# Spiritoso: Live Cello Phrases



## Time+Space (Mar 21, 2011)

Hi guys

Really excited to show you this new Kontakt-based sample library from Zero-G that will be released next week!

Spiritoso: Live Cello Phrases is produced by Dan Graham which, if you remember, was the producer behind Zero-G's 'Animato' from last year. Here's an extract from the description but we really recommend you take a listen to the demos!

Performed by Ian Bracken, a world-class cellist from the Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded in Liverpool´s famous Parr Street studios, Spiritoso: Live Cello Phrases is a 17Gb collection of thousands of live recorded phrases, rhythms, chords and arpeggios all compressed down to 8Gb of material using Kontakt 4´s new lossless compression technology.

The fifty-seven Kontakt 4 instruments allow patterns to automatically sync to the tempo of your projects and a wide variety of chord, rhythm and scale types can be selected using key-switches. The dynamic level pp to ff can be smoothly crossfaded by mod wheel, the ensemble size can be zoomed from solo to 12 players, and two mic positions (close and room) can be chosen or blended. All of this adds up to incredible sonic control.

A great tool in itself, Spiritoso also works incredibly well blended with other premium orchestral sample libraries as a way of introducing a new layer of realism into your scores.

Available on 30th March as a DVD and download

http://www.timespace.com/product/SPIR-326/3/9999934/zerog_spiritoso:_live_cello_phrases.html


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## Time+Space (Apr 4, 2011)

Spiritoso is now available to download or buy as a DVD!

http://www.timespace.com/product/SPIR-326/3/9999934/zerog_spiritoso:_live_cello_phrases.html

We also did a written 'making of' interview with the Producer Dan Graham and Cellist Ian Bracken:

http://blog.timespace.com/2011/03/the-making-of-zero-gs-spiritoso-in-the-words-of-producer-dan-graham-and-cellist-ian-bracken/


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## Ed (Apr 4, 2011)

Demo 2 reminds me of Dark Night... I like the effects processed stuff. can't say I'd ever want to use the other stuff, even though it sounds nice.


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## Rob Elliott (Apr 4, 2011)

Might I suggest a YouTube demonstration. Seems to be an effective way to show it off - short of allowing us a 'trial'.


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## artinro (Apr 4, 2011)

Rob Elliott @ Mon Apr 04 said:


> Might I suggest a YouTube demonstration. Seems to be an effective way to show it off - short of allowing us a 'trial'.



+1


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## Time+Space (Apr 5, 2011)

Video is in the pipeline, it will probably follow the same kind of format as the Animato video we did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5aebvdpI68


Will let you know when it's done!


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 6, 2011)

I think I'll end up getting this. The price is good too.


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## Time+Space (Apr 14, 2011)

As mentioned last week, we've been working on a video which demonstrates the features and sounds of Spiritoso and have just uploaded it for your viewing pleasure:

http://youtu.be/E6Hn3uQNg24

Hope you find it useful! :D 

Mel
Time+Space


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 14, 2011)

Personally, I don't need to know about the effects, EQ and all, as I care much more about the sound and sample content. The last part of the video was good for that. I did notice that there are almost only short note examples - what kind of longer articulations does this library offer?


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## EvilDragon (Apr 14, 2011)

This is a phrases library, in that sense there are no "articulations", but rather patterns that were played out.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 14, 2011)

So if one wants to have say a bunch of 16ths ending with a sustained half-note, one has to find another sampled cello that sounds the same in order to have the long note? That sounds a bit dodgy.


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## EvilDragon (Apr 14, 2011)

Well, it does say "Spiritoso: Live Cello *Phrases*", no?

It's looped performances, with some additional KSP magic to make it all happen.


I would see this library as an additional embellishment to the stuff you already have, instead of standalone library which does it all. It's great for constant arpeggiated beds and stuff like that.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 14, 2011)

I see your point. Nevertheless, I do wonder if there's the equivalent of the crash cymbal+kick ending for drum loops? You know, the cello going da-da-da-da... daaaaa, to mark the end of a phrase, piece.


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## EvilDragon (Apr 14, 2011)

Nope, there isn't such things in this library. Only continuous loops of various arpeggiated melodic or chordal patterns and driving rhythms.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 14, 2011)

And so here's a golden opportunity to add one more thing to the informal sample library standard! 

** All phrase-based loop libraries should include a few single note endings of various lengths. **

Same thing happened with drum loop libraries. Now, many of the good ones have a bunch of single hit endings available.


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## EvilDragon (Apr 14, 2011)

:lol:


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## Ed (Apr 14, 2011)

Hmm this actually looks interesting again!


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## dagmarpiano (Apr 14, 2011)

Hello! I'm Dan Graham, the producer of this.

Actually they sound pretty natural when they just stop dead at the end of a note.

If you listen to Demo 4 on:

http://www.timespace.com/product/SPIR-326/Zero-G Spiritoso: Live Cello Phrases.html

...you can hear at 1.00 exactly how it sounds when the phrases stop dead. That is to say, quite natural really. I suppose you don't get the cellist knocking the mic stand and swearing like you would in real life, but maybe that can be on version 2.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 14, 2011)

Hi Dan,

I appreciate you joining this thread!

The example you provided does show what happens when a short note is the last one, but what if I want to end on a long note? Do I have to find another cello library and match the tone of this one?

Thanks.


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## dagmarpiano (Apr 14, 2011)

well the best thing I can think of is, you could use the nki 'Up Down Half' which gives you a half note (minim if you're in the UK!). You could repeat half notes on the same pitch and fade down the mod wheel. 

Admittedly it would be better for this if we'd recorded some whole note 'rhythms', but I guess I was thinking in terms of this being useful for arpeggios etc. and not really thinking of needing long notes. 

Still though, I think my solution would work ok.


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## Udo (Apr 14, 2011)

I suppose we'll see an appropriately priced Annimato-Spiritoso bundle soon :wink:


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## dagmarpiano (Apr 14, 2011)

I think a 3x spiritoso bundle is on the horizon, combining cello, violins and flutes. The second two instruments are current works in progress!

Dan


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## dagmarpiano (Apr 15, 2011)

I was just working on a library music project, and I created a simple minimal urgent action kind of backing using just Spiritoso Cellos, so I thought I'd share it with you. It gives you a chance to listen to the realism and evolving nuances in the sound which you couldn't get sequencing a normal sample set:

http://www.ooberman.net/dg/State_of_Emergency.mp3


For this I used the "Rhythms" nki. It's just repeating 8th notes, in which there's a low carpet of 8th notes on the root note, then there's offset 8th notes creating a kind of melody an octave up. By offset, I mean that the high notes are being triggered a 16th note after the 8th beat.

So, this also shows how you can use the Rhythms patch to create your own unique patterns.

There's also quite a bit of Mod Wheel movement going on here, generally rising as the piece goes on then fading down. It shows how the cellos dig in more on the attack as they move up through the dynamic levels.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 15, 2011)

Dan,

Your demo sounds very mechanical, but I can appreciate the musical potential of your cellos. I will surely pick this up in the next day or two. It would FANTASTIC if you would make an update featuring a choice of say 1/2 - whole note sustain endings (maybe 4 variations, so that our endings don't always sound the same). Maybe you already have these in the original recordings, when the cellist ended his phrases?


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## dagmarpiano (Apr 15, 2011)

hi Ned. No we don't have these kind of whole note sustain endings. The nearest thing is to use the 'half note up-down', which gives you a sustained half note which ends fairly cleanly.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 17, 2011)

I have bought, but downloading is a bit of a PITA for me: the RAR files are each 950 Mb, but it would seem from my end at least, the server will not let downloads resume. So I had to re-do from zero some downloads that were 90% finished. Long story short, I have exhausted 2 of my download licenses, and will have to wait until Monday before I can give you my first impressions.


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## Mr. Anxiety (Jun 2, 2011)

Ned,

Would like your Spiritoso review...... wanna purchase this this weekend if it's cool.

Let us know

Mr A


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Jun 2, 2011)

Too busy to do something long *, so:

Pros: Great idea that should be applied to all instruments, should be supported; lots of option in terms of rhythm, size of ensemble; good sound, can be aggressive, lots of bow if you want it; good set of easy-to-get-to effects; modwheel is well-used for dynamics/layer selection or filtering; good selection of patches; 3 options of mic position; fun set of transformed/FX versions of the cellos; price is just right (just).

Cons: Hard to get it to sound more gentle; no sync-to-next-16th or next-beat for the arpeggiator, so when you're just jamming, you have to be perfect (you always end up quantizing or fixing the pattern trigger MIDI notes in the host); I'm not crazy about the convo reverb they used, so I have to turn it off for each patch; switching mic position in real-time produces big clicks.

Bottom line? o/~ o/~ o/~ o/~ out of 5!

* so much for that... :(

PS: that's just my opinion as a well-paid hack/Bruins fan, not as a moderator of VI.


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## Mr. Anxiety (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks Ned, 

Very helpful / insightful.

And quick as well!

Mr A


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## dagmarpiano (Jun 3, 2011)

hey ned, glad you liked the bits you liked 

we're currently working on an update by the way. i'll ask the script genius if you can do next beat or next 16th triggering within kontakt, I'd never thought of that because I'm too much of a sequencer head 

also in the update we're creating low memory versions where you can toggle all the scale types on and off, therefore not having to hog your memory with scale types you aren't using.


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Jun 3, 2011)

Sounds great! Thanks for the update.


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