Week 2: Good Vibes

This week I recorded over 400 samples from the Musser Vibraphone and delved into the complex interface of the Kontakt sampler. 

Set up the mics, grab some mallets, hit record, then whack away! Sounds easy right? 

In reality recording these samples was a test of my physical endurance, mental fortitude, and musicianship.

To create a convincing sampled instrument one must record each note several time for a variety of reasons. For one, even the best musicians cannot always make their sounds 100% consistent. If only one sample were recorded, it would sound more like a childrens toy than a real instrument. This is especially true with percussion instruments with distinct transients. To add a semblance of human-like playing to the MIDI instrument “round robins” must be recorded. This is simply playing the same note several times to capture that slight difference.I have chosen to record 3 round robins per bar. Perhaps the mallets placement was different on the second hit, or velocity was just a hair greater on the third. These inconsistencies bring life to a sampled instrument. 

Another reason to record each note several times is to create “velocity layers” within the sample instrument. When recording MIDI each note is assigned a “Velocity” value from 1-127. Though velocity can be programmed to change any number of parameters it is most often associated with volume, and to be precise the timberal variations that come from playing at different volumes. Certainly playing at different dynamic levels changes the volume, but more importantly it will often change the harmonic structure of the sound. This is apparent in almost every acoustic instrument. For example, one of the primary harmonics of a marimba bar sounds 3 octaves and a major third above the fundamental. The vibes do not have as clear harmonics that contribute to their sound and are actually quite close to sine-waves, nevertheless the variation of harmonics contributes greatly to the perception of the sound. For the scope of this project I have chosen 2 velocity layers: Piano and Forte. 

The final reason to expand the number of samples is to create a choice of mallets within the instrument. Similar to velocity, mallets have a clear effect on the timbre of the bars, but not necessarily the volume. I have chosen two different mallets, a medium-soft and medium-hard to record. In summary, with 36 bars, recorded at 2 dynamic levels with 2 different mallets, and each variation receiving 3 round robins, this totals 432 samples. 

 Unlike wind instruments, the volume of a mallet keyboard cannot be manually sustained once activated. In the case of a vibraphone, once the bar had been struck, the sound will slowly decay until the bar is no longer vibrating, or the pedal is lifted to dampen the sound. The decay time varies slightly from bar to bar and can last nearly 20 seconds from activation to silence. Though I did not feel the need to record a full decay of each bar, I did want to capture around 10 seconds of each bar ringing and decaying. This meant being as quiet as possible  while the bar was still sounding. One wrong move would result in a shirt ruffle, shoe tap, or floor creak that would come across in the recording. Even a heavy breath would disturb the pristine decrescendo of the instrument. So there I stood for recording each bar until I had amassed over and hour of recorded sounds.

Last week I detailed my work flow in Reaper, and this week it has remained largely the same with on added step. I need to find a way to export each clip as an individually labeled file. The process I chose was quite manual, but worked just fine (Though I am sure there is a more automated way to accomplish this. I created “Regions” for each time selection of each sample. I then labeled each region by its note name and round robin number (I.E Bb4_2). Then using the “Render Matrix” view in Reaper I can select each region to export manually. By adding the “wildcard” $region to the export name, Reaper individually names each exported clip using the name of the region I had given.  

Now, finally I was able to start bringing in sound to Kontakt. Thanks to the detailed labeling I had done to each sample in Reaper, mapping the sounds to their given keys in Kontakt could not have been easier. Kontakt features an “auto-map” function that will place audio clips on a certain key depending on the name of the file. There are several ways to label audio that Kontakt will recognize using this feature. Labeling the audio based on the key number (1-88) will allow Kontakt to auto map, or by simply labeling them by their note name Kontakt will read the file name and automatically assign them to the correct key. Once I did this with one round robin I created a new group and imported the next round robin. Assigning these groups to cycle within Kontakt implements them as true round robins triggering randomly on their assigned notes. So far, I only have the Piano/Hard mallet samples implemented into Kontakt.

There is definitely some fine tuning to do but I now have a playable instrument! Most urgently, I need to refine the De-noise setting I am using in RX. The aggressive settings I had on to combat ambience has sanded the sound down. Though it didn't bother me while editing in Reaper, once actually playing the instrument the high-end is severely lacking. Next week I will work on continuing to streamline and improve the process while also getting in the practice room studio to record some marimba! Until then enjoy this rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” played by the new vibraphone sample instrument! 

Thanks for reading and listening! 

Eli Shapiro