Looking for quality, hard to find instrument samples

Question

Hello,
I'm a traditional (acoutic) Korean drummer/musician looking at going going electric (both for composing and later performing these virtual instruments on stage).
I would like samples of Korean instruments in my computer to trigger and/or make loops.
I can try making samples by recording my instruments on my own, but I'm willing to pay for quality rather than make them on my own. Also I don't have all the instruments I would like.
Can you tell me where there might be even the possibility of quality Korean instrument samples?
Thank you in advance for you help.

Answer 1

just visited your website, looks like you have a great group going there.
actually looking at the photos on your site made me think, you'd be best off getting in there and sampling the instruments yourself.
you'll probably find a bunch of stuff out there to buy.. but I think it would be a shame if you just hobbled together a bunch of more or less generic asian percussion samples just because that's all you could find. if you're an expert in these instruments and in the musical tradition of it all, you're in a really great position to really understand the dynamics of the sounds they make and how best to capture it all, so that you get similar playability from your sample set.
I'd start off by doing some test runs and experimenting. record some of the instruments you do have and that you play yourself. get your hands on the best stereo mics you can find, a nice room to do it in, and a nice preamp/converter.
once you've tracked a whole bunch of hits and whatever else you can produce with an instrument, spend some time editing it all up and then try out some mapping in the EXS24 to see how it plays. you'll quickly find out what works best. then once it's all working out for you and you've got a technique down, you could set up a day in a studio and get as many players and instruments in as you can. record the bejeezus out of them, knowing that you can then go and edit and keymap it all later.
it can be a lot of work, but there's nothing quite like roll-your-own sampled instruments, especially when you are someone that really understands what a particular instrument is capable of in terms of range of sound. you'll really be able to get in there and capture so much more of the nuances that these instruments can produce than someone that just stuck a mic in front of something they didn't understand and hit it with a stick. and then with your multisamples and velocity layering, you'll be able to tweak it so much better to play authentically cos you know what to listen for.
also consider this. if you have a clear focus on what kind of positive contribution doing this work could have to the music and performances of your group, you might be able to apply for a community arts grant in order to really do a good job of this. you could afford to get into a nice sounding studio with good choice of mics and an engineer to help it go well, as well as some budget to bring in players to capture the unique sound of their instruments. community arts bodies can be quite positive about funding this sort of thing, when it involves archiving traditional art and culture within your community, and also contributes to the continued development of more creative work at the same time. food for thought anyway.