What's new

SYNCHRON-ized Plucked Instruments

Ben

VSL


  • Upright Bass with jazz articulations
  • Concert Guitar for solos (single notes) and accompaniments (chords)
  • Overdrive – Distorted Electric Guitar
  • Improved playabilty for fluid, authentic performances
Introductory Price € 175 (regular: € 220)

This library is based on the VI Single Instruments Upright Bass, Concert Guitar and Overdrive, customized and enhanced for the new Synchron Player.
More information available here!

Introductory Offers on Crossgrade Prices:
 
Eagerly awaiting my codes tomorrow so I can download and try it out in person. This was an instant buy once I heard the demos and read the write-up. Improvements to the release tails of what was already my favourite Upright Bass (by far) give me confidence I can finalize project tracks with no regrets later.

The Concert Guitar seems improved as well. I use it a fair amount, and my only complaint is that it is so good that I tend to be lazy and keep as permanent vs. placeholder tracks when really I should only use it long enough to work up the parts live. :) It's uncanny how realistic it sounds, and the extra work put into the new version really broadens its applicability to different styles.
 
Improvements to the release tails of what was already my favourite Upright Bass (by far) give me confidence I can finalize project tracks with no regrets later.
Mark, did you find that the new version is really better than the older one? Upgrading costs very little to the owners of the old version, but since I'm using mostly VI instruments, I don't know if I should upgrade.

This set is a bit different than the other orchestral instrument, so using them in Synchron Player would be not an issue in my workflow. They are in any case to be treated in a different way than flutes and clarinets.

Paolo
 
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For $20, I tried the conversion and have now tested out the classical and overdrive. I think it's a worthwhile improvement. The legatos seem much improved, especially the slides and bends. I think VSL accomplished its goal of improved playability and sound quite well with these. I wish the electric was available clean as well, but all in all an excellent kit.
 


Listen to this impressive demo by Nicholas Decrescent, featuring the SYONCHRON-ized Upright Bass, SYNCHRON-ized Chamber Strings and the Synchron Yamaha CFX!
 
And the next demo, this time featureing the Concert Guitar: Matador Remembered by Guy Bacos

 
Sorry that I won't be able to provide detailed in-use feedback for a while, as I had an accident last Thursday, a minor concussion, lots of injuries, and it is a struggle to use my hands or my left arm. I've received a lot of questions here and there on follow-up, but I don't yet know how soon I'll be back in productive mode. The purchase is very cheap as an upgrade though, so hopefully the vendor demos are enough for making decisions while the introductory sale lasts.
 
Sorry that I won't be able to provide detailed in-use feedback for a while, as I had an accident last Thursday, a minor concussion, lots of injuries, and it is a struggle to use my hands or my left arm. I've received a lot of questions here and there on follow-up, but I don't yet know how soon I'll be back in productive mode. The purchase is very cheap as an upgrade though, so hopefully the vendor demos are enough for making decisions while the introductory sale lasts.
Sorry to hear you had an accident. I hope you feel better soon and fully recover use of your hands and arm.
 
Thanks, but let's not make this thread about me. :) Back to the topic at hand. I'll contribute again when I can. I just wanted people to know I'm not intentionally ignoring them. I'm sure I'll recover.
 
Really like the Syn Concert Guitar, that reminds me the sound of Norbert Kraft, whose CDs I listened to hundreds of times during my teenage.

If VSL make it possible as a separate purchase in the future, I would like to pick it up, since I already have upright bass and electric guitar from amplesound.
 
Kraft definitely has a unique sound and is one of my very favourite players. He does have a custom instrument as I recall, but I think VSL made one specifically just for this library and that it is unique, with decisions such as arching that were made to reduce or eliminate unwanted resonance.
 
I re-did all of my Concert Guitar tracks yesterday using the new edition, and was surprised how much was added, even though it isn't stuff I initially need (e.g. the more resonant samples). The Synchron treatment really works well on this guitar when it is placed in large orchestrations, which happens to be how I'm using it currently. The reverb is just right (though I bring it down to -10 dB as a starting point). And the legato somehow seems cleaner as well.
 
I re-did most of my Upright Bass tracks tonight, but it's a bit time-consuming to re-map my old matrix-and-preset switching track to the new system, so it's actually taking a bit less time to work on the tracks that I hadn't yet added articulation switches for. :)

Everything sits better now and flows more smoothly (cross-fades etc.). Whether a small combo setting, big band, or various Latin American genres. I'm using a wider range of settings now than before, due to effectively taking care of most production in the pre-mix inside Synchron Player.

The reverb mostly works well in every context; I'll pull it down to -20 dB in more intimate jazz combo settings. And I'll use Close or Classic as the main mic distance criteria on a case by case basis as well. But there was one main thing that took me a little while to figure out, as there are so many places where reverb can get set in Synchron Player and I didn't really think that was it (it wasn't!): the default for CC23 (Release) is mid-way (at 64), and this is usually too high for the portato articulations.

I'm not criticizing, as this is a CC-controlled parameter and for the longer sustain articulations this is actually a nice setting with or without vibrato chosen. But new users might not think to look at the Release timing or the CC control, so hopefully this will help others who are migrating.

Although I had generally found I needed more post-processing on Upright Bass using Vienna Suite (especially the EQ), I don't need to do much of that now as the mix presets have very good EQ presets that also have very useful settings that distinguish the closer mic positions from the longer impulse responses labeled "Classic".

As I did apply this SYNCHRON-ized version to one piece that I had not yet done any work on using the older VI Pro version, I can easily say that the Synchron library is faster to work with and more intuitive, and along with other work I've done recently to port stuff to SNCHRON-ized libraries, I am finding that the new workflow in Synchron Player is incredibly well thought out, is missing nothing from the old interface, and presents a better prioritized workflow for the most frequent editing that is done.
 
To Paolo's by-now old query regarding the Upright Bass, I hope I have now answered that. And though he expected to use this differently than Flute and Clarinet libraries, I will be trying the SYNCHRON-ized Flutes later this week (I won't be bothering with the Clarinets as I play those parts myself and only rarely use libraries for quick late-at-night preliminary mock-ups).

It will be interesting to see how similarly I end up setting things for the Flutes (in jazz and latin contexts) compared to the Upright Bass. I remain astounded at how versatile the VSL flutes are for every genre and context; nothing ever even comes close to knocking them out of a project. Even my girlfriend, who is a professional flutist (and will eventually record all of my parts) in multiple genres, gets a little nervous about whether she can do a better job (she's awesome, so of course she can). :)
 
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