Many old school note samples are charming, they possess an authenticy and paternation, but are limited, two dimensional in design…
And what about those freebie samples that you got on that CD???..
Just how many layers do they have per note? Can you recall? Were you ever told?
Are these sounds even worth your time?
But then again… Not so hasty!!!
…that Buddy Holly Pizzicato strings are like the Parmesan Cheese for sound…
It’s just right for that Italian Restaurant scene.
Yes, it’s just THAT sound, but,.,
on closer inspection, really???, can you really use it?
Under the hood, you soon realize that a short spell in Halion full, or Kontakt 5 a bit of a work out would do wonders.
Does the user have the skill? Is it simply too much faff? Of course it is, your going to have to load up a track, find the right interface, learn some tools…
Have you really got that time?
Probably not…
Goodbye Buddy Holly Pizzicato.
The idea
What if: for any note in Cubase, in any editor, you could find a right click pop up. This Pop up window providing useful editable parameters for the parent instrument. Irrespective of the instrument GUI these non destructive parameters can be seen and overlaid within Cubase.
Here, you can graphically see a MIDI piano grid/graph, with a vertical axis set for velocity and horizontal axis set for pitch range (piano keys at the bottom):
The samples are seen arranged per note, and are differently colourized.
Each sample owns a rectangle specified by pitch range and velocity range.
Where two sample rectangle are overlaid this is a Xfade.
Both are axis drageable (as in Halion Mapping view)
The Xfades (if any) are shown graphically as transparent overlays.
If the samples have no Xfades they can be imposed.
To the right of the grid is an option for Xfade slopes,
Here you can impose a Xfades where none exists, edit a Xfades parameters by range and type.
Using these tools you immensely improve the response of the Buddy Holly PIzzicato - you save the preset to Media Bay.
In Media Bay
As a complementary process, If it were possible to search by ‘number of layers per note’ or ‘only xfaded sounds’ this could be an effective filter for the users ever increasing TB’s of sound. It effectively filters for the most expressive sounds. This is a VERY important parameter
By providing this feature for VST4 and within Cubase there will be no more hiding behind curtains for sample providers we could ALL see inside the packet in an instant! Standards would be driven up.
Almost all old sounds could be improved
If you like this please pass it on to the development team.
Z