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  • VI Pro 2.0 (or 3.0) feature request.

    I would DIE to have some sort of way to adjust the velocity x-fade parameters of a specific instrument.

    Example, certain instruments (can't think of them now) have different x-fades. Lets say a Violin Section has 4 velocities... 1 to 2 is smooth, 3 to 4 is smooth but 2 to 3 is horrendous! Instead of drawing a x-fade in the CC lane in Cubase to be a diagnoal line from soft to hard... I draw a steep slope, then a gentle slope, then a steep one again... just so the transition is smoother.

    I find myself doing this kind of fine-tuning frequently and it can be tedious. Maybe I'm the only one doing it, but if I could preset an instrument to have a certain curve with a couple points (like a 3 point system with a 3-band eq) where the curve tells VI Pro a fine tuned crossfade so that I can use the fader very simply, or take less time to draw complex cc lanes in Cubase... this would save me loads of time in the end. Hopefully that makes sense.

    Am I alone in this? lol

    Thanks,

    -Sean


  • No you’re not alone. I also wished that VIP did more behind the scenes processing, to make it quicker for us to get the results that we want. Ideally, the velocity crossfade would be ultra smooth, and almost all level riding could be done with that one fader.

    In 2.0 there’s apparently a new time stretch tool that may make using the dynamic patches more usable.


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    @Another User said:

    Ideally, the velocity crossfade would be ultra smooth, and almost all level riding could be done with that one fader.

     

    That is the purpose of velocity xFade and mostly it works for me. Where do you have a problem?


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    @DG said:

     There is already a load of "behind the scenes" stuff going on, so it would be interesting to see what else you think is necessary.

    What does VIP do behind the scenes?


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    @jammusique said:

    it would be interesting to see what else you think is necessary

    First, I'll try to find specific patches that stand out although there are so many patches that I won't promise anything. The instruments I spend the most time on are brass (especially horn and bones) and strings, except for bass. I usually find myself doing lots of extra work to get them to sound right. Drawing realistic crossfades definately takes a good amount of my time to get 'realism' out of it.

    The overall 'behind the scenes' bit is something I agree with. I realize VIP does LOADS of stuff already, but I want an MIR of a sampler. I think VIP is the best thing out there, so I am not complaining... but what I want VIP to have is a humanize feature in the very literal sense. The less time it takes to get a phrase sounding right, the better. This is one feature that I think would help that.

    This is why I want some sort of Dimension Strings: 1) divisi, 2) violin 2, and 3) like the DVZ string library, I would hope that it would be very easy to make realistic loose and tight section playing, legato's, and add realism without loads of work. Currently, I'm using a Violin for first, Chamber for a few more, and the the 14 for the rest of Violin I. I use a Violin Solo line in Cubase though, I don't just load the patches in VIP cause the volumes won't always match or sometimes I'll want more or less of the master fader on the violin for blending differences. Stuff like this is very tedious but in my opinion, is the only way to get realism out of VSL right now.

    I think VSL sounds loads better than everything else out there, but I doubt anyone on here would disagree that ways of saving time on the 'programming' of samples are essential... and I think the 'behind the scenes' comment is addressing that... which I agree with.

    -Sean


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    @DG said:

     There is already a load of "behind the scenes" stuff going on, so it would be interesting to see what else you think is necessary.

    What does VIP do behind the scenes?

     

    Are you serious? I hardly know where to start. Perhaps it would be easier to know what you are thinking of.

    DG


  • I know VIP pretty well but I might be missing some things. AFAIK, VIP "works behind the scenes" with the humanize feature (tuning), in the mixer (voice) kind of an auto divisi feature (and also humanizing the timing), and the speed control (which I’ve never used).

    Play (HS) has scripts that (for example in the Legato monster patch containing 3 different slur articulations) morph between the articulations, morph between the layers, and morph between the dynamics, all depending on various factors.

    IN VIP, I often have to touch up each note if I go from a stacc to a detache because the loudness is inconsistent between different patches. I would like VIP to (via scripting) let me go from patch to patch in a quick-musical way, taking in cosideration velocity-crossfade and expression, into one easy controller.

    Cinebrass (Kontakt) has cresc & decresc on a controller which (apparently) morphs between numerous sus layers. And it sounds (to me) much better than what VIP (presently) lets me do (with a lot of time consuming programming)!

    EDIT: Not to forget the new "Concert Brass" (Kontakt) buy Kirk Hunter, check out the video and see how fast and easy it is to fine tune the attack on all the notes. Lots of morphing going on there behind the scenes (AFAICT). That thing makes my mouth water.

    Just for the record, I prefer the vibe of VSL in general, but am less and less happy with the control, and the time it takes to get that control.  [B]


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    @jammusique said:

    I often have to touch up each note if I go from a stacc to a detache because the loundness and consistent between different patches.

    I agree, Going from Staccato to Sustain is the worst to me, especially on brass instruments. I have to fine tune the velocity crossfader every time.

    The ideal would be not having to program at all so that we can focus on writing great music. This is really impossible as a conductor would still have an orchestra adjust their technique or performance to fine tune a piece, but with merely a simple statement or visual cue. If I want a powerful brass moment I would simply tell them or visual conduct it. With samples I have to take 100 times as long to program it - and that isn't even accounting for the fact that I then have to fine tune the sample performance to sound real, by having notes start at very subtly different times, by having a dynamic crossfade that is always moving just enough to be real, and so on. - and automation or easier workflow regarding those would also be amazingly time-saving.

    I know this may seem like a lot to ask for from VIP but I think this is the future of sample playback. Whoever automates, or at least greatly improves these things the earliest will definately be far ahead of everyone. Humnanize as it is, currently does this very thing regarding pitch... but there are many aspects of performance and many of those, as I have outlined, influence 'realism' from samples just as much, if not well more than pitch, in my opinion. As I think that VSL is usually the latest and greatest, this kind of software paradigm is what I expect out of VSL. Hopefully we will see that sometime not too far away.  😊

    -Sean


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    @Another User said:

    EDIT: Not to forget the new "Concert Brass" (Kontakt) buy Kirk Hunter, check out the video and see how fast and easy it is to fine tune the attack on all the notes. Lots of morphing going on there behind the scenes (AFAICT). That thing makes my mouth water.

     

    I haven't listened to an Kirk Hunter stuff since the fake violin debacle. I'm not really interested. However, attack on notes can be done with a slider in VIP. Have you tried it?

    DG


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    @jammusique said:

    I often have to touch up each note if I go from a stacc to a detache because the loundness and consistent between different patches.

    I agree, Going from Staccato to Sustain is the worst to me, especially on brass instruments. I have to fine tune the velocity crossfader every time.

     

    I don't really understand where the problem is. Of course you have to fine tune. You are creating a performance, which is not static. If you have the chops, it can all be played live, but if not, fine tuning will be necessary.

    I would agree that the Brass staccatos in VSL take a lot more work to make sound good than they should, and this is probably one area where more work could be done automatically (and I have a good idea how to fix this), but I haven't heard anything better else where yet, apart from really loud out of tune demos that just mask the problem, which is not a solution.

    DG 


  • Hi DG,

    I have the feeling that we are coming from different places. I also get the feeling that you never use anything else than VSL and that you haven’t seen or heard how other libraries function (may be wrong though).

    Spiccato can be played very loud on strings, and detache can also be played very sofly, it all depends on the presure or weight the player puts on the bow, how fast it is moved.

    In the sample world, I want the articulation to sound the same loudness if my Vel x-fade/Expr. fader is at the same place, just like a player can do. And that is (one of the many things) I ask VIP to do for me "behind the scenes". Other samplers can do this, but VIP at present can’t (but I have strong hopes!).

    Yes I can change the expression level for each and every note and I’ve gotten fast at it, but I’ve discovered that other systems would allow me to do less programming and more music making.

    As for the attacks, I spent a lot of time reprogramming some samples to respond to start offsets, and of course you can fade-in attacks (sfz’s). In theory that all works, but I spend a lot of time, and the results aren’t musical enough enough for me. This is also where I would like VIP to morph between differents attack samples (in the backround) depending on where my "magic attack lever" is. That”s how sofisticated some samplers are.

    Again, take a look at some of the other videos that I mentioned above, and then see if they don’t do many important things better than VIP. I think that they do, and I really hope VSL is already coming up with something as good or better. 


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    @Another User said:

    Yes I can change the expression level for each and every note and I’ve gotten fast at it, but I’ve discovered that other systems would allow me to do less programming and more music making.

    As for the attacks, I spent a lot of time reprogramming some samples to respond to start offsets, and of course you can fade-in attacks (sfz’s). In theory that all works, but I spend a lot of time, and the results aren’t musical enough enough for me. This is also where I would like VIP to morph between differents attack samples (in the backround) depending on where my "magic attack lever" is. That”s how sofisticated some samplers are.

    Again, take a look at some of the other videos that I mentioned above, and then see if they don’t do many important things better than VIP. I think that they do, and I really hope VSL is already coming up with something as good or better. 

     

     I think that you are right about one thing. You and I have very different requirements. [;)]

    DG


  • Hi again,

    Oh well, I’m alway wrong! [:'(] And I’m talking to a self proclaimed "expert orchestrator", who hasn’t seen how other stuff works. Can’t go very far with this discussion. Spiccato always softer than a DetachĂ©? So FF spicc isn’t possible. A PP dĂ©tachĂ© isn’t possible?  


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    @jammusique said:

    Hi again,

    Oh well, I’m alway wrong! [:'(] And I’m talking to a self proclaimed "expert orchestrator", who hasn’t seen how other stuff works. Can’t go very far with this discussion. Spiccato always softer than a DetachĂ©? So FF spicc isn’t possible. A PP dĂ©tachĂ© isn’t possible?  

     

     No, I didn't say that you were always wrong. However, let me answer your points that you raise:

    1. I am not a self proclaimed expert orchestrator. My credits speak for themselves.
    2. You assume that I haven't seen how other companies do things. You can't know this, and it's not true, as I wrote above.
    3. Actually ff spiccato is not possible in volume terms. If you play spiccato ff, it is much softer than a ff detache. Therefore to have parity with the volume of the samples would make no sense to me. Would you have flautando or sul tasto the same volume for the highest velocity level as a sfz patch?

    All I'm saying is that for me (and I can only speak for myself) there are things that I would like from VIP, but I haven't seen anything elsewhere that interests me, other than the things I've already mentioned.

    DG


  • You both crack me up! Let's all just take a big deep breath! :) - but anyway...

    "Of course you have to fine tune. You are creating a performance"

    This is true, whether sampling or not fine tuning is done... Forget all the specific suggestions on this thread for a second... what we are really saying is that the less fine tuning we have to do with a sampled orchestra, the more like a real orchestra it would be (workflow-wise)... which is what we want - as this means less work programming and more writing music. This is not a new request; I would even say that it should be as much of a focus as 'realism' is for the sounds. It wouldn't matter how good the sample library is, if it takes 1 year to program a piece, it wouldn't be worth it. VSL doesn't take nearly that long obviously, but it takes a much longer amount of time than what I think users want.

    One other point on this that is very important. I don't think that it should all be done for me and be automatic... I simply feel it should be less work, like a real orchestra. I put PP on a page and people know what it means... I conducted a group that wasn't getting what I wanted... I simply said to the low brass, "make it sound like an elephant, stomping his way around" and they played it perfectly. This is a simple instruction. Obviously it wouldn't work for a sample library, but if there were simpler ways (presets, faders, ???) of changing the sound with less work in the fine tuning process... I think this is what we want. I think if VSL misses this concept, other companies will certainly do it eventually and I wouldn't want to see that happen. I love VSL, I expect the best from VSL, and I think that this is a main problem to approach in getting there...

    "I would agree that the Brass staccatos in VSL take a lot more work to make sound good than they should, and this is probably one area where more work could be done automatically (and I have a good idea how to fix this), but I haven't heard anything better else where yet"

    I can see times where that would actually be pretty useful... but in general I wouldn't want it. The only reason I can even think it could be useful is to approach the less work problem, but I don't think it's the cause... I think it would be better just to have a more intuitive and organic approach to performance, like a performance 'humanize' function. It can be turned on and off AND you can control how much affect it has.

    Humanize Performance Tool - If you were to draw a melody in Cubase without using any midi cc's it would be very dead expressively, obviously. - There are times to be very unexpressive on purpose as well... but if there was a humanizer for this and I turned the 'expressive' fader up, I should be able to write a melody and have it sound somewhat decent from the start. - I realize this may seem unrealistic and that I am not wording this very well, but consider a few points...

    1) Not avoiding programming, but less time doing it means more time writing and is more productive.

    2) It might not seem very easy to design VIP to do this, but if it was the benefits would be monumental. People often say that EW is better out of the box, and VSL is far better but with more work to get it that way. I realize it's usually directed at the dry/wet debate... but if VSL sounded good out of the box midi programming-wise it would be an amazing thing and a great time saver. I think the humanize idea would balance the ability to adjust it and the ability to control how the tool would function.

    3) Anything that would provide more accurate playback in a way that saves more time is definately a good thing. If VSL was 'human' enough that I wouldn't even need to draw in crossfader patterns in cubase, then I wouldn't be using cubase... I'd be using Sibelius.

    To me the ultimate goal of a sample library would make it work in a way that sounded real and that I only had to use a simple notation tool like Sibelius to get that real sound out of. To me the humanize mentality is the way there.

    Maybe this seems odd to someone used to the sample world, but how many people wanted to learn midi, cubase, etc, when they started... I wanted to compose. Even though VSL is greatest library to me, I still end up doing more work to get things to sound like a real orchestra than I'd prefer and I do more work to get the right performance out of VSL than it would take for a real orchestra... thus why I think these feature concepts are useful.

    -Sean (and sorry, I know... I'm a long winded guy)


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    @DG said:

    there are things that I would like from VIP, but I haven't seen anything elsewhere that interests me

    Agreed. jammusique might have some valid points, I don't know cause I'm a VSL exclusive... I've used play once on a friends computer and I hated it. Maybe other people have more luck... but from what I've seen from other software, nothing comes even close to VIP in my opinion... I'm only recomending some way of saving time getting the 'right sound'.

    -Sean


  • What do your creditials have to do with anything, we’re talking about wanted new features. If none of these are things that you’d like to see in VIP then why are you posting here? If you had seen the Hollywood string intro, Cinebrass video, and Kirk Hunter video, maybe you could respond directly to me, but you if you haven’t why post?

    Just a little clarification:

    DetachĂ© is on the string, spiccato is off the string. Either can be very loud, or rather soft. Actually you can play detachĂ© in PPP (maybe sulla punta) on the string, changing bow at each note (there it’s all wrist action, no or little arm movement). Spiccato (the attack coming from off the string) is impossible to play very soft if the notes are fast. If very slow, then just a little tap is possible, but still probably loader than anything on the string.

    In the real world a passage making use of lots of articulation in played, and the composer writes MP (mezzo piano) and the player makes all his gestures fall under that dynamic. It’s up to the player to learn how to come out of an on the string passage, jump quickly from the 3rd to first string, and play off-the-bow attacks softly (for example) at a quick speed. Well I’d like my sampler to be able to do the same. And it envolves more than just firing off samples, that was possible 20 years ago.

    SFZ is by definition a little louder ("forced"), so for me, I’d like to have those a tad loader than the other articulations at the same relative fader level.

    FYI, one of the new libraries I mentioned has a feature where the level is controlled by the mod wheel, and the attacks by velocity (which morphs in a tad of an attack sample probably). Not bad !


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    @jammusique said:

    the composer writes MP (mezzo piano) and the player makes all his gestures fall under that dynamic.

    In my post I mentioned that there are times I want them all to be the same, this was my exact mentality... fyi

    -Sean


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    @Another User said:

    FYI, one of the new libraries I mentioned has a feature where the level is controlled by the mod wheel, and the attacks by velocity (which morphs in a tad of an attack sample probably). Not bad !

     

    Yes, I do this in VIP all the time.

    Anyway we're obviously not going to agree so I won't waste any more of your time by posting in this thread.

    DG


  • I was never talking about, the sound (synthy), lack of articulations, ambience, tuning, etc of the other libraries. I was talking about their sampler features (this is a new feature sampler thread). And no, no need for multiplet tracks in HS.

    Your definition of what détaché is, and what spiccato is, are samples? And you think that one is by definition louder than the other in the real world?

    And you’re an "expert orchestrator"? [:S]