EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

>And do we really need 16 velocities per note in the lows and highs, I'm

>asking in a pseudo rhetoric way? The less samples, the less problems...

Nick Batzdorf [mailto:recording@...] :
I don't know which direction your rhetoric is leading, but I think 
it's the opposite: the fewer samples, the more problems. Piano is 
such a complicated instrument that the more nuance you can 
capture/program in, the closer you're going to get to the effect of a 
real piano - regardless of which range you're talking about.

Nick, Maybe I should elaborate. I tried two or three of the well known
libraries, I have Gigapiano, some Akai piano stuff and Garritan Personal
Orchestra which has a Steinway 280 (?) thrown in, too. I own a Steinway
myself and I love this thing, even when it is permanent out of tune. For
this reason I like to have a very accurate sampled piano. 
What I discovered in a lot of the libraries, which has put me off, is
this. You hear the same samples over and over again! If there is
something ill-programmed dynamic-wise or the transients are a little
pronounced the ear can distinguish the separate recordings. For this
reason I said: maybe they should cut down on the number of samples and
concentrate on the samples left that they fit in extremely well (no
sudden jumps in timbre or perceived dynamic). But of course I know this
is contradictory to the wish to add nuance, especially in the upper mid
range (around and above C3) and middle dynamics (mp - F).
Apart from that, some sampled piano's show a larger dynamic range than
the real thing. If I press a piano key very soft, there is still a
reasonable sound. Not on some sampled piano's, there you have a sort of
whispering sound! 
Why do sampled instruments sound artificial in general? The ear
subconsciously detects that something is wrong when individual notes
sound 100% identical, which is impossible in nature. Unfortunately this
still is the case (although to a lesser extent) with a lot of layering
and samples per note, or 24 bits 192 kHz recordings. Maybe they should
invent a mechanism that alters the attack/transients randomly on every
note.

Herbert Boland
herbert@...
www.zepmusic.com