richhickey
Senior Member
Very first impressions and tips:
tl;dr -
Things that can ruin the sound (IMO):
Go to Splits and load a Divisi section (e.g. Cellos A) This will have auto-divisi off, and only one section.
In the mixer
Next gotcha - the dynamic control for the shorts defaults to CC+vel. It's a cool mode but maybe not what you expect, and can leave you wondering why the shorts don't dig in - you'll hear them getting louder when you hit harder but if CC1 is low they won't reach the higher dynamics. Try the CC (for all dynamics) or CC-longs|vel-shorts setting that matches your expectations.
The getting started video does cover how to do all of this.
What's good so far:
The extra $ expanded legatos sit in their own instruments, not integrated with the otherwise excellent single-track KS/CC patch change setup. It leaves me wondering when I'll end up using these since it will be such a pain compared to the rest. I just want the legato button to work for these once paid for. As an add-on it sucks, better to have just included them and charged more. I hope they develop some system where we can merge the patches.
I haven't played with the automatic stuff at all.
I'm not going to discuss legatos, on principle
More later...
tl;dr -
- It sounds great, but I haven't seen a lib ruin its sound out of the box so badly since... MSB :(
- Lots of the default settings may trip you up.
Things that can ruin the sound (IMO):
- Auto-divisi keeps the legato from working as expected - they tell you that, but everyone's tripping over it anyway.
- The default-on EQ sucks out all the gutty string realism in some misguided attempt at "smooth" - largely responsible for the "synthy" effect everyone is hearing.
- The Mix has too much surround and no close, thus sounds vague and washed out.
- The default-on reverb IRs are awful.
Go to Splits and load a Divisi section (e.g. Cellos A) This will have auto-divisi off, and only one section.
In the mixer
- Turn of all the EQ by clicking on them
- Turn off all the sends
- Create a mix that involves the close mics
- Wet w/focus - Leave the Mix at 0 db and add the close at -6db
- Dry w/body - Turn the Mix off, set Close to 0db and Stage at -6db, no surround
Next gotcha - the dynamic control for the shorts defaults to CC+vel. It's a cool mode but maybe not what you expect, and can leave you wondering why the shorts don't dig in - you'll hear them getting louder when you hit harder but if CC1 is low they won't reach the higher dynamics. Try the CC (for all dynamics) or CC-longs|vel-shorts setting that matches your expectations.
The getting started video does cover how to do all of this.
What's good so far:
- There's a lot of sampling here. While there are a ton of software-assisted features, the core is a deep sampling job. That's always a win in my book.
- The dynamic range is great and useful, with good xfading
- Attack variations for longs (attack/norm/cresc)
- Rebow legato (option)! I hate it when you can't get articulated yet connected lines. Works great and lets you perform arbitrary ostinatos etc
- 'Auto tighten' for shorts is a brilliant feature for any lib that is wet. When you play rapidly it tightens up the room ringout and prevents the overlapping room effect normally associated with wet samples. Turn it on!
- Tight sound => mix flexibility. The "dry w/body" mix above takes to external ambience like a charm. I just walked through a ton of Altiverb and Spaces II rooms and it just works with everything. This is a big draw of this lib for me. Mixes like a dry lib but with just that bit of room for body.
- Great setup for track-per-section tracking - you can reach every patch in one instrument with KS/CC/vel control (except see below)
The extra $ expanded legatos sit in their own instruments, not integrated with the otherwise excellent single-track KS/CC patch change setup. It leaves me wondering when I'll end up using these since it will be such a pain compared to the rest. I just want the legato button to work for these once paid for. As an add-on it sucks, better to have just included them and charged more. I hope they develop some system where we can merge the patches.
I haven't played with the automatic stuff at all.
I'm not going to discuss legatos, on principle
More later...