Just because a sample is named “Sample_Bb3_MezzoForte.wav” doesn’t mean it must be used exclusively at the Mezzo Forte dynamic. Quite often it will serve best at it’s designated mezzo forte layer but sometimes with a little manipulation it can serve other purposes.
After sitting through many sampling recording sessions (and hearing the same sound over and over and over and over) I have noticed that the sound of an instrument changes considerably when struck/played at different velocities. As a composer, one must be aware of these sonic changes.
Take a concert bass drum for example, when struck at a very hard velocity you will get a sharp, forceful attack with medium length (but surprisingly short) decay. But on a well- crafted instrument when you strike it rather gently in a precise spot you get the warmest “booooom” with a delightfully long and spacious decay. The nature of the sound will differ dramatically just by having the striking velocity change. More often then not a sample producer will map this “difference” into the patch in order to get a straight forward representation of the instrument.
It’s been my experience that many patches contain these sweet spots- certain MIDI velocity zones usually around the 60-99 CC value that sound organic, unprocessed,, a truer representation of the instrument. Often when journeying to higher velocity layers an instrument will lose this charm, becoming pinched and harsh and more synthetic. Journeying below yields too much noise per signal to be of use. You can hear this especially in brass; the overblown FF layer often embodies fakeness rather then power. More often a horn sounds more like a horn at the medium velocity layer(s). Sometimes you can serve your track best by triggering only these sweet spot samples and using gain to place them louder into the mix as needed.
So when the composer decides to have something to play at a certain level of volume (say f – ff) there are two choices:
- Trigger the appropriate (loud) sample layer provided within the patch
- Trigger a softer sample layer and properly compensate the gain, moving it higher to the level of a true forte
You might find choice #2 to sound more natural within your track.
So trust your ears. If something sounds better but you are using a production tweak to make it so, that’s just fine.
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February 2nd, 2010 at 4:49 pm
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