Audio Modeling instead of gigs and gigs of sampling...

Would be awesome to see some modeling added to the catalog!

And to have an expansion of NKS to standardize the parameters of interpreting the physical realm and the articulations of interaction within... and to develop a new generation of controllers that are optimized for human kinetics and ergonomics.

Instead of the endless rehashing of old synths.... modeling opens up the imagination of new things that could be...

Modeling is great. I have almost all of the SWAM products, as well as modeled or hybrid libraries by Sample Modeling and IK Multimedia. After working with modeled libraries, sample libraries can seem so frustratingly rigid.

But, while modeled libraries are the cat's meow in terms of flexibility, sampling captures a snapshot of the instrument in-performance. When it comes to sound, nothing (yet) beats an actual sampled articulation. Straight Ahead Samples, for example, took sample libraries to another level with their Smart Delay feature that assembles performances from a huge pool of samples. The result is unbeatable sound, but it comes at the cost of the instruments being arguably intolerably inflexible.

There are companies out there continually researching and developing modeling and other technologies. AcousticSamples V-Horns are relatively new hybrid libraries. And just look at what Dreamtonics has done with vocal synthesis in the past two years. The industry will undoubtedly produce more what you're looking for, but we're still in the early stages of development. The best is yet to come. It won't be long.

What I’m afraid of is that these guys don’t have the skills to code something like this, seen the problems they have with “easier” programs like installations center. Unless, as nightjar says, an AI makes the job for them…

NI already uses maschine learning in developing models for Guitar Rig....

I think the key for modeling to supplant samples won't necessarily be found in the quality of libraries from NI, but probably in libraries from deep sampling companies such as 8DIO or Spitfire. If it could successfully simulate NI libraries you might be willing to do modeling for the savings in storage over sampled libraries and maybe even some savings in latency. But the hyper-realistic sounds one can achieve through deep sampling of instruments such as those in the 8DIO Ostinato libraries which are sensitive to the proximity of notes in fast or slow ostinato phrasing with multiple instruments would need to be the target for modeling to be worthy of displacing sampled libraries IMHO. And what you end up with in modeling is the more complex the modeling characteristics are, the less people are willing to overcome the learning curve in how to set things up correctly to get the sound they're after. Maybe if in the near future companies can successfully emulate the expertise of the 10 to 15% of the people that can successfully use the complex modelers to their fullest extent through some form of AI, you might have something.

Nice sound, but it's hard to really get a feel for whether or not there's some realistic articulation capabilities such as growls and growl vibrato, rips, grace notes, grace vibrato, trills and forte-piano-crescendo in that particular piece. Not to mention the mouth elements like "ta" versus "da" all of which are generally individually captured in samples.

I think one of the things that keeps me locked into sampling is that the technology proficiency and the musical proficiency don't come from the same place. The musician can provide depth in terms of the various ways the instrument is commonly used in practice and the technologist can translate that into what samples are needed in order to achieve those things. I think we'll eventually get there as we get more and more sophisticated in layering synths, but it may be a while for some of the processing power to catch up to avoid any latency. When it does happen I'll be more than happy to get back some of my disk storage space!!!