Deep in the internet rabbit hole the other day, I stumbled across an article on Ableton Live 10. The article was mostly about the packs that come with Ableton Suite, and I thought it was interesting how they’d come up with the idea.
“We actually tried to stay away from genre because what we find is more important is the sonic theme than the genre,” Dylan Wood, Ableton’s Product Owner for Sound, tells me. “So rather than making a kit that’s aimed at one genre – minimal tech-house [for example] – we looked at what sounds get used a lot and tried to find ways to make sure that a pack represents the kind of sounds people needed. What we found is that certain sounds stick around over a long time – the genre might change, but the sounds or the elements that you actually need to build those styles usually stay quite similar.”
I’ve been exploring these packs and I wonder why Ableton don’t push that angle more, since most sample libraries focus heavily on genre. They have a double benefit because you are forced to move outside your usual suspects and explore different sounds. But you also get to learn from each pack because each sound also comes with processing tools added so you can see how pro sound designers work.
What do you reckon. Is this a better approach than something like Splice where you focus on a specific genre? Aside from mega packs like Samples from Mars is anyone else doing this kind of thing?
