, this very forum is a primary source! (Do some digging... probably 60+% of the libraries you are considering come from companies that got their start and/or early support from here, c. 2005 and on)


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## Kent (Mar 31, 2022)

@S.M.F what exactly is your thesis on? Or are you not narrowed down enough to a topic yet?

I did a bachelor thesis myself. I spent 4 semesters in a self-directed study learning _everything_ I could about the Beatles and their music, but my thesis was on the rather narrow topic of:
`The Beatles’ Evolving Use of Vocal Harmony and Background Vocals as a Compositional Element`

...And even this I felt was a bit broad (as I didn't have as much space/time to really dive in as deeply as I wanted to in ~50 double-spaced pages).

So, if you've not already narrowed down your topic here because you're not ready to, that's fine...but I would still artificially limit what you're trying to learn about at a given time and try to go deep into a few specific areas rather than broadly into that direction. The tidbits and hooks you find as you do your deep dives should influence the ultimate nuance of your direction.


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## doctoremmet (Mar 31, 2022)

When researching synthesis last year I came across the folks of Physical Audio, who release modelled synths and reverb plugins. They also regularly contribute to this project:






The NESS Project - NESS


Default content box. Please leave empty




www.ness.music.ed.ac.uk





I also recommend you become a member of the IRCAM Forum and have a look around there. IRCAM is a Parisian institute that has meant a lot for the advancement of avant-garde music, including electronic music and the tools involved. I think you’ll be likely to find people there who are more intimately familiar with the academic side of the development of musical instruments.






About - Physical Audio


About Physical Audio Ltd. The Company Physical Audio® grew out of a 5-year research project as the University of Edinburgh. The NESS project (Next Generation Sound Synthesis) examined new algorithms for digital synthesis of acoustic systems, specifically using direct numerical methods such as...




physicalaudio.co.uk










Accueil | Ircam Forum







forum.ircam.fr


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## doctoremmet (Mar 31, 2022)

Academic journals:



https://direct.mit.edu/comj





EMR - Electronic Musicological Review





International Computer Music Conference Proceedings





https://www.nime.org/archives/


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## jbuhler (Mar 31, 2022)

rhizomusicosmos said:


> Are you researching commercially available mainstream products or academic projects?
> 
> Perhaps this is something @jbuhler would be able to help with.


I’m indeed working on a book on VIs right now. Even finding basic things like release dates of libraries is surprisingly difficult.


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## Kent (Mar 31, 2022)

jbuhler said:


> I’m indeed working on a book on VIs right now. Even finding basic things like release dates of libraries is surprisingly difficult.


Do _you_ have a timeline for your release date?


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## doctoremmet (Mar 31, 2022)

jbuhler said:


> I’m indeed working on a book on VIs right now. Even finding basic things like release dates of libraries is surprisingly difficult.


Make sure to drop a pre-order link here Jim!


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## Jett Hitt (Mar 31, 2022)

jbuhler said:


> I’m indeed working on a book on VIs right now. Even finding basic things like release dates of libraries is surprisingly difficult.


I fear that someday there is going to be a great setback wherein vast stores of knowledge simply disappear because no one had the good sense to write them down, a sort of apocalyptic Alexandria.


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## doctoremmet (Mar 31, 2022)

I fear the same. Day in day out I feel we're slowly devolving into Mike Judge's Idiocracy. Opinions are now "my truths” facts are now optional, and we burn books we don't like.


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## jbuhler (Mar 31, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Make sure to drop a pre-order link here Jim!


When it’s ready I’ll be sure to let the forum know. The manuscript likely won’t be finished until summer 2023. The book will be theoretical and critical (in the academic sense of the term) in orientation rather than practical. A few bits have appeared (or will soon be appearing) as articles. Anyone interested can send me a PM and I can send PDFs of the articles.


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## Paj (Mar 31, 2022)

Jett Hitt said:


> I fear that someday there is going to be a great setback wherein vast stores of knowledge simply disappear because no one had the good sense to write them down, a sort of apocalyptic Alexandria.


Clay jars+desert caves

Paj
8^)


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## jbuhler (Mar 31, 2022)

Jett Hitt said:


> I fear that someday there is going to be a great setback wherein vast stores of knowledge simply disappear because no one had the good sense to write them down, a sort of apocalyptic Alexandria.


I fear this too and as far as release dates go, I’m creating a chronology as I go and may publish that as an appendix. (I’ll likely put it online as well but it has the same issue of likely disappearing.) The release dates for major libraries at least have a lot of redundancy, with reviews, press releases, and chatter on forums and social media that you can usually track it down even if the companies themselves are coy about the information, but each library takes googling and sorting through the hits, which is fine until you hit a library with a common name that makes googling challenging.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Mar 31, 2022)

If you want to go deeper into this my husband recommends the free book about DSPs: https://www.dspguide.com/

And also books by Ken C. Pohlman and John Watkinson.
And Floyd E. Toole's AES papers and books.
Tons of fun tech info I'm told.


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## creativeforge (Mar 31, 2022)

S.M.F said:


> Hey,
> 
> I didn't really know which category was the right to post this thread, so I'm just going with the Welcome to VI one.
> 
> ...



Hi Sebastian,

You may also find helpful content on our portal:






Vi-Control







vi-control.net










Vi-Control Community







vi-control.net










VI-Control – A short history







vi-control.net










Welcome to VI-Control







vi-control.net










MIDI mockups – brief history







vi-control.net





Etc. 

Hope this helps!

André


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## Double Helix (Mar 31, 2022)

S.M.F said:


> Works that I've read so far or I am currently reading:
> 
> The Synthesizer - Mark Vail (2014)
> Sound Synthesis and Sampling - Martin Russ (2019)
> ...


Add the classic _Musical Applications of Microprocessors_, by Hal Chamberlain (Hayden Book Company, 1980)


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## Kyle Preston (Mar 31, 2022)

This Sound On Sound series is a goldmine of info for sampling and virtual instruments.


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## rhizomusicosmos (Mar 31, 2022)

Kyle Preston said:


> This Sound On Sound series is a goldmine of info for sampling and virtual instruments.


I see that they look back to _musique concrète _as the genesis for sampling, though philosophically Schaeffer's concept of the sound object is opposite to that of the VI where the goal is to mimic acoustic reality_. _It would be interesting to consider how these two philosophical perspectives -- acousmatic vs mimesis -- have interwoven and influenced hybrid virtual instrument development.


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## Bee_Abney (Mar 31, 2022)

rhizomusicosmos said:


> I see that they look back to _musique concrète _as the genesis for sampling, though philosophically Schaeffer's concept of the sound object is opposite to that of the VI where the goal is to mimic acoustic reality_. _It would be interesting to consider how these two philosophical perspectives -- acousmatic vs mimesis -- have interwoven and influenced hybrid virtual instrument development.


A good example being the Spitfire Albion series, which contain both as major elements; and Spitfire sees the two working together as a standard part of modern media composition.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Mar 31, 2022)

Also check Izotope site (NI??) for tech info.


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## LamaRose (Mar 31, 2022)

Go to the source. I'd contact as many developers as possible and ask their respective opinion/plans regarding your topic/interest.


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## Bee_Abney (Mar 31, 2022)

LamaRose said:


> Go to the source. I'd contact as many developers as possible and ask their respective opinion/plans regarding your topic/interest.


I don't know what country or curriculum is involved in this Bachelor thesis (calling it that suggests at least that it is not a UK university); but I'm not sure that pursuing in depth research to the point where conclusions can be drawn about future developments will be possible within the specific timeframe. In the UK, typically undergraduate theses may have some advance preparation, but they are largely completed within less than a year. I don't know what discipline is involved, or what appropriate research methodologies might be appropriate.

At the moment, it sounds like more general background information is required to form a sense of the terrain in order to facilitate forming a research question/puzzle.

But, on the other hand, if you don't ask, you'll never know how far people are prepared to co-operate. Speaking for myself, an undergraduate thesis that doesn't lead to so much as a publication is not the sort of thing I'd want to make sacrifices for outside of a charitable disposition; and developers are busy and face constant financial risks. A good deal of research would be required in advance in order to present oneself as being worth talking to.

Or, put another way, this is a great suggestion for later, which may be how you intended it, but it is necessary to understand more of the background before making a plausible approach, and before formulating questions and methods appropriate the research aims and the realistically achievable results.

On the other hand, I'm a philosopher and, in the strictest sense, we philosophers don't do research (we just read what other people have thought about an issue to aid us in thinking about it - and to get in some citations and avoid trying to reinvent the wheel); so, what do I know?

Put more simply, this poor soul is doing an undergraduate thesis; don't load them up with all the responsibilities of writing groundbreaking research. At this stage, they just need to know what they are dealing with a bit better. Astounding the world can wait for a week or two.

But maybe such things are very different in the degree programmes of other educational traditions...


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## Dansereal (Apr 1, 2022)

Hi. Over the past 20+ years I’ve read (and re-read) a lot of scientific papers on virtual instruments, and bought and studied a lot of not-cheap commercial VIs to find out how they work. You’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions on this thread so far. On the academic side, here are some topics and names you might want to follow up on: Spectral interpolation synthesis, Roger Dannenberg, spectral modeling, SaxEx, CSEMPs, Eduardo Reck Miranda, KTH performance modeling rules, concatenative synthesis.

I think you’re going to find, if you haven’t already, that the academic and commercial worlds of VIs run in parallel universes. Commercial VI developers have competitive reasons for having their products remain black boxes. Academic researchers don’t have the bread to keep track of what commercial developers are up to. It’s only in the last few years that academic papers have started acknowledging that “concatenative sampling synthesis” is here to stay as the dominant technique for VI music-making. And yet the academic world is full of tantalizing ideas for taking VIs and VI-related music production to new levels.

Kent mentioned useful books by Gilreath, Huber, Pejrolo, and McGuire. Even though some of them were written by people in academia, mostly they cover current practices in the commercial world, and for that reason they need regular revising. For books that are more theoretical and forward-looking, have a look at the books written or edited by Eduardo Reck Miranda. 

None of these books is cheap. Here are some freely available theses and dissertations that attempt to say something general about VIs:

Furduj, Boris (2019) Virtual orchestration: a film composer's creative practice

Sundstrup, Leif (2009) The virtual orchestra: a systematic method of realising music composition through sample-based orchestral simulation

Hu, Ning (2013) Automatic Construction of Synthetic Musical Instruments and Performers

Somewhere in my various stashes I’ve got a few more like these. And if you think you might be interested, I’ll be glad to see if I can make a pseudo-bibliography of the more specialized academic papers in my stash.

Greg Smith


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## S.M.F (Apr 5, 2022)

d.healey said:


> https://thesamplinghandbook.com/
> 
> 
> There used to be a good site called TweakHeadz that had several good articles about sampling but it seems the site now redirects to an online store. However there is an archived version of the site that might contain some info you can use.



thanks! Helpful as always 🙏


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## S.M.F (Apr 5, 2022)

Kent said:


> There was a similar thread a few years ago that might help:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Amazing thank you! I'll look through all of them, quite excited to see what I'll find.


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## S.M.F (Apr 5, 2022)

Kent said:


> @S.M.F what exactly is your thesis on? Or are you not narrowed down enough to a topic yet?
> 
> I did a bachelor thesis myself. I spent 4 semesters in a self-directed study learning _everything_ I could about the Beatles and their music, but my thesis was on the rather narrow topic of:
> `The Beatles’ Evolving Use of Vocal Harmony and Background Vocals as a Compositional Element`
> ...


I want to focus of the evolution of sampled virtual instruments and mainly explore the possibilities of where boundaries can be pushed further and what is to come. But I think I'll also have to look into physical modeling and synthesis for that. 

I think to narrow it more down I'll focus on string instruments and all methods which are used to recreate realistic emotive performances of these instruments.


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## S.M.F (Apr 5, 2022)

gamma-ut said:


> The AES digital library. I'm guessing you will have access via your institution.
> 
> Have you tried Google Scholar with basic search terms like "sample library"/"virtual instrument"? You get false positives but I found a couple of papers and theses that offer up citation and reference chains that would expand out into a reasonable list.


on the AES library it was very scarce
but I'll look into google scholar - thanks!


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## S.M.F (Apr 5, 2022)

Dansereal said:


> Hi. Over the past 20+ years I’ve read (and re-read) a lot of scientific papers on virtual instruments, and bought and studied a lot of not-cheap commercial VIs to find out how they work. You’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions on this thread so far. On the academic side, here are some topics and names you might want to follow up on: Spectral interpolation synthesis, Roger Dannenberg, spectral modeling, SaxEx, CSEMPs, Eduardo Reck Miranda, KTH performance modeling rules, concatenative synthesis.
> 
> I think you’re going to find, if you haven’t already, that the academic and commercial worlds of VIs run in parallel universes. Commercial VI developers have competitive reasons for having their products remain black boxes. Academic researchers don’t have the bread to keep track of what commercial developers are up to. It’s only in the last few years that academic papers have started acknowledging that “concatenative sampling synthesis” is here to stay as the dominant technique for VI music-making. And yet the academic world is full of tantalizing ideas for taking VIs and VI-related music production to new levels.
> 
> ...


Thank you sou much! I don't think you realize how helpful this is. Even just with terms like concatenative sampling synthesis, I was able to find scientific papers, which on first view seem to discuss the concept of creating complex virtual sampled instruments from a scientific perspective so exactly what I was looking for. 

I have a lot of reading to with the papers that you've named me and some others I found. But still I'd be amazing if you are willing to make the effort to give me such a pseudo-bibliography with everything you could find regarding this field. 🙏

All the best, 
Sebastian Müller


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## S.M.F (Apr 5, 2022)

I just want to say thank you to every single one of you, who took the time to chip in! I've only been part of this forum for a few weeks but the cordiality and mutual support within this community is awesome


creativeforge said:


> Hi Sebastian,
> 
> You may also find helpful content on our portal:
> 
> ...


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## S.M.F (Apr 5, 2022)

Kent said:


> There was a similar thread a few years ago that might help:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The Hyperorchestra paper is gold!


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## Kent (Apr 5, 2022)

S.M.F said:


> The Hyperorchestra paper is gold!


You should let Sergi know!









Sergi Casanelles | NYU Steinhardt


NYU Steinhardt




steinhardt.nyu.edu





_If_ he has time (and not to speak for him), he also might be able to point you toward more resources specific to your focus, too.


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## gsilbers (Apr 5, 2022)

Basic Sampling For Native Instruments Kontakt Part 1 - VSTBuzz


Basic Sampling For Native Instruments Kontakt Part 1 Kontakt by Native Instruments has got to be the sampling world standard for professional musicians and media composers alike. When you think about it, every film you ever saw, or any game you have ever played has had a soundtrack that features...




vstbuzz.com


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## gsilbers (Apr 5, 2022)

Basic Sampling For Native Instruments Kontakt Part 2 - VSTBuzz


Basic Sampling For Native Instruments Kontakt Part 2 In part 1 we looked at what sampling represents and how to record our instruments for sampling. In this post we will go deeper into the process of sampling by showing you how to properly edit your samples and how to load them appropriately...




vstbuzz.com


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## gsilbers (Apr 5, 2022)

jbuhler said:


> I fear this too and as far as release dates go, I’m creating a chronology as I go and may publish that as an appendix. (I’ll likely put it online as well but it has the same issue of likely disappearing.) The release dates for major libraries at least have a lot of redundancy, with reviews, press releases, and chatter on forums and social media that you can usually track it down even if the companies themselves are coy about the information, but each library takes googling and sorting through the hits, which is fine until you hit a library with a common name that makes googling challenging.




Its not that different than releases for big instrument manufacturers. NAMM events, AES, etc events or close to those industry specific where there will be more eyes on new release news.
Also Per business quarters and for some odd reason Tuesdays at 11am local times. But I've seen Friday work very well for the unfinished and a few others. One month intro sale. Or its "announcement tusdays build on wed and release on thursd.
Also stupid mail chimp newsletter reminding you every few days its the last week, last day, last 2 hours of the intro sale... untill.. hmmm... its extended... (surprise! )
I think you follow sample logics history of releases itll become more aparent. Here is even a nice chart showing when they've made big releases over the past 15years





Wayback Machine







web.archive.org




Its skews heavily on the start of the second quarter and late sept or october.
And no new prodcuts during black friday or holiday season as thats for mega sales and no one expect full price. Plus the intro sale for fall can be extended.
Summer is a dead zone in europe. We all forget europeans have like 2 months off or soemthing crazy like that.
But most importantly...

Is the library done?

cuz fuck man

it takes FOREVER!

PD: if you are really looking into releasing a book maybe reach out to maufaturers for discount codes. Affiliate links etc to make some dough or cross promote the book.


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## CatOrchestra (Apr 17, 2022)

https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-sound-and-vibration might have some articles

This seemed interesting : Towards a new approach in the study of Ancient Greek music: Virtual reconstruction of an ancient musical instrument from Greek Sicily Bellia, Angela Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 2019-06-01, Vol.34 (2), p.233-243


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## S.M.F (Jun 15, 2022)

Hey again guys, 
I'm currently in the middle of writing my bachelors thesis on virtual instruments and I'm wondering if *anybody* here is *willing to give feedback* *as an expert* with experience either on the theoretical or practical side of the topic.

It is a rather practical approach to a bachelor thesis with a mixed method, as I am constructing a prototype of a virtual instrument on the basis of theoretical discussions. 
Theoretical frameworks on realism and expressivity are discussed in order to create a realistic and expressive virtual violin instrument. 

1. I am hoping to find someone who would give me practical feedback on the virtual instrument itself: 
- the script 
- the sample order 
- the user friendlinessetc. 

2. I am hoping to find someone who can give me feedback on a scientific level 

I know everybody's time is valuable and I can't expect help without anything in return, but I'm sure we can find a way to make the project beneficial for everybody involved. 

Time frame: Now (June) until august. 

All the best, 
Sebastian 

The thesis is constructed more or less like this: 

*1. Theoretical Frameworks*
1.1 Realism 
1.2 Hyperrealism (as coined by Cassannelles) 
1.3. Emotion and Music 
1.4 Expressivity through perfomance 
1.4.3. expressvity and the violin
1.4.4 gradual use of techniques 
1.5 Expressivity through production
1.5.1 Timbre 
1.6 Discussion of sampling-synthesis and physical modeling 
1.6.1 theoretical approaches to sampling synthesis 
1.7 dimensions of a virtual instrument 
1.8 sampler 
1.9 aesthetic context 
1.9.1 Neo-classical aestehtics of string instruments 
1.9.2 analysis of "only the winds" by Olafur Arnald 

*2. Analysis of virtual string instruments in a Neo-classical context *
2.1 Olafur Arnalds Evolution - Spitfire Audio 
2.2. Tina Guo Cello - Cinesamples 

*3. Method 
*3.1 Theoretical derivation 
3.2 Analysis 
3.3 Prototyping 
3.4 Evaluation

*4. Prototype development *
4.1 first iteration 
4.1 first evaluation 
4.2 Second iteration 

*5. Final Evaluation 

6. Discussion 

7. Conclusion 
*


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## doctoremmet (Jun 15, 2022)

I am an assistant-professor at a Dutch university (in an entirely unrelated scientific field). I’d be more than happy to critically read one or more iterations of your thesis. If that’s of interest, please DM me.


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## doctoremmet (Jun 20, 2022)

Indeed. I am a mere Universitair Docent (university lecturer). Internationally that’s an assistant-professor. I usually just call myself teacher. I did not intend to brag or anything. Actually, on the contrary… I only mentioned it because I figured it could help the OP gauge my credentials / experience.


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## Bee_Abney (Jun 20, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Indeed. I am a mere Universitair Docent (university lecturer). Internationally that’s an assistant-professor. I usually just call myself teacher. I did not intend to brag or anything. Actually, on the contrary… I only mentioned it because I figured it could help the OP gauge my credentials / experience.


It is a very generous offer indeed.


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## Pier (Jun 20, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> It's not polite to speak loosely about the professional titles of academics. In Doc's case, maybe he doesn't like to brag; plus there are a whole different set of titles in Dutch.


Hmm I always thought Doctor came from the medical term not so much as an academic title. I mean, not that I think @doctoremmet is an actual medical man or anything.

I never thought he was bragging either...

I guess my stupid joke was interpreted very differently than what I intended. I'm sorry Temme. I will delete my post.


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## doctoremmet (Jun 20, 2022)

Pier said:


> Hmm I always thought Doctor came from the medical term not so much as an academic title. I mean, not that I think @doctoremmet is an actual medical man or anything.
> 
> I never thought he was bragging either...
> 
> I guess my stupid joke was interpreted very differently than what I intended. I'm sorry Temme. I will delete my post.


I took it as a joke! No need to delete anything!


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## Pier (Jun 20, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> I took it as a joke! No need to delete anything!


It's done.

Gone.

Forever.


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## quickbrownf0x (Jul 13, 2022)

I'm a Dutch doctor in Misfit Fiddle VSTs at 8Dio University - got the receipt and everything. Does that count?


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## signalpath (Jul 15, 2022)

Street barrel organ culture is unique to the Netherlands.


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## JSTube (Jul 30, 2022)

S.M.F said:


> Hey,
> 
> I didn't really know which category was the right to post this thread, so I'm just going with the Welcome to VI one.
> 
> ...


To be honest, very little progress has been made in the last 20 years regarding virtual instruments underlying technologies. (I still maintain that my Korg Z1 was the most advanced synth I ever owned, and I currently own a Kronos ... ) Just because, say MODO drum and bass didn't exist 20 years ago doesn't mean that their underlying code didn't [in this actual example, it was very old code released to the public, by steinberg, that very few were making use of, that a company [IK] decided to finally make use of. That's how this typically works].

Companies decide to pay the programmers for the work to actually do something (turn into a product) with innovations that stopped short of having their papers published -- or they don't, and that's how you get thousands and thousands of different kontakt libraries instead of innovation.

I've read physical modeling papers going back to the 60's, they're literally written on typewriters, and I can guarantee you way more people were active in the field of trailblazing on that side of the 20th century. In my opinion you'd have an easier time writing about how much progress has stagnated since the late 90's on anything 'remotely' novel in the field of digital audio and audio DSP.

I seriously challenge anyone to show examples of any modern trailblazers today in terms of DSP and the innovation of processes which have already for years now been far out of the uncanny valley.

The cost of getting away from samples in terms of research and development is huge, and none of these audio companies really want to foot the bill for that level of R&D.


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## Pier (Jul 30, 2022)

JSTube said:


> To be honest, very little progress has been made in the last 20 years regarding virtual instruments underlying technologies. (I still maintain that my Korg Z1 was the most advanced synth I ever owned, and I currently own a Kronos ... ) Just because, say MODO drum and bass didn't exist 20 years ago doesn't mean that their underlying code didn't [in this actual example, it was very old code released to the public, by steinberg, that very few were making use of, that a company [IK] decided to finally make use of. That's how this typically works].
> 
> Companies decide to pay the programmers for the work to actually do something (turn into a product) with innovations that stopped short of having their papers published -- or they don't, and that's how you get thousands and thousands of different kontakt libraries instead of innovation.
> 
> ...


Maybe another factor is academic institutions don't want to license their stuff?

For example I think UVI is the only private company using stuff from IRCAM like their timestretching. Pretty much all other companies are using the Elastique Pro algo by Zplane.


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## fan455 (Aug 3, 2022)

I'm learning percussive sound synthesis, particularly the FM synthesis. These 2 papers by the same authors have helped me a lot. They expained how FM synthesis works so well and proposed an improved model called loopback FM. I'm trying to implement it in python.









[PDF] ON PHASE AND PITCH IN LOOPBACK FREQUENCY MODULA- TION WITH A TIME-VARYING FEEDBACK COEFFICIENT | Semantic Scholar


Beginning with the familiar expression for frequency modulation (FM) synthesis, a system is examined/analyzed whereby the carrier frequency is modulated by “looping back” the output signal, with a feedback coefficient determining the amount of frequency deviation. “Loopback FM” is reminiscent of...




www.semanticscholar.org












[PDF] Percussion Synthesis using Loopback Frequency Modulation Oscillators | Semantic Scholar


In this work, we apply recent research results in loopback frequency modulation (FM) to real-time parametric synthesis of percussion sounds. Loopback FM is a variant of FM synthesis whereby the carrier oscillator “loops back” to serve as a modulator of its own frequency. Like FM, more spectral...




www.semanticscholar.org


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## JSTube (Aug 5, 2022)

fan455 said:


> I'm learning percussive sound synthesis, particularly the FM synthesis. These 2 papers by the same authors have helped me a lot. They expained how FM synthesis works so well and proposed an improved model called loopback FM. I'm trying to implement it in python.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Why is python your language of choice for implementing this? It's really _not_ tailored to synthesis or realtime audio. I recommend C++ and JUCE for anything to do with realtime audio dsp and getting off the ground quickly.


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## fan455 (Aug 6, 2022)

JSTube said:


> Why is python your language of choice for implementing this? It's really _not_ tailored to synthesis or realtime audio. I recommend C++ and JUCE for anything to do with realtime audio dsp and getting off the ground quickly.


Well, I'm not a computer student and I learn python because my accounting professor needed me to do so. Thanks for your recommendation. So I want to learn C++ when I have more time in the future.

I've uploaded my python implementation code that can run now on github.






I wrote a code to implement a new FM synthesis approach!


Hi there, FM synthesis is a powerful way to synthesize percussive sounds. Recently I read the paper "Percussion Synthesis using Loopback Frequency Modulation Oscillators" written by Jennifer S. Hsu and Tamara Smyth and tried to implement the loopbackFM approach they proposed to synthesize some...




vi-control.net


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## Rowy van Hest (Aug 16, 2022)

S.M.F said:


> Hey,
> 
> I didn't really know which category was the right to post this thread, so I'm just going with the Welcome to VI one.
> 
> ...


The literature may be outdated, but are books and databases really all you need? There are some excellent producers here with a lot of experience. Some of them started long time ago and dealt with the first synthesizers. You could benefit from their knowledge.

Just an idea.


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## telecode101 (Dec 27, 2022)

fan455 said:


> Well, I'm not a computer student and I learn python because my accounting professor needed me to do so. Thanks for your recommendation. So I want to learn C++ when I have more time in the future.
> 
> I've uploaded my python implementation code that can run now on github.
> 
> ...


probably a good idea to check out some of the speakers at their conference. it might give some ideas.



https://www.youtube.com/@JUCElibrary/playlists


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## Dansereal (Dec 27, 2022)

JSTube said:


> To be honest, very little progress has been made in the last 20 years regarding virtual instruments underlying technologies. (I still maintain that my Korg Z1 was the most advanced synth I ever owned, and I currently own a Kronos ... ) Just because, say MODO drum and bass didn't exist 20 years ago doesn't mean that their underlying code didn't [in this actual example, it was very old code released to the public, by steinberg, that very few were making use of, that a company [IK] decided to finally make use of. That's how this typically works].
> 
> Companies decide to pay the programmers for the work to actually do something (turn into a product) with innovations that stopped short of having their papers published -- or they don't, and that's how you get thousands and thousands of different kontakt libraries instead of innovation.
> 
> ...


Hear, hear.


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## telecode101 (Dec 27, 2022)

JSTube said:


> MODO drum and bass didn't exist 20 years ago doesn't mean that their underlying code didn't [in this actual example, it was very old code released to the public, by steinberg, that very few were making use of, that a company [IK] decided to finally make use of. That's how this typically works].


I did not know that. Interesting info.


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