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Sample Library Concepts - Put Yours Below!!

Except that technique, texture, orchestrations, extended techniques are innovations that are passed down from composers to the next generations all the time.

Pizz. as we think of it today is at least argueably a Beethoven innovation (string quartet 10 if I recall). But my favorite example is Wagner, who decided he simply could not write the music he could feel without inventing a whole new tuba. Which of course in now quite standard in large orchestras.

Olafur Arnalds chamber evolutions, at least for the last hour or so, are my Wagner tuba . Or maybe its the clarinets in Tidal orchestra. Or the Vc + Db harmonics in LCO, or the con legno tratto in HZS. I object strenuously to intimations of fanboyism - but please tell me, who’s better, at orchestral scale, at inventing tubas than Spitfire? And their success at tuba inventing comes from their collaborations with artists who’s music just can’t come into existence without new tuba technology (as opposed to merely engineers). OT , for instance, do amazing work at upping the game in conventional virtual tuba technology, but they’re not a tuba inventing company.

Some libraries engineer a better tuba , some invent a whole new tuba. You’ve got to love both.

It’s really nothing more that the innovations going on with synths in recent decades, but now at orchestral scale.

Sure. But they are still one-shot samples. Like a rocket in a bottle.
 
I would love to see a Danny Elfman library, something that captures his whimsical and horror style. Ideally, It would also include an eerie type of choir.
 
The Pawn Shop.

Broken instruments you find at a pawn shop that are simply junk at that point. It would be great to get the raw "out of the shop" sound before fixing any broken parts or re-stringing instrument. I got the idea years ago when I went to a really awesome instrument pawn shop in El Cerrito, CA. They had the entire orchestra but the crappiest quality I could imagine, and cheap. I don't know if it's still around but that idea has always stuck with me.

Cheers,

Chris
 
And how could I forget?! We need a Junkie XL Mad Max percussion library!!!

Yes! With a special add-on of Fiery Guitar Solos! I'd like to see libraries from either Cliff Martinez or Trent & Atticus. I don't want them to necessarily give us Solaris steel drums or Social Network drones, but they have such interesting sonic voices that I'd love to hear what they'd come up with for us.
 
The Pawn Shop.

Broken instruments you find at a pawn shop that are simply junk at that point. It would be great to get the raw "out of the shop" sound before fixing any broken parts or re-stringing instrument. I got the idea years ago when I went to a really awesome instrument pawn shop in El Cerrito, CA. They had the entire orchestra but the crappiest quality I could imagine, and cheap. I don't know if it's still around but that idea has always stuck with me.

Cheers,

Chris

I LOVE this idea. Also, I grew up in El Cerrito(!), so maybe I'm partial. What was the shop? And I really do love this idea. Pendle at Sound Dust gets close.
 
Yes! With a special add-on of Fiery Guitar Solos! I'd like to see libraries from either Cliff Martinez or Trent & Atticus. I don't want them to necessarily give us Solaris steel drums or Social Network drones, but they have such interesting sonic voices that I'd love to hear what they'd come up with for us.

I’d certainly be down for a Trent/Atticus library, I’m sure it’d have some nasty basses and great sound design.
 
I LOVE this idea. Also, I grew up in El Cerrito(!), so maybe I'm partial. What was the shop? And I really do love this idea. Pendle at Sound Dust gets close.
I don't remember the name of it but it's on San Pablo on the same block as the Rialto Cinema there near the Plaza. I doubt it's still around but it was pretty awesome. I bought an acoustic guitar from them. Total piece of crap but only cost me $20.
 
I want to hear your guys' concepts, and why you think it would make a great sample library. Go!

First of, sorry that i can't provide a nice Spitfire cover as you did...

However, what i'd really like to see would be quite a specific thing in addition to the recent HZ Strings.

It would be a library called "section transitions" (or something similar).

This library would mainly provide crescendi and decrescendi, but not normal ones.
Rather, the with the crescendo the number of the players would constantly increasing.
In this way, there would be a logical way to get from normal sections to the bigger ones.
(or e.g. from 20 players to 60; or changes in the positioning would take place, e.g. a sound started by the celli left would "go" to the celli at the right side.)
In my opinion big sections benefit if there is a transition from the small.
(it's the same when e.g. first some people in a crowd start shouting, and then more and more people are joining them...)
Of course, also the other way round (decrescendi).

(Said that i haven't bought HZ strings. Main reason is that i usually don't do projects that would require that specific sound [which probably sounds best in really big [IMAX] theatres], and i prefer smaller sections, specially for techniques like col legno tratto... but another reason is that in my personal style transitions - how to get from A to B - are essential... And so, in order to let 340 people play at once i'd like to use this sound as a result of few players getting more and more...)
 
I have mentioned ideas for forthcoming string libraries in other threads, but here some are the most important ones:

A modular library, offering several V1 (etc) sections. This would mean that a 12 piece V1 section could come in, say, three separate sections, one with 3 players, one with 4 and one with 5. This would not only allow several combinations (like 4+3, 4+5, 3+5, 3+4+5, 3, 4 or 5 = 7 different section sizes from 3 to 12 players) but also allow us to place each of the subsection where we want them (wide panning vs narrow panning), and also include ways to make some of the players sounding close to the listener while others are a little further away.

Recordings should ideally be done both the traditional way and centered (in stereo), by using multiple mic setups for each recording.

There should also, IMO, be a very easy way to create layers within the library. This would allow a user to within on single instance of the sample player use eg three different long notes (eg flautando/normale/con sord) and give each of them a separate pan position and volume. IMHO such layered string sound much better than the standard flautandos, sul tastes etc. Such a solution would allow us to quickly create a string section with two or more layers.
Because such layers would add to the size of the section, each of these layers wouldn't have to have many players.

For standard longs, one could also offer several 'colors', by deliberately using other microphones/preamps.

The sample player should be smart. Example: it could come with a lot of sampled note lengths - and after a track has been created, it could learn the notes lengths in this track and replace the current articulations with notes of the desired length. This could be particularly useful for short notes.

I also like the idea of using evos/arcs/dynamic bowings, but IMO all good library should be designed to let us have the sound of the the main evos/arcs available also as non-evo notes. This way we could record a track using normal longs or legatos, and replace some of the notes with arcs/evos. This works to some degree in some libraries already, but I miss more options to sculpt single notes in many libraries.
 
IMHO inspiration from other artists is always valuable. But Ramin Djwadi Solo Strings? Cinestrings Solo (same cellist as GoT). John Williams Toolkit? Spitfire Symphony Orchestra. It's often so much more about what you do with the notes, more than what the libraries are designed to sound like.

Sample libraries are incredible, and I happily use them every day. But we shouldn't forget one of my favourite examples of what happens when you pick up a microphone and craft a score in its purest meaning... I'm sure Jóhann didn't need a Jóhann Jóhannsson Toolkit for this one

 
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IMHO inspiration from other artists is always valuable. But Ramin Djwadi Solo Strings? Cinestrings Solo (same cellist as GoT). John Williams Toolkit? Spitfire Symphony Orchestra. It's often so much more about what you do with the notes, more than what the libraries are designed to sound like.

Sample libraries are incredible, and I happily use them every day. But we shouldn't forget one of my favourite examples of what happens when you pick up a microphone and craft a score in its purest meaning... I'm sure Jóhann didn't need a Jóhann Jóhannsson Toolkit for this one



I deffinetely get where you are coming from.

There's certain specific things though that are more difficult to capture in general purpose libraries. The specific playability of James Newton Howard's violin writing on the Village with all the super complex arps and such, hasn't been sampled before (Hillary Hahn in specific), woodwind evolutions in the style of Olafur Arnalds, I think that could possibly add a lot to the palette and it hasn't been done before, and Satnam Ramgotra's eccentric playing style, hasn't really been captured in samples. HGW' choral work is deffinetely achievable, I had to figure out a way to do it on the Narnia episode a few weeks back, nonetheless, the guy writes for choirs insanely well, and it would be cool to have a little bit of his personal flare from Crimson Tide, Narnia, etc. Those are just a couple examples.

Couldn't agree more in regards to the JW example though. I was simply saying that if there was a Ramin Djawadi solo strings toolkit, I'd probs click the buy button ;). There's a certain sound he has, check out "Victory Does Not Make Us Conquerors" from S1.

Anyways, it's just for fun. Just interested to see what kind of new samples people in this community are imagining for the future.

 
I deffinetely get where you are coming from.

There's certain specific things though that are more difficult to capture in general purpose libraries. The specific playability of James Newton Howard's violin writing on the Village with all the super complex arps and such, hasn't been sampled before (Hillary Hahn in specific), woodwind evolutions in the style of Olafur Arnalds, I think that could possibly add a lot to the palette and it hasn't been done before, and Satnam Ramgotra's eccentric playing style, hasn't really been captured in samples. HGW' choral work is deffinetely achievable, I had to figure out a way to do it on the Narnia episode a few weeks back, nonetheless, the guy writes for choirs insanely well, and it would be cool to have a little bit of his personal flare from Crimson Tide, Narnia, etc. Those are just a couple examples.

Couldn't agree more in regards to the JW example though. I was simply saying that if there was a Ramin Djawadi solo strings toolkit, I'd probs click the buy button ;). There's a certain sound he has, check out "Victory Does Not Make Us Conquerors" from S1.

Anyways, it's just for fun. Just interested to see what kind of new samples people in this community are imagining for the future.


Well, I think in the examples of Hillary and Satnam, a lot of the 'sound' is down to how they interpret the music, the dynamics, where they put the accents etc. which would be hard to capture in samples considering samples are 'played' by the composer using the library, not the players themselves. I'm not sure how much 'Satnam' would make it into a single drum hit sample, over another player. Perhaps phrase based libraries would be more useful for capturing the playing style of a specific soloist? Or perhaps we should just hire those soloists instead ;)

But I agree - definitely so much to capture in samples that hasn't been captured yet, and the innovative things composers have done with music in the past is a great place to start.
 
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