Ditto to all. I'm sometimes embarassed by how it all flows together. I'm even still using some of the old Roland libraries through a K2500.
I find that old libraries still have value for "moments." I can't bear them for legato playing (perf-leg has ruined them forever). Repetitions can't be tolerated (thanks to alternating and perf-rep instruments). But for the occasional splash of color, a muted sfz brass or the chunk of a downstroke cello staccato, it's shameful what I'm still using. The numbers don't add up, but like Dunk187 and SyQuEst said, my ears buy it.
What's more, I'm really not EQ'ing or scrambling for different reverbs.
Sometimes I think there's a psycho-acoustic vocabulary that kicks in. The brain prefers to accept the timbres because it's heard them so often. Listening for differences is like focusing on a person's accent instead of what he's saying. And most of the libraries today are "fluent in orchestra," so there's not much of an accent. Differences, yes. Emphases, yes. But the brain seems to weave it all together without much effort.
It's like the soul wants to hear the music, not the parsing of its components.
I find that old libraries still have value for "moments." I can't bear them for legato playing (perf-leg has ruined them forever). Repetitions can't be tolerated (thanks to alternating and perf-rep instruments). But for the occasional splash of color, a muted sfz brass or the chunk of a downstroke cello staccato, it's shameful what I'm still using. The numbers don't add up, but like Dunk187 and SyQuEst said, my ears buy it.
What's more, I'm really not EQ'ing or scrambling for different reverbs.
Sometimes I think there's a psycho-acoustic vocabulary that kicks in. The brain prefers to accept the timbres because it's heard them so often. Listening for differences is like focusing on a person's accent instead of what he's saying. And most of the libraries today are "fluent in orchestra," so there's not much of an accent. Differences, yes. Emphases, yes. But the brain seems to weave it all together without much effort.
It's like the soul wants to hear the music, not the parsing of its components.