You know how we all get PAD and TAD from time to time, right? Well, the corresponding musical version of it here in VitoSpace these daze is VIAD — virtual instrument acquisition disorder. I dunno whether there are any other BoB brethren who compose music using virtual instruments, but if there are, then you know all about VIAD. :twisted:
I just downloaded the entire Independence Pro Library (~70 GB), and the thing is awesome. The percussion and saxophone libraries are killer, and the classical (nylon string) guitar articulations are way better than anything I've previously heard. As you can imagine, with 70 GB of samples, I haven't worked my way through all of them yet, but most of the stuff I've heard so far is superb.
Right now, I've got a major jones for ethnic/world instruments. I've been composing stuff for bansuri (bamboo flute), sitar, and other Indian instruments, as well as gu zheng, a sort of "angular banjo" kind of Chinese zither.
I hear this stuff in mah haid; it's a birth defect, I guess. The great attraction in virtual instruments is that I can hear what I compose for real, coming through the monitor speakers, without having to hire a studio full of musicians. The multisampling technology coupled with the development of some very advanced sample players makes entire orchestras of real instruments available to the composer who works in the digital domain. It's like any other technology; you can use it poorly or well. There are some who use it masterfully.
The ultimate collection is the new Ethno World 5 Pro + Voices—a sample library created by film composer Marcel Barsotti. As is so often the case, the technology behind it originates in Germany, which produces some of the very best virtual instruments. Here's a link to the
Ethno World Selection Audio Player*, which demos some of the sounds, if you'd care to hear them. The woodwinds and strings are simply exquisite.
YOW! :mrgreen:
I just downloaded the entire Independence Pro Library (~70 GB), and the thing is awesome. The percussion and saxophone libraries are killer, and the classical (nylon string) guitar articulations are way better than anything I've previously heard. As you can imagine, with 70 GB of samples, I haven't worked my way through all of them yet, but most of the stuff I've heard so far is superb.
Right now, I've got a major jones for ethnic/world instruments. I've been composing stuff for bansuri (bamboo flute), sitar, and other Indian instruments, as well as gu zheng, a sort of "angular banjo" kind of Chinese zither.
I hear this stuff in mah haid; it's a birth defect, I guess. The great attraction in virtual instruments is that I can hear what I compose for real, coming through the monitor speakers, without having to hire a studio full of musicians. The multisampling technology coupled with the development of some very advanced sample players makes entire orchestras of real instruments available to the composer who works in the digital domain. It's like any other technology; you can use it poorly or well. There are some who use it masterfully.
The ultimate collection is the new Ethno World 5 Pro + Voices—a sample library created by film composer Marcel Barsotti. As is so often the case, the technology behind it originates in Germany, which produces some of the very best virtual instruments. Here's a link to the
Ethno World Selection Audio Player*, which demos some of the sounds, if you'd care to hear them. The woodwinds and strings are simply exquisite.
- *If you just want to hear the samples used in some compositions without the descriptive voiceover, double-click on the second item on the list, and the player will play the last three demos in sequence automatically.
YOW! :mrgreen:
