KVR Audio

hollyWorse · Post by **hollyWorse** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 6:42 am

Hi guys,

I've been searching for top notch quality instrument samples without success:
- Ethnic / World Music
- Orchestral
- Choir
- Jazz
- Folk / Celtic /Medieval / Rare

Features:
- 44.1Khz 24bit
- Minimum 2x Round Robin per sample
- Minimum 3 velocity layers
- Minimum 20 different notes (except for drums etc.)
- Cheaper than buying ready-to-use sampler instruments, which would probably be around $50-200$ each
- Samples named and folder sorted properly for direct use, meaning I don't need to start batch renaming and sorting them for 1 hour per instrument before I can drop em into a sampler. But that point isn't as important as the rest.

I have no idea where I can buy that stuff other than a few niche sites I discovered while googling.

Thanks.

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:18 am

Most folks have gone away from samples especially in the orchestral area because it is simply too time consuming to use them rather than using midis and instruments. Also modern instruments with things like modwheel cross fades and legato can sound far more realistic than stringing together samples.

Note Kontakt can be acquired using an upgrade from free DrumMic'a for $125 and the included factory library while older includes by my count 189 instruments making them less than 1 dollar each. This includes extensive coverage of your first three categories and bits of the other two. Rinascimento has 36 medieval instruments for Kontakt for $300 or $8 per instrument. I don't think you can touch these collections in samples.

hollyWorse · Post by **hollyWorse** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 9:07 am

Thanks, but I guess this was a misunderstanding. I didn't plan to do tracks from blank instrument samples. I wanted to create my own sampler instruments with Falcon. Most of the time I design my own sounds, but you can only come so far with synthesis.

I need a good base for creating e.g. a stylized Sitar, that base needs to start with high quality samples including round robin to avoid machine gun staccato as well as velocity layers and the basic articulations.

I'm tired of searching around each instrument I start, it kills all the fun. So I wanted to buy some definite libraries once-and-for-all. But it's hard, some pack looks like it's got great samples, then I buy it and inside is mostly loops and articulations, but not the "base" samples.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong here, isn't there some vendor specialized in providing these kind of samples?

hollyWorse · Post by **hollyWorse** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 9:21 am

Let me give you an example:
Listen to that "Sitar" - I'm sure it's an electric guitar with FX in that case - among the other sounds.

That's the kind of sounds I want to create, not a boring sampler Trumpet, I want to create a new instrument based on a Trumpet, partly synthetic, partly fx-mangled, that's rich, full and fun to play. Sure I probably won't make it as far as the professionally produced track above, but I doubt I will make it anywhere with Kontakt or Garritan as basis and "just slap some FX on top".

bigcat1969 · Post by **bigcat1969** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:48 pm

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. It is just that for most people instruments work better than samples, so most developers release instruments and not samples. I actually make instruments from PD & CC Samples based solely on this idea and the instruments have far more downloads than the samples. Also some developers like to package the samples so they aren't accessible individually or simply compress them to save space.

You might try to find commercial SFZ libraries like Garritan and ask the devs if they include uncompressed wave files. I think all SFZs use uncompressed wave but I might be wrong. I know the Kirk Hunter Diamond Orchestra though made for Kontakt uses wave files, though the naming of the files might be a problem.

RichieWitch · Post by **RichieWitch** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:29 pm

One alternative is to contact your local community orchestra and see if you can get individual musicians to come and play their instruments for you. That way you could record your own sample sets. I approached the local orchestra in my town when I was looking for timpani samples and they were willing to let me use their auditorium as a recording space and their mics.

Pay the musician a little something for their trouble and you could build exactly what you're looking for.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 5:59 pm

Many of our (Impact Soundworks) instruments are quite deeply sampled in the manner you describe, and though most samples are in NCW format, they can be easily converted back to WAV.

nineofkings · Post by **nineofkings** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:03 pm

With something like Falcon, couldn't you make round robin effects out of single per-pitch samples? Random phase, random start times, random fine pitch?

Musical Gym · Post by **Musical Gym** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:32 pm

zircon wrote:Many of our (Impact Soundworks) instruments are quite deeply sampled in the manner you describe, and though most samples are in NCW format, they can be easily converted back to WAV.

Can you pm me with short tutorial on this? I have some I'd like to convert (yes, I am a customer).

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 9:11 pm

It's quite simple really!

Open Kontakt (don't load any samples). In Kontakt, go to the FILES menu at the top. Select "Collect Samples/Batch Compress". Select "OK" when prompted to erase the current multi.

You will be prompted to select an INPUT folder - this should be the INSTRUMENTS folder of the library you want to convert. Whatever folder contains the NKI files.

Then, select DESTINATION folder. This is where WAVs will go.

Make sure "Mirror source folder..." is selected.

For destination sample format, select "Uncompressed WAV".

This only works for non-Kontakt Player libraries. But as we have many world instruments as well as several orchestral libraries (Rhapsody series) that are not Kontakt Player, there's lots of raw material here...

Musical Gym · Post by **Musical Gym** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 9:16 pm

Thanks! most appreciated

hollyWorse · Post by **hollyWorse** » Thu Jun 08, 2017 7:58 am

bigcat1969 wrote:I don't think you are doing anything wrong. It is just that for most people instruments work better than samples, so most developers release instruments and not samples. I actually make instruments from PD & CC Samples based solely on this idea and the instruments have far more downloads than the samples. Also some developers like to package the samples so they aren't accessible individually or simply compress them to save space.

You might try to find commercial SFZ libraries like Garritan and ask the devs if they include uncompressed wave files. I think all SFZs use uncompressed wave but I might be wrong. I know the Kirk Hunter Diamond Orchestra though made for Kontakt uses wave files, though the naming of the files might be a problem.

Ok, thanks for the input. I had the same thought, instruments probably sell a lot better.

I'm pretty much done with Public Domain, it's so hard to collect. Still if you have some good links to share I will check them out!

I'll check out that Diamond Orchestra.

kbaccki · Post by **kbaccki** » Thu Jun 08, 2017 10:03 pm

If you're planning on distributing these falcon patches, you can't just distribute somebody else's commercial samples (and possibly PD samples depending on license terms). You may be able to license commercial samples for includion in your product.. I think I've seen Kirk Hunter samples in some other product.. If the falcon patches are for your own personal use, even for commercial production, you're all set.

Looking for instrument samples (commercial)