INSTRUMENT SERIES

A major hurdle we really wanted to solve with this next series of libraries was simple: be able to play normal melodic phrases in a pop/jazz style and have it sound realistic. It’s a simple enough idea, but very difficult to achieve. As we’ve all heard in the plethora of jazz/pop horn libraries over the decades now, it’s very difficult to get right. Why is this? The reason it is so difficult can be boiled down to: the countless tiny variations and changes that happen as the player moves from one note to the next. Basically, once the first note is played, as the player approaches the next note, all kinds of things happen to pitch, timbre, volume and idiosyncratic sounds that are different for every instrument (and every individual player!). These changes are different depending on things like the tessitura that the instrument is currently in, the dynamic at which it’s played, where in the phrase the note is, the length of the note and the interval they’re coming from as well as the interval they’re about to play.

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The main additions in The New Standard method of sampling are:

1. We recorded different lengths of notes. 9 different lengths. Players actually articulate and sustain notes very differently depending on how long they play them. Moreover, standard sustain samples, where the player performs an isolated long note, are only realistic and useful once the notes get to a certain length. If these standard long sustains are used for these shorter legato notes, the result is a flat, life-less and altogether fake sounding representation.

2. We recorded legato in and out of every note. So much of what gives each note of a phrase it’s unique sound, and why it’s so hard to replicate, is the preparation for the next note. Players do so many small changes as the next note is coming. Not only that, but it’s mostly involuntary and happens without them thinking (especially as the rhythm gets faster), so asking a player “play an 8th note” in a sampling won’t even close to get you the breadth of possibilities of what that same player might play in any given situation.

- To illustrate it more clearly, for every pitch there is a sample with a note from a whole step to a whole step, and from a whole step to a 3rd, and from a whole step to a 6th. Conversely, there’s sample from a 3rd to a whole step, and from a 6th to a whole, etc, etc...