I want to play Vienna Solo violins

[Vienna Solo Violin]

I want to play Vienna Solo violins with its all features.Which player should I use? I have M-Audio Delta 1010LT soundcard.

[Beat Kaufmann]

Hi and welcome here in the forum

If you are going to buy the Solo Violin Library you will get the included and common "Vienna Instrument" (Vienna-Library-Player) with it.

For having even more possibilties with the samples you can buy the Vienna Instrument Pro.

(Vienna Instrumemt "Classic" was the very first Vienna Instrument - no more supported)

Take into account that the sound quality of both players (common and Pro) is the same.

The M-Audio 1010LT soundcard will reproduce the violin as it can and in a good averrage sound quality.

Nevertheless, a really top soundcard will sound even better.

If you plan to play samples with your Computer you should keep an eye on the amount of RAM as well.

All the best

Beat Kaufmann

[Beat Kaufmann]

@Vienna Solo Violin said:

I want to play Vienna Solo violins with its all features.Which player should I use? I have M-Audio Delta 1010LT soundcard.

Hello again

Are you able to play the violin yourself?

If not take 5 lessons "how to play the violin" it will increase the use of samples in a natural way.

Best

Beat

[sac.music_lover99]

Hi Beat,

Great demo!  Where can I find out how to achieve this level of realism through articulations?

Craig

[Beat Kaufmann]

Hello Craig

Very important is, that you know how all your samples sound. So listen to all your articulations carefully.

Now you know what your "instrument" is able to play.

When it comes to play a melody visit for example a violin player. He should play your certain melody.

By the way you will recognize how long he can play notes with one bow.

He also can show you how he plays fast note...

- little accents on 1 and 3, on 1 and 5...

4 notes: 1 without 3 with legato / 2 with legato / all with spiccato etc.

After this session you can try to get a similar result at home.

Visit the violin player again and he can tell you where your version doesn't sound natural.

So you will get the feeling in time how a violin should sound.

One important thing: Try more to chose the sound than the name of the articulations... therefore youshould know how all the articulations sound.

As an example: Take détache long of the solo violin...

The first, 2nd and 3rd layer sound all more or less equal - just louder and a bit mor brilliant with higher layers.

But the last layer 4 (109..127) got a really nice addtitional vibrato.

Somtimes you can start a bunch of notes with just this détaché long (fff) for getting a nice singing accent at the beginning...

Next step:

A good exercise is to copy famous pices as close as possible with samples and your mixing abilities.

Fight with yourself until you get it the right way.

You will learn how to mix a violin/violins how to play it etc.

http://www.beat-kaufmann.com/VSL_New_VI/BK_Grieg_Holberg_Sarabande_VI_06m.mp3

But never forget to listen to real instruments and violins.

I just recorded a Stradivari last weekend in Zurich...

This examples shows us that almost every new note is also a complete new articulation.

The sound is never static. We can try to achiev this as well.

Every new note is a new articulation. We can use the x-velocity, we can vary the tempo etc.

But ... To get such a result with samples is still impossible.

Nevertheless, we are on our way - the guys of VSL and we the users...

All the best

Beat

[noldar12]

Which VSL library will you be using?  Do you plan to get the version that comes with SE 1, SE 1 and 1+, the full solo strings standard, or full solo strings standard plus extended?  Depending on what you decide, or what you can afford, different degrees of realism will apply.  If you can afford it, getting the full solo strings standard and extended would give you the greatest number of options, and the largest number of articulations.  The dynamics patches in the extended portion of teh library can be most useful.  Again, it will depend on budget and possibly your computer resources.

[rdgiese]

I purchased Solo Strings (standard) a long while ago and dropped it almost immediately due to a lack of documentation.  Frankly, I thought it would be reasonably straight forward from music notation on a piece of paper to playback on a computer (not interested in using a software notation program like Sibelius) but the included hardcopy manual was just too advanced.

Is there not a comprehensive beginner area to learning this product?

[Paul]

Hi rdgiese,

The best way to start with Vienna Instruments is probably to go through the basic VI video tutorials provided here.

Greetings,

Paul

[rdgiese]

Paul, I tried downloading the 100 meg zip file but lost the connection for some reason.  I still use a modem.

But the basic question is do I need a sequencer to use these products or not?  It seems that the company just expects users to be fully versed in digital audio (midi, sequencers, mixers) as a basic prerequisite.  I'm sure a few buyers believe that you can purchase the Bosendorfer Imperial (or solo strings for a violin) and learn to write music without having to learn to play the instrument itself.  What I find odd is that the company goes to the expense of explaining the possibilities of different instruments in the Vienna Academy but the bridge between Musician --> Digital Audio is ignored.   The videos on the cd that came with the product do not explain where the input to the engine comes from.  I was under the impression that I could create a midi file in a text editor and input that to the engine.

[Beat Kaufmann]

Hi rdgiese

You also get a standalone version... you also can use the libray with sibelius for example...

But: This thread is also about how to play the violin as god as possible.

Then you need probably to be able to change articulations between two fast notes shift the x-velocity up and down... and all these things at the mean time.

So a DAW like Cubase, Logic or so can support you to handle all these controls in the speed you need them.

Making music with such samples will lead - sooner or later - to a DAW or a composer software (sibelius).

Further: The price of a DAW is not very high compared to the rest you will need...

But nevertheless, you can start with "nearly nothing" than a library, that's true.

Beat