Best Sample Library

[gongchime]

Brian Eno made the comment in a video interview that he doesn't need a synthesizer with 2,000 sounds he can't use. It's a known fact that all these companies, even the very highest end synths want their product to be obsolete before you buy it, hence the further required purchase of sample libraries. You want a good bass sound and they have it on a cd with 500 other sounds you can't use and, by the way, it doesn't come with any of the other good samples you would need which you have to buy on separate cds all with hundreds of lame samples to accompany them to justify the hundred of dollars price. Synths should come with the six sounds you need all the time was his observation.

Sometimes people say that you need several different bass patches, piano patches, drum patches etc to fit the needs of the song.

I remember hearing that Van Halen had the idea to get one good guitar sound and use it all the time for everything, even going so far as to take all the switches and knobs off his guitar preferring his "brown sound." Whether that's true or not I like the minimalist philosophy. There's only two kinds of projects I'm going to be working on besides the world music stuff I've already got down; thats the U2ish rock and singersongwriter stuff required for most tv and film listings. Singersongwriter as in vocalist with acoustic guitar, or piano with vocal.

Although Edge travels with hundreds of guitars thats not normal for most bands. It's my observation that bands like Evanescence have the same instrumentation and sound all the time. That sounds good to me because I'm not going shopping everytime I write a song to "meet the needs of the song." We're here to make money not spend it. It's not supposed to be an expensive "hobby" or waste my precious time. I imagine it can be a streamlined money making proposition. My songs don't have such divergent needs and if they do I'm not using them. What sample library will have everything I want in one go? We're talking basic modern rock and singersongerwriter instrumentation. A different question is if there even is one? If there isn't then that is a sad commentary on the state of the music industry. I suspect I'm not the first person to think like this and suspect someone has already put up a free download to help other people get around the music industry's b.s.

[Kolstad]

Whatever works for you. You can have opinions about it, supportive or dismantal, but this is creative work and to each his own. It certainly can work for an instrumentalist in the live circuit to set up a 'sound' and then stick to it. It helps the audience recognize the player, but I really don't think many conceptualize that way anymore.

For a composer trying to service the needs of music supervisors in film/tv/commercials ect., not so much, I think.

Choosing sample libraries is not just about knowing what's out there, but knowing yourself and the music market you will be targeting. Some are b2b, some are customers direct. You can ask yourself q's like: What is your workflow, and what would fit in that? Are you likely to try something new, or stick with a few well chosen patches? Are you sticking with one genre, or do you branch out to more than one? What are the expectations of your audience, are they a&r people, artists, music consumers ect?

It all depends, and there is no one size fits all.. fortunately!

When you research what's out there, the best is usually the most expensive ones. In samples, even the best ones doesn't cost a fraction of a really good instrument, so they are all bargains IMO But really, there aren't that many big ones out there, but of course when you are supplementing the big meat & potatoes samplers with specialized instruments, then you're in a state of research for life.

But, sign up for a few newletters and magazines, and you'll keep up automatically.

Kicking off a singer/songwriter, I would probably look into Native Instuments Kontakt 4, as it provides the meat & potatoes stuff, and let you upgrade to almost anything else you'll need along the way.

Nocentsinvolved

[mojobone]

Maybe we could do a kind of collective overview of the stuff that's good enough for professional (BQ) work without a lot of tweaking; then again, there are entire threads about this sort of thing in Recommended Gear...

[mazz]

Kontakt 4 has a really a great bread and butter library and by obtaining it, you open up to a universe of compatible libraries of all shapes and sizes and prices, from free on up. I think it would provide an excellent base to build upon.

Obviously, if you are aiming to compose in a certain specific style of music, then you need to find libraries that support that style. For a busy media composer, it's often necessary to have several libraries to "go to" when time is short. To each his own.

[hazineju]

and of course if you are a respectable to amazing instrumentalist, or have access to instrumentalists who will record freely or cheaply for you, you can sidestep your way around the sample libes. i think it it still true (and may possilbly always be true) that some genres require live musicians for the best sound. a midi or a sampled guitar just can't compare with a real acoustic guitar in the singer/songwriter genre. unfortunately for those of us who can't play guitar well enough to record guitar tracks, i have yet to hear an amazing VI acoustic guitar strum.

for the genres you mentioned, i might be more inclined to make some connections to people who would play for free or cheaply for me than spending the cash on some libraries that might just have 1 or 2 usable sounds, as you mentioned. i don't think the issue is that they're not paying attention to those genres but maybe they're are just harder to recreate in a realistic way?

[gongchime]

I noticed that if I upgrade from Halion One to Halion Three that it comes with a lot of samples. Wondering if they will be sufficient for my purposes in the short term or if they're just not going to be good enough and I should get Kontakt 4 instead which seems to both map samples to the keyboard and has an extensive library. By the way, it looks great after checking it out.

[matto]

I have Halion 3 and the library it comes with is a step up from Halion One but it's nowhere near the quality or size of Kontakt 4.

Assuming you play guitar and are planning to use the samples mostly for drums, bass and keyboards, I think it's possible to get broadcast quality results with H3 but you will have to work much harder in the finetuning department than if you get K4.

I think the H3 library hasn't been updated in several years and is hardly "state of the art" by today's standards, unlike K4, which employs advanced technologies on a lot of its sounds to make the sampled instruments sound more realistic with less effort.

IMHO of all the "bread and butter" sample libraries, K4 is the top choice and as others have pointed out it is also the most widely supported sample player.

[mojobone]

Hey, Matto, can K4 read Giga samples? That'd definitely tip the balance for some folks with legacy libraries.

[kurtkreimier]

I agree with others here about Kontakt 4. I think it will give you the best bang for your dollar. It even has a nice collection of world instruments that you will probably find helpful. I've made some money on songs with their steel drum sample. You'll also be able to upgrade to other NI products (Komplete 7) down the road at a substantially reduced price.

Mojo, I'm not a Giga user but I believe Kontakt 4 can read Giga samples.

[mojobone]

Thanks, Kurt! I'll maybe go check with NI.