What's new

BBO Neptune & Orion: Woodwinds Tutti and Sections

They are obviously very different tools, and which one suits your needs depends on you.

What I can say is that louder is more fun, and BBO can be LOUD! :)

On a serious note, I’m more and more convinced that composing with ensembles gives that instant gratification that one sometimes needs to go on. But then, working on the details is also due.

Paolo
I also heard the volume difference in the demos. With BBO Brass it was the same in vain.

I like loud and quiet ... and that costs twice as much ... :)

Thanks for your comments!
 
If I’m not wrong, Synchron Player shows a label in the Edit tab, with what looks like the articulation's category. If articulations are indeed categorized, they could add a switch for the whole caegory.

Some parameters can only be set at the leaves of the tree, others in parent nodes for all below. It would be nice if VelXF mode and a few others could be set in a parent, especially for libraries like Synchronized Dimension Strings, with its many per-player leaves per patch.

In fact, Ben's picture is misleading since you can't (at least with Orion, Synchron Strings, syn dim strings etc) currently set the velxf mode on "Short Notes" (a parent) but only per (leaf) type (Bold, Agile etc, or for dim strings, staccato player1). Being able to set it on "Short Notes" for all below would significantly address the OP's request for ease.
 
Thanks Ben, that is very useful to know! I'll go through and create presets like this. :thumbsup:

I guess it doesn't quite do away with my request though... it would be good if the XF patches were already set like this, or there was a mechanism to do this more easily/automatically in the player.
There are users that want to control shorts by velXF, so it's impossible to satisfy everyone; but we do our best to give you the tools to customize the player to fit perfectly into your workflow.
 
On the VSL website I can't see if the Synchronized Woodwinds also contain the Ensembles of the SE sections.

No ensemble sections in SYized Woodwinds.
 
In fact, Ben's picture is misleading
It's not, because it's exactly what I did and screenshoted: Selected a leaf and set the parameter. In Andromeda which I used to make the screenshot there is only one short articulation option :)
 
On the VSL website I can't see if the Synchronized Woodwinds also contain the Ensembles of the SE sections.
A very minimal woodwinds ensemble preset is contained in Epic Orchestra 2.0. They are the VI woodwinds in their Synchronized form, arranged on the full scale. Only a couple articulations, if I remember correctly.

The woodwinds ensemble in Neptune sounds "meatier", probably both because of the higher number of players, the room, the general philosophy of the BBO series. It contains many more articulations.

Paolo
 
I thought these sounded great in the demos overall, and it's rare that I think woodwind ensembles sound good in the sampling world. I guess this legitimizes the decision not to make a Dimension Woodwinds product, which was explained a while back (November 2019) by Ben and a few others.

It's good for people to know that this is the way to effectively get the woodwind ensemble complement to SYNCHRON-ized Woodwinds, for now.
 
The Woodwinds are awesome. Acquired today and immediately inspired to write something with them.
If Lemmy Kilmister (RIP) would ask: Is it loud enough? The answer would be, yes!
 
  • Love
Reactions: Ben
Yes, this is possible:

Select the slot, go to the Edit tab and change the velocity crossfade setting from "Global" to "Off".
This will override the global VelXF setting for this slot and make it senstive to key-velocity instead.
1596999510699.png

Make sure to safe the changes as user preset, so you can recall your customizations quickly.

This is fantastic. Is this also possible in the VI player?
 
Hi everyone! If you still did not get BBO Neptune and Orion - now you can check it out yourself with 30 days demo version! Simply go to the product page and click on the 30 days demo button. All you need is an USB eLicenser:

 
Hi everyone! If you still did not get BBO Neptune and Orion - now you can check it out yourself with 30 days demo version! Simply go to the product page and click on the 30 days demo button. All you need is an USB eLicenser:

My favorites so far in the BBO series include Jupiter, Hercules, Dorado, Neptune, Orion, and Musca. All of these titles sound incredible and will get a lot of use.

Suggestions for VSL🤞
Lyra is very good but I wish you could balance the mix between violins and violas so you can shape the tone. Izar is excellent but I wish there were some alternate cluster choices as it’s fairly specific. The low notes in Andromeda sound absolutely amazing, not sure why I don’t feel that way about the high register range, but those low notes are riveting!!

Black Eye sounds terrific but I wish it offered more sounds. Fornax also should include more sounds and the drums and piano patch needs to be rebalanced as it has a lot of potential, too much drums and not nearly enough piano.

Eridanus and Capricorn are phenomenal but I wish they included way more riffs.

Ganymede is very good, a few more sound sets would be nice like add mmms and ooohs.

The Synchron Pianos are so spectacular that I don’t see using any other piano again unless I need a niche sound. The Bosendorfer Imperial and Yamaha pianos are must buys IMHO.

Synchron Percussion I & II sound amazing and are also must buys IMHO. Let’s hope there’s a Percussion III in the horizon with ethnic instruments and a few missing staples.

Synchron FX Strings I and Power Drums sound fabulous, praying these goes on sale again.

Excited to hear Synchron Woodwinds and Brass when they appear!!

Have not heard Synchron Strings yet so I can’t comment.
 
Yes, as soon as there's a viable sale, I will probably be jumping on several Synchron/SYized sets!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ben
@JonS Thanks for your detailed feedback!

In case you didn't know here a few comments to your comments :)

Izar is excellent but I wish there were some alternate cluster choices as it’s fairly specific
Izar is especially designed to crossfade with Hercules. If you have both libraries installed you will have access to a Hercules-Izar combined instrument preset, so you can crossfade between cluster and non-cluster at any time. Really powerfull!

Fornax also should include more sounds and the drums and piano patch needs to be rebalanced as it has a lot of potential, too much drums and not nearly enough piano.
Fornax is primarly a percussion library and not a piano one, so the piano sound was reduced in the mix. You can reverse this by disabling (or reverse) the EQ on the piano mics.
 
Fornax also should include more sounds and the drums and piano patch needs to be rebalanced as it has a lot of potential, too much drums and not nearly enough piano.

Fornax is primarly a percussion library and not a piano one
What's funny is that I would personally like some sets with less piano sound! So, you probably nailed the perfect average!

Paolo
 
What's funny is that I would personally like some sets with less piano sound! So, you probably nailed the perfect average!
I programmed a mockup where I used Fornax as well, but I did not want the piano sound of it, so I turned of the piano mics and adjusted the mix. Worked perfectly for the piece! :)
 
I turned of the piano mics and adjusted the mix. Worked perfectly for the piece! :)
In Fornax bleeding makes a great job in increasing the perceived resonance of the other instruments. I agree that it works perfectly, even when one wouldn't expect it.

Paolo
 
Is the lack of vibrato in Orion intentional? Don't really find it to expressive...unless it's not meant to be. Also, I think the "expressive" legato should be renamed...it's deceiving. Expressive to me IS more vibrato, not a slight swell with a near zero dynamic range. Just a bit odd.
 
There is no "expressive" legato. Maybe you meant "Espressivo" ;)
Espressivo is the same for all our libraries.

I don't think vibrato should be the focus of a wind / brass ensemble.


Maybe move the velocity crossfade fader a little bit ;)
The dynamic CC1, only makes it a bit louder But doesn’t add vibrato at all.

Vibrato as focus, no...but near zero vibrato sounds flat to me. However the solo winds are excellent. Just my observation...perhaps in a more epic style track the winds will work better.
 
Top Bottom