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
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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.
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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.
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Tuesday, July 5, 2016

VSCO 2 Kontakt

Latest and last (really probably) version on this page!
Live as free as you can.

Since a company issued an invalid take down order there have been issues with downloads. I just put up a complete 1.7 gig version using the generic name Chamber Orchestra which hopefully can be downloaded.


Sam Gossner had a dream. After creating the original VSCO which was nice little orchestra, he wanted to create something bigger and bolder. Collaborating with dozens of friends from both sides of the pond, he created a new chamber orchestra. Two years in the making this version at its largest (and most expensive but still quite reasonable) has 300 instruments.

However he didn't forget you and I, the freebie loving population of the world. He has put over 2000 samples under a Creative Commons Zero license which is similar to Public Domain. These include 16 string, brass, woodwind and keys instruments along with lots of handy orchestral percussion.This is called the Community Edition and there is a full SFZ version and an EXS24 version in the making on this page along with all the original samples. Thanks to Sam and his friends for this tremendous contribution to the world of free music.

Composer Steven McDonald made a nice video demonstrating some nice ways to get the VSCO2 sounding pretty solid for a free orchestra.

String & Woodwind Demo
Soundcloud Demo
Demo of the Harp by WhiteNoiz


Percussion Demo 
Soundcloud Demo kindly created for me by Sam from the VST version.
Res Evil 3, Res Evil Main Hall Demos by WhiteNoiz 

VSCO 2 Community Orchestra for SFZ Here


Etherealwinds Harp CE for Kontakt 
Harp SFZ, VSTi, etc... page
EWHarp: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license: Versilian Studios

VSCO 2 Instruments: Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal : Versilian Studios / Sam Gossner
Piano & Organ also : Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal : Simon Dalzell of Ivy Audio

Note the name VSCO 2 is used to give attribution to the sampling project from which these samples were taken. It doesn't imply any form of endorsement.

bigcat's Amazon ebook page


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Friday, July 1, 2016

Suprise Piano

Reading David Byrne's book about music I was inspired to be weirder. So I tried to create something odd. In this case your hit a key and one of five pianos will play. Oddly when you just hit one key at a time it sounds pretty bad, but often it seems folks play several notes at once and in some sort of sequence. This tends to average out the various pianos somehow and sometimes creates some other piano sound. It is lets be kind and say experimental and you might significantly hate it.

Surprise Piano
 Soundcloud Demo

I tweaked the volumes just a bit on this nki and you can replace the old one with this one if you like.
Alternate nki

This uses the City, Iowa and Skerratt London Public Domain pianos and the Salamander and VSCO 2 Community Orchestra Creative Commons Pianos. The blame rest entirely on my shoulders.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International: Simon Dalzell and Alexander HolmFeel.
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Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Karoryfer Collection

The man known as DSmolken and his group Karoryfer Samples have sampled and released an amazing amount of original instruments for the SFZ format. These are completely free instruments released under the Creative Commons banner. Fortunately for me, Mr. Smolken doesn't seem to object to me creating Kontakt instruments from his efforts. So here is a collection of those instruments thus far. Note that Karoryfer has many more instruments including interesting synthy and glitchy types that fall outside the range of this blog and others that I just haven't gotten around to Konverting.

Pasta Bass - Baritone Guitar


To start off here is are four different versions of a Squier Bass VI recorded by Space Coyote. The spaghetti has round wound strings, the rest are flat wound. The tagliatelle is muted, the linguine is picked and the fetuccine is fingered and I also included a mild version without the highest velocity layers. They are sampled every three notes, in three velocity layers (four for the fetuccine) and have three or four round robins.

Creative Commons 3.0 Unported : Credit Karoryfer Samples


Cute Emily Guitar - Solid Guitar


I redid the Kontakt conversion of the brilliant D Smolkin's cutest creation. It now has 4 velocity layers and release samples and a great script new shell from Mickaël Ménager that lets you kick up an amp right in the instrument along with other cool effects.
Thanks to FLWrd for spotting a couple bad notes. They should now be fixed.

Creative Commons 3: Credit Karoryfer Samples


WereSax - Alto Saxophone
 
A nice Sax from our sample man. Mickaël Ménager's script and GUI provide the Electrification of the Sax. For those who want a more traditional Sax, there is also a WIPs Kontakt version without an amp simulation on board. The version on the Karoryfer site is very adventurous and well worth picking up.

Creative Commons Unported 3.0: Credit Karoryfer Sounds


272 Merry Orks - Lady Death (Metal Vocalist)

One of Karoryfer's more interesting projects was this vocal sampling. Being me, I had to try Kontakting some of the samples of the nice lady. This is very experimental.


Here are the keyswitches. Each sound is mapped across 4 octaves.
B - C1, C - C#1, Ch - D1, D - D#1, F - E1, G - F1, H - F#1, J - G1, L - G#1, M - A1, N - A#1, Ng - B1, P - C2, R - C#2, S - D2, Sh - D#2, T - E2, Th - F2, V - F#2, W - G2, Y - G#2, Z - A2

A - C3, a - C#3, ah - D3, ea - D#3, E - E3, ee - F3, e - F#3, i - G3, O - G#3, o - A3, oo - A#3, ou - B3, ow - C4, oy - C#4, OO - D4, u - D#4, y - E4
Creative Commons Unported 3.0: Credit Karoryfer Sounds

 Karoryfer Cello

DSmolken and the lovely and skilled cellist Kamila Borowiak have teamed up to give us a great instrument. Actually they have given us two instruments. Mr. Smolken has reworked the cello to include things like vibrato and legato and all the sustain samples are looped for endless play. This download includes both the SFZ and Kontakt versions.



Here is the previous version if you want to use the 'Electric' Shell or the older SFZ version.


The Kontakt version uses the script and shell by Mickaël Ménager.It has all kinds of effects that usually would be used for an electric piano or guitar so you can 'electrify' the cello if you like or just let it be a nice acoustic cello for an orchestra.


Creative Commons 3.0 Unported: Credit Karoryfer Lecolds 
Copyright 2016 Karoryfer Lecolds. Royalty-free for use in all non-commercial and commercial productions. If you want to distribute these in a different sampler format or as part of a larger sample library, please be kind enough to inform Karoryfer Lecolds.


Meat Bass - Double Bass

Karoryfer sample machine D. Smolken sampled and then re-sampled his Double Bass. You can find both versions here. The latest is the Karoryfer Meat Bass with over 400 samples of Arco and Pizzicato. The Arco has every third note sampled in five velocity layers with both up and down bowing which alternate as round robins. The Pizzicato is again every third note sampled with four velocity layers and four round robins. There are also some cool percussive noises from C3 to C4 if you use the G#4 key-switch. This version is definitely more polished than the original and sounds quite good in an orchestral setting.


The earlier version is the D. Smolken Double Bass, which was created before the Karoryfer name as best I can tell. It is rougher, but has its own earthy charm. The previous Kontakt version had some problems, so I fixed it up a bit. It has some great bass 'noises'.


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Friday, April 15, 2016

More Freesound


I haven't done much lately and am messing with some projects that aren't very fun, so I decided to take a break and browse Freesound.org. I bumped into a few cool things so I stuffed them into Kontakt.


Sandyrb generally recorded with 11 different microphones and between 8 and 11 velocity layers. Each snare is in its own octave with the different mics next to each other. There are over 600 samples and it weighs in at about 150 megs. Some of the snares are variations.

Creative Commons Attribution: Sandyrb



This on the other hand is quite small, with nine samples and one velocity layer. But is a fun instrument. It was sampled by iternetcone from his hammered dulcimer.

Creative Commons Attribution: iternetcone


 FaireDesVagues sampled his Fretless Bass for Freesound. While we have plenty of heavily sampled basses (thanks Project 16), this lightly sampled one has a nice tone and a bit different sound. It has one velocity layer and about every other note sampled.



And now for something completely different. Sometimes in the middle of your Carnegie Hall performances you just want to break out some classic video game sounds. Now you can thanks to B_Lamerichs.

Creative Commons Attribution: B_Lamerichs



I really like these seven chimes that Selector sampled or created or something. They have a touch of magic too them.

Creative Commons Attribution: Selector



You never know when a sword fight is gonna break out at your concert. Be prepared with the foley work of Mr. Derp. 

Creative Commons Attribution: Christopher Derp

This is part two of Freesound instruments,  find Part One Here.
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