Personal sound library.

[Francois2010]

Is it possible to place a personal sound library for use with N3?

[pcartwright]

Are you referring to using your own samples? There are sample platforms, such as Kontakt, that allow you to build samples. You just need to use a sample platform that can be loaded as a vst.

[Surfwhammy]

SampleTank (IK Multimedia) is another application VSTi virtual instrument that makes it possible to create your own sampled sound library . . .

[NOTE: You might be able to do this with SampleTank FREE, but if not then you can do it with the full version of SampleTank . . . ]

SampleTank FREE (IK Multimedia)

The way it works with SampleTank is that you record a set of single notes or note phrases and then export them as .WAV files or a similar format. The files need to follow a specific naming convention, and there are suffices that provide more information to SampleTank . . .

In a typical single note scenario, you will play and record each note separately with a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application like Digital Performer and Logic Studio on the Mac. Then you can edit the recorded tracks to select each individual note, one at a time, for export . . .

You can do a bit of editing on the recorded notes to ensure that the start and end times are correct . . .

The suffix for the file name can include the specific name of the note, which as I recall is done in scientific music notation, where for example "C4" refers to "Middle C" . . .

This helps SampleTank do the mapping of notes to piano keys, although SampleTank will analyze the audio file for a note to determine the best match . . .

To get the highest accuracy, you want to have a sample for each note, since if only some of the notes are sampled, SampleTank will compute the missing notes based on either a lower or higher sampled note, where for example if you only sample C4 and E5, then SampleTank will compute the way C#4, D4, and D#4 need to sound based on using either C4 or E5, depending on the distance or number of semitones from computed notes . . .

For reference, I was pondering the idea of doing some electric guitar samples of playing rhythm guitar chords with upstrokes, and this is the way I wandered into getting information about the way one creates a sound sample library for SampleTank . . .

With rhythm guitar chords, one way to do it is to do a set of samples of each of the primary types of chords, where one set of samples might be Barre major chords where the root note is on the low-pitch "E" string, where you record 15 or so chords, running in half-steps from an open-position E major to a Barre major chord at the 15th fret, which is a G major chord, where the set has 16 separate samples . . .

[NOTE: The open-position E major chord technically is not a Barre chord, but the chord pattern is the same . . . ]

Then you do essentially the same thing but for Barre minor chords where the root note is on the low-pitch "E" string, and so forth and so on . . .

There are a lot of chords, but for most genres of what one might call "popular" or "modern" music there are only 10 or so chords that are used . . .

Once you have everything recorded, you then export the chords one at a time to files in a folder, and then you provide the folder name to SampleTank for analysis and so forth . . .

You also can do this for individual notes, and you can create chords from individual notes in the same way that individually sample notes for a grand piano can be used to create a chord . . .

However, there are differences in the way a strummed chord sounds and the way a chord composed of individually picked notes will sound . . .

Another reason to do personal sound samples is to get very specific articulations, which includes playing notes and chords through effects pedals . . .

And you can do samples of phrases . . .

The reason for doing personal sound samples of specific articulations is that it makes it possible to avoid the problems associated with computing intermediate notes when every note is not sampled . . .

For example, if the notes are played through a tremolo effects pedal, then if there are intermediate non-sampled notes, the tremolo will be either faster or slower, which is a problem, although if you have a set of notes played without tremolo, I suppose that you could run the sampled notes through a tremolo VST effects plug-in. . .

It is not difficult to do, but it takes a while to play, record, edit, export, and so forth . . .

Lots of FUN!

[Francois2010]

[...] that can be loaded as a vst.

I do not know anything about it unfortunately.

[Surfwhammy]

[...] that can be loaded as a vst.

I do not know anything about it unfortunately.

Using a VST effects plug-in or a VSTi virtual instrument is not difficult, and it is not necessary to know a lot about the technology . . .

Virtual Studio Technology (wikipedia)

The folks at Steinberg devised VST and VSTi, and for a while they were working with the folks at Propellerhead Software, but there were some conflicts, and among other things this why Reason (Propellerhead Software) does not support VST but uses the Propellerhead Software technology called ReWire . . .

As noted in my previous post to this topic, IK Multimedia has a very nice full-feature VSTi instrument that supports making personal libraries, and the engine is free with no restrictions, which makes it excellent for learning about VSTi virtual instruments, since it works very nicely with NOTION 3 . . .

SampleTank FREE (IK Multimedia)

Sound Workstations/Virtual Instruments (IK Multimedia)

Regarding not knowing anything about VSTi virtual instruments, this was the case for approximately 18 months ago, but I read about it and made sense of it in a few months at least enough to use Miroslav Philharmonik, which is a VSTi virtual instrument and uses the same engine as SampleTank but with a different visual interface that looks more Classical or whatever . . .

Kontakt (Native Instruments) is another VSTi virtual instrument, and it also is a sampler, so you can create personal libraries with it, as well . . .

But perhaps the most important reason for understanding VST effects plug-ins and VSTi virtual instruments is that they are the key to expanding the possibilities for what you can do with NOTION 3 . . .

There are some free versions of VSTi virtual instruments, but most of the sampled sounds that work with VSTi virtual instruments need to be purchased, and the prices range from what I consider to be affordable if you get them when they are discounted to entirely too expensive, although very nice as best as I can determine . . .

EASTWEST/Quantum Leap (EWQL) has some sampled sound libraries that sound very nice, but they cost too much for my budget, which also is the case with the Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) products . . .

EASTWEST/Quantum Leap

Vienna Symphonic Library

Kontakt also was in the group of stuff I could not afford, except that they had a 50 percent discount sale for about three days over Thanksgiving weekend, and I needed Kontakt for the stellar handbells and crystal glasses sampled sound libraries that I got from Bolder Sounds . . .

Handbells V2 for Kontakt 3+ (Bolder Sounds)

Crystal Glasses V2 Kontakt (Bolder Sounds)

Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments)

IK Multimedia tends to do the same thing at least once a year, which as best as I can determine occurs when they need to raise money to develop new products, at which time they have nearly absurd discount promotions where you purchase one product at a discount and then depending on how many other people also purchase one product, everyone gets some number of free products that each person can select, which based on the "group buy" extravaganza they had in mid-2011 mapped to getting everything they sell for about $700, which includes hardware controller pedals and studio monitor system calibration hardware, which at retail mapped to several thousands of dollars of stuff in the range of $3,500, which made it possible for folks who did not have any IK Multimedia stuff to get all of it a 75 to 80 percent discount . . .

It is an excellent strategy, and I paid full price for a few products but later got everything else at discounts over a few years via the "group buy" extravaganzas, so from a marketing perspective it was a smart strategy, because for a while IK Multimedia got my entire budget for stuff, because I really like getting stuff at a discount, so when stuff that intrigues me is on sale at a significant discount, I make an effort to get it, otherwise I wait . . .

Summarizing, (a) making sense of VST effects plug-ins and VSTi virtual instruments at least enough to be able to use them productively in NOTION 3 is no more difficult that making sense of all the articulations and dynamics that apply to a violin or French horn and (b) VSTi virtual instruments make it possible for you to have a palette of thousands of instruments ranging from traditional orchestral and symphonic instruments to DISCO synthesizers to washing machines and pots and pans, which is mind-boggling with respect to the possibilities, which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: This one is hilarious, and someone actually did a professional set of high quality sound samples of washing machine and dryer noises, although if you are doing a version of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" and want to use the sound of someone smashing a washing machine with a sledge hammer rather than the more traditional cannon volleys, then you probably need to create a personal library, but so what . . . ]



Washing Machine and Dryer Loops and Hits (Bolder Sounds)

Fabulous!

[Francois2010]

Thank you sir!

Thank you! I will read it with patience: I do not read English very easily. When I bought the license for Notion3 in August 2010 there was a mistake somewhere and I have never been able to connect to the VST Manager. When I tried registering, I received a message telling me that there was already a subscriber under my name. I never could solve this problem!

[Surfwhammy]

Thank you sir!

Thank you! I will read it with patience: I do not read English very easily. When I bought the license for Notion3 in August 2010 there was a mistake somewhere and I have never been able to connect to the VST Manager. When I tried registering, I received a message telling me that there was already a subscriber under my name. I never could solve this problem!

Glad to help!

Regarding the license and registration problem, you need to contact Notion Music technical support to get it fixed . . .

You need to be able to get to the VST Manager so that you can enable VST effects plug-ins and VSTi virtual instruments . . .

QUESTION: Are you using a Windows machine or a Mac?

LOGIC: The reason I ask about the operating system is that if you are using NOTION 3 on the Mac, then I can post screen captures of the various steps, dialog boxes, options, and so forth. If you are using NOTION 3 on a Windows machine, then perhaps other folks can post detailed information with screen captures that show you how to do whatever you need to do. NOTION 3 works on both operating system platforms, but for some of the configuration, preferences, and setup stuff there are differences in such things as folder names and locations, utility names, audio interfaces (where for example, Windows machines use or at least can use something called ASIO or whatever, while on the Mac there is no need to know anything about the sound card, unless one decided to get an external sound card, which I suppose is possible on a Mac Pro since it has a few PCI slots, but I have no idea why anyone would want to do it since the Mac is "born knowing" how to do high-quality audio), and so forth and so on . . .

Lots of FUN!