# Looking for advice on Creating a sample Library



## jononotbono (Mar 23, 2018)

I've been thinking about creating some personal sample libraries for a while now and am looking for a bit of advice on what I should do for preparation in making one as I don't have a bottomless pit of money and would like to make as minimal mistakes as possible when it comes to studio time and hiring players.

I'm going to create some libraries for personal use and have Kontakt 5 so want to make them using that. I have some friends that run a decent studio with a live room and semi high ceiling (about 4 - 5 metres) so I thought it would be wicked to hire them and use their space.

I was thinking about starting small and creating a solo Perc library (of which a friend is a good percussionist so I have the player covered) and then providing the first goes well, add to it and add more perc instruments to create a collection over time. Then move to recording a few players and eventually an Ensemble.

Things I want the library to do. After using Laboratory Audio's Strikeforce and watching JXL's studio time videos, I definitely want to map the dynamic layers across the keys. I love that approach now. I recently learnt how to map samples across keys using Kontakt but I don't know how to implement Round Robins and Mic Positions yet and I definitely want Round Robins and Mic Positions (3 Mics will be more than enough for me - Close, Mid, Far). Also a way to randomise Round Robins. There are a few other things I'd love to be able to do but I have a feeling this will be quite a mission to achieve this so far. I wasn't going to bother with Keyswitches and just Map the instruments per Kontakt patch and then obviously create a custom GUI with ADSR showing, and Mic Position Faders to control the Mic Positions.

I'm just wondering if anyone with experience creating Sample Libraries has any pointers or advice as this is something I really want to get into but not entirely sure how to get there.
Thanks for any help

Jono


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## tmhuud (Mar 23, 2018)

Start SMALL and work your way up. Start off with a small boutique instrument. You'll learn mountains and it wont be so frustrating.


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## geronimo (Mar 23, 2018)

And build a team around the Project as you go: because you can't excel in every area .


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## EvgenyEmelyanov (Mar 23, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> Things I want the library to do. After using Laboratory Audio's Strikeforce and watching JXL's studio time videos, I definitely want to map the dynamic layers across the keys. I love that approach now. I recently learnt how to map samples across keys using Kontakt but I don't know how to implement Round Robins and Mic Positions yet and I definitely want Round Robins and Mic Positions (3 Mics will be more than enough for me - Close, Mid, Far). Also a way to randomise Round Robins. There are a few other things I'd love to be able to do but I have a feeling this will be quite a mission to achieve this so far. I wasn't going to bother with Keyswitches and just Map the instruments per Kontakt patch and then obviously create a custom GUI with ADSR showing, and Mic Position Faders to control the Mic Positions.



What is interesting is many composers and musicians would like to develop custom personal instrument like JXL did. I personally did a several scripting projects for big private sample libraries with this feature - dynamic layers across the keys. Need to say it comes in handy.

What can I say? At first, you should have a list of everything you are going to record in details. Including how much articulations, layers, RR's, etc.

Next, if you do not care about UI - do it yourself.

Finally, learn how to script round robins and all other stuff or (!) hire a scripter. The idea of being one-man-band may not be the best. I'm sure (I know it), there is nothing really difficult in scripting. The most boring and routine part of work here will be editing thousands of samples and adding it to an engine.


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## jononotbono (Mar 23, 2018)

EvgenyEmelyanov said:


> What is interesting is many composers and musicians would like to develop custom personal instrument like JXL did. I personally did a several scripting projects for big private sample libraries with this feature - dynamic layers across the keys. Need to say it comes in handy.
> 
> What can I say? At first, you should have a list of everything you are going to record in details. Including how much articulations, layers, RR's, etc.
> 
> ...



Ok thanks. In regards to making a sample library like JXL, it's just the way the dynamic layers are mapped out that I love and it's actually from using Laboratory Audio Strike Force that made me realise why JXL would map his perc out like that. It's nothing to do with wanting to sound like JXL but just having those layers immediately there. It's pretty great!

I'm just wondering what constitutes a decent number of RRs and Dynamic layers? I mean, Strike Force has 6 dynamic layers and 16 RRs (32 RRs for the High pitched Tick Tock stuff) but I'm not sure if that's too much to start with. My percussionist could definitely do that but the post editing might become huge especially by myself and for my first library (as you say).

I also wonder about Multiple Mics. Once every sample has been recorded, I'm unsure of what I have to do with the multiple mic samples and also whether I have to align transients manually. It's something I need to test out and read more about (regarding getting them into Kontakt).

I'm not sure if this is the best route but I have read that Reaper is a great DAW for batch exporting Audio files with proper naming for files to go into Kontakt? I use Cubase as my main DAW but would be more than willing to use another DAW if it speeds logistical stuff up.

And yeah, as for a GUI, I might get a friend to design something simple. Thanks for your advice!


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## Kyle Preston (Mar 23, 2018)

Good on you for starting small and with a Perc library. Those kinds of sounds are far easier to work with and make authentic than lyrical legato sounds. It'll help build your confidence with this stuff. I learned quite a bit from the Kontakt series on MacPro video, particularly this one (which covers RRs), but the whole series is good. There's also https://www.thesamplinghandbook.com/ (The Sampling Handbook).

But you're doing the right thing, start small, build one library start to finish. Staccato sounds are easier to replicate in a VI - or any sound for that matter that you don't manipulate after it is struck, blown, plucked, or whatever. Doing custom GUI stuff was a pain for me at first, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. There's a guy with a great blog post on GUI stuff but I can't find it right now, will post when I can. Oh, and I now have a template I use when I start certain instruments that makes my life easier, I recommend building one that works for you when you get comfortable enough.


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## EvgenyEmelyanov (Mar 23, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> I'm just wondering what constitutes a decent number of RRs and Dynamic layers? I mean, Strike Force has 6 dynamic layers and 16 RRs (32 RRs for the High pitched Tick Tock stuff) but I'm not sure if that's too much to start with. My percussionist could definitely do that but the post editing might become huge especially by myself and for my first library (as you say).



It depends on many factors. Let's say, record about 3-4 RR's and 3-4 layers as a first step. Integrate it into an engine. Try it in practice. Do a lot of tests. We developed one perc library with 7-8 dyn layers and about 15 mic groups (some of the groups contain one mic, some three mics, like deca tree) and only 4-6 RR's. Believe me or not, but it sounds incredible with so many variations in sound.

It is subjective. I would record in small pieces -> try, record -> try and again.


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## EvgenyEmelyanov (Mar 23, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> I also wonder about Multiple Mics. Once every sample has been recorded, I'm unsure of what I have to do with the multiple mic samples and also whether I have to align transients manually. It's something I need to test out and read more about (regarding getting them into Kontakt).



Long story short, multiple mic samples -> multiple groups in kontakt.



jononotbono said:


> I'm not sure if this is the best route but I have read that Reaper is a great DAW for batch exporting Audio files with proper naming for files to go into Kontakt?



Well, yes. I'm a biggest Reaper fan. You are able to automate any routine processes using it.


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## jononotbono (Mar 23, 2018)

I shall start looking at Reaper very soon (and the Mac Pro Kontakt Courses) then. I also have access to a TS Kontakt course which is going to come in handy.

I'm curious about FX. Obviously Kontakt has it's own FX and I'm just wondering what commercial libraries use for Reverb. Is it straight from Kontakt or is it something bespoke etc? I figure it's just Kontakt FX but I thought I'd ask.

Thank you all for so much great advice. It's very encouraging. Of course I'm going to say to my percussionist "I've sought some advice regarding sample libraries and the consensus is that because there are 88 Keys on a Keyboard Controller, there needs to be 88 Dynamic layers. We'll start with the Triangle".


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## Kyle Preston (Mar 23, 2018)

A deep-sampled Triangle, that is some dedication!

Btw, here's that GUI blog post: https://henrik242.dk/creating-a-custom-control-in-kontakt/


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## jononotbono (Mar 23, 2018)

Kyle Preston said:


> A deep-sampled Triangle, that is some dedication!
> 
> Btw, here's that GUI blog post: https://henrik242.dk/creating-a-custom-control-in-kontakt/



Brilliant! Thanks man!


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## Tod (Mar 23, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> I shall start looking at Reaper very soon (and the Mac Pro Kontakt Courses) then. I also have access to a TS Kontakt course which is going to come in handy.



I'm also a big fan of Reaper, as Evgeny says, you can create your own actions, not only to speed um the mundane process, but make fewer mistakes. 



> I'm curious about FX. Obviously Kontakt has it's own FX and I'm just wondering what commercial libraries use for Reverb. Is it straight from Kontakt or is it something bespoke etc? I figure it's just Kontakt FX but I thought I'd ask.



I wouldn't worry too much about FX until you get there, they can all go in a separate tab, and you can experiment when you get the rest done.



> Thank you all for so much great advice. It's very encouraging. Of course I'm going to say to my percussionist "I've sought some advice regarding sample libraries and the consensus is that because there are 88 Keys on a Keyboard Controller, there needs to be 88 Dynamic layers. We'll start with the Triangle".



I think you've got the wrong idea about dynamic layers. The dynamic layers will be for each key, you can have up to 127 of them, although 24 to 64 is more realistic for percussion, depending on how well they are recorded. Getting your dynamic layers recorded right, is the single best thing you can do, no matter how many RRs you have.


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## jononotbono (Mar 23, 2018)

Tod said:


> I'm also a big fan of Reaper, as Evgeny says, you can create your own actions, not only to speed um the mundane process, but make fewer mistakes.



Yeah, I'll definitely be checking out Reaper soon! 



Tod said:


> I wouldn't worry too much about FX until you get there, they can all go in a separate tab, and you can experiment when you get the rest done.



I was just curious as to how they work. It will definitely be a last thought to be honest.



Tod said:


> I think you've got the wrong idea about dynamic layers. The dynamic layers will be for each key, you can have up to 127 of them, although 24 to 64 is more realistic for percussion, depending on how well they are recorded. Getting your dynamic layers recorded right, is the single best thing you can do, no matter how many RRs you have.



No I was just messing around. I want to map each dynamic layer from softest to loudest on each key starting respectively from the lowest Key to the highest key. So they aren't triggered with velocity and hence why I joked saying about 88 Keys = 88 Dynamic layers. 

Then I will have each RR for each Dynamic layer (on each key). So, for example, 1 key will have 1 Dynamic layer and 16 (or however many) RRs of that Dynamic Layer. Hope that makes sense.


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## Tod (Mar 23, 2018)

> Then I will have each RR for each Dynamic layer (on each key). So, for example, 1 key will have 1 Dynamic layer and 16 (or however many) RRs of that Dynamic Layer. Hope that makes sense.



Yes, and this is where you're missing an important factor. I don't think you want to spread your Triangle samples across 88 keys, unless you have triangles of different frequencies (88 in this case). Basically you'll want to keep it on one single key. This is where the velocity layers come in and why I say the velocity layers are the most important thing. If you record 64 layers of Triangle on a single key starting at -56dB going to -0.5dB, that will give you more dynamics than 16 RRs could ever give you. 

Of course you don't necessarily need that many layers, but like I said, the way you record your layers and then edit them, that is best thing you can do for a good sampled instrument.


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## tmhuud (Mar 23, 2018)

Nah, man your gonna love it. Sampling your own stuff is the bees knees. It really helps ‘define’ YOU. It’s so satisfying.


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## jononotbono (Mar 24, 2018)

Tod said:


> Yes, and this is where you're missing an important factor. I don't think you want to spread your Triangle samples across 88 keys, unless you have triangles of different frequencies (88 in this case). Basically you'll want to keep it on one single key. This is where the velocity layers come in and why I say the velocity layers are the most important thing. If you record 64 layers of Triangle on a single key starting at -56dB going to -0.5dB, that will give you more dynamics than 16 RRs could ever give you.
> 
> Of course you don't necessarily need that many layers, but like I said, the way you record your layers and then edit them, that is best thing you can do for a good sampled instrument.



So you prefer having dynamic layers, for percussion, triggered by velocity as opposed to having Dynamic layers mapped across the keys? Because the latter is what I want to do after loving how dynamic layers are spread across the keys like in Strikeforce. I find it to be much more realistic like this when using a crappy Controller Keyboard with poor velocity response. JXL takes it to a much bigger level of course by mapping some of his Perc across nearly the whole range of keys on the controller keyboard.

I will definitely take care when recording and editing the dynamic layers so thank you for pointing this out to me!


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## EvilDragon (Mar 24, 2018)

Yes, for percussion it's better like that if you have a half-decent keyboard. Or even a pad controller, might be even better.


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## jononotbono (Mar 24, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> Yes, for percussion it's better like that if you have a half-decent keyboard. Or even a pad controller, might be even better.



Using velocity to trigger dynamic layers or mapping across keys? Sorry, I'm not sure which way you mean.


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## d.healey (Mar 24, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> I'm curious about FX. Obviously Kontakt has it's own FX and I'm just wondering what commercial libraries use for Reverb. Is it straight from Kontakt or is it something bespoke etc? I figure it's just Kontakt FX but I thought I'd ask.


Within Kontakt you can only use the FX that come with Kontakt. For the reverb you have two choices, algorithmic, or convolution, if you go with the convolution you can load in your own impulse responses.


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## Saxer (Mar 24, 2018)

Go into the kitchen and record some things. Wine glasses, knifes, slamming doors and stuff. Make enough to get round robins and dynamic levels. Make sample instruments out of it. It's the most risk free way to get some experience before booking studio time and players. If you're stuck with some Kontakt editing like round robin look for YT videos or ask in the forum. Beside from getting skills these home made samples are often very useful for little percussion tasks.


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## jononotbono (Mar 24, 2018)

d.healey said:


> Within Kontakt you can only use the FX that come with Kontakt. For the reverb you have two choices, algorithmic, or convolution, if you go with the convolution you can load in your own impulse responses.



This is very interesting. Thanks!


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## GtrString (Mar 24, 2018)

Sounds like you are up to follow “the Zimmer proposition” of creating your own libraries. I have no clue how to do it, but Ill follow this thread for sure. Please post about your process, as there is not much on how to do this, it seems. 

Personally, Im a little scared it will take too much time from making music, which is troublesome if you arent in a financed project. On the other hand, its a great thing to be able to do, so its great to see someone taking the dive!


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## jononotbono (Mar 24, 2018)

GtrString said:


> Sounds like you are up to follow “the Zimmer proposition” of creating your own libraries. I have no clue how to do it, but Ill follow this thread for sure. Please post about your process, as there is not much on how to do this, it seems.
> 
> Personally, Im a little scared it will take too much time from making music, which is troublesome if you arent in a financed project. On the other hand, its a great thing to be able to do, so its great to see someone taking the dive!





GtrString said:


> Sounds like you are up to follow “the Zimmer proposition” of creating your own libraries. I have no clue how to do it, but Ill follow this thread for sure. Please post about your process, as there is not much on how to do this, it seems.
> 
> Personally, Im a little scared it will take too much time from making music, which is troublesome if you arent in a financed project. On the other hand, its a great thing to be able to do, so its great to see someone taking the dive!



Well it’s not just taking example from the HZ masterclass it’s from other people such as CH and CC ( yes everyone is abbriated from now on haha) explaining that creating your own sounds and creating libraries from them is so valuable for having your own unique sounds. Gonna be a massive journey but I think creating them is the way forward within reason. I mean I could no way afford (or know how to) to create Orchestral sample libraries like commercially released instruments that, for example, Spitfire or OT release, but other things are definitely worth pursuing. 

Even just dropping my own sounds into the Cubase Sampler and making them playable is a great thing so taking it to a different level can only be a good thing


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## MatFluor (Mar 24, 2018)

Well - my few libraries that I made for myself (and for sale), I did mbasically this:

Since I know how recording works (recorded some albums back then, for my own band and others in a good studio, and built my own), that's not a problem then.

Then I just took Kontakt and dropped the files after I cleaned and cut them - the basics are done. Then some mangling, some free too use stuff and you got something good going. I also used UVI Falcon for some of my stuff because of some broader possibilities concerning sound design. Why? Because I think it's fun, it's usable for a lot of situations, and I save money  Get to know some cool people and learn the world of sampling better - maybe I can be of use some time in the future for a sampling company - or maybe even start my own (which I tried - but I don't have time to really make a polished release of anything...). I never hired a player as of now - everything I sampled was playable by myself - so e.g. for percussion, as long as I'm not doing loops/phrases - why not learn to actually do this on my own? Might take an hour or two longer, but hey, I learned the behavior and the sound of the instrument, plus "I played it myself". Same with a drumkit I sampled - I could've asked the drummer, but I thought "why not on my own" - it turned out ok (but not because of my playing), so if it's bad, I just wasted my own time on this 

What I did so far:
- Special Violin Articulations (screeching stuff for my horror with a $15 Violin from a thrift shop)
- Household objects with tons of processing (e.g. cage of a standing fan, tuned down and reverbed it sounds COOL)
- Percussion, from Djembe to Acoustic guitar "drumming"
- Guitar (Some basic chords from my guitar to quickly sketch stuff and simple phrases)
- Some IRs

Currently in progress:
- 12-String guitar "special sounds"
- Music automats from a museum in Switzerland
- Whatever I find cool....


So, advise...make something that is usable for you, go in and learn the stuff. Kontakt tutorials are around (our own d.healey has a nice course). Considering percussion mapping: I like more dynamics on one key, the harder I hit, the higher the dynamic. If you like the "horizontal" approach - go ahead! For me personally it feels less intuitive - but nothing wrong with it - honestly - I try with one of my percussion libs to do that now xD


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## jononotbono (Mar 24, 2018)

MatFluor said:


> Well - my few libraries that I made for myself (and for sale), I did mbasically this:
> 
> Since I know how recording works (recorded some albums back then, for my own band and others in a good studio, and built my own), that's not a problem then.
> 
> ...



Well, I'm definitely hiring a friend who plays percussion. He has decades of experience and his consistency and feel is going to be very important to me especially regarding the recording of Dynamic Layers and RRs.

I'll have to check out your libraries!


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## jononotbono (Mar 24, 2018)

d.healey said:


> Within Kontakt you can only use the FX that come with Kontakt. For the reverb you have two choices, algorithmic, or convolution, if you go with the convolution you can load in your own impulse responses.



I’ve just been looking at your website and Scripting tutorials. I am very interested in buying these as I have not done any form of scripting before and this is exactly what I need. Just finished reading what all four parts teach and in a nutshell, they teach everything I have wanted to know. As soon as I can afford it I will be buying them. Amazing.

I’ve also been watching the Thinkspace Kontakt 101 course and then it clicked it was you!!


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## d.healey (Mar 24, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> I’ve also been watching the Thinkspace Kontakt 101 course and then it clicked it was you!!


I'm everywhere 

Feel free to ask me anything about the videos


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## Jaap (Mar 24, 2018)

I don't know if you own Falcon, but take a look into that as well. It is very friendly when it comes down to working with samples. Good and easy mapping options, easy to adjust samples in there (bit more friendly then Kontakt in my opinion), tons of great fx which surpass Kontakt in my opinion to later tweak your stuff. For creating your own stuff it is definitely a great and flexible tool.


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## MatFluor (Mar 24, 2018)

Jaap said:


> I don't know if you own Falcon, but take a look into that as well. It is very friendly when it comes down to working with samples. Good and easy mapping options, easy to adjust samples in there (bit more friendly then Kontakt in my opinion), tons of great fx which surpass Kontakt in my opinion to later tweak your stuff. For creating your own stuff it definitely a great and flexible tool.



Yeah, as I said above, I made some of my stuff in Falcon - it's great, especially when you do sound design stuff with samples


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## Jaap (Mar 24, 2018)

MatFluor said:


> Yeah, as I said above, I made some of my stuff in Falcon - it's great, especially when you do sound design stuff with samples



Missed that (jetlagged here  )


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## MatFluor (Mar 24, 2018)

Jaap said:


> Missed that (jetlagged here  )


Nah with that wall of text I wrote up there


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## JC_ (Mar 24, 2018)

Sounds like a cool project. Does Kontakt have a lot of options for manipulating audio or is all of that done before the instrument is built for most libs? ie. stuff like crazy heavyocity drums, are they mainly processed outside of Kontakt and then brought in?


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## EvilDragon (Mar 25, 2018)

You can process stuff quite decently with Kontakt's effects.


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## jononotbono (Mar 25, 2018)

Jaap said:


> I don't know if you own Falcon, but take a look into that as well. It is very friendly when it comes down to working with samples. Good and easy mapping options, easy to adjust samples in there (bit more friendly then Kontakt in my opinion), tons of great fx which surpass Kontakt in my opinion to later tweak your stuff. For creating your own stuff it is definitely a great and flexible tool.



I don't know Falcon but I am going to stick with Kontakt (for now). Time is precious and as I own Kontakt and use it for most of my Sample libraries, I feel like it's the best option for me.


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## tav.one (Mar 25, 2018)

I joined this course today after this thread inspired me again: https://www.kadenze.com/courses/sound-design-with-kontakt-i


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## Kyle Preston (Mar 25, 2018)

Also also, not to bombard you with more reading @jononotbono. But for future knowledge for anyone, a nice top-down understanding of sampling as a process is explained beautifully in this SOS series. It helped answer several _yeah but why_ questions I kept having.


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## jononotbono (Mar 25, 2018)

Kyle Preston said:


> Also also, not to bombard you with more reading @jononotbono. But for future knowledge for anyone, a nice top-down understanding of sampling as a process is explained beautifully in this SOS series. It helped answer several _yeah but why_ questions I kept having.




Thanks Kyle. Will read it in a minute.


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## Tod (Mar 25, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> Time is precious and as I own Kontakt and use it for most of my Sample libraries, I feel like it's the best option for me.



What are your biggest most nagging questions right now jononotbono?


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## Rv5 (Mar 25, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> I’ve just been looking at your website and Scripting tutorials. I am very interested in buying these as I have not done any form of scripting before and this is exactly what I need. Just finished reading what all four parts teach and in a nutshell, they teach everything I have wanted to know. As soon as I can afford it I will be buying them. Amazing.
> 
> I’ve also been watching the Thinkspace Kontakt 101 course and then it clicked it was you!!



Can't recommend @d.healey 's Kontakt course enough, and he means it when he says 



d.healey said:


> Feel free to ask me anything about the videos



My scripting for my recent brass release I owe much to David's tutorials and advice!


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## jononotbono (Mar 25, 2018)

Tod said:


> What are your biggest most nagging questions right now jononotbono?



At the minute I am wondering how the process works of preparing the samples before they go into Kontakt for multiple mic positions. I wonder whether because of time and distance whether transients of far and mid mics need to be manually lined up wth the transients of the close mics. Sorry if this sounds so basic to ask but I have never done this before. I also really want to learn the best way of creating true Legato but I won’t need that for a Perc Library so that can be a 5hing I discover later. I know 5e principle of it but have never done it in practise so there are probably many pitfalls to look out for.

I am going to do D Healeys Kontakt scripting course before booking the studio because I think it’s going to answer many question I have (and most likely questions I don’t yet know I need to ask).


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## d.healey (Mar 25, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> At the minute I am wondering how the process works of preparing the samples before they go into Kontakt for multiple mic positions.



Make an instrument today. Grab your phone, hit record, and start making noises. Then edit the samples:


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## MatFluor (Mar 25, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> I am going to do D Healeys Kontakt scripting course before booking the studio because I think it’s going to answer many question I have (and most likely questions I don’t yet know I need to ask).



The course covers Kontakt scripting, not sampling per se.

All the work you do is after recording. My personal thinking is, it depends on the effect. Trnasient line-up for mics that are further away has the benefit of capturiing the sound and you jsut dial in the sound. when you do't line up transiets, you have "spatiality" in it. At least that's the way I think of it (that said, I haven't sampled multi mics yet, only stereo and mono).

My advise would be: Just try it out! what happens when you don't lineup, what happens when you do - it's your decision. Just do it and learn - else you will know a lot but can't do it. It's like reading 20 books about drumming and *then* going into a studio to record a song - it won't work.

So, go into the studio and recording as much audio as you can, trust your ears on the positioning of the mics - then you can ask more questions with conrete examples


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## Tod (Mar 25, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> At the minute I am wondering how the process works of preparing the samples before they go into Kontakt for multiple mic positions. I wonder whether because of time and distance whether transients of far and mid mics need to be manually lined up wth the transients of the close mics.



You may or may not want to do that, much of the desired sound comes from the time differential between the mics.

For editing the different mic positions, with Reaper you can easily combine the mic samples into one file for easy editing. That way every mic sample will retain its relative position and you only need to split 1 sample instead of all the multi mic samples. Also if you observed Davids video above, he shows how to use Dynamic Splitting. Having all the mic samples in one take/item will make that much much easier, having them on different tracks makes it more difficult. 



> Sorry if this sounds so basic to ask but I have never done this before. I also really want to learn the best way of creating true Legato but I won’t need that for a Perc Library so that can be a 5hing I discover later. I know 5e principle of it but have never done it in practise so there are probably many pitfalls to look out for.



Yeah, legato samples are a whole subject by themselves. I tried that years ago with custom violin samples in Kontakt 2. I managed to get it to work, but I haven't tried it since.



> I am going to do D Healeys Kontakt scripting course before booking the studio because I think it’s going to answer many question I have (and most likely questions I don’t yet know I need to ask).



That's a good idea.


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## Lindon (Mar 26, 2018)

First Dave Healey's course is probably a must.

Second, think. So (say) 5 RRs and 8 dynamic layers for 3 mic positions over (say) 4 octaves leaves you with (5 x 8 x 3 x 48) = 5,760 files per articulation. lets say 3 articulations(which is low) = 17,280 files to edit and master.

Clearly this is not the triangle and you are not mapping the dynamics across the keyboard but by velocity - which you will need to do for a chromatic percussion instrument - like vibes or marimba. But equally clearly this is no small task.

You are going to have to master some batch processor at some point to help you trim and balance all these files.

Things to make life easier:

- sample only every 5 semi-tones and remap two semi-tones below, the root and two above(cut your files by 80% right there...)
- script the round robins (not record them) - so 80% less again.
- kontakt groups (and their independent volume and pitch settings) can be your friend.

Things to make it do-able
- get some batch programming tool
- think about re-use - what other instrument could I build (and sell) using these sounds?

PM me and we can talk.


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## jononotbono (Mar 27, 2018)

Lindon said:


> First Dave Healey's course is probably a must.
> 
> Second, think. So (say) 5 RRs and 8 dynamic layers for 3 mic positions over (say) 4 octaves leaves you with (5 x 8 x 3 x 48) = 5,760 files per articulation. lets say 3 articulations(which is low) = 17,280 files to edit and master.
> 
> ...



Thank you man! That's most kind!


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## anderslink (Mar 27, 2018)

jononotbono said:


> I am going to do D Healeys Kontakt scripting course before booking the studio because I think it’s going to answer many question I have (and most likely questions I don’t yet know I need to ask).



Definitely check his tutorials out I just started them a couple days ago and it's been awesome so far. Also don't forget http://www.nilsliberg.se/ksp/scripts/tutorial/


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## jononotbono (Mar 27, 2018)

anderslink said:


> Definitely check his tutorials out I just started them a couple days ago and it's been awesome so far. Also don't forget http://www.nilsliberg.se/ksp/scripts/tutorial/



Yes man! Brilliant. Thanks!


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## Joshua Campbell (Jul 7, 2018)

Thanks to everyone that has contributed to this thread! I've had the same interest in recording samples and building my own Kontakt instruments... I've purchased a couple of the resources suggested in the thread, and am looking forward to countless hours of fun... Lots of reading, recording, editing, and programing ahead...


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## jononotbono (Jul 7, 2018)

Joshua Campbell said:


> Thanks to everyone that has contributed to this thread! I've had the same interest in recording samples and building my own Kontakt instruments... I've purchased a couple of the resources suggested in the thread, and am looking forward to countless hours of fun... Lots of reading, recording, editing, and programing ahead...



There are some very talented people here and I love how they share their knowledge.

Regarding handclap libraries. Definitely best recording hand claps from a few feet away. There’s a weird and shitty thing with proximity when recording them close mic. Been trying out a few things for a library. This is just with hand claps. The amount of work needed for an Orchestral library such as Spitfire Chamber Strings must be a bit of a head scratcher to say the least haha! Madness!!


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## Tod (Jul 7, 2018)

I'm on my 2nd Steel Guitar instrument. The 1st turned out very good but required over 25 controllers, and although I've used it in many productions, it requires over 25 controllers and is just to complicated, even if I wanted to give it away for free.

I'm approaching the 2nd one quite a bit differently, and even though the Steel appears to be quite simple, it's actually a very complicated instrument. Ha ha, based on my last one, I thought it would be easy to come up with a good strategy, but as I'm recording the samples, trying to think ahead, it's rather daunting.


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