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I've been working with samples so much that real stuff is starting to sound fake.


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Right now I'm watching a movie from 1925 called The Vanishing American. Listening to the soundtrack, it sounds as if it's samples. That violin sounds mighty fake.

It can't be, of course, though, as...oh...I don't know...the movie's just from 1925. x_x

It's like I've been working at getting a very pure, crisp, and clean legato solo violin all this time, not to mention all the other orchestral samples I've been working with, that the soundtrack just sounds bland and fake.... and it's a real orchestra!

Has this kind of thing happened to anyone?

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Remember that the recording quality availble for sound-on-disc technology in 1925 was pretty limiting sonically.

I would not recommend using a recording from 1925 as a point of reference for producing music today--aboslutely not. There are a lot of performance details that are masked by the limits of recording technology then and these elements are crucial for the ear to determine a natural performance.

BUT, I do whole-heartedly recommend that as producers and MIDI programmers we constantly reference REAL and recent recordings of actual instruments. That disconnect from what we're trying to achieve and what an instrument actually sounds like is VERY important to always keep in mind.

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BUT, I do whole-heartedly recommend that as producers and MIDI programmers we constantly reference REAL and recent recordings of actual instruments.

either that or just have fun with the samples.

if you want or have to make a fake orchestra or whatever sound authentic, then sure, you need some reference.

when i'm just doing music for me (most of the time), i find myself not caring much quite often. sometimes a completely unrealistic guitar lick just works best.

a lot of people seem to create this mental gap between sounds that were made to sound like physical instruments and original, more synthetic sounds (no matter if sample based or not). there's not much middle ground in the common musician's mind.

usually, when a sound is pretty close to the 'real instrument' domain but kinda off, the 'fake' issue is brought up.

the thing is, i've grown to like a lot of things that others would dismiss as 'fake' over the years. maybe i have to thank the SNES for that.

well, i could go on but i just realised how tangential i'm being.

in short, deliberately fake sounds used in a creative context need some love too :)

i still have this 'duet for fake and electric guitar' concept lying around, actually...

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either that or just have fun with the samples.

if you want or have to make a fake orchestra or whatever sound authentic, then sure, you need some reference.

when i'm just doing music for me (most of the time), i find myself not caring much quite often. sometimes a completely unrealistic guitar lick just works best.

a lot of people seem to create this mental gap between sounds that were made to sound like physical instruments and original, more synthetic sounds (no matter if sample based or not). there's not much middle ground in the common musician's mind.

usually, when a sound is pretty close to the 'real instrument' domain but kinda off, the 'fake' issue is brought up.

the thing is, i've grown to like a lot of things that others would dismiss as 'fake' over the years. maybe i have to thank the SNES for that.

well, i could go on but i just realised how tangential i'm being.

in short, deliberately fake sounds used in a creative context need some love too :)

i still have this 'duet for fake and electric guitar' concept lying around, actually...

I agree, but with the condition that it be deliberate 100%.

I went to see Chuck Pahlaniuk once and he was talking about when he was first trying to get published, he was shopping his books around to publishers and the feedback was always the same: Too dark, too disturbing, etc, etc.

So one day he couldn't take it anymore and decided that the next time he got that feedback, he'd go and revise it to be MORE dark, MORE disturbing, so that, at the very least, if they didn't buy his book, at least they'd have nightmares about it later on!

When he did that, though, he sold his first book: Fight Club.

But when you really take a look at what he did, he turned his weakness or failings into a strength.

So if you feel like if a particular instrument doesn't sound real enough, don't see its lack of realism as a weakness, instead look at it as a strength of the instrument.

And take it all the way!

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