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And what does VI-Control make of this controversy?

TGV

Senior Member
I don't think the name has ever come up, but there's a double bass player on Youtube, Lev Weksler, who plays very difficult pieces with a rather unnatural sound, so there's a tendency to believe it's simply "midi".

Hungarian dance #5:


The flight of the bumble bee (for two double basses):


The first one sounds fake-ish to me, and the video cannot be a live recording, but the second one doesn't sound like MIDI, although perhaps a modeled string instrument could have pulled it off.

What do your critical ears say?
 
To me it sounds like the first performance has an extremely sensitive noise gate set on it, which cuts into most of the transitions he does, making it sound a bit weird.
 
As a bass player, I think it's real. Our ears are so used to hearing basses as ensembles in giants halls, playing low notes, that it sounds so strange to hear one solo in a tiny room, playing high notes. There are a bunch of imperfections in his performance that lead me to believe that it's real, as well, since it's out of tune in all the right ways.
 
one thing is for sure, the first one is overdubbed, his hand is not in sync... and the tone is bad, could be a sample. Second one, don't know, might be real.
 
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I cannot fit that delicate playing with the render which sounds very Mechanical. It reminds me a Mario Bros game on steroids. In the first video, set the speed to .25 and watch the slide at 1.12, is that real?
 
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So in the first video, if you slow down the vibrato, it seems to be exactly in sync with his hand quite often, good luck faking that.
But at 0:40 there's clearly something off. Probably overdubbed.

Never midi, show me the library that sounds like that.

Also there is a very obvious punch-in at 0:52, sounds like a missing crossfade, not like midi.
 
For me, the fingers and bowing say it all. This isn't somebody pretending to play the instrument. The technique of both is genuine, I think.

The sound of the instrument? Not something I'd strive for, but I'm guessing it's some aggressive post-processing with something like RX noise reduction.

But I like a good mystery. It's a nice day to play armchair sleuth and see what some string players say. As a guitarist, I'm only really qualified to give my impressions concerning instruments with tracks that have railroad ties. Wouldn't it take far more effort to synchronize something than really play it?

Greg
 
The first one sounds artificial to my ears, but this can be from a number of different reasons. As for the second, I would say it is real however there is something strange going on with either the audio being sped up or pitched down.
 
My observations as a bass player. In the first video, what we are hearing is definitely not samples but it sounds like he overdubbed the audio, likely punching in multiple times and pitch correcting to get a "flawless" performance. For one, the tone of the bass sounds more like what you would get from using some kind of piezo pickup plugged into a preamp, much like an electric bass recorded DI. There is no pickup on the bass in the video. The tone sounds very direct and in your face, while a microphone would pick up much more body, low end, and room tone. It's possible that a mic was used and heavily processed with EQ, de-reverb, etc. but I really doubt it.

Some obvious tells, and these are not "sync issues" but obvious spots that point out that this was overdubbed:

at 0:37 after he plays the open G string (he us using a 5/8 bass tuned ADGC instead of EADG) you can hear the lower note (an F) of the double stop played before his thumb actually presses down the note

at 0:42 if you pay attention to the bow, the last note of the phrase keeps sustaining even after he lifts the bow from the string

at 0:43 the attack of the double stop is clipped, definitely sounds like it was punched in and missing a crossfade to make it sound natural

at 0:46 again the double stop keeps sustaining after he lifts his bow off the string, this time his left hand also releases the note early which makes it even more obvious

at 0:51 you can hear the gliss start a little earlier than his left hand starts moving

at 1:19 the diminuendo doesn't sound natural, it sounds like the audio file is faded out manually

at 1:33 I can't tell if that is a double stop or a triple stop but something about it sounds unnatural. I hear the open G string being played first but I don't see him play

at 1:35 this whole pizzicato section you can hear the notes sustaining even after he lifts his left hand, especially the second chord

If you watch the pianist closely, there are moments where his hands don't sync up as well. I don't mean to discredit the performers, the guys can obviously play, but there is some audio trickery going on.
 
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