Composer turned sample developer Wilbert Roget, II has just released a new ‘indie’ sample library called Impact:Steel. We spoke with him to find out more about how and why he created the library and how creating his own sample libraries plays into his composition.

CDM: First, can you tell us a bit about your background, and how you got into composing and music?

Wilbert Roget, II:Well to keep things short, I’m basically a lifer with music and composition, studying piano early on and doing improvisations almost immediately (if not before). I decided on film and video game composition as a career sometime in high school, and went on to study composition, orchestration, and conducting at Yale University. I’ve been scoring films, games, ads, and various other projects ever since.

Native Instruments has tweaked their Elektrik Piano, finally adding Universal Binary support for Intel Macs. Unlike the Vokator and Spektral Delay updates, though, there are some new features for everyone to enjoy. The samples are the same, but everything else has gotten an update:

CDM’s resident game composer W. Brent Latta continues pouring over the epic choral sampling library that is EWQL’s Symphonic Libraries. In case you weren’t already impressed with its 9 DVDs of sounds, in this episode, Brent constructs actual words out of samples — the holy grail of synthetic vocals. -Ed.

WordBuilder is arguably the most significant piece of technology in the Choirs package. Sure - in terms of raw samples, there has never been a choir library this substantial. But more important is the ability to actually get the choir to say exactly what you want them to, without resulting to bland “Oooohs” and “Aaaaahs” or resulting to bland, pre-recorded phrases such as “Hallelujah”.

Did I say ’start to finish’? After reading through the first few chapters of the manual, it was clear that setup for Choirs would not be a simple affair. It was also clear that reading through the entire manual wouldn’t necessarily give me any better grasp on using the app as a whole. So instead, I decided to take a stepped approach: read a few chapters, get the hang of those techniques, then read a few more.

As previously mentioned, the first thing I had to throw out was the concept of plug-and-play. Once the application is installed, the similarity to other sample libraries ends. In order to really take advantage of this app, a second application is used, namely WordBuilder. WordBuilder is the application that allows the user to specify what text is to be sung, as well as the duration and dynamics of the piece. For those who may not grab the concept, it is easiest to think of WordBuilder as an intermediary app - it sits between your input device (usually a MIDI keyboard controller, sequencing or scoring app) and the Choirs Kompakt player. As note information comes in, WordBuilder maps the appropriate sample to each note, taking into account what syllable you wish to play, the duration, the intended sampleset (is it a Bass or a Tenor singing “Aaaaah”), etc. In a way, it is like a MIDI processing unit, adding additional ‘control’ values to incoming notes, and sending out a more complex signal.

East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs is without question one of the most extensive and sophisticated choir sample libraries on the market. In order to put such a mammoth to the test, I felt that that it was important to be more critical of the software from a professional perspective, and that I must be able to demonstrate how accessible, thorough, and powerful this software could be for the end-user. To meet these goals and truly put EWQL Symphonic Choirs to the test, I intend to see if I can use it to rework an entire choral piece, performed entirely from the sampled voices from this library in place of a real choir. Due to the nature of the review, I intend to provide CDM readers with something different: an episodic review. With that, I give you Episode 1: The Arrival.

9 DVDs – are you serious!?

Virtual ochestra sample libraries usually require serious cash and a high-end computer to run, but CDM’s resident game composer has found something different. US$325 and it’ll run on your existing computer? Chalk it up to another brilliant independent sample developer. W. Brent Latta takes this software orchestra for a compositional test drive. Don’t miss his sample music if you want to understand why he’s raving. -Ed.

Every few years, a small, innovative company comes along and changes the paradigm for high-quality sample libraries. With the power and accessibility of modern computers, this change has followed Moore’s law fairly closely and we’ve seen library upstarts transform from boutique shops to hugely successful producers in no time flat.