Klarinet Archive - Posting 000156.txt from 2002/06

From: "Benjamin Maas" <benmaas@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Clarinet sampling
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 12:08:17 -0400

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tony Wakefield [mailto:tony-wakefield@-----.net]
>
> > Klarinet is ALL about LIVE music kind sir!! Please search for your Holy
> > Grail in the usual techno outlets.
> > Best,
> > T.W.

Tony:

It is hard for me not to take offense at this comment. Klarinet is about
what the users feel it should be about. Many of us are involved in many
other aspects of music and clarinet playing. It is not JUST about playing
live (or live on tape).

Besides the obviously commercial aspects of midi, there are a *lot* of
composers that use midi for rough sketches of their compositions which are
meant to be played live. There are also a large number of composers that
write ELECTRONIC music that is either all synthesized/sampled or a
combination of synth/sampled and live playing.

As for midi samples and synthesizing of the clarinet. Yes, it is true that
most synth modules sound horrible because of the clarinet's upper harmonic
structure. If you want something that is going to be usable and really
sound like a clarinet, you are going to have to go either with a hardware
(like some of the AKAI or EMU stuff) sampler or gigastudio. Yes, expect to
spend a large amount of money for these as they are true professional tools
that you would find in most studios. But for quality, you'll have to pay
something. My memory of soundfonts is that they are either poorly sampled
or software synth. As a software synth, it sounds pretty good, but
certainly not the real thing.

Most of the good Gigastudio samples are full chromatic samples of whatever
style of playing you need. (for example, check out the Garritan Orchestral
Strings http://www.garritan.com/home.html)

--Ben

Benjamin Maas
Freelance Clarinetist and Recording Engineer
Los Angeles, CA
benmaas@-----.com
http://www.fifthcircle.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------