Thu May 28, 2015 9:17 pm
Hey guys, I've been considering a [probably] interesting project, and considering the free/open-source nature of the LMMS project, this seemed like an excellent place to start asking for feedback and thoughts on something like this. I typed this beforehand to try and make it so anybody could understand what my project was, so bear with me on how much it explains.
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The creation of software to imitate real instruments is a slowly growing industry. These synthesizers do not entirely replace working with real musicians (and likely never will), but are incredibly useful for creating music, or even just prototyping before getting started with the real thing. Amateur and professional composers alike enjoy the benefits of this.
However, all users of synthesizers face one problem: everything is very expensive and restricted by limiting licenses. The best sounds available for free & under public domain are provided by the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra, but these are not up to par with today’s standards – some sounds are unclear or muddied, and several articulations are also missing, not to mention some of the sounds simply being dated (particularly the percussion – and no disrespect to SSO, as they only use what already existed.)
This is because of the nature of what is called sampling. ‘Samples’ of an instrument are created by meticulously recording each and every required note in each play-style. Not only is it a long and tedious process, hiring the players to sit down and play the boring sequences of notes is very expensive. Due to this, samples are often locked behind annoying anti-piracy protection (especially in the case of the East/West orchestra – I have heard many unpleasant things about their iLok authentication), expensive sample players such as the full version of Kontakt 5, and are not able to be modified, edited, and used as the customer pleases.
So this is where the concept of Timbre Woods comes into play. The idea behind this is to produce high quality & clear recordings for use in synthesizing music, via crowd funding, and release under the Public Domain license. This means the recordings can be modified, distributed, and even sold in other products as anyone pleases (although that would be a little silly due to being free in the first place.)
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Another very interesting prospect is working with LMMS so the program can use the samples - of course, there are some difficulties with this, especially considering the possible file size of this project. (Similar sample libraries are upwards of 10 GB.)
What do you guys think? Is there any way that this could be a viable project? What about working to integrate the samples into LMMS, assuming they ever get made? Considering the idea revolves around being free & public domain, I feel the two would go together fairly well.
You can read a bit more about it here: https://timbrewoods.wordpress.com/about-2/, where I also explain the quality & format I intend to provide the samples in, and other things.
_____________________
The creation of software to imitate real instruments is a slowly growing industry. These synthesizers do not entirely replace working with real musicians (and likely never will), but are incredibly useful for creating music, or even just prototyping before getting started with the real thing. Amateur and professional composers alike enjoy the benefits of this.
However, all users of synthesizers face one problem: everything is very expensive and restricted by limiting licenses. The best sounds available for free & under public domain are provided by the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra, but these are not up to par with today’s standards – some sounds are unclear or muddied, and several articulations are also missing, not to mention some of the sounds simply being dated (particularly the percussion – and no disrespect to SSO, as they only use what already existed.)
This is because of the nature of what is called sampling. ‘Samples’ of an instrument are created by meticulously recording each and every required note in each play-style. Not only is it a long and tedious process, hiring the players to sit down and play the boring sequences of notes is very expensive. Due to this, samples are often locked behind annoying anti-piracy protection (especially in the case of the East/West orchestra – I have heard many unpleasant things about their iLok authentication), expensive sample players such as the full version of Kontakt 5, and are not able to be modified, edited, and used as the customer pleases.
So this is where the concept of Timbre Woods comes into play. The idea behind this is to produce high quality & clear recordings for use in synthesizing music, via crowd funding, and release under the Public Domain license. This means the recordings can be modified, distributed, and even sold in other products as anyone pleases (although that would be a little silly due to being free in the first place.)
_____________________
Another very interesting prospect is working with LMMS so the program can use the samples - of course, there are some difficulties with this, especially considering the possible file size of this project. (Similar sample libraries are upwards of 10 GB.)
What do you guys think? Is there any way that this could be a viable project? What about working to integrate the samples into LMMS, assuming they ever get made? Considering the idea revolves around being free & public domain, I feel the two would go together fairly well.
You can read a bit more about it here: https://timbrewoods.wordpress.com/about-2/, where I also explain the quality & format I intend to provide the samples in, and other things.
It took him 5 or 6 years go complete his goal.