Sample Libraries/CDs. Limited. Crushed. Why?

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noisewreck

noisewreck

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I was reading kunalkho's post, and a question popped in my head.

I have some sample libraries that I have purchased. One of them is from Ubershall. To my dismay it turned out to be one of those "construction kits", although there is some stuff that I can use (no, I don't use an entire loop, before anyone jumps and starts another analog vs digital type argument here)...

What bothers me about this particular sample CD is that all the tracks are individually compressed and limited. I mean LIMITED to hell! The drum parts have all their peaks chopped. It's a mess.

So, my question is why do some of those companies releasing sample libraries do stuff like this? What's the logic behind it? Why purposly diminish the flexibility of their product?

Just wondering, maybe discuss the merits (if any) of such approach.

Ok, just felt like bitching about what's wrong with today's digital world, fractured bass on mp3s and pixellated high-ends on you toob :D
 
It's mind-blowing though, isn't it...? "Pre-wrecked" (for lack of a better term) samples that are nearly impossible to deal with...
 
Yeah it can be irritating
It can be good too though. If you're using vinyl as I sometimes do for little snippets of beats or whatever you can get kind of a cool disconnect between "live" drums (or at least EZ Drummer) because of the mastered/crushed quality of the sample.

If you're looking for instrument sounds then it's more of a pain if they're already mastered.
I got a lot of instrument samples from Pro Smaples which are somehow linked to east west. Not sure if they're still available
 
Bristol Posse said:
If you're using vinyl as I sometimes do for little snippets of beats or whatever you can get kind of a cool disconnect between "live" drums (or at least EZ Drummer) because of the mastered/crushed quality of the sample.
Click to expand...
Actually sampling from vinyl is probably the best precisely BECAUSE you don't get crushed-to-the-smithereens square-wave, clipped transients stuff as you do with CDs. And while I can accept that knicking stuff from a music CD would have this, I cannot accept the same from Sample CDs.
 
If what you say is true about these crushed CD samples it's weird because totally against what you'd expect from the medium.

With vinyl you simply had to compress really dynamic material to get it above the noise floor but not jump the stylus out of the groove. By comparison the same material doesnt need to be compressed nearly as much, if at all, to actually fit without distortion on a CD.

Really compressed audio on CD or even higher res formats? I dont get it. But I guess that's the point you're making.

Tim
 
Perhaps their target market isn't really audio production professionals?

They're probably trying to sell their samples to kids who just want to rap/play metal over samples that already sound "good" (read "loud") without having to tweak anything.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Perhaps their target market isn't really audio production professionals?

They're probably trying to sell their samples to kids who just want to rap/play metal over samples that already sound "good" (read "loud") without having to tweak anything.
Click to expand...

Methinks this must be it.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
Perhaps their target market isn't really audio production professionals?

They're probably trying to sell their samples to kids who just want to rap/play metal over samples that already sound "good" (read "loud") without having to tweak anything.
Click to expand...
I think you're onto something here. It could also be for those ad agencies that want to do a quick and dirty music for their ad production. Dunno.
 
Now that I think about it more, they're probably not so much for studio music production use (pro or am) as they are for live mix DJ use.

G.
 
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