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  • "Violin 2" Patches

    Hi VSL users,

    I'm sorting out my VSL presets at the moment, but I have to consider which patches are optimal for sequencing the Violin 2. It would be great if you guys don't mind sharing your approaches.

    As most of the VSL strings libraries: Solo, Chamber, Orchestra, and Appassionata; contains a huge variety of articulation patches, there is a handful of patches called "Violin 2" in every library. However, it is unfortunate that the number of patches in that particular folder is very few, comparing to the normal Violin patches, thus, the capability of Violin 2 is far less than the Violin 1. 

    There are few solutions to this problem that I can think of.

    - One approach is to use the normal Violin 1 patches for the Violin 2. This way, I will have to deal with the phasing issue, especially when the Violin 1 and the Violin 2 are playing the same note, with the same articulation, and at the same time. I can pitch-bend the Violin 2 a semitone higher/lower and transpose the MIDI notes one pitch opposite to the pitch bend. Then, the Violin 2 will have as many articulations as Violin 1 but the "Violin 2" patches folder will be ignored.

    - Another approach is combining the 'Violin 2' patches with normal Violin patches in the same Matrix. The question is, are the Violin 2 patches the recording of a different Violin and a different player/group of players? If so, switching between two Violins would not be ideal since there will be two instruments/group of instruments in the same matrix. Furthermore, the phasing issue still happens on some articulations since some patches in Violin 2 matrix are borrowed from Violin 1.

    Any thought about this? How do you approach your Violin 2? And what are benefits of having Violin 2 patches?

    Thank you very much. :)

    Bamboo


  • As far as I know the violin 2 patches are not really different from the violin 1 patches (e.g. not played by a different player on a different violin). They are the same samples one halfstep below and pitched back - as you describe in your post. The VSL team did this four our convenience with some of the patches that will be most likely used in unison. If you have to write unisons with patches which do not have a v2 version, doing the transposition-trick manually will result in the same sound you would get if there were.


  • Not to commandeer your thread Bamboo,

    But wouldn't it be nice if there were a button or a function within VI Pro that would allow you to automatically transpose a loaded instrument (or matrix, patch, etc.) a half, whole step up or down?

    In other words, it would automate the transpose pitch bend trick in one click.  So you could have two solo instruments playing, or even three to four theoretically, simultaneously or create a 2nd violin section.  If this is already a feature could somebody please show me how to use it.

    On another note, I wouldn't mind having a feature where the virtual keyboard was enlarged by about 10% or so and you could click and drag patches straight onto the keyboard where VI would then automatically generate a keyswitch for the patch.


  • That's a great idea to implement as a shortcut.  It is normal to pitch shift and transpose but one has to do that with several repetitious manual steps.  It would be very elegant to have a single switch for it as a means of easily expanding the voicing possibilites of almost any instrument. 

    Thouogh one can just create a template and do it once for each instrument.  But I am becoming lazier all the time due to technology and need to continue the process.  


  • I would also welcome a "transpose-trick-button"! :) I was already working on different solutions to have a simple "v2" but this would definitely be the most convenient one!

    kind regards...


  • O.K. then it's settled.  I created another thread to avoid more hijacking of this thread...


  • Hi MassMover,

    Thank you for your helpful clarification. If the Violin 2 patches are not different from other patches in the library, I will simply use the transposition trick instead.

    Hi Jasensmith,

    Tranposing the entire patch with one click is a very good idea. I hope that we will see this feature in VI PRO soon. ;)