So, Ski (with an "i" for excellent Logic and music production tips) recently gave a talk on: "Adding Realism to Sampled Instruments" talk at NAMM 2011. Would love to know more... take it away Ski ;-)

(tap tap tap) is this mic on? Rounik very kindly asked about a talk I gave at the NAMM H.O.T. Zone on realism in MIDI mockups. (The H.O.T. Zone is an educational component of NAMM, started this year, where various people were invited to discuss a wide variety of topics related to music and music production). The talk went well, thanks! I demonstrated various techniques for imparting dynamics and emotion in parts played with sampled instruments. I used Logic and EXS-24, playing some nice-sounding but "lower end" sample libraries which don't offer control of dynamics -- and how to add that control. And even though I showed this on Logic, the techniques I showed are "platform agnostic", meaning that other sample libraries and platforms are likely to offer these kinds of control. I played some live clarinet to demonstrate how timbre and volume change over time, especially on single notes that are played with crescendi and diminuendi, making the point that velocity information can't be used to make that kind of expressive action. I also showed how to "roll your own" harp glissandi so as not to be tied to the tempo, emotion, or starting/ending notes of pre-fab harp glissando samples. Stuff like that... :-)

Welcome Ski!

Thanks Steve! Glad to be here.

Thanks Ski, Wish I had been there to catch your demo/talk! I'm not surprised the talk went well - it sounds like an excellent topic - and much needed for many digital musicians! Out of interest did you get any video footage of your talk at the HOT zone? Would be interested to learn more on your techniques on how you to "roll your own" harp glissandi so as not to be tied to the tempo, emotion sometime... Thanks for sharing this :)

Cool, that is an art in itself to impart real emotion via sampler sounds and computer generated music especially for woodwind and all manners of dynamic oriented instruments. There's another great idea for an MPV tutorial! Welcome Ski. See you over on Logic Pro Help a lot. This forum is a favorite of mine and hope you like as much as I do : ) Victor Mason Mojave Ampworks LLC.

Thanks for the welcome Victor! Yes, I'm over on LPH a lot, but I saw Steve H. at the show and he told me about this forum, so I thought I'd take a look around. I... I... I like it here! :-) Indeed, I've thought about doing a tutorial on realism. I guess it's really more about imparting emotion to mockups than it is about realism per se, though I kind of equate the two. Sampled sounds are "real" enough (played by real players) but when we use them it's like we're borrowing someone else's emotions to fit our own. Sometimes the emotional arc inherent in a sampled sound is just right for what we're trying to express. But many times we play samples which simply sustain and it's up to us to impart some artificial dynamics to get those parts to truly sing. There are plenty of sample libraries which offer great expressive control, and are very playable and flexible. But there are techniques (available to everyone) for making parts played with even those libraries sound more convincing and less "keyboardy" (or just fake). And then there are "lesser" libraries from which great use can be made of their sounds if people know how to re-program them and approach them. Even some of the stock EXS-24 orchestral sounds -- which feature very little or no programming to impart expression -- can be made to sing nicely with a little tweaking. Anyway, doing a tutorial is something I'm considering doing. Rounik, I'll try and put together a quickie tutorial on how to roll-your-own harp parts for the forum. Cheers! Ski

Hi Ski and welcome! This sounds great - I use samples a lot, and only know a couple of methods to 'humanize' them so I'm looking forward to your tips. I try to follow the method of personalising every sample in some way, so I agree - its not what it sounds like to begin with that counts, but how you customise it. Yes, a tutorial please Mr Ski... and Welcome again! Cheers Hamish

Greetings, Ski, very glad to see you here! It looks like you're already becoming a hit. I think doing a tut using the stock exs24 samples would really open a lot of eyes and minds to using these expressive techniques. Thanks, Adam

Thanks for your welcomes and greetings Hamish and agagag! EXS-24 in particular is really easy to customize in terms of adding expressive capability. But first... time permitting over the next few days I'll put together a lil' tutorial on harp glisses along the lines of what I demonstrated at my talk. And now, back to mixing! Cheers, Ski