KVR Audio

DSmolken · Post by **DSmolken** » Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:15 am

We've gotten a lot of felted pianos over the past year or two, also more intimate strings, some "worldized" hardware synths and drum machines, and even an oddball hipster guitar (which I'm responsible for). But what is currently trendy in the real-music world and has either not been sampled yet, or has only been sampled in very little detail?

Virtual instruments are probably always going to lag behind real ones when it comes to staying on top of trends, because you can record a part on an instrument in a few minutes, while developing detailed samples takes months at least. It's like painting being theoretically ahead of sculpture and sculpture ahead of architecture, because the time and material investment is less.

In the drum world, I'd say cymbal stacks are an example. Asked a drummer friend if we can record some while doing other stuff, and she was all "nooooo that's bad and damages the cymbal edges" so that was that, but... just happened to be watching a video of Shakira's drummer's tour setup and he said something about cymbal stacks being trendy now so that got me thinking, yeah, they are. There are a few samples out there, but nothing really detailed with round robins and dynamic layers AFAIK.

That's just one pretty random example. What else?

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:42 pm

Hurdy gurdy
Quiet accordion pads - Oliveros style
Scat singing
Contemporary vocalising
Single-string guitar
Rock ukelele
Microtonal guitar
Musette-tuned piano
Cimbalom
Pedal steel guitar

DSmolken · Post by **DSmolken** » Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:31 pm

Some good ideas! One of the SM Drums guys is working on a pedal steel, so expect that one to be covered soon. I also have a friend who's been talking about sampling his cimbalom for years, and he's been getting more motivated recently - we'll sample it sometime, though the problem with cimbalom is that each note rings for like 60 seconds, so if you want to do several hits on each note, you're gonna be recording for HOURS before you even get into multiple articulations. But he's also making some curved bows for that, to also sample bowed sounds, along these lines...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZwluipcCmg

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Mon Oct 22, 2018 9:24 pm

Really nice bow design for that cimbalom! Just right for gypsy music...

Here's the most-trendy single-string guitar song; Brushy has albums of his single-string music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8H-67ILaqc
And here was the trendiest rock (actually reggae) ukelele; sadly IZ passed away in 1997 but there are many rising stars!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

VariKusBrainZ · Post by **VariKusBrainZ** » Mon Oct 22, 2018 9:50 pm

Wavelore has had a Pedal Steel Guitar out since forever (and its currently on sale along with their other stuff)

http://www.wavelore.com/products.php?product=WLPS

CrystalWizard · Post by **CrystalWizard** » Mon Oct 22, 2018 10:14 pm

Michael L wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:42 pm Hurdy gurdy
Quiet accordion pads - Oliveros style
Scat singing
Contemporary vocalising
Single-string guitar
Rock ukelele
Microtonal guitar
Musette-tuned piano
Cimbalom
Pedal steel guitar

Nice list.

I. Lehti · Post by **I. Lehti** » Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:38 am

VariKusBrainZ wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 9:50 pm Wavelore has had a Pedal Steel Guitar out since forever (and its currently on sale along with their other stuff)

http://www.wavelore.com/products.php?product=WLPS

Few years ago I paid for the pre-order of a new version of Wavelore Pedal Steel, and waited forever, not even a response from the developer. I wasn't the only one. Finally I launched for a complaint via Paypal and got my money back. Don't know what happened to the developer.

anomandaris1 · Post by **anomandaris1** » Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:57 am

Michael L wrote: ↑Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:42 pm Hurdy gurdy

I've seen at least 2 Hurdy gurdy Kontakt instruments over the years.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:08 am

You are so right:
https://www.rhythmicrobot.com/product/hurdy-gurdy
https://www.sonokinetic.net/products/cl ... urdygurdy/
https://www.kontakthub.com/product/ancient-hurdy-gurdy/

DSmolken · Post by **DSmolken** » Tue Oct 23, 2018 6:00 am

Yeah, Wavelore is long-inactive, sadly.

Ukulele's a pretty good example of what I'm thinking with samples lagging behind the real world. Ample's got a nice uke which I've used before and there are possibly also other detailed ones but not much, while in the real world ukes are everywhere from girls singing at open mics to bank commercials with the cheesy uke + clapping + whistling combo.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 9:05 am

Yeah, here's teen flamenco surf ukelele:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4u8n_CjUDY
Even hurdy-gurdy is pushing the envelope:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPGKeMdRU5I

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 9:34 am

DSmolken wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 6:00 am Yeah, Wavelore is long-inactive, sadly.

Ukulele's a pretty good example of what I'm thinking with samples lagging behind the real world. Ample's got a nice uke which I've used before and there are possibly also other detailed ones but not much, while in the real world ukes are everywhere from girls singing at open mics to bank commercials with the cheesy uke + clapping + whistling combo.

Ukulele (or ukelele) is our own cavaquinho, which was brought to Hawai by portuguese sailors. There are many playing techniques, but I never saw our own technique sampled:

here is an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cILU9TpQwxA

Also, there is another unique portuguese instrument that I isn't available sampled anywhere (there was once a portuguese which released a sampled instrument, but that's no longer available. I don't know how trendy this is (or could be) but here it is:

https://youtu.be/emTo6uGWfPU?t=110
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO2aTesu3tw

There are two main instruments - the Coimbra guitar and Lisboa Guitar. The first is bigger and has a darker, perhaps more melancholic, sonority (it is also my favorite, because I love Coimbra and its traditions, including Canção de Coimbra - Coimbra Chanson). This is just an example of what the portuguese guitar (in this case the Coimbra guitar) can do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKpHdyLK5wA

DSmolken · Post by **DSmolken** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 11:29 am

Very interesting. Is Portuguese cavaquinho and its playing techniques very different from Brazilian? I know a Brazilian guy who has a Brazilian one, and with only 4 strings, short sustain and not a ton of frets, it can be sampled in a good amount of detail without needing a ton of recording time. The opposite of the cimbalom, in terms of the number of samples you can get per hour of recording time!

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 12:08 pm

DSmolken wrote: ↑Wed Oct 24, 2018 11:29 am Very interesting. Is Portuguese cavaquinho and its playing techniques very different from Brazilian? I know a Brazilian guy who has a Brazilian one, and with only 4 strings, short sustain and not a ton of frets, it can be sampled in a good amount of detail without needing a ton of recording time. The opposite of the cimbalom, in terms of the number of samples you can get per hour of recording time!

Frankly, I'm not aware of the Brazilian one or the technique used. I would risk saying that, being Brazil a former Portuguese colony, the instrument itself may be the same, although the techniques may somehow be evolved separately. Can you point me to some recording or video that I can watch?

I think that, to sample cavaquinho with the technique used by the guy shown in the video (which is a cavaquinho virtuose - that video is just a simple example of what he can do) you would have to concentrate in sampling chords with that "rasgado" up and down technique, and somehow create a script to alternate that. The technique involves playing chords almost like notes.

Here is a sample of his latest album, where he mixes traditional Portuguese music with Cabo Verde's own folk traditions, fado and some modern sonorities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr3RieayJJI

DSmolken · Post by **DSmolken** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 5:23 pm

Brazilian cavaquinho IME (which is playing with one Brazilian guy in Poland) is conventionally played with a pick and rhythms were typically similar to samba guitar. Here's a very typical song that I've played a bunch of times. I also remember the long notes at the end of each phrase getting tremolo-picked during the rubato intro, which this guy doesn't do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3X8cFYuDfc

There's someone in Brazil who makes little solidbody electric ones which look like cute baby Les Pauls and Strats. Not terribly relevant to this thread, because I don't think they're trendy (yet), but they are cute.

I also talked to an accordion-playing friend about possibly doing some samples dedicated to quite pads, he thinks that's doable with a few hours of recording. So, maybe I can make some of this stuff happen while it's still trendy.

Sounds trendy in the real world, but not yet in samples