EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

Fernando Vicente wrote:
> Say you bought a loops CD Rom like Spectrasonics' new Backbeat.  According
> to how you see it, you could take one of the loops on it, put it on a
loops
> CD Rom that you create (actually more like compile rather than create) and
> sell that.  Definitely illegal.

I don't think that's what he meant.
I guess if I buy a CD it's perfectly OK to sell it - of course assuming I
don't use the CDs content. As that (not using the CDs content at all) is
pretty much unlikely, especially in these days where people are using
softsamplers and large HDs, I'd expect nobody to kill all the samples from
the HD before selling the CD - so yes, there may arise problems in any case.

> This past summer I bought the Kirk Hunter Virtuoso Strings library from
> Ilio.  A lot of programming went into it but, never mind the programming -
> think about just the recording of the samples.  They had to hire a string
> orchestra (some samples involve 24 violins!) and all of the musicians, not
> to mention the orchestra hall to record it in, the engineers to do the
> recording, etc.  I'm sure that it cost them thousands of dollars per day
> just to record the samples.  At a price of $999, you're getting a deal.
My
> opinion is just like if you want a Lexicon 960 or an Avalon mastering
> compressor - if you can't afford it, you don't need it.

Very good point!

But unfortunately there's the opposite as well.
I have a bunch of "Ueberschall" CDs that I didn't have to pay for (jfyi,
they are legit CDs though and they are really *mine*) and, to say the least,
the content is rather lousy. I might eventually find myself using one loop
or two in years. I even know some drummer being involved in some CD
recordings for them, and I must say, the amount of work they invested is in
no way related to the amount of money they try to charge for the CDs.
Unfortunately this is true for many "standard" loop CDs, people are just
putting *something* together.
And then, while you can preview a sample CD in good shops, there's no such
options when buying things online. A good example might be the Neil Conti CD
from Emagicsamples.com. While the RA demofiles you can listen to certainly
aren't bad, overall the CD offers rather low content. Good grooves but not
exactly much variations.
Unfortunately the same is also true for some instruments CDs.
Recently I have been looking for some horns CD and I've been listening to
"Psychic Horns" at a friends studio. What a dissapointment. All over the CD
there's not a single patch you could use for a bit longer sustained chord
(how lame is that?). What you get a lot is licks and stuff like that -
pretty much unusable if you are into arranging your own stuff. Their demo
(which I listened to as well) however sounded pretty impressive, but well,
they were using licks rather than individual sounds all the time (so
changing tonalities is no option at all). I'd almost call that cheating the
consumer.

I do agree however that sampling an orchestra really is some incredibly huge
work and that those CDs (if done properly) are well worth their money (still
cheaper than hiring even a string quartet for one single session).

After all, in the future I will try to basically only do my own samples. I
hope that in the next half year I will for example have some time to sample
some real horns in a proper studio. If I will ever succeed in doing so I
will upload the EXS patches somewhere to make them available for everybody.
Free of charge of course (but hey, don't take my word on that, I may not
find the time and/or I may get greedy all of a sudden :-).

Cheers,
Sascha