Paolo,

For what it's worth, I asked Dietz a while back about matching MIR Pro to Synchron samples, and he told me that the MirX "Synchron A Wide" preset was designed to match the "Surround to Stereo Wide" presets in the Synchron Player mixer. (After playing around with it, I can confirm the two presets fit like a glove, although tweaks are necessary if the default reverb in Synchron is disabled)  FYI, in case that ever comes up for you!

Attached to this post are complete Reaticulate banks for use with the default keyswitch set-up for the Synchron Brass library.  Enjoy!

If you're wondering what Reaticulate is, it's a REAPER script that essentially works like expression mapping, but for REAPER.  Read about it here.

- Sam

Originally Posted by: Paul

Hi Sam, 

The legato repetitions are now available with the long notes and legatos... the Synchron Player is much more intelligent this way. 

Best, 
Paul

So it is!  Just tested it and it works wonderfully. Thank you very much; because of your help (and the demo licenses), I'll be purchasing these soon.

Originally Posted by: Ben

Originally Posted by: MMKA

By the way, I really hope that this very good tool shall not replace velocity XF in the future.
This tool does a lot but not everything. With this tool you can't make for example a perfect pp violin tone from a ff tone.
The strength of this tool is in my opinion the greatly improved possibility to nuance the tone.

The more colors on your palette, the better you can approach reality. 

Exactly. It's more like an additional tool to make your work easier. It differs quite significantly from Expression and from Filter, so these will still be valid options if you need these.
Please keep in mind that timbre adjust is currently only opimized for the Synchron Brass library.
In my tests it seemed to work just fine with the other brass options in the player (well, I have note tested all yet), but less so with woodwinds and especially not with stings. Of course you are free to use as you like, but for now we can't recommend using it with other libraries than Synchron Brass.

Best, Ben

I found the same thing as well, Ben.  It works phenomenally for Synchron Brass, but is pretty indistinguishable from the normal filter control on most other libraries.  (And, yeah, it definitely screws something up with strings when turned down below 63).

Originally Posted by: Paul

Hi Sam, 

Thanks for the kind words!

Quick add-on, also because this is kind of hard to find out: 

The repetition patches are not called the same anymore (and are not available separately), but they have been incorporated into the various "Short" patches of the SYNCHRON-ized versions. Either as unique patches like "Short-Spic" or in combination with single note patches and repetition patches in the detache variations. 

Best,
Paul

Oh!  That's really good to know, thank you!  Does that include the legato repetition patches as well?

Originally Posted by: Paul

Hi Sam, 

I'm afraid that's the same answer as above. No plans right now. 

Best, 
Paul

Again, thank you for the prompt and honest response!  I think it's worth saying that, since I started in on VSL several years ago, I've personally had nothing but good experiences regarding customer service and communication with staff/developers.  Cheers!

Paul and VSL,

Another quick question: are there plans to add the repetition legato, spiccato/staccato, and portato patches from the original VI collections into these SYN-zed versions?

- Sam

Thank you, Dietz.  Those links help me understand the concept better 

Sounds good.  Thankls!

In testing the SYN-zed Sordino Chamber Strings, I encountered a bug:

For the first and second violins, the normal legato patch (regular vib) does not properly VelXF, regardless of CC assigned to it.  Worth fixing, for sure!

Originally Posted by: Dietz

Depending on the chosen decoding method the difference ranges from "subtle" to "dramatic", even in stereo. :-) It's not so much about "depth" per se, more about enveloping and also about decorrelation.

... but then, MIR 3D is not "just" about Higher Order Ambisonics and 3D audio, but also about new concepts of preset creation and management, and of course an overhauled GUI. :-) 

Dietz,

If you have the time and inclination, would you be willing to elaborate on what you mean by enveloping and decorrelation?  I think I have an idea of what you're talking about, but I'd love to hear more specifics on it so I can better understand all of this (and apply that knowledge in my own work).  

- Sam

Originally Posted by: Paul

Hi Sam, 

Glad you like this option!

No plans to add articulations in the near future, sorry to say.

Best, 
Paul

I appreciate the honesty!  Thank you so much.

- Sam

Paul,

Thank you and VSL for the demo licenses!  Going to give them a try now.

One question: are there plans to add the missing articulations from the VI counterparts to the regular SYN-zed Appassionata and Chamber strings?  I know the App. strings are missing quite a bit more in their SYN-zed counterpart, but I believe the SYN-zed Chamber strings are also missing a few of the VI articulations as well.  Additionally, do the regular versions of the SYN-zed App. and Chamber strings contain the length-dependent release samples?  This feature is a big selling point for me (boy does it make a diff. in the SYN-zed solo strings, esp. with the crescendos/diminuendos)

Thanks!

- Sam

Originally Posted by: Dietz

Actually, the CC 7 values don't matter in the context of Natural Volume as long as they are kept at the same value for all instances of Vienna Instruments/Pro (... which is the only source for which this feature makes sense). I seem to remember that Herb Tucmandl - VSL's founder and CEO - kept CC 7 at 100 when he fine-tuned all those Natural Volume settings by ear. :-)

HTH,

Perfect, exactly what I needed to know!  Thank you so much :-)

Dietz,

When a VI (or any instrument, really) is placed into MIR, how does the Natural Volume setting correspond to CC7?  More specifically, when you set the Natural Volume levels (or whoever else might have done it), did you/they do so with CC7 turned all the way up, or at a specific level? 

The reason I ask is that I enjoy the finer control granted over CC11 that comes with turning CC7 down from 127, but I don't want to wreck the balance created by the Natural Volume settings.  I suppose one solution is to turn *every* instrument's CC7 value down by the same amount so the inter-instrument balance isn't affected, but I'm not sure it's that simple (hopefully it is!)

Thoughts?

A question:

I know that CC11 scales depending on where you set CC7 (i.e. the granularity/fine control of CC11 increases as CC7 is set lower and lower).  But does the same thing happen with VelXF?  Another way to phrase the question: if I set CC7 at a lower value, does VelXF (and whatever control I set it to) then have a finer amount of control from its values of 0 to 127, or does it have the *same* range, just at a lower volume overall?

Thank you for the very reasonable crossgrade price - makes this a no-brainer for me!  I agree with Macker: baked in concert ambience makes this much, much easier to work outside of a solo organ context than other organ libraries.

Originally Posted by: Dietz

That's what I'm looking at this very moment:

Now all you need is to replace the Room Tone with sounds of the audience coughing at the worst possible moment in the music and we'll have ultimate realism.

Originally Posted by: Dietz

Hi Joey,

it's really good to see the growing interest in MIR's development, although there hasn't even been an official announcement. :-) Thank you very much!

MIR 3D is already "a thing", and as a matter of fact we just had another virtual developer meeting on Skype today. As you put it so nicely, it's indeed basically "MIR on steroids" - meaning that the underlying concept hasn't changed, but most (if not all) of the engine, the GUI, the preset management, even the RoomPacks have either been completely overhauled or even redesigned from scratch. Things are looking good already, but there are still some hurdles here and there which are more difficult to overcome than we thought. 

... all I can do for now is ask for a little more patience, please ... 8-)

Thanks!

Can't wait!  (But I'll have to, oh well...)

This library is fantastic, a continuation (and expansion upon) the quality found in SSP.  How you got all those perf. interval patches to sound convincing with a multi-mic library at blazingly fast tempos is beyond me, but it's the best I've heard thus far.  Whatever you're doing, VSL, keep doing it!

Looking forward to Synchron Brass and Woodwinds!

These banks will work with the default presets included in Synchron Elite Strings.  Enjoy!

If you don't know what Reaticulate is, check it out here

Originally Posted by: belkina

I'm a long time user of the Chamber strings. What do the Elite Strings add that the Chamber Strings don't have?

Alan,

From the short time I've been fiddling with and exploring Elite Strings, I would say that while the libraries are similar in section size, the core concept between them is quite different (and I don't just mean dry VS mic'ed).

Elite Strings has less overall articulations than Chamber Strings (especially if you include the sordino verisons), but the core articulations are comprehensively fleshed out, to the point where they become less like patches and more like playing styles.

To be more specific, you have legato, fast legato, expressive (baked in swell) legato, perf. detache, fast perf. detache, long, expressive long, portamento, and expressive portamento.  All of those have three types of vibrato (regular, without, and strong) that can be crossfaded or individually chosen.  All the perf. intervals sound convincing, so it's safe to say the core of the library is about shaping expressive lines with more control over dynamics, bow style, and vibrato amount than one usually gets.

The other thing that really sticks out to me is that tremolos, fast reps, and trills (!) have legato transitions and they actually sound quite good - something I haven't seen in a lot of other libraries.  There are divisi presets as well, but I haven't gotten around to messing with those yet.  Of course, it's got nice short articulations, pre-recorded dynamics, and whatnot, but to be frank, Chamber Strings contains a more comprehensive set of those.  All in all, I would say these two libraries are apples and oranges - one is not a replacement for the other, in my humble opinion.

Originally Posted by: PaoloT

In Vienna Instruments I've added the crossfading slot in the main cells. But I don't know if this can eat memory even when the crossfading slot is not used.

I do the same thing!  I tested it out, and - thankfully - it does not eat memory.  If you have two or more of the same patch the RAM eaten up will only be equivalent to the first patch.  To be clear, that means you can have Sus_Vib added to No_Vib, Prog_Vib, Tremelo, Tremelo f.attack, etc. etc. and it will only count the first Sus_Vib patch in RAM.

Originally Posted by: Pixelpoet1985

What you could do in the Synchron Player is a new dimension with regular and molto vibrato, but not played together (stacking disabled). Let molto vibrato kick in when you play forte (that would be a simple patch change instead of a crossfade) – either by your modwheel or e.g. by velocity. This also avoids this doubled, washy, bigger sound while crossfading.

Only limitation of this is that the patch change will only occur when a new note is triggered, so you can't switch from n.v to molto v. during the same held note, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by: PaoloT

By the way, my dudettes and fellas: when blending between n.v. and molto vib., do you put a regular vib. in the middle? Or, do you prefer to go straight from n.v. to molto vib. to minimize any side effect of crossfading?

Paolo

I go straight from n.v to molto.  More than two vib. types in the dimension adds too much phasing for it to be worth it, imo.