I know this is a long-dead thread, but given that I have a Eucon surface, I have suddenly become interested in Eucon fader support for not-at-all selfish reasons (ahem).

So - please can we have Eucon fader support - please..?

Dear Herb and Team,

Can you please confirm that once the Dimension Strings is finished, Early Bird purchasers will receive a boxed version of the software?

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Dear Obiwandk,

Tutti refers to everyone.  Therefore, if you are using a string orchestra, the term tutti will refer to only the strings.  Tutti in the case of an orchestra will refer to the whole orchestra.  As you can see, it is important to be clear what your ensemble is if you want to request tutti.  Further, tutti does not necessarily mean that everbody play the same note; in many cases this would be extremely undesirable as each instrument has a practical range, and speaks differently in each area of the range, so at the very least you would generally want to change the octave of the note depending on which instrument you were talking about.

In most circumstances I would construct the tutti myself, as it gives me ultimate control over the timbre.  I believe there are (for example) "Strings" patches that you can use if you have the Orchestral Strings collection or Special Edition, rather than using a specific Violin 1 patch.  Another (possibly better) option I saw demonstrated recently is a new layering feature of the Vienna Instruments latest software, where you load in a layered patch, and it works out which of the instruments should be playing based on the range of the note - I would imagine that this feature is most likely to give you the result you are looking for. 

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Dear Roberto,

Sordino reduces vibration of the bridge through the application of a mechanical implement to it - I'm sure you already know this.  Interestingly, there are several different styles of mute that all impact the sound in various subtlely different ways.  My unsatisfying response is that you should get whatever collection is necessary to give you sordino articulations - this will by far give you the best results.

Having said that, the usual (maybe a bit unsatisfying approach) to achieving a faux-sordino sound is to filter out a reasonable swathe of the very high frequencies (the engineers amongst this board's readers will be able to give you a much better idea which ones) and reduce the volume of the track, followed by frequent A-B'ing of the results to check you are not making it sound weird.  Finally you also need to squeeze the dynamic range - you can do this by compression, but I would tend to suggest manually doing so via MIDI by just reducing the different between maximum and minimum volume, and easing off use of the velocity X-fade.

It is worth also taking a look at what you are writing and how.  Most composers tend (for no particularly good reason) to stick to longer lines and phrases when writing con sordino than without - so stylistically you may wish to consider that in conjunction with the above equalisation trick.

Although a bit of an unsatisfying response, I hope it helps!

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Dear qbaser,

Mosso's response is correct and will afford you most flexibility.  Another option (less flexible and ultimately more expensive) that is worth mentioning for the sake of completeness is to use a KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) switch.  It allows you to switch the monitor, keyboard and mouse from one set of inputs (i.e. one machine) to another.

The consideration is that VNC and RDP (remote desktop) are applications that provide TCP/IP access.  Therefore your operating system and the vnc/rdp server side stuff must be running in order to be able to see what is going on on that server.  Therefore if, for example, you have a problem with BIOS, your O/S does not boot up correctly or your network setup is not properly configured you will be unable to see what is going on and diagnose it without moving a monitor, keyboard and mouse near to your cupboard.

I'm not suggesting that KVM is better than VNC/RDP - for most practical purposes it is not (and it is certainly not as cheap).  However, it is worth informing you of the limitations of vnc/rdp, even if you ultimately decide they don't matter!  Hope this helps.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Dear Jasen,

As a former violinist who moved over to the viola (my hands just really got too big for the violin in the end), it depends.  They are separate instruments, however some people happily play both (say, Nigel Kennedy).  The following are the main considerations for a viola player:

1) Intonation might be a bit of a problem - the notes are a little closer together
2) If they are a bloke (usually) with big hands they might have trouble with their fingers falling all over theirselves
3) The lack of a C string, and the sudden addition of an E string might put them off
4) They may well be more used to dealing with the alto clef than the treble clef

However, the difference is mostly in the type of parts they play.  Violinists are used to being "front and center", tend to have the leading part and, frankly, in their career, having to compete with a lot of violinists (and there are a lot more than violists).  Violists often have accompanying parts, fewer solos etc.  I would say it is easier for a "native" violinist to move to the viola, than for a native violist to move the other way, on the basis that the parts are usually (sweeping generalisation here) less demanding and exposed.  But the mileage of each violist will vary.

Bottom line - if the violist says that they can do it, assume they are correct until you hear them.  A violist who does not feel comfortable will tell you without even trying it.

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Saw a great presentation on the new software by Paul at Digital Village yesterday.  Paul did a great job of showing off the software, and the new versions really provide quite a compelling case for VSL software, quite apart from whether their samples are being used or not!

The beta we saw looked pretty stable.  MIR being hosted effectively as a plugin available as a single instance against all instruments in VE opens up the sampling rate beyond 44.1k (which was a major bugbear with MIR as it exists) and offers a great number of additional possiblities for routing (both in and out), and it was suitably odd seeing MIR running inside a mac window.  Based on the performance observed (running on a Macbook and Mac Mini), a lot of effective effort has gone into tuning the performance or MIR - and the existing room packs still work on MIR, although it will be necessary to recreate any templates from scratch.

There was a whole slew of new features within VE - too many to mention.  However some of the standout features (for me at least) were the ability to change the number of samples pre-loaded into RAM (great for those with an investment in SSD drives since it reduces the overall RAM requirement with these faster drives), tile names in the matrix (pfp, PfLeg etc.), some lovely patch stacking functionality allowing ranges to be specified against each patch, which allows for some great orchestral unisons, changing timbre (and orchestration) across the range.  There was also a function for which I do not want to spoil the surprise, but judging by another thread on here will please a lot of people.

Thanks for the great demo Paul, and really looking forward to the release.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Dear All,

I have been looking at my software registration list on your site, and next to registration date appears a single column with no header, which seems to contain either "P" or "D".  Could you please explain what this signifies.  Thanks.

Kind Regards,

Nick. 

Joshua - I very much enjoyed your work, although I have to agree that some of the delicate piano passagework seemed overpedalled.  That may be your intention, but I would have enjoyed it more with less.  However, really great and powerful work - sincere congratulations.  Beautiful use of timbre as well.

Cyril - you are of course entitled to your point of view, as is your friend.  However, I'm confused whether your description "It is unharmonic" is a criticism - from the tone of your email it seems so.  However, I think the fact that there is no firm harmonic base is probably one of the most interesting things about the piece.  You may get more enjoyment from the piece if you extend your listening out through Debussy and Ravel to Shostakovich and particularly Prokofiev's piano works, and finally out to the really challenging twentieth-century composers.  There is a beauty to less traditional diatonic music, but to "get it" you need to listen to and enjoy it on its own terms, rather than thinking that it is nineteenth-century tonality gone wrong.

I agree with you that it is unharmonic.  It's just that I don't see it as a problem.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Rob,

I don't know if it is the same for you as for me, but I can close the dialog boxes.  I know they keep coming back, but only as many times as you have that instrument loaded in your template - e.g. 8 horns will give you 8 of each type of dialog box (16 total).  Once they are closed (using the X button), they don't appear again until you load up a new template.  Hope that helps to keep you working!

Kind Regards,

Nick.

 I am experiencing the same problem (it appears to be because of the HO1 Preset 2, which appears 8 times in my template and guess what - I get 8 occurrences of the error).  Seems to be more widespread than MIR - see this thread http://community.vsl.co.at/forums/t/27521.aspx

Again, I only started getting it since installing the new release (23 December) of MIR.  However, I can reproduce at will by trying to load the Horn Preset - regardless of whether using an old or new template.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

 Oddly, I have the same problem in MIR, caused in this case by some patch in the Horn 1 VSL Preset 2 preset.  Only happened since installing the pre-christmas update.

Just to clarify - my previous message was not intended as a comment in any way specifically upon Hetoreyn's orchestration, which I happen to think is very effective.  It was a much more general comment.

Dear All,

I agree with William on MIR - it is a milestone change to workflow, and an astonishing leap forward.  Between MIR and Lexicon PCM Native Reverbs (to add a sheen in the same manner as a mastering reverb), I've just about stopped worrying about reverb, except to decide how much I want.

However, I just wanted to add something to this discussion about a subject that does not yet appear to have been mentioned in too much depth, but in my opinion has probably the greatest contribution to creating a realistic sound with sampled instruments.  Orchestration.

I know this thread is mainly about mastering and reverb, but writing piccolo lines that sound piccolo-y, violin lines that are violin-y and horn lines that.. well ... you know what I mean, and thinking about ensemble, impact, what part of an instrument's range will truly sing, cut through or support the texture are surely the most important decisions aside from composition.

This is not to say that the tools (e.g. VSL) should not be used in an orchestrally counter-intuitive or experimental way (for example, see Ionisation by Varese) - very interesting effects can be achieved by programming impossible or non-idiomatic lines.

However, if you are seeking to produce the most realistic orchestral sound using sampled instruments, before you worry about continuous controllers, velocity, reverb or anything else, take a good look at your orchestration, and listen to it.  No amount of reverb or compression will mask errors in this.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Dear mcweanm_26260,

My tips are:

1) Always use the vibrato articulations

2) Alway use the trumpets in the low register (ideally below C5 - the octave above middle C).

Kind Regards,

Nick.

I thought to myself "Billy Bargain", went to Bonhams and discovered the truth. The guide price was £30,000 to £40,000 godammit. You wind me up sometimes, Paul.

Dear Tom

It was not evident from your post whether you realised that Gigastudio is no longer being developed by Tascam. Updates and support for it ended at the end of last year. As far as I am aware, Tascam has no intention of selling it on.

Therefore, although I am a Gigastudio user myself, I would not recommend anybody buying into the Gigastudio brand as anything but the shortest-term of measures. My personal recommendation would be Kontakt which sees continuous support and development from Native Instruments. If you have problems with translation using Kontakt's tools (can't remember whether it translates Giga files), you might want to look at the translator product from Chicken Systems.

Hope this is of help.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Take 'em out for a nice meal, maybe a show (get seats near the back, 'cos they can get a bit noisy). Then a bunch of flower and some choccies should do the trick.

Dear Dave,

Just a quick hint about the PMI library (apologies if this isn't really the place for it).  I found that none of the samples individually worked for me.  However, choosing a relatively low "thunk" sample, and layering it with a relatively high "plink" sample, yielded a pretty powerful anvil.  Maybe worth a try.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

Dear Lauri,

I was lucky enough to spend a week with the UPIC many years ago, and (together with a team) put together a composition of around 5 minutes or so - at the time the UPIC was a rare and expensive item that took about 3 months to ship and set up; I'm not sure whether it has become cheaper with time.  I hesitate to say "composed" regarding the piece, since it is not really an act of composition, at least in the way I understood it both before and since - in truth, I'm not sure at all what it was.

The process of composition for "meta" music such as this (and maybe we should include concrete / tape splicing music in this) is, based on my somewhat hazy memory of those experiences, a much more intellectual process than "regular" composition - and, I suspect, much more influenced by happy mistakes.  I remember I had more the sense that "I draw this, it sounds like that, I influence it this way, play it, like it, sounds good, move on to the next thing".  It's not the way I am accustomed to composing in the normal scheme of things - I normally know what sound I want to make, and influence the instruments to achieve that.  Maybe it was because I only did it for a week...

William - with the greatest and genuine respect - I believe that you are wrong to be overly concerned about the role of the composer in all of this to the extent that we should increase the role by allowing them to change additional parameters etc.  If we are to set aside the role of the performer in this discussion (and I think we are, because it really has not been mentioned so far), that will be because the performer is simply a conduit of the music.  If that is the case, then so is the composer a conduit of the composition.  The composition is definitely the important item in the equation.  Therefore, a more efficient conduit (sad as that may seem for the humanists) is more effective, even if that involves diminishing or even removing the composer.  I'm not saying I like it, but I'm not sure what place the composer has in the discussion, other than a chap who arbitrarily selects stuff based on their own preferences - which means the composer is almost irrelevant.  And in computer-generated music, perhaps this is the way it should be.

What is significantly more difficult to achieve through computers is the very thing that Lauri (naturally) eschews - cliche.  The cliches that have been built up from the point since people were banging on rocks in a rhythmic manner.  At the moment, there is limited ability to draw on these programmatically without something approaching a collage being put together - a sequence of programmed "usual solutions".

It raises an interesting consideration though - perhaps we are viewing automatically generated music such as the piece by Lauri in a positive light ONLY because we are viewing it through our cliche-ridden ears.  Without this backdrop of cliches that we are so familiar with, we almost certainly would not have a set of criteria to base critical opinion on - to be able to say "this sounds pleasant, that sounds incompetent".

Sorry for the ramble - its an interesting subject.

Kind Regards,

Nick.

.

If I ever decide to restart formal music education, and go on to do a PhD in Music, I am definitely going to take the following approach, based on many previous threads here:

1) Work out what the title of my thesis is

2) Post the exact opposite of that title as an opinion on this forum

3) Wait for Angelo to post a bunch of references explaining why I am wrong, and a bit of a moron

4) That's my bibliography

Should cut a year off the PhD.