Friday, August 26, 2016

No Budget Orchestra

Sometime ago Jeff Glatt started creating the No Budget Orchestra for SFZ.He's also been adding many band instruments and all kinds of cool things. Some folks have asked if this is the same as the Sonatina and it is not the same. These samples are looped for infinite play and some were created using physical modeling software.
Jeff explained over in a post on KVR.
"The solo violin I posted (Kake) is half-modeled. I didn't like the original bow sound. It was too low-pitched and brought out too many dissonant harmonics. Via lots of noise reduction algorithms and filtering/phasing, I removed the original bow sound. Then for each sample, I modeled a new bow sound with higher noise frequencies, and more harmonics related to the fundamental pitch. I also thought the violin itself had too nasal and harsh a tone. So I also modeled a violin with more of the fundamental pitch and even harmonics. By mixing the two modeled samples with the real violin sample, I created an instrument that had the characteristics I liked of the original, but with a deeper, richer, and smoother tone.
In fact, about 1/3 of the musicians in the No Budget Orchestra ensembles aren't real. They're modeled. (The other musicians in an ensemble come from a sophisticated process of "stacking" multiple notes of the one or two solo instruments, giving the illusion of multiple musicians)."

If you click on the strings or brass headings below, you get all the instruments in that section in a single zip file.


No Budget Woodwinds

Solo Flute - Alm    Flute Section    Piccolo    Recorder    Pan Flute

All instruments are Creative Commons Attribution : Jeff Glatt.
Also Solo Violin - LDK: LDK1609@freesound.org
Solo Violin - Kake: Kake 85
Solo Cello - BWV: Bwv66
Double Bass - DS: Drogomir Smolken and Ludwik Zamenhof
Solo Trumpet Mute Samples: Mihai Sorohan
Solo Flute - Alm:  almudenagonzalezflute_8
Pan Flute: Timohanes
Recorder: Samulis
These instruments use the WIPS scripts by the late, great Kontakt scripter Robert D. Villwock

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Drummers Paradise

Nathan Sheeran sampled eight drum kits, 7 acoustic and 1 house, and kindly shared them. These are great for instant gratification as they load up really quickly and sound good. They are about 3 to 5 megs each and so are great for low RAM situations.


Drummer's Paradise for Kontakt 5

For SFZ versions hit the Karoryfer site


Samples by Nathan Sheeran
https://m.facebook.com/FLSTUDIO.IRISH.PRODUCER

This is a free download and royalty-free for use in songs. Please do not sell the samples or instruments or redistribute them without the permission of Nathan Sheeran.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Iowa Orchestra

I've scattered Iowa Orchestra variants all through this blog.  I'm putting them here in one blog post to minimize confusion (mine).

Thanks to the University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios, we have the Iowa Orchestra with 15 orchestral instruments including 2 string, 5 brass and 8 woodwind instruments. I've created a WIPs version, an Ensemble version and an Electric version thanks to the generosity of Kontakt scripters..

While the Iowa samples have been criticized, they are the only multi-sampled, multi-velocity layer orchestral instrument samples out there for many instruments. With some editing, first by Blackhole12 and then me and some digital tuning, I think they sound quite reasonable. With a few exceptions they are all the basic sustain articulation.

The main negative at this point is that they are quite short with most samples coming in at about 2 seconds. Having tried my hand at looping samples, I'm both unskilled at the art and far too lazy to loop something like 2500 samples. If anyone would like to loop them please do and let me know.

The first set of instruments contain Big Bob's WIPs scripts allowing for scripted legato and vibrato, fake round robins and playing with wind controllers. The ensemble set of instruments uses Jay Bacal's script to emulate multiple instruments playing at once. The Mickaël Ménager Electric adds electricity, effects and amps to everything. The Basic has no additional scripts.




Public Domain samples by the University of Iowa edited by Blackhole12. Kontakt instruments are placed in the Public Domain except for the Kontakt scripts listed. The Electric Scripts and GUI are by Mickaël Ménager, The Ensemble Scripts are by Jay Bacal and the WIPS Scripts are by Big Bob with all rights are retained by their respective authors. Thanks to Matt McKay for heavily rewriting the bigcat GUI script.

The Iowa samples are Public Domain. Please credit LDK1969 for the Electric Violin.

Rest in Peace Big Bob and thank you.

You can add strings with the Cello and Double Bass here and the Violin here.