I open the package. A beautiful black binder. I open the binder. Lovely cover page, inscribed, "The Maestro's Manual, presented to Maestro Bruce Richardson." OK, I'm impressed. Garritan Orchestral Strings is the second GigaStudio library produced by harpist, composer, and producer Gary Garritan. His previous library, the GigaHarp, was among the first proof-of-concept libraries which thrust Nemesys (now owned by hardware giant Tascam. hmmm...TascSys? NemeScam?) and its "streaming sampler" into the limelight. Garritan Orchestral Strings is a much larger effort; a collection of just about every sound you can make with a string section. You get a hefty manual that's almost an orchestration text, elegant and detailed mapping guides, and the aforementioned personal fluffing. Maestro indeed. Who doesn't feel good about that?

Down to the Nitty-Gritty Spread out over eighteen CDs, you'll find the main instrument...

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Miracles happen. UPS managed to get a package to my door despite the fact that the shipping label had been torn completely off. And inside that package was a string library for GigaStudio that managed to make grumpy old me giggle like a little girl. Ever since Giga-technology redefined sampling, symphonic libraries have themselves transformed. They’re huge now, getting bigger every day. Sonic Implants Symphonic Strings weighs in at a hefty twenty CDs, packed with the most used articulations, bowings, and effects used in symphonic music. The mastermind behind the Sonic Implants product line is Jennifer Hruska, perhaps best known to industry folks as one of the dynamo sound designers behind some of Kurzweil's most praised products. After a nine-year stint there, Jennifer founded her own company; and after rolling a couple of other family-run businesses together, the combined effort emerged as the present Sonic Network--the parent company of Sonic Implants. Until recently, Sonic Implants was probably best known...

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After a Fung Shui makeover for my studio, things sounded bad. Velly bad. My seven year old Sonex, besides being butt-ugly and crumbling into dust, was hardly up to the task of controlling my now pristine and reflective surroundings. My chi was on crack, my dragon was swimming down the river. My computers, once effectively silenced by my piles of junk, were screaming so loud I couldn't hear anything. Enter Auralex and RaXXess, with solutions that surpassed my every expectation. Too good to be true? I'd seen Auralex in many friends' spaces and appreciated its clean and non-crumbly look. In my new desparation, I figured I'd pick up some odds and ends to supplement my existing Sonex. I was thumbing through their slick little catalog when my glance fell upon an interesting offer. Plot my room dimensions and gear placement, it said, and Auralex would compute its deficiencies, then devise an acoustic treatment plan which would give me a world-class space. For free. Wow. Free. Good. Lightbulbs. Then...

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Last time I reviewed a microphone, it ended up being a lesson in everything that's wrong with cheap large-diaphragm condensers. The ProRec mailbag exploded a few times, but we survived. Today, I get to tell you what's right. The RØDE NT1000 and NTK break the mold, with world-class specs and a smoothness that stands alongside microphones three times the price. On top of that, they're stunningly good-looking, with an over-the-top sturdiness that would serve as well in hand-to-hand combat as in the studio. The Long Road to RØDE These microphones, both based on the same edge-connected 1" capsule originally appearing in the NTV, represent a culmination of a long-term vision, according to RØDE president and founder Peter Freedman. (Left) NT1000 (Right) NTK

"We have spent so much developing these mics we are effectively betting...

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Digging Below the Surface Sound-wise, the choice to purchase either of these microphones is a no-brainer. They deliver world-class tracks on the cheap. But this is but one element of their charm. Overall, these microphones are standard-setters that the entire industry would do well to study. Everything about them both belies and explains their price. The cases themselves are substantial works of engineering art, reminiscent in design and construction to the venerable solid-brass Switchcraft phone plugs (the ones that never go bad). A picture here is worth a thousand words.

(Top) Switchcraft phone plug

(Bottom) NTK cast enclosure

Note the similarity of design



There is a method to this madness. Crack open your average condenser microphone, and notice that you're looking at some serious hand assembly. That's money spent that has nothing to do with what you hear. Now look at these new RØDEs.

...

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DS Soundware has only one product so far, and with a title like The Ultimate Orchestral Percussion Sample Library, they're certainly inviting a bit of scrutiny. Good news for them and for you--they have more than lived up to their own hype. This is a library worthy of instant classic status. It is the absolute standard-setter in orchestral percussion samples. All the basics are covered in very high style. There are beautiful quality multisamples of snare drums, bass drums, orchestra chimes, glockenspiel, cymbals, xylophone, timpani, temple blocks, and a slew of small instruments and assorted esoterica. The recordings are pristine, and capture the sounds of a dream section. These are best-of-class instruments being played by professional orchestra players. The production concept here is a great departure. Mic positions were designed to achieve a realistic presence of the virtual percussion section in relationship to an overall ensemble. It pays off. One can quickly dial in a mix with these instruments that defies any question of realism....

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Ultimately this is a review about a microphone: the new, shockingly low-priced Marshall MXL2001P. But the review process on this microphone demands a look at some larger issues as well. Large-diaphragm condenser microphones are everywhere these days, and for good reason. Due to the different response of a larger and heavier transducer, these mics capture a different "photo," if you will, of the air around them. Large-diaphragm condensers flatter the natural range of vocals in a mix. As more musicians begin to blur the lines between performer and producer, a huge market has opened up for microphone manufacturers. New manufacturers have stepped in to provide a wider array of products to more consumers... with less experience. Welcome to the microphone market of the twenty-first century. At no time in history have so many musicians recorded their own music, and at no time have their been so many bewildering choices for these musicians to make. Engineers used to make these choices. Nowadays, for better or worse, musicians are self-producing more often than not. There has never been a time where more musicians bought their own microphones...not just stage mics, but complete studio arrays. Don't think this has gone unnoticed on the supply side....

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There are a couple of orchestral libraries, both by EastWest, that don't really fit the mold of the traditional sample library. Scoring Tools and Symphonic Adventures provide users with a set of fully orchestrated phrase components that can be used in loops, or cobbled together into larger structures. Once these basic structures have been built, one only needs to fill in with some melodic content, and presto, instant score. In many ways these libraries are more akin to loop collections than to the more common "note per key" GigaSampler libraries. As such, if you used them long enough you could easily construct pieces that would sound similar to those another user might build. Maybe exactly like it. So, do they actually have value? Is there real work to be achieved with these collections? Of course. You could just string together combinations of what's on the discs themselves, and make several hours of marketable music. But the less you manipulate what's...

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I've got to admit, there's a couple of things that made this particular review meaningful to me. One was testing these samples in a real-world situation, rather than just casually playing through them. Most reviews, frankly, are written as a result of a couple days' tinkering on the workbench. That's just the way it is. If I have an article due on 12/20, and I get the material on 12/6 - and between that time I must write and the webmeisters must edit and publish... well, you can imagine how much time there is to actually explore possibilities. It makes a huge difference when you're actually on the front line, rather than just imagining how this or that sample MIGHT work out. When you've got to end up with a world class product, there's no gray area. Things either work or they don't. Anyone who has even dabbled in orchestral samples knows about the Miroslav Vitous collection (available at http://www.marcati.com). From Hollywood to New York, and everywhere in between,...

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There are a couple of orchestral libraries, both by EastWest, that don't really fit the mold of the traditional sample library. Scoring Tools and Symphonic Adventures provide users with a set of fully orchestrated phrase components that can be used in loops, or cobbled together into larger structures. Once these basic structures have been built, one only needs to fill in with some melodic content, and presto, instant score. In many ways these libraries are more akin to loop collections than to the more common "note per key" GigaSampler libraries. As such, if you used them long enough you could easily construct pieces that would sound similar to those another user might build. Maybe exactly like it. So, do they actually have value? Is there real work to be achieved with these collections? Of course. You could just string together combinations of what's on the discs themselves,...

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Advanced samplers have facilitated the creation of advanced orchestral sample libraries. In my opinion, these new libraries are extremely important to anyone producing music today. Before and during this review, I read user forums across the internet, attempting to do two things. First, I needed a context in which to judge my own impressions of the orchestral sample libraries I would be using for A Christmas Carol, since this is subjective stuff. Second, I wanted to get feel for how users were incorporating these collections into their work. Part of my exploration included listening to some of the work that's been distributed online. Obvious patterns emerged. 1. People making amazing music with these tools are generally satisfied and complimentary of them. 2. People that are making less than amazing music with these tools are generally critical of the tools themselves. This is completely understandable. The fact is, if you're not a good orchestrator, you will be hard pressed to make very good sounds...

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Peter Siedlaczek's Advanced Orchestra for GigaSampler (distributed in the US by EastWest) may well be the most-used set of orchestral samples on the planet. Thanks to its wide-ranging palette and reasonable asking price, this is a product that easily qualifies for ProRec's more-for-less club. Burned onto a five-CD collection, you'll find an extensive set of samples (5455 to be exact) covering the instrumentation of the modern large orchestra. Particularly valuable are the orchestral mallet instruments, including a well-recorded vibraphone. You also get a good collection of woodwind esoterica such as contrabassoon and alto flute. One won't lack for variety. The Siedlaczek collection, like the Vitous, was originally released for hardware sampler formats, and similarly has received a complete refurbishing to take advantage of GigaSampler's strengths. You'll find an extensive key-switching scheme that allows instant access to standard articulations and playing...

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Sound design for theater was once very clean cut. Either you were working on a musical, which had songs, or a play which had only sound effects. Now, directors want a sonic experience on par with modern film scores. Audiences are accustomed to a full-bore listening experience, and the day of the mostly-bare soundscape in theater is long gone. It's a huge job. Before computers, you went in with your sound cues, and worked with the stage manager and board operator to coordinate them with the play. When something didn't work, you went back to the studio and tried again. A play usually had 50 or less cues. It was not possible to do many more than that. There was just not enough time. Enter DAW The computer-based DAW has certainly helped along this revolution in theater composing and sound design. A Christmas Carol weighed in at a healthy 84 music cues, mostly components of scene-length sections. A play is a living object that changes and grows from night to night. So the music must be broken down...

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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...

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The Peter Ewers Symphonic Organ Samples are yet another example of the incredible toolset GigaSampler brings to orchestral composers. The Peter Ewers Symphonic Organ Samples library serves up three different perspectives on one of the most significant pipe organs in the world, the Grand Cavaille-Coll Organ at the Eglise de la Sainte Madeleine in Paris. This organ was at the forefront of the transition to the modern pipe organ. But it is no dinosaur. To this day, it is widely recognized as one of the finest instruments ever constructed. Grand Cavaille-Coll Organ at the Eglise de la Sainte Madeleine

Folks, take a moment and really consider this. We can have the authentic sound of a 150 year-old pipe organ come alive in our studios and in our performances. And if that weren't enough, we get the sound of its build and decay into the cathedral itself. This is realism with more than sonic significance. If you...

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Here's a library that got extraordinary amounts of airplay on A Christmas Carol. The GigaHarp and Christmas go together like cabernet sauvignon, chocolate, and naughty supermodels. Classic winning combos. This is a first-class library. Starting with KM-84s and Neve preamps through top shelf 24-bit converters, the path has never been shorter to a well recorded harp that's ready for serious programming. Each string has been sampled at four pluck levels, two harmonics, and a damping / muffling release trigger by a world-renowned, innovative harpist. You can easily control these sounds in realtime, and produce an absolutely genuine harp track in a single pass. The mapping is excellent, on par with the quality of the sounds themselves. Gary Garritan

For instance, the melodic harp comes in two levels of sensitivity to velocity. You take your pick as to which has the better mapping for your touch or your mix. Once you've loaded your choice, you'll notice that each key is mapped nicely to the four levels of "pluck." Playing melodies with these samples alone gives you detailed control of your virtual harp. But now reach over and try the mod wheel. Halfway up, you'll find the first of the harmonic plucks, which still contains some fundamental, but gives you a sharper, thinner sound. Push the wheel to its wide open position for a more extreme, guitar-like harmonic. You can roll the wheel up to pop one of these babies out, then roll it back down to continue with the plucks. This is all very seamless sounding, thanks to a fine job of mapping. In moments, you can play lines that are stunning in realism and sheer sonic quality. ...

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One of the biggest gifts that GigaSampler has given the production world is the availability (at long last) of a realistic MIDI-driven piano. Until now, the available options were rated more in terms of irritation factor. They ranged from no good to pathetic to please kill me. It's little wonder that Nemesys includes the GigaPiano with the fully-licensed GigaSampler application. Since the piano is a percussive instrument, and it does eventually decay into full silence, that makes it an instrument that can be almost completely captured and mapped, given GigaSampler's capability to provide unlimited sample length. It shows off the paradigm quickly and effectively. With GigaSampler you can have a hyper-realistic piano sample. That's been proven. But the exciting thing is to be able to compare the hyper-real qualities of different source pianos. This is where the fun really begins. For this review, I had an opportunity to evaluate three of the top-rated GigaSampler piano libraries - the GigaPiano (a Yamaha...

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This may be the fastest I've ever been asked to review a piece of gear, and normally that would be a big drag. But I'm very excited to pass on the news about the new Delta 1010, from M Audio. It's also a pretty easy review, because the thing is good sounding, rock solid, and incredibly simple to install and use. I've had two days with the unit, and I'm comfortable with all its features. M Audio is the most recent alter-ego of our old friend Midiman, Inc. Their early line of "DMAN" cards and a variety of useful music techno-paraphenalia have won them many friends over the years. Although one of their early products, the second-generation DMAN 2044, was problematic for some users, overall the Midiman line has represented tremendous value for the dollar and has enjoyed a great reputation among the user community. At first glance, the Delta 1010 looks a lot like the Echo Layla. It has word clock i/o, S/PDIF, MIDI, and an eight-in,...

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Black and Whites is what BitHeadz calls "a tone module on a disc." What is included is an extensive set of acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes multisamples, along with some string sounds for layering, and a runtime edition of the Unity DS-1 sampler engine. Unity users can also use Black and Whites as a content CD. Once installed to your Unity directories, Black and Whites appears in the instrument drop boxes just like other Unity instruments.

But how does it sound? Pretty darn good. While Black and Whites does not compare to the sheer microsopic modeling and sonic complexity of the Gigapiano, it is a good healthy cut above your average "sampled" piano. The bottom and top ends are quite nice, and the middle octaves are clear and bright. I found the ranges from middle C up about one and one half octaves to be a bit "sweet" for my taste. That's simply a matter of RAM limitations, though, and no particular fault...

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My first thought when introduced to GigaSampler was: why do I need this? I had become accustomed to manipulating phrase and loop construction in ACID, and had really begun doing all my traditional "sampling tasks" in that environment. Imitative synthesis bores me to tears. Or so I thought. GigaSampler is valuable for phrase-based sampling, no doubt. You can use giant chunks of audio with no limitations beyond drive space. But that's not what GigaSampler is really about.

Gigasampler is designed from ground up to realistically capture acoustic instruments, notably percussive strings and drums. Not just imitate. Capture. There's a big distinction, and you can hear it from the first note you play. GigaSampler's calling card, after all, is the almighty GigaPiano. For those of us that grew up on acoustic pianos, the GigaPiano is a landmark electronic instrument. The achilles heel of sampled pianos has...

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