Musical Sampling / Barker Clarinet

[Piet De Ridder]

Here's a good one: the brand new Barker Clarinet from Musical Sampling. Introductory price: $39, after Oct. 17th: $69.



"Barker Clarinet is a true legato clarinet library performed by conductor and educator, Joshua Barker. Recorded at Orb Studios in Austin, TX – we aimed to create an agile, emotive clarinet. We recorded all of the performances with natural, progressive vibrato. In our view, this helps warm up the sound and expands the emotional range of the instrument.
Each patch was produced to more uniquely address certain contexts. The Emotional patch includes a more subtle style of vibrato – fragile but confident. The Workhorse patch is an agile, mezzo-forte instrument – great for traditional, upbeat contexts. The Fat Lead was actually recorded in the same space as Sasaki Trumpet/Austin Saxes – initially intended as an energetic compliment to those two libraries. What we found is that it also serves as an excellent, emotional instrument for strong, dramatic contexts where you really want the clarinet to properly sing.
Lastly, we included a Breaths patch – to help sell the performance with both short inhales and longer, subdued inhales with the clarinetist in the ready position."




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[mr anxiety]

This sounds very promising! A few questions though.
Do all samples have the vibrato? That could be a bit frustrating if so, depending on style of music.
I wonder if it gets into the p dynamic. The Emotional track doesn't seem to get that soft.

But it's only 39!

[Piet De Ridder]

Yes, the vibrato, being part of the samples, could pose a bit of a problem in certain situations or styles. I’m sure Musical Sampling knows this, but it could be that they chose to go with a bit of vibrato anyway to guarantee some suggestion of life in the sustains — static, non-vibrato sustain samples of a clarinet, while stylistically more apt for certain styles, are much more prone to sound completely dead, synthetic and unmusical, I find —, and I also have a strong feeling that samples with some vibrato in them lend themselves much better to whatever techniques and processes Musical Sampling are using to arrive at these amazingly playable instruments of theirs. Or, put differently, with stark-static non-vibrato samples, especially with a timbre as pure as that of a clarinet., you might hear the artificiality of the build a lot more.

Besides, the vibrato, while certainly noticeable and, yes, potentially problematic, is never exaggerated or anything. I think it’s a vibrato of compromise and necessity. Me, I’m not planning to use this in a mock-up of the Mozart concerto anyway, so I’m not all that bothered by it.

The absence of extreme dynamics (at either end of the scale) is also the result of compromise and necessity, I imagine. There’s nothing to be done about this instrument’s inability to pierce through an orchestration or a mix the way a clarinet can when used in its highest dynamic range, but, at the other end of the spectrum, clever use of some additional well-chosen and well-set filtering — not present by default in any of the patches, you have to add it yourself (and luckily, you can, as the patches are not locked) — does make it possible to suggest some rather soft and delicate playing. It’s not totally realistic of course, but it should do perfectly well in many situations.

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[mr anxiety]

Good points and well taken. I do agree that having this vibrato approach will make the samples appear more musical and alive. Using it in the right setting will be key. .

[Lawrence]

It’s a very good price for an agile and good sounding instrument.

In comparing it (the demos at least) with the SWAM Clarinet, the possibilities of greater dynamic control and control of vibrato lie with the SWAM. The basic Barker sound also seems somewhat rougher, for lack of a better term. More aggressive, perhaps. That could be a good thing, as the SWAM is generally smoother, maybe Barker adds another color.

[RobS]

It's a nice addition to the woodwinds I already have, very playable and at good price (once in cart though it went up to 51€)... my only complaint isn't the vibrato per se, but its speed, don't understand why they chose such a fast vib, it loses expressivity in my view, it's nervous.

[RobS]

Looks like a single dynamic layer, helped by the use of filters and script. And now I wonder if in time machine mode one could at least to a certain extent modify the vibrato speed...

[Niah]

Although the limitations have been well pointed out by Piet, it just sounds so incredibly alive.

It will certainly not be suited for every application but what it does well does it really well.

Simply impressive !