What else are sample CDs good for?

Question

Newbie question here. This is what I know about software samplers like EXS24. You have sample collections that you load into the sampler, and can play back the samples with your MIDI controller. You can take individual drum sounds (kicks, snares, etc.) from sample CDs, built your own drum kit for MIDI programming, and save them as custom kits. Samplers like EXS24 have presets that come with the program that have both drum kits, pianos, strings, synths, etc.
My question is, in order to get a bigger library of sounds and instruments, what exactly do you do with the other components of sample CDs? If they come with individual sounds, that makes sense—you put 20 of those together as a custom drum kit. But what about the strings, Rhodes, piano, basses, etc.? They usually come in loops and you’re supposed to chop them up into individual samples? I see the use of that as well, but what if you like the way a particular Rhodes sounds and want a complete scale across the keyboard—C1, C2, C3, etc? Can EXS24 do that, and if so, does it ruin the musical integrity of the sample to have it run across octaves?
I do know there are sample libraries like Steinberg’s The Grand, which have all the individual notes (C1, C2, C3, etc.) as samples. Is it just that a sample library is what I am looking for, and a sample CD is more limited in what it can do? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

a piano shifted up 5 semitones
usually sounds worse than a synth waveform shifted to
the same amount
Acoustic piano purists bring this up a lot. A piano's (actually all stringed instruments') harmonics change from one note to the next, and even in the same note at different velocities; because the string tightens when it bends. Shifting the sample up one semitone shifts all the harmonics up by the same proportion, and they don't line up with the actual harmonics.
Interestingly, an octave on a piano is not exactly one musical octave; they're tuned so that the clearest harmonics are an octave apart. That's why piano tuners make so much money I guess.
A synth oscillator is an electric circuit that does not change its resonant frequency when it gets louder, at least if you believe the math. So shifting the fundamental by one octave will shift all the harmonics by one octave as well, and since this is what transposing a sample does, it doesn't sound as bad.
I realize this doesn't answer the original question but it may shed some light on the issue if anyone is interested in building a sample collection.
I have some sample cd's with really awesome moog and oberheim samples on them. Unfortunately they recorded some extraordinarily cheesy phrases with them and didn't give me any raw notes, so they're almost useless.