Hi Diki
I agree the amount of work has reduced, but it still flourishes well on this side of the pond. (Different states of mind I suppose)
Regarding modelling, then yes it is difficult to work out the mathematical algorithms, but musicians and engineers are slowly starting to get the hang of it.
Found this http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/demos.php while I was doing a bit of surfing, which combines both sampling and modelling.
Certainly looks interesting
Regards

Bill