"However, what is the future of sampling? What is the ultimate goal? What happens if you have a perfect sample library? What will that accomplish? What is all this leading to?"
My 2 cents:
I think the samples or physical models of instruments is only part of the story. The other part is the reverb, like MIR. I think we are getting to the point where technology is really close to making these 2 aspects a non issue. But, I feel there are 2 more areas, that if conquered will allow us all to express ourselves creatively on even a higher level.
With the current state of sampling if you are great composer but a poor programmer your music suffers. Not everyone has the time to sit and try every sample and articulation until they find the right one for a phrase and do that for every phrase and every instrument, then mix and eq the instruments and finally know how to use and tweak reverb.
So, what I think needs to happen along side these advancements in sampling is a notation program (preferably by VSL :-) that works like the program Notion or the Sound Set feature in Sibelius. You click in the notes onto the page and write pizz, tr, Arco, trem, or draw in any markings and the correct samples load and play just for that note. Where you don't have to load gigabytes of samples for 4 notes of pizz and then have to "optimize". Only load what you need and when you need it.
The other thing that needs to happen is "virtual paper", for lack of a better term. Basically, a tablet display with a stylus (like the Wacom stuff) and the above described notation software's ability to read hand writing and convert it in realtime to a score. Now you can draw in slurs, notes, markings...by hand and it gets analyzed immediately and converted to the proper digital version right in the score in realtime and the software loads the correct samples in the background based on these markings.
Until this happens the quality of samples almost does not matter because its the skill of the programmer that matters more than the samples. We've all heard bad mockups with great software and great mockups with inferior software so the problem is not only in the samples its in the whole process.
Once we can go back to writing music the traditional way but in a digital fashion via "virtual paper" + specialized notation software and wonderful VSL samples underneath it all the quality of the music being produced by all of us will increase because all these extra steps between the creative process and the realization of that creativity in physical form as audio coming out of speakers will disappear.
So, to me samples and reverb are only half the battle. A specialized input device a la virtual paper, and specialized notation software that can read handwriting and immediately convert it plus load the proper samples in the background is what I'd like to see.
Think about this. You open the specialized notation software and you have this tablet + stylus and you start writing in the name of the piece, tempo, "composed by", date, "allegro", "largo", time signature, and as you write the software recognizes the terms and recreates them as if you typed via keyboard and mouse. Then you start writing in the notes and as you write they appear on the staff, in the background only those samples gets loaded, not the whole instrument and while its loading you can keep writing. Now, load times go away.
If someone wants to sit down and play everything in via midi controller thats fine, afterwards they can add all the markings by hand via tablet/stylus.
As far as mixing and reverb...well there are already some set of standards for these. You can define all this in the specialized notation program every time you start a new piece or use a template. We are already doing that now.
I believe that the above is the final frontier and until then great samples can still sound fake and bad because its all about the programming, and the programming is so tedious and requires so much work that it kills creativity unless you've defined a workflow process that you've refined over many years.
The best thing VSL can do is to make the process easier and more simplified without taking away the quality they have achieved. A specialized notation (it would have to be a full-on DAW really because we would need 3rd party plugins and audio/video features) software would a move in that direction.
Its no small task but until this happens the whole process is very limiting and very few people have the time it takes to make their compositions sounds as good as they want.
Am I crazy or do you agree?
DM33