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 | | | | Jan31Written by:Bruce Richardson
Monday, January 31, 2000 6:00 PM  The Big Experiment
Something I really made a point of doing for this edition was using GigaSampler's S-Converter utility. It converts Akai S1000 and S3000 libraries to GigaSampler format.
I was curious about it, and I knew the only way I'd ever make myself get into it would be to force my own hand. This came in the form of the Denny Jaeger Master Violin Library, from Reflective Arts International (http://www.quparts.com).
This is an extensive sample set of a studio violin section, with an overwhelming variety of detail. There are samples covering numerous intensities of section playing, with variations in volume and intensity of vibrato. Also covered are attacks from hard to soft and a complete array of effects, trems, trills, presses. You name it, if it can be done on a violin, there is some of it here.
My job: To get it out of the Akai format and into GigaSampler, while maintaining the mappings. All in less than an hour, with no reading beforehand. I wanted to simulate the situation of someone walking into the room, handing me this disc and saying "We've got to load this up and make it work. The client arrives in an hour."
The poop: It was a worthwhile task, but certainly not without its challenges.
Using S-Converter
First, the S-Converter tended to freeze up on my system, rather like having a CD in the drive that's damaged. It would work great for a while, but eventually go unresponsive. I'd reboot and continue. Mildly annoying, but probably just a reality of doing really uncommon format conversions. For all I know my CD drive might not like Akai discs. I was in a hurry and didn't dwell much on it.
Second, this library has a BUNCH of really detailed mapping in its AKAI form, with directory after directory of names that are difficult to decipher.
I didn't get all the esoteric mappings converted. I think that anyone who wanted to really reproduce the Akai version of this library in its original design would need to dedicate some time to it. That was not my objective. I wanted to start making violin sounds.
So, I concentrated my efforts on was getting the main sample sets for each of the different broad categories. Once I learned to decipher the number of samples and size of a file in S-Converter's screen, it was easy to examine the file names, look at the number and size of samples that fell under them, and make good guesses as to which ones were the main instruments. My assumption was that the instruments that weren't packing many samples were probably variations and esoterica I'd have to do without.
Well, what do you know...it worked. GIGs were built from the instruments I selected for import, and as far as I can tell, their mappings survived intact. Many of these were fairly complicated, and it was pleasing to see this part of GigaSampler working well. It didn't just slap the stuff in there at random. The mappings looked and sounded like they had made a successful transition to Giga-land.
So, on one hand, this review is as much about that process as the product. Doug Morton of QUp Arts loaned us the disc with the understanding that we'd just give it a whirl and see how it all worked out. If it looked hopeless we'd just call it a day, no harm done.
Denny Jaeger Library
It's not really fair to call this the Denny Jaeger library in every sense of the word. The real meat of any library is the samples, but this one is particularly heavy on instrument design tricks, too. Those, I don't know about, since I didn't set them up in GigaSampler.
I can talk about the sounds themselves. They are clear, well recorded and well looped. Since is an Akai collection, there are loops everywhere. Not to worry, they're well done and plenty long. This is a three-CD collection, so there's no shortage of raw material here.
The producers solved problems in some interesting ways. One of the difficulties you encounter in looping trills, for instance, is the sheer amount of mechanical noise the violin makes. There's bow noise, scrunchy string noise, and all sorts of difficult challenges. To top it off, the softest notes are really quiet, so you're already in a high gain recording situation. Finding a loop that doesn't give itself away is a hard job on these notes.
So how did the Denny Jaeger team handle it? They recorded the section, then set up a big playback system in a hall, played back the earlier session, and re-recorded it there, letting the acoustic space serve as a buffer. The resulting files looped beautifully, and had a natural spaciousness.
I found the Denny Jaeger collection very useful for layering with both the Vitous and Siedlaczek collections. There is a real benefit to be had by mixing it up and building a large section from samples of two smaller sections. You can also find violin effects here that are not present on any of the more general orchestral collections. This is, after all, three CDs focused on a single violin section. You're sure to find plenty of uses for all of it.
So, if you're not afraid of a little experimentation, give the S-Converter a whirl and see what you can do with the Denny Jaeger Master Violin Library. I found it to be worth the effort.
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