Introduction

Who uses digital sound libraries?

• Composers

  to orchestrate electronic compositions

• Musicians

  to perform pieces using different voices

• Sound engineers

  to augment visual and audio presentations with sound effects

Current sound library problems

Sampling keyboards often display only the currently selected sound. It is not easy to know the adjacent sounds or how to find desired sounds. An accompanying card may be a key for the entire sound library, but the descriptions are often inadequate and the sounds unorganized.

Sound libraries stored on compact disc can benefit from a computer file structure. However, the large number of samples these discs contain necessitate descriptions that may not represent their sounds well.

How are digital sound libraries presented today?

• difficult to scan and audition easily
  • the database often is not organized according to the sounds' audio qualities
  • the user does not browse the audio database directly, but via its text representation
• the structure of the database is often static and can't be adjusted to suit the user's needs and references

The user must think about how to find and audition sounds: ("Which bank was that in?" "Where are the sounds similar to this one?") The user must audition sounds one at a time, must remember previous sounds when comparing the current one, and has little sense of the total available selection.

These problems can detract from the spontaneity and creativity of the sound library's user.