EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

Thoughts from the mind of Sascha Franck, 07-10-2002:

>Hendrik Jan Veenstra  wrote:
>>  The only thing that bugs me though is the samples from synths.  I
>>  never really understood what good that is.  The entire idea of a
>>  synth runs somewhat counter to the idea of a sampler...  And then you
>>  get 3 moog basses... out of a possible million or so...  ???  Oh
>>  well...
>
>Welll - personally I can perfectly understand the reasons for sampled
>synths:
>- You may not have them by yourself. Valid for me.
>- They may live up when being used along with the EXS filters and Logic's FX
>section. Again, perfectly valid for me.
>- They use up less CPU resources as some VSTi clones of the originals.
>Defenitely one of the most important points for me so far.
>
>In the end, my opinion is somewhat like 180° opposite as I can just say that
>sampled synth sounds are one of the reasons I like using samplers.

Funny how ideas can differ...  I do use the occasional sampled synth 
-- after I tweaked a synth's sound to my liking, and want to take the 
burden off the CPU.  However, this indeed is with "my own" synth 
sounds.  If I get some samplelibrary which includes 3 Moog basses 
however, I somewhat miss the point.  I mean, if I had a real Moog, I 
would probably use a slightly (or wildly :) different bass sound than 
the one the library-maker decided upon.
So yes, sampled synths can be useful, but only when I choose the 
original sound myself.  As soon as some sounds has been picked for 
me, I tend not to be too interested.

And it only gets worse with samples from more powerful synths, like 
some Kurzweil K2xxx.  These machines have zillions of possibilities, 
and then you get maybe 5 samples from a K2000?  Hmpff...  I really 
don't get the point.  The chance that I happen to be looking for 
exactly one of those 5 sounds is so incredibly small...

>And I can't see much difference in using a sampled string library compared to
>using a sampled synth library. More to the opposite - while sampled real
>instruments will still leave you with the problem of how to play/program
>them (drums, strings, basses, guitars etc, anything not played on keys
>originally), sampled synths are played on a keyboard - just as the
>originals.

Valid argument, from a certain perspective.  There could be an 
opposite argument though.  In e.g. a popmusic-context, instruments 
like drum & bass are rather straightforward in the way they're played 
(not talking about Pastorius-style bass-playing here), and so they're 
relatively easy to sample.  Ditto for strings that are used as 
"fill-in" (not talking about a Bach violin sonata).
Synth OTOH are far more flexible in the range of sounds they can 
produce and are thus, almost by definition, impossible to capture in 
a few samples.

Well, to each his own, I guess.  Personally I specifically like 
samplers for things like piano, organ, strings, brass, woodwinds -- 
i.e. anything "traditional acoustic" which I usually would have no 
(or difficult) access to.  Synths I _do_ have plenty of, so why would 
I need a samplelib with a fraction of a percentage of the possible 
sounds, if I have the real thing?


tata,
HJ
-- 
Hendrik Jan Veenstra  <h@...>
Omega Art: http://www.ision.nl/users/h/index.html