Jazz Drums Close-mic mapping error.

[mplaster]

Hi folks... did a quick search but didnt find any posts concerning this.

I loaded in the VSL Jazz Drums' Close Mic Snare (JD-C_Snare_Sticks_center_loose) and noticed something odd. For the velocity range between 109 - 118, the snare hit mapped there has obvious room reverb ambience, whereas the rest of the velocity layers are completely dry and nearly mono sounding.  I often like to use the dry snare sound and use my own verbs & processing, but it's kind of frustrating that anytime i happen to trigger anything within that range, instead of the dry snare, i get the reverbed sample.

Anyone else encounter this? I'd label this "a Bug"... hopefully VSL can look into this?

Update:

I loaded in a few other snare articulations, and it seems to be a running theme in the snare sets. Same anomaly occurs with most of the snares, whether it's the loose, center, side, off-center, tight, or even rim hits  -  they all seem to have this weirdness (although sometimes the velocity range in which it occurs is different.

Help! Please fix  :)

- michael

[andi]

Hello Michael!

What you are hearing is the drum and not the room. After hitting a drum fortissimo it resonates. This is no mapping error. Just compare the room sound with the close sound by setting one after the solo and you will hear the difference.

Best regards,
Andi

[mplaster]

Hmmm... very odd.

I'm still not convinced, though. The reason is this:

The samples BEFORE the range in question (low velocity) seem very dry and "mono-ish." The sample within the range seem very stereo and have this "room-ish" artifact i am mentioning. But then the samples AFTER the range... meaning the highest velocities, hit even HARDER, seem to go back to sounding dry and "mono-ish." So it seems odd to me that as it is hit harder, it begins to resonate, but when it is hit at its absolute hardEST, the resonation seems to disappear   !!?!?!?

Mind you, i am listening on headphones, so maybe it is "sticking out" more to me than it would in a normal, applicable listening situation. However, if you have a spare moment sometime, please listen to the following file i made as an example

You will hear three hits from the JD-C_Sticks_center_tight patch only (no room samples, no processing at all.) First hit is snare at Velocity 100 (sounds dry)... Second hit is within the range in question at velocity 110 (sounds roomy) ... Third hit is the hardest hit at velocity 127 (goes back to sounding dry-ish)

http://soulwhirlingsomewhere.com/vsl/public/JzDrm_close_mic.mp3

To further convince myself im not losing my mind, i loaded in the JD-R_Sticks_center_tight kit from the ROOM patch. I A/B'ed hits alternating between the CLOSE sample (at velocity 110) and the ROOM sample (at same velocity 110.) These hits sound virtually identical, yet they are from two different kits; one CLOSE, and one ROOM. Give a listen:

http://soulwhirlingsomewhere.com/vsl/public/JzDrm_close_versus_room.mp3

There's four hits (i just doubled it up for convenience sake.) First hit is CLOSE MIC, 2nd is ROOM MIC, 3rd is back to CLOSE MIC, and 4th is again ROOM MIC. Aside from a slight boost in volume for the ROOM mic hits, they sound nearly identical!!!

If you do have a chance to Download these and listen to them on headphones i'm certain you will hear the noticeable difference i am referring to. Someone else please give these a quick listen and tell me i am not going crazy [:P]

Really, i am not trying to be a pain in the neck.... I appreciate your response and explanation, however my ears are telling me something different!  [:)]

Thanks again!

[andi]

Hi Michael!

I can reproduce your observation now. The close snare hits on C3 and D3 with velocity 110 are stereo samples, which gives them a roomy feel in comparison to the mono samples at the other velocities. Sorry for the inconvinience. We will look at it at the next library update.

Best regards,
Andi