M-Tron Pro: the journey continues

The M-Tron has been a "must" for any vintage sounds' lover since when it came out, years ago.Now with the M-tron Pro they are taking the whole concept to a new level.
You'll probably remember GForce released another product in the meantime, Vintage String Machine, or VSM. Well, we could say the M-Tron Pro is the direct evolution of both.
It has (of course) the original sounds from the M-Tron, and it ads a lot of new sounds coming from some rare Mellotron banks (45 brand-new tape banks) as well as from other cult instruments (Birotron, Optigan, etc.) Some of the original sounds have also been remastered at Abbey Road Studios; you know this is old stuff and it needs some beauty treatment...! For those who hate the 8 seconds playing system of the original sounds, well, there are also looped samples available now. Please, don't tell the purists, thanks!

M-Tron Pro is VSM's heir for the underlying sampler engine and controls. Basically if you know VSM you'll feel at home here, while original M-Tron users will be amazed at the control power they have with this new beast: dual layer and split keyboard operation, 29 parameters per layer including synth parameters, vintage-style ensemble and delay effects, low-pass, band-pass and high-pass resonant filter section, dynamic keyboard control, including filter aftertouch.
Wait, there's something more: they added also the Tape reverse and Tape half speed buttons, which lets you alter the sound in an interesting way.
As in VSM, there are tons of great patches created by "world class recording artists and programmers". The good old Wakeman is part of the team, let's hope he did not burn his monitor after creating the patches!
A special mention goes also to the.... pdf manual. Yes, it's one of the few times where I would have liked to have it on paper, since it's really a useful and very entertaining read. Don't skip it, ok?

That said, if you have the original M-Tron and want more control over the sound + more sounds (did I tell you there are also some Roland VP330 choirs?), go for it. The M-Tron Pro Upgrade costs €59.00 (plus VAT if applicable).
If you are new to these sounds, well, have a look at GForce's website and listen to some of the demos. There are good chances you'll fall in love with the M-Tron Pro and you'll end up buying it. With €139.00 (plus VAT if applicable) you'll get hours and hours of fun.

Platforms: standalone, RTAS and VST on Windows XP/SP2, Vista 32, Vista 64, RTAS, AU and VST on OS X 10.4.x, OSX 10.5.x.


Read also the interview with Dave Spiers, co-founder of GForce.

When the drum machines hit tape: Goldbaby

Hugo Tichborne is the man behind Goldbaby Productions (or simply Goldbaby), and his mission was and still is quite simple: to create the best vintage drum machine samples on the market.
Ok, we all know there are tons of similar samples, both free and payware, but his mission is based on adding some value to the good old "let's sample a drum machine" concept: the added value in this case means recording the drum machines onto some good old tape machines and sampling them as carefully as possible (last but not least, then selling them at cheap prices anyone can afford).
Goldbaby's latest releases are called Tape Drum Machines vol.1 and vol.2.
The first volume contains Linn LM-1, MBase01, Roland TR-505, Boss DR110, Sequential Tom, 4 In The Floor, Yamaha MR-10, MRX-185, Emu Drumulator and MPC The Kit (and a bonus rom based 808).
The second volume contains: Linn Drum, CR-78, TR-626, DDR-30, Bohm, DR-55, RPM-40, RX-5, KPR-77 and the Synsonics Pro.
In both cases the Tape machines used are Ampex valve 1/2 inch 2 track, Otari MX5050 1/4 inch 2 track, Teac A-350 Cassette Deck and the Hitachi 3 head Cassette deck.
In total, you get respectively 1482 and 1838 samples (ouch!) at 24bit resolution (for those who care, the audio card used in the process is the well respected Metric Halo ULN-2), and the drum samplers supported are: Battery 3 and Guru.
Of course you can get just the raw samples and import them in your favourite sampler (better if it has a round robin layering feature, like in Battery or Guru, it makes the thing even more realistic since it emulates the non-linear behaviour of the original drum machines).
By the way, as stated in the manual, the supplied Kits only use a small portion of the samples on offer in the sample folder. It means you can have fun (or lose some sleep, or both) creating your own kits.
Maybe Goldbaby should set up a forum where users can share their presets, I'm sure it would be appreciated, especially by lazy users like...ehm... myself!

As expected, these libraries give justice (and probably more) to the original products. The audio quality/dynamic is way better than most of the similar samples I've used.
And besides the famous names, it's really a good thing to have some of these obscure/exotic drum machines sampled here: for example, the Synsonics is getting a lot of use here lately!
Anyway, listen to the demos on the website if you're still hesitating, but at 29$ each you should not think about it twice!

We've asked Hugo to tell us something more about him, his business and the new product he's working on. Here's Mr.Goldbaby in his own words...



Hugo, you're definitely one the most know drum-machines freak of the interweb! How all this started, you got a drum-machine as a gift from your parents when you were a kid, or what?

I started getting into music technology and electronic music in the mid 80's. Working after school polishing floors just so I could save enough money to buy a 2nd hand Moog MG-1, my first synth. I still have it! The first drum machine I ever played with was a Yamaha RX7. I couldn't afford it, but use to go down to my local music store every weekend just to "test it out". They must of got sick of me! However I didn't seriously get into drum machines until I bought an MPC60... The Roger Linn masterpiece. Then I bought a TR-606, TR-808, CR-78, CR-8000, DDR-30, Mbase... Now I can't be stopped! I also met Steve who is serious collector. He has well over a hundred vintage drum machines. A very handy guy to know if you want to record drum machine samples! I just hire what I need when I need it. He has some rare and crazy stuff...

What's the main reason behind the "let's print it to tape" concept? It's the saturation, the smoothing of some frequencies/transients, or it's just the fact for those of us grown up with the sound of tape in the ears, well, that's what our ears expect to hear?

I have always known that drums sound good on tape. I use to work in recording studio which had a Fairlight MFX 2 and a Studer two inch 24 track tape machine. The Fairlight was an incredible hard disk recorder and editor. Incredibly advanced and sounded great.... but we always seemed to go back to tape when recording drums... You're right... it's the saturation, transient smoothing and frequency response. Or maybe it's just voodoo! What ever it is... I like what it does to an 808 BD!

Herbert, the dj/producer/composer, talking about originality once said in an interview "if you're using a 909 drum machine, like, I don't know, twenty-five thousand other people in the world, then it's going to be a lot harder to sound original". Does that make you feel guilty for spreading even more 909 sounds around the world?

Drum samples are just tools. The way you use them can differ completely to the way someone else uses them. I know customers who use the 909 to make Drum and Bass, House, Techno, Hip Hop, Dub Step... the list goes on. I just supply the tools. My customers supply the originality... Remember the the TR-909 was originally designed to be a realistic drummer. It failed dismally at that. Instead it became the futuristic drum sound that helped shape modern dance music. There have been countless 909 samples available since sampling began. My mission was to create the best 909 samples available.

Do you use software drum-machines, too? Which are your favourites and what do you feel they miss, compared to the old stuff?

Personally I have been favouring Guru as a software drum sampler. Very powerful and inspiring tool. Fill it with Goldbaby samples and then ba boom! Also been using uTonic... it is a great software "analog" drum machine. I still have time for my old stuff. The character and limitations of those old device really make you concentrate on the simple ideas. A drum sampler with only 5 seconds of sampling time for instance, gets you working creatively to overcome it's lack of memory. A synth with no midi gets you playing it live. Plus a healthy dose of nostalgia always keeps my studio full of vintage gear...

Would we ever see from Goldbaby a plug-in a-la Virtual String Machine by GForce? I mean a virtual instrument still based on samples but with actual controls?

Hell yeah! Sign me up.
Unfortunately I have absolutely no coding skills. However if a software developer ever wanted to do something with me.... I wouldn't complain.

I've read you're working on a new release. Could you tell us something more about it?

Next product is based around the SP1200 and SP12. Think dirty 12 bit samples through SSM2044 analog filters (more info on this famous chip here)! Really enjoying my time with these two legends. The first time I sampled through it I used the 808 as a sound source. Playing back the 808 bass drum through the SP1200 I was a little disappointed to the hear the gritty 12 bit aliasing... then I routed it through it's internal VCF.... aaaahh that's better, a whole lot better! That 12 bit aliasing works magic on snares and HH. The filters really warm up the Toms and Kicks... Such a deferent sonic character to my other 12 bit sampler the MPC60...

Hollywood Impulse Responses: convolution at its best

(photo: Vlastula on Flickr)

There's a huge number of Impulse Responses on the web, both free and commercial ones.
Yes, you can get some good free IRs here and there, but if I'd need to pick a name in this field, I'd say Ernest Cholakis (and his Numerical Sound brand) without any doubt.
He's really a sort of mad scientist for these things, and he knows his stuff probably better than anyone else.
So, when I heard there was a new Numerical Sound's release, called Hollywood Impulse Responses (or HIR), I knew I wanted to put my hands on it.

This is the official description: "The Hollywood Impulse Responses (HIR) were inspired by the ambience of 20 major Hollywood blockbuster films released between 1977-2006. This selection of films were recorded in several famous recording studio’s sound stages and symphony halls."

HIR is a 1.1 gigabytes library (several formats, WAV, AIFF, SD, 24 and 32bit), Mac and Pc compatible.
Of course you can use the IRs in your favourite convolution program (Space Designer, Pristine Space or others). I've loaded them in Altiverb.

HIR offers some unique features: it's been thought as a perfect partner for individual musical instruments, thanks to its six sets of IRs that are high pass filtered at points of the frequency spectrum that match the range of acoustic instruments (C2, G2, C3, G3, C4, and G4). So, for example, if you have a cello track you can get better results using one of the C2 IRs, and so on.
Another interesting feature is timbre-related: for each IR there are five variations, Dark, Warm, Flat, Clear and Bright, which can be used to change the perceived timbre of an instrument or an ensemble.
Ernest claims this variation cannot be matched by any kind of EQ, and well, who am I to disagree?


The interesting thing about HIR is that it's quite different from other products on the market, because it does not try to reproduce one or multiple actual acoustic spaces. Since, as said, it's inspired by the ambiences of several Hollywood films, it follows the same "larger than life" paradigm.
I'll go back to Ernest's own words: "The source material in these film recordings often contained more bass and lower midrange power than comparable “normal” acoustic spaces, so the perceived size of the reverberant space is often much larger than these studios' physical dimensions would ever be able to create."

Some more numbers: the lenght of the reverbs go from 4.112 to 11.013 seconds. There are 4 Hall types: Small Sound Stage, Medium Sound Stage, Large Symphony Hall, Huge Sound Stage.
So it's 600 IRs in total, divided in 6 notes groups, as said.
Anyway HIR is not about quantity. What you get here is quality and some unique features.
I've tried HIR on acoustic tracks and virtual instrument ones, and I can safely say it works great on both things. Especially virtual instrument tracks (sample libraries, percussions, etc.) benefit from HIR's treatment!

Of course, HIR is not a product for everyone, but if you're into sound-design and you'd like to have that "larger than life" sound on your tracks, I would get it as quickly as possible. The investment ($129.95) will pay off soon.


An interview with Ernest Cholakis about his partnership with Dan Dean, ProAudioVault.

New life for historic instruments: realsamples

Some years ago I was in a musical instruments museum, and while it was good to see all those old, rare and incredibly beautiful harpsichord and pianos, I admit it was a painful experience. You know, I wanted to "jump" on them and start playing!
Well, of course things are not going to change in this kind of museums, but technology sometimes may help: the german sample libraries brand, realsamples, has released an interesting collection, The Beurmann Edition. 8 libraries for 8 different instruments, which can be bought separately or bundled together (saving some money!).
For historic instruments lovers the Beurmann Edition is a godsend. The quality of the instruments (3 harpsichords, 1 spinet, 1 celesta-dulcitone, 3 pianoforte) and the way they've been carefully recorded really make these libraries stand out in the crowded samples market.
We have had the chance to try three of these libraries: the English Spinet, the Grand Piano (Erard Pianoforte) and the Dulcitone Celesta.
Since the realsamples website has a lot of info on each instrument, I won't repeat the same things here; I'll just say that quality and out-of-time emotions are the keywords here. Unless you're a lucky owner of some historical instrument these are some of the finest results you can get from today's sampling technology.
It may be obvious, but don't expect an "hyped" or "ultra-perfect" (for today's standards) sound from the Beurmann Edition; these instruments come from another time, and their unique tone and dynamics need some time to be fully appreciated.

The libraries are available on DVD (sometimes on multiple DVDs) in EXS24, Halion, Giga and Kontakt 2 formats (16 and 24 bit, 44.1 and 48 khz).
A little note for Logic users (at least for those using the 7.x.x version): since the samples' files are named in a similar way across the several libraries, the EXS could have some problems associating the instrument to the samples. If it happens, my advice is to use Logic's Project Manager (the Logic 8's Browser Window should be able to perform similar tasks). The developer is aware of this little issue and told AudioNewsRoom he'll take care of this on the next revision.
Prices go from $ 139.95 to $ 159.95 (VAT and shipping excluded) for one library ($ 999.95 for the bundle).
The only thing that's missing (and it's not realsamples' fault) is, ermmm, the physical experience. Playing these samples on your MIDI keyboard it's definitely not the same thing, but add a touch of (a good) reverb, close your eyes and start playing...

As you can see, there were enough reasons for us to try to know more about the Beurmann Edition, so we asked some questions to Nicolay Ketterer, the brain behind realsamples. From his long and detailed answers you'll probably understand why these libraries are a real labour of love.

How the Beurmann Edition idea came out? And what about the choice of the instruments?

Professor Beurmann has a huge collection of old instruments and most part of it can be seen in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. But the visitors can’t play them – it would be too hard to keep them in tune and some are very fragile and they could break.
But what musical value do antique historical instruments have if they remain silent? So the idea came up to make them playable in a software sampler. It’s great to hear those special sounds come alive again and being used in current productions.
We should keep in mind that those instruments are cutting edge - very much in the sense how Stradivari violins are highly sought-after and unparalleled, it’s the same with Ruckers harpsichords or Hitchcock spinets. What a shame if we would not use these sounds today! The instruments build today sound different.
Part of it is the aging process, of course: Wood sounds different when it’s old. Just like an old Fender guitar sounds different than a new one. Not necessarily better in all cases, but different. You can almost hear and feel the history of the instrument when you play it.
The same goes for the old pianos of the collection. They don’t have that modern sound that we’re used to from a Steinway, but a very different, classy sound going on. The pianofortes by Johann Andreas Stein were Mozart’s favourites, for example: They have a baroque attitude that also goes very well with many different styles today. The Erard pianoforte melts with Chopin’s works and is great for any music with character.
For these libraries, we chose instruments that are very distinctive in their own right and that had a historical impact.

In your website we can read about the gear you used to record the samples. Have you tried other gear before choosing this set-up? And could you share with our readers some details about the recording? Mic techniques, etc.

If I’d record a rock/pop band, I’d shoot for the kind of colour that fits the music, e.g. for guitars I’d try a Royer R121 with a Chandler Germanium, for example.
But with the old instruments which are masterpieces that sound very even and balanced, you don’t need that kind of colour: On the other hand, I didn’t want to record with a rather “boring” sounding signal chain.
You always have to keep in mind that sampling is a totally different animal than simply recording a performance: Instaead of playing an instrument, you play a whole mix – every single key in a sampler acts like one track in a multi-track environment. You layer the single samples to a whole performance. If you use equipment that sounds too coloured, the colour will add up and things might become muddy. Also if you use equipment with a bad noise floor, the noise will add up and may become audible, especially with quiet instruments such as harpsichords, spinets, or the lower range of a piano.


My main goal was to find a recording chain that has a certain fidelity and musical soul, a natural warmth, while retaining a classy and pure sound.
Before I start recording, I listen to the instrument very closely and try to find out what the soul of the instrument is; The special thing that sets it apart from other instruments. Then I try to build a recording setup that really focuses that element.
For the mics, we made two choices: The rather neutral yet big and present sound of old Neumann TLM 170’s. For some of the instruments, I preferred a pair of Royer R122V ribbon mics. They have a tube gain stage and more output than traditional ribbon mics. They brought some polish and grace to the table that fit some of the harpsichords and the Traugott Berndt pianoforte very well, lending a nice, expensive shimmer to their treble range. In contrast to normal ribbons like an R84 or the R121 which can sound rather dark with very balanced or mellow instruments, the R122V’s have an extended high end. I also like what they did to the mids, and the way they record the transients.


Regarding the preamp, I didn’t want to use a preamp that has a sonic signature that’s all over the recordings like a thick cloth, adding up with the number of samples played. Along with our choices of mics, we ended up using the Crane Song Flamingo preamps which offer a great noise floor and a neutral yet anything but sterile sound. The transformer simulation and the “warmth” feature gave us great versatility when needed, so we did not use different preamps for the whole recording session.
One thing that is often underrated for a digital recording is the converter. When I first heard the difference from some studio standard RME converters to dedicated audiophile units, it seemed stunning and worthwhile. A sampler is a digital tool and it will reproduce an instrument in a digital way, so in order to capture the instruments in an organic way, I decided to go with Universal Audio 2192 converters. They don’t sound harsh in the sense of some converters without altering the sound in the way a preamp would.
I really like to share the information on the recording setup, because it reveals a certain concept behind the whole thing and also indicates a certain level of care that went into these recordings. It would be rather meaningless to simply state “high quality recording equipment”.

Your products are compatible with most of the samplers; do you achieve this using a conversion software or it's a one-by-one tweaking process?

Most formats are tweaked one-by-one. Some formats don’t work well with conversion software – the GigaStudio format, for example, which is really a special deal, so I create that originally. Others, like Halion, can be converted easily.

At AudioNewsRoom we love the sound of unusual instruments, like the Dulcitone. Do you think we can expect more of this "off the beaten path" releases in the near future?

Oh, I love the Dulcitone, too. It’s one of my favourites! That crooky yet innocent sound full of patina and character shows what sampling can achieve: If you play the samples, you would be hard pressed to guess that this is a sampled sound, not a real instrument. There will be some more unusual instruments in the near future as well, but I can’t tell you anymore than that at the moment, eh eh!

Glitch Gumbo vol.1

Tip of the day: if you have 10.99$ (or 7 €) waiting to be spent, before doing anything else have a look at Atypical Audio's website. You'll find Glitch Gumbo vol.1, an interesting collection of 66 electronic percussion loops (Apple Loops/Acid ).
It's top quality stuff, made using Elektron Machinedrum and Monomachine, Max/Msp, Reaktor, etc.
Especially Logic and Garageband users could find Glitch Gumbo very useful, since there's not so much interesting stuff on the market for this kind of sounds, and even if you're good at programming beats, it's always useful to have some more hi-quality and ready-to-use solutions to add to your tracks, isn't it?
We asked Atypical Audio's Peter Van Hoesen (electronic musician/dj) to tell us something more about his first software release: "of course, as 'glitch' is a main feature of this library you will find this characteristic in most of the loops. The emphasis is on experimental percussion loops - sometimes radically chopped up and dsp-mangled, sometimes on the more funky side. It's a constant battle between the experimental geek and the funky dj in me, eh eh... The main reason for making this library is that I really enjoy combining sound design with rhythmic production. I'm a very rhythm-oriented producer, always have been. Combining these two aspects and making a fresh-sounding library was my main goal."
Peter is generous enough to give away 20 free loops (not included in the Glitch Gumbo vol.1) and a couple of Battery3 kits from his free sounds page, so show him some paypal love!
By the way he also told us he's working on a few new things: "The next download packs will continue along the same lines. There is Glitch Gumbo Vol 2, which will not only include percussion loops but also bass loops and 'abstract-melodic' content, so as to offer the user more options to combine sounds into something unique. I'm also working on a library exclusvely produced with sounds from the Elektron Monomachine, Elektron Machinedrum and Korg ER-1. These are my favourite three beat box synths. All patterns are programmed on the machines, then imported into the software domain for further processing. I don't want to just sample the machines, because that's not so interesting. The aim is to use these machines and their specific sound as a starting point for further sound design. Both libraries should be finished at the end of April."

Off-the-record: ProAudioVault

ProAudioVault is Ernest Cholakis and Dan Dean. We loved their first release, a grand piano virtual instrument called Bluthner Digital Model One (or BDMO, for friends), and since they're also among the most respected people in the software industry we wanted to ask them some questions about BDMO, sampling and related topics.
Well, it took months for Ernest Cholakis to get its homework done, but you know, developers are always super-busy trying to do the right thing for us, isn't it? ;-)

I know you and Dan come from different backgrounds, how did the idea of a collaboration come out?

Over the years Dan and I developed a friendship. Obviously sampling and recording technology is something that we both have in common. We produce different content - Dan has released mostly orchestral and bass samples libraries where I have released drones, drum loops, DNA groove templates and reverberation impulse products.
We often discussed various sampling issues, both technical and marketing as well as the growing problem of piracy. When we started to consider the Blüthner Piano sampling project we decided to pool our combined knowledge base because of the considerable technical challenges involved such as the signal processing required for noise reduction, recording procedures like how to record without any ambience etc. Because the piano is one of the most difficult instrument to record effectively, we decided our combined expertise could develop a better overall product than if either one of us took on the project alone.

Before starting working on BDMO which were your feelings about the available software pianos on the market?

We obviously thought that there was still room for improvement as most libraries had too much ambience in the piano samples and true piano dynamics were not accurately captured. In 2005 I wrote an article in Sound On Sound on this subject - (issue Nov DVD 2). THe article points out that all the major samplers could not accurately reproduce the piano's dynamic range - even when the right tone was put into any given sampler, the dynamic range was inaccurate due to the sampler engine limitations. Most samples (even new releases) still cannot accurately reproduce the dynamic range of each individual note of a real world piano.

BDMO really sounds like a labour of love (just have a look at the manual and you'll agree with me). How much time did it take?

Planning started months prior to the recording sessions which took place the end of October 2004. We released it April 2007 so about 2 1/2 years.

Why did you choose a Bluthner? And, how did people at Bluthner collaborate with you during the making of BDMO?

After playing the Bluthner for 5 minutes at Annehein NAMM in Jan. 2004 we knew that the Bluthner Model One was the piano to sample - it has a warm and distinctive tone that was never harsh - even if you play fff. The other element that appealed to both of us was the evenness of the tone. This is clearly apparent as one plays up and down the keyboard. An another reason for choosing this piano is that is has a distinctive sound that is different from the Steinway and Borsendorfer which already have been sampled. We met Dr. Christian Blüthner formally at Musik Messe Frankfurt the following April.
Ours was the first sampled piano library to be officially endorsed by the piano manufacturer. For both Dr. Christian Blüthner as well as us, the most important criteria was quality. As well we all agreed that recording at Skywalker was our first choose as it has one of the quietest soundstages in the world and for a piano this is an essential consideration.

This product, besides being an excellent sampled library, has many interesting additional features: the most important is the IR one, which really makes the BDMO unique. My only critic is: don't you think this important feature could be better implemented in the GUI, to be more explicit and user-friendly? Users could easily get confused with those cryptic preset names, and for some things they need to keep the manual always handy...

Yes it is a point well taken. There are two reasons.
In the end one should listen to each timbral impulse get to know them individually then decide which one(s) work well in a composition. In a DAW a user can change the timbre without having to re-record.
Clearly RI users find it very appealing of obtain the impulse of a famous acoustic environment as well as a visual of the space. But in a musical sense why does this matter? I dealt with this same issue when I released both Pure Space Reverberation Impulse CD's - I refused to mention and include pictures of the spaces because too many people out there are listening with their eyes more that their ears. The purpose in audio production is to find the right type of ambience and adjust it if need be to compliment or enhance the music. Whether the space is well known, one's bathroom or a garage should be immaterial to the decision of selection. That is why I developed the bass, midrange,and treble numbers to describe the "character" of a space - because they actually make more sense in terms of describing a sound than a picture can ever do. In the end does anyone really think that if they have the Concertegedouw or Abbey Road RI's that is is going to sell more records ?
Another reason I decided to withhold detailed information on the sources was for legal reasons.

BDMO recently got an important update/bugfix. Would you like to say something more about it?

Yes it was released in January 2008. We changed about 800 notes in subtle ways but with a distinctly noticeable improvement in the overall sound of the piano. We also added a script so that a user can adjust the keyboard sensitivity. This feature enables one to customize the response for any controller.

Ernest, judging from your background and the BDMO's Timbral IR list, you have a library full of incredible recordings, probably made in every corner of the planet. I'm sure you have some interesting and funny anedocte about this, to share with our readers...

No funny situations I can think of but definitely a few surprises.
I find it especially interesting when one is in a space that has a historical significance. Over the years I have recorded in many temples, tombs, churches, grottos and early Christian churches. I remember when seeing the film of Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii the juxtaposition of this classical ambient band in a historical setting (Roman amphitheater) with no audience was poetic. So when traveling to Italy my partner and I when to Pompeii and recorded the RI of the amphitheater and man of the other buildings.
I find it fascinating that the sound of a particular space is not what one would expect. For example in the Pantheon one would think that the reverb time would be long and thick sounding given the incredible size of this temple however is is surprisingly short and depending where you stand has only a few discrete echos in the "ambience" of this space. Another space that I find interesting is Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel in Florence. It is not a big space but the reverb time is longer than one would expect (maybe due to the architecture's symmetry) and on top of that - it is one of my favorite places in Florence to visit!

Probably the biggest change we've seen in the 'sampling world' in these latest years has been the exponential growth of the libraries (thanks to larger and cheaper hds), which have become bigger and bigger. And sometimes this does not automatically means having a better and more playable product.
Now, in 2008, which is your vision on the state of art of sampling, and which are the next steps this technology is going to take?

Yes I agree bigger is not necessarily better. I think the large library trend has evolved for a number of reasons. Marketing, piracy issues and quality issues. All soundware developers are forced to deal with piracy and as internet and hard drives get larger so it seems the level of piracy also goes up. One very basic form of copy protection is large sound libraries. The problem with this approach is that given the level of polyphony required for a large ensemble such as a sampled orchestra a lot of pressure is put on the streaming engine of an sampler.
Earlier this year I took make a violin resonance impulse of an Andrea Amati and used it to convolve with a regular sawtooth wave patch. The realistic vibrato and character of the resulting tone was very dramatic to my ears. I can't help but think synthesis will go down this path and that convolution will likely be integrated into more sound-ware libraries and software synthesizes.

I know it's not your cup of tea, but still I'd be interested in your opinion...
Since some years we've seen a growth of audio modeling based products. Do you think there's a future for this kind of technology, especially regarding the emulation of a complex instruments like a piano?

Obviously modeling will continue to handle ever more of the piano tone nuances as the processors get faster. A piano sound can be modeled but modeling different instruments (i.e. Blüthner versus Steinway versus Borsendorfer) is a challenge because each piano manufacture and even piano's of the same model all have different partials (tuning and amplitude) and they all change differently as the sound evolves from ppp to fff. The amount of data required for a realistic sound is staggering especially if the user want much more than a "generic" grand piano sound.
That may take a while and will see if the marketplace even cares enough about this to support this kind of development.

is ProAudioVault just a 'one product brand', or are we going to see more products under the PAV name in the future? I swear I won't tell anybody...

Who knows, maybe... (smiles)

Thanks Ernest and Dan!

By the way Ernest added some interesting news. He released a new interesting reverberation impulse CD called "Hollywood Impulse Responses" under his own brand, Numerical Sound. This what he told us about this CD: "These RI's are unique and have something that no currently available software/hardware reverberation unit can do - add reverb that also changes the timbre of the source material as well as being designed for specific instruments (can't be done with any EQ)." You can check some audio demos which illustrate how HIR dramatically changes the timbre of an audio track at Numerical Sound's website.

Scarbee, happy birthday, happy customers

Today (11/15) Thomas 'Mr.Scarbee' is 43, and his webshop has a special (one day only) 43% off discount. So, if you want to add some of his top quality sample libraries to your hd, it's the right moment to do it!
And don't forget to wish him "happy birthday"!

Soundsnap: YouTube for samples?

Web 2.0 is not just videos and pictures. It's also about audio samples. We already knew the FreeSound project, and now please welcome Soundsnap.com, created by the 25 years old Tasos Frantzolas (from Greece). We said web 2.0, so you can expect tags, etc. There are already some thousand files on the website. Our best wishes to Tasos!