[LAU] creating open source sample libs. (Was: Re: Experiment One - For Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra. Music and a short review of the sample library)

[Robin Paulson]

On 14 August 2012 04:05, Nils <list at nilsgey.de> wrote:
> There are two different things:
>
> The meta file, sfz in this case, and the audio recordings aka. samples.

yep, i'd agree

> I think it is not a good idea to use a git repository for binary recordings (wave or flac), but an rsync directory without any history and diff information could be enough.

fine, technical details can be worked out later. git/rsync/ftp/svn:
whatever suits

> But more important: Creating samples in a remote and distributed way does not work. It needs to be all from one hand or else the sound will not match. This is one reason why Sonatina is so mediocre.

there are so many examples from history of people being told "that
won't work, don't do it", that i'm amazed people still say this any
more.

in other news, apparently people can't create decent
software/encyclopedias/maps/music unless they are professional, work
in close knit teams overseen by professional managers who give out
work to them as they see fit

> But what can and and should be improved is the sfz file, which of course can be edited through git.
> What can be done with the sfz:
> Loop points (hard)
> Extended range (very easy)
> Remove the transposition from some instruments (medium)
> Probably tweaking release times (technically easy, a lot of trial and error)
> Make paths linux compatible (already done by someone I can't remember but probably reads this list as well)

great, useful suggestions

> Creation of new instrument is a huge effort and even then it has been all done already. Until you are a really good recording enginner, specialized in sample recording, and have pro level musicians, and most important: a vision how you want to create this virtual instrument the project is already doomed to the lower level of quality, only sticking out because it has an open source lisence.

see above regarding "professionals", and remember that the original
meaning of the word amateur was "one who loves what they do", from the
french word for love, amour [1]. money is not the only
motivator/measure of quality, and suggesting it is propagates an
ideology. centralised planning, or a "vision" is not the only way to
organise

> This is not so true for percussive instruments (percussion itself, piano, everything with "hit and forget") but for strings it is.

i find this useful for getting samples:
http://www.freesound.org/

[1] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wiktionary/en/wiki/amateur#Noun

-- 
robin

http://fu.ac.nz - Auckland's Free University