James W.G. Smith
04-30-2005, 03:35 PM
EWQLSO Hint Archive
Nick Phoenix:
10 Cellos Observations
My favorite 10 cellos basic program is VCS Flowing. The attacks are a little slow, but it has a nice blooming vibrato and has been helpful to me when writing melodies. I also love the VCS Lyr Fast because it has a lot of vibrato and sounds particularly amazing in the top octave. I really like using the top octave of the cellos to mirror violin lines.
An easily overlooked program for slower pieces is VCS Crec. It is a long crescendo and has a slowly evolving tone that you can attenuate with CC11 if the crescendo is too strong.
VCS Sus Vib DXF is a really smooth and useful cross-fade program. Cross-fade programs (DXF) give you a lot of control and smoothness in the attacks and in general, but they do have 2 negative aspects.
1. If you play a chord, all notes will have the same volume.
2. Sometimes the sound is bigger and less delicate than you might like.
However, the cross-fade programs that do not contain the initials DXF do not suffer from problem #1. If you are looking for a more delicate sound, the keyswitch programs will usually have enough variety of attacks to create a nice line.
I love the keyswitch entitled “big sustain”. It is in every keyswitch program. Check your manual. This program has a strong attack that might even be preferable to the martele/ short martele.
The sus vib program has 3 dynamic layers. This is the same for all of the string ensembles. The softest layer has a smooth attack. The middle layer has a quick attack and the forte layer has an accented attack. This can be really cool or really annoying. Notice that there is also a Sus Vib Hard program and a Sus Vib Soft program to get around this problem. Or you can use the DXF programs for more uniform attacks.
Try this: Use the soft vib x-fade tremolo program and keep the mod-wheel down for the most part. Crank the mod-wheel up a bit at the end of a phrase for added tension.
It seems the DFD issue on the PC side is solved. Simply turn off virtual memory. I am getting 250 stereo voices on my fast PCs and 200 stereo voices on my slower PCs with DFD settings of 192 pre load buffer and 394 sample buffer and 250 voices allocated. With this DFD setting I can load ALOT of stuff, with 2 gigs of ram installed. The voice count is a little lower with sustained looped instruments, but not much. N.I. is still working on an optimization of Kompakt while running in VStack. This will also improve multiple instance performance in VStack and reduce memory hogging and performance loss.
Go Start> Control Panel. Click on System and choose the Advanced tab. Go Performance and click settings, and click Advanced again.
Go down to Virtual Memory, Change. Set it to \"No Paging File\"
Be careful messing with this if you are unsure. If you make a bad adjustment it can result in not being able to boot to Windows at all.
Violins Observations:
Both the 11 Violins and the 18 Violins have quite a few different short note programs with the same names i.e.
18V shrt 3-way RR and 11V shrt 3-Way RR
It\'s worth your while to compare these 2 because they sound very different. The 11 violin version has noticeably more definition and a more focused sound.
In the 11 Violin 3-way spic, ever 3rd note is a spicatto note, which may sound odd when playing monophonic lines, but is great for chords because the spicatto accent appears randomly in the chord, giving an impression of realism.
Generally Speaking: all string ensembles have martele and short martele programs. Whenever possible, use the martele because they sound more real. Of course, you will need to use the short martele for fast repetitions.
ADDING AIR: If you wish to add some hall air/rosin sound into a piece, mix in very small amounts of the stagnant cluster 18 Violins and 10 Cellos effects.
Efficiency: Each Kompakt instance is 8 part multi-timbral. All the crossfade programs are made up of samples from the regular programs. So if you load the 18V susvib and the 18V susvib DXF, make sure they are within the same instance of Kompakt, so you don\'t waste any memory.
Important Tip concerning surround mixing of EWQLSO
If you are doing close, full and surround mixes of EWQLSO, it is necessary to reload all programs that use auto-sample alternation (round robin), just prior to bouncing/recording the close, full and surround versions of your sequence. Reload the programs (or your entire template) and hit record/play. The reason for this is: At this point there is no function in our interface that resets the round robin. So you never know which sample you are starting with in the round robin , unless you have just loaded the programs. If you reload the round robin programs, the first sample triggered will be the down stroke. Now if you run your sequence through all 3 sets of samples (close full and surround) separately, you must make sure that you load the samples and immediately hit record. You must do this for each of the 3 passes (close, full and surround samples). Now you know that the 3 mixes of your sequence are in sync and always playing the same stroke, at the same time. If you mix the close, full and surround mixes together to get a nice big stereo mix, and you have followed these instructions, you won\'t have any problems. We will try to get a round robin reset midi controller built into our interface soon.
Looking for more aggressive short cellos? Try the portato short. Use the close or full samples.
Looking to write some mellow brass chorale pieces? Use the Wagner Tuben. Big chords, especially in the high range, sound very rich. Use all 3 ambiences together.
Also the new 6FH mellow legato sounds really nice if you use all 3 ambiences.
In case you didn't realize it, the solo trumpet portato will take you a long way, when writing expressive lines. Also the new 2.5 program STP NV VB DXF ACC SOFT is really nice.
Marsdy:
I like the big keyswitch cello program with all the legato articulations in. Switching between these mid melody makes for a tremendous variety of expression on melodic lines. I think of it as EWQLSO\'s performance tool.
A bonus of loading this patch is that you can load most of the dynamic cross fading patches without using any more memory since their samples have already been loaded by the big legato keyswitch.
This works for all the big legato keyswitch instruments, not just the 10 Cellos of course.
Chris Jones:
In Cubase SX, V Stack, (others?)-
Make sure you don\'t leave the first slot in Kompakt empty! Otherwise you\'re in for a world of pain with patches not loading, projects not loading, crashes, brain tumors, seismic events etc.
Leogardini:
It seems that some legatos work greater changing a bit the attack. They will sound more natural on not too fast phrases. For 3 CL LEGATO change the attack to 97.2ms , and the crv to something between 5 and 10 min (like a clock) , do the same thing with close , far and surround. Write a new name (ex. 3 cl legato 2) and save it. For 3 OB LEGATO change the attack to 138.5ms , and the crv to something between 5 and 10 min. Repeat the same procedure. For SCL LEGATO the attack is 280.2ms and crv 10 min. For SOB LEGATO , attack 84.3ms and crv 5 min... I hope it help!!!
Gerard Salonga:
String runs - for example a \"10:8\" 32nd note scalewise run up. Use the fast legato, fast slur, and sustain. The sustain will have the \"bite at the start of the scale (those sustains can bite if you press hard enough!) and the fast slurs will give that note-to-note smoothness. You might even want to add a bit of long portamento (gliss) to add more confusion. On the track using the sustain samples, draw the velocities so that the first note is the loudest, suddenly dipping, then going back up. Especially if you\'re going for an up-bow feel, string players lose leverage at first then gain leverage as they approach the frog. It works really nice if you use the close mics just to bring out the bite....especially if you\'re using the 11 violins samples.
For those who may still be wondering, if your host (sequencer) computer is strong enough, you can load one of the lighter modules on that. Just not the strings. I installed the percussion module on my cubase sx computer, which is a p4 2.8 on an asus p4p800 deluxe with 2 gigs of ram and two 37 gig raptors in a spanned configuration. I\'m able to load lots of percussion, plus virtual guitarist, the boesendorfer plug in, plus lots of others in Kontakt (including sam brass). No glitches. The percs are the lightest in terms of cpu and dfd in the library.
_______________________________________
These where some of the posts I thought where helpful. If someone wants to add some more stuff, feel free.
James W.G. Smith
Nick Phoenix:
10 Cellos Observations
My favorite 10 cellos basic program is VCS Flowing. The attacks are a little slow, but it has a nice blooming vibrato and has been helpful to me when writing melodies. I also love the VCS Lyr Fast because it has a lot of vibrato and sounds particularly amazing in the top octave. I really like using the top octave of the cellos to mirror violin lines.
An easily overlooked program for slower pieces is VCS Crec. It is a long crescendo and has a slowly evolving tone that you can attenuate with CC11 if the crescendo is too strong.
VCS Sus Vib DXF is a really smooth and useful cross-fade program. Cross-fade programs (DXF) give you a lot of control and smoothness in the attacks and in general, but they do have 2 negative aspects.
1. If you play a chord, all notes will have the same volume.
2. Sometimes the sound is bigger and less delicate than you might like.
However, the cross-fade programs that do not contain the initials DXF do not suffer from problem #1. If you are looking for a more delicate sound, the keyswitch programs will usually have enough variety of attacks to create a nice line.
I love the keyswitch entitled “big sustain”. It is in every keyswitch program. Check your manual. This program has a strong attack that might even be preferable to the martele/ short martele.
The sus vib program has 3 dynamic layers. This is the same for all of the string ensembles. The softest layer has a smooth attack. The middle layer has a quick attack and the forte layer has an accented attack. This can be really cool or really annoying. Notice that there is also a Sus Vib Hard program and a Sus Vib Soft program to get around this problem. Or you can use the DXF programs for more uniform attacks.
Try this: Use the soft vib x-fade tremolo program and keep the mod-wheel down for the most part. Crank the mod-wheel up a bit at the end of a phrase for added tension.
It seems the DFD issue on the PC side is solved. Simply turn off virtual memory. I am getting 250 stereo voices on my fast PCs and 200 stereo voices on my slower PCs with DFD settings of 192 pre load buffer and 394 sample buffer and 250 voices allocated. With this DFD setting I can load ALOT of stuff, with 2 gigs of ram installed. The voice count is a little lower with sustained looped instruments, but not much. N.I. is still working on an optimization of Kompakt while running in VStack. This will also improve multiple instance performance in VStack and reduce memory hogging and performance loss.
Go Start> Control Panel. Click on System and choose the Advanced tab. Go Performance and click settings, and click Advanced again.
Go down to Virtual Memory, Change. Set it to \"No Paging File\"
Be careful messing with this if you are unsure. If you make a bad adjustment it can result in not being able to boot to Windows at all.
Violins Observations:
Both the 11 Violins and the 18 Violins have quite a few different short note programs with the same names i.e.
18V shrt 3-way RR and 11V shrt 3-Way RR
It\'s worth your while to compare these 2 because they sound very different. The 11 violin version has noticeably more definition and a more focused sound.
In the 11 Violin 3-way spic, ever 3rd note is a spicatto note, which may sound odd when playing monophonic lines, but is great for chords because the spicatto accent appears randomly in the chord, giving an impression of realism.
Generally Speaking: all string ensembles have martele and short martele programs. Whenever possible, use the martele because they sound more real. Of course, you will need to use the short martele for fast repetitions.
ADDING AIR: If you wish to add some hall air/rosin sound into a piece, mix in very small amounts of the stagnant cluster 18 Violins and 10 Cellos effects.
Efficiency: Each Kompakt instance is 8 part multi-timbral. All the crossfade programs are made up of samples from the regular programs. So if you load the 18V susvib and the 18V susvib DXF, make sure they are within the same instance of Kompakt, so you don\'t waste any memory.
Important Tip concerning surround mixing of EWQLSO
If you are doing close, full and surround mixes of EWQLSO, it is necessary to reload all programs that use auto-sample alternation (round robin), just prior to bouncing/recording the close, full and surround versions of your sequence. Reload the programs (or your entire template) and hit record/play. The reason for this is: At this point there is no function in our interface that resets the round robin. So you never know which sample you are starting with in the round robin , unless you have just loaded the programs. If you reload the round robin programs, the first sample triggered will be the down stroke. Now if you run your sequence through all 3 sets of samples (close full and surround) separately, you must make sure that you load the samples and immediately hit record. You must do this for each of the 3 passes (close, full and surround samples). Now you know that the 3 mixes of your sequence are in sync and always playing the same stroke, at the same time. If you mix the close, full and surround mixes together to get a nice big stereo mix, and you have followed these instructions, you won\'t have any problems. We will try to get a round robin reset midi controller built into our interface soon.
Looking for more aggressive short cellos? Try the portato short. Use the close or full samples.
Looking to write some mellow brass chorale pieces? Use the Wagner Tuben. Big chords, especially in the high range, sound very rich. Use all 3 ambiences together.
Also the new 6FH mellow legato sounds really nice if you use all 3 ambiences.
In case you didn't realize it, the solo trumpet portato will take you a long way, when writing expressive lines. Also the new 2.5 program STP NV VB DXF ACC SOFT is really nice.
Marsdy:
I like the big keyswitch cello program with all the legato articulations in. Switching between these mid melody makes for a tremendous variety of expression on melodic lines. I think of it as EWQLSO\'s performance tool.
A bonus of loading this patch is that you can load most of the dynamic cross fading patches without using any more memory since their samples have already been loaded by the big legato keyswitch.
This works for all the big legato keyswitch instruments, not just the 10 Cellos of course.
Chris Jones:
In Cubase SX, V Stack, (others?)-
Make sure you don\'t leave the first slot in Kompakt empty! Otherwise you\'re in for a world of pain with patches not loading, projects not loading, crashes, brain tumors, seismic events etc.
Leogardini:
It seems that some legatos work greater changing a bit the attack. They will sound more natural on not too fast phrases. For 3 CL LEGATO change the attack to 97.2ms , and the crv to something between 5 and 10 min (like a clock) , do the same thing with close , far and surround. Write a new name (ex. 3 cl legato 2) and save it. For 3 OB LEGATO change the attack to 138.5ms , and the crv to something between 5 and 10 min. Repeat the same procedure. For SCL LEGATO the attack is 280.2ms and crv 10 min. For SOB LEGATO , attack 84.3ms and crv 5 min... I hope it help!!!
Gerard Salonga:
String runs - for example a \"10:8\" 32nd note scalewise run up. Use the fast legato, fast slur, and sustain. The sustain will have the \"bite at the start of the scale (those sustains can bite if you press hard enough!) and the fast slurs will give that note-to-note smoothness. You might even want to add a bit of long portamento (gliss) to add more confusion. On the track using the sustain samples, draw the velocities so that the first note is the loudest, suddenly dipping, then going back up. Especially if you\'re going for an up-bow feel, string players lose leverage at first then gain leverage as they approach the frog. It works really nice if you use the close mics just to bring out the bite....especially if you\'re using the 11 violins samples.
For those who may still be wondering, if your host (sequencer) computer is strong enough, you can load one of the lighter modules on that. Just not the strings. I installed the percussion module on my cubase sx computer, which is a p4 2.8 on an asus p4p800 deluxe with 2 gigs of ram and two 37 gig raptors in a spanned configuration. I\'m able to load lots of percussion, plus virtual guitarist, the boesendorfer plug in, plus lots of others in Kontakt (including sam brass). No glitches. The percs are the lightest in terms of cpu and dfd in the library.
_______________________________________
These where some of the posts I thought where helpful. If someone wants to add some more stuff, feel free.
James W.G. Smith