About SampleSmith
Why SampleSmith?
When a friend played a demo flute track from, I think, the Vienna Strings collection, a couple of years ago, I was stunned by the realism they'd achieved. It quickly dawned on me that this kind of midi performance has to be more than just a plug and play affair. A great deal of thought and work is required to extract the kind of nuance that goes into a real performance, and as midi artists we can only hope to achieve a limited representation of what a dedicated instrumentalist has invested in their craft and their art. This makes a strong case for limiting oneself to electronic music that doesn't even attempt to emulate existing acoustic instruments.
Having said that, I think one must recognize that the future of music production, at least for music designed for everyday consumption, will increasingly use midi instruments. It's simply the lowest common denominator; the cheapest option that involves the fewest people, and is thus the most attractive option for the client who values product more than he does artistic performance. Still, this does not mean that a midi performance has to be something less than it could be. This is a new instrument (not really so new, actually) with unlimited and dramatic possibilities for expression and sound timbre, and as it continues to mature in the hands of those willing to work on it, we will continue to find ways of injecting that nuance I spoke of, into that performance. A cello, or a guitar is after all, also a machine, just as is a paintbrush, a sculptor's chisel, a hardware synthesizer or a computer program. The art is in the hands and heart of the operator.
When I searched around for Guitar soundfonts, I met with a great deal of disappointment, especially when looking for good affordable steel string acoustic stuff. As a finger picker, I wanted a lot more flexibility than I could get from looped strums of simple chords, and I just didn't like the sound of any of the simple soundfonts I could find, so I decided to record my own.
As I experimented with this, and learned something about editing midi for guitar, I began to realize that I was constantly tapping into my many years of performing on and thinking about the instrument and the music I've played on it. It occurred to me that what I've learned in this time is probably far more valuable to others than the performance I gave at a cocktail party for XYZ Ltd., last week. So, while I still consider myself to be a relative newbie to midi, I'm hoping that SampleSmith will find a place on the web, and in people's bookmarks, as a source for useful information about guitar playing, and of course the source for great sounding Guitar samples and Soundfonts.
Who is SampleSmith?
I'm Keith Smith, a freelance guitar player in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I 've been gigging for over 40 years -started playing gigs on alto sax when I was 13, and switched to guitar a couple of years later. Since then, I've usually been involved with jazz music, but I've also done stints as a country fiddler and banjo player, and I've always been a closet folkie.
Actually, Gordie Lightfoot and Tom Paxton had as much to do with my wanting to be a musician as Charlie Parker did. When I left school, I wanted to be a folk singer. I also wanted to learn technical proficiency and that set me on the way to playing jazz. I made a few attempts at the singing bit, but once a club owner told me to 'just play' and I took his advice, although occasionally I'm known to scat into a microphone -that really helps to clear a room.
I've had a life-long interest in recording, which dates back as far as a Webcor wire recorder, (WWII vintage), when I was a kid, but had to wait for the digital revolution for it to become affordable in any serious way. I was running an old Teac 4 1/4" four-track for a while, but dumped it in 2002 when I bought a Roland VS-2480. From there I added 2 RPC-1 cards to the computer and started using Cubase SX synced to the VS-2480. I do most of my mixing in Cubase, using either the Roland, or a Presonus Firepod for an audio interface, depending on what the complexity is for headphone mixes. I also use the Roland for remote recording projects. The 2 RPC-1 cards allow me to transfer 16 tracks at once from one platform to the other.