Value of importing 'foreign' samples

[thesoundsmith]

To the forum users at large, info requested.

In an attempt to get high-quality sounds at a reasonable price, I look to eBay. There are almost never gig cds, but a great many Roland and Akai sets (don\'t want audio, there\'s no real volume/velocity layers)

My question is: Is there enough value (i.e., quality and musicality) in these sample sets to make the investment in chickensys or equivalent worthwhile, or are the \'foreign\' libraries just not up the the quality of the better Giga libraries?

Am I better off waiting to afford Giga libs or are these useful in pop/jazz production?



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David \'Dasher\' Kempton
www.thesoundsmith.com

[thesoundsmith]

Gav,

Thanks. I hadn\'t thought of the copyright implications. I\'m not trying to pirate samples, just trying to open the door to a greater variety (and lesser expense) than currently available in the GS format.

The eBay sellers I\'ve been looking at state that these are new, sealed, licensable CDs, not second-hand disks. Most of the libraries are in the <$200 range, which is significantly less than the $350 and up for the better GS libraries.

There are some sellers with disks that may be original, but they\'re not sealed. I\'ll assume there ARE copyright issues there.

Thanks. Forewarned is forearmed.

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David \'Dasher\' Kempton
www.thesoundsmith.com

[Gav]

Be aware, it\'s highly probable that what you and the sample sellers (that have their old libraries listed on eBay) are doing is illegal.
In the majority of cases (I say \"majority\" just to be diplomatic since I have yet to come across a library whos licensing policy differs) what you are buying from the Sample Producing Company is not the CD with 700 MB of sounds, but rather, the right to use them yourself.
When you buy sample libraries from previous users this means that 2 people are using (or have used) the samples but the actual Sample Developers have only been paid for one person. (the original user from whom you purchased the samples at your \'reasonable price\')
So be very careful soundsmith. Since now, digital watermarking has provided a way to track these samples to specific buyers and you can and probably will get yourself into a heap of trouble and probably end up on the hook for a fine or worse: legal fees.
So much for your \'reasonable price\' huh?

Gav