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Going to buy a new Sting Library. Considering LASS...?

A Forum to Discuss NOTION

Re: Going to buy a new Sting Library. Considering LASS...?

Postby Surfwhammy » Sat Jul 05, 2014 11:01 pm

markodarko wrote:Surfwhammy, for your "sparkles" effect, would it perhaps be easier to move the composition over to a DAW for mixing and then draw different panning points?


It would require working with either (a) the actual audio clips or (b) exported MIDI . . .


Working with the actual audio would not be precise, but working with the exported MIDI would be precise, except then the MIDI would need to play an instrument somewhere, although MIDI has a panning parameter . . .

Overall, it takes a while no matter how it is done, and I think doing it via music notation is the most precise, since there are no knobs, sliders, and so forth involved once the panning locations for the eight (8) staves are configured, which is done with numbers by entering a numeric value (-1 to 0 to +1) for the two outer values of the NOTION Mixer panning control for a staff . . .

Most of the time the data inputting technique I use begins by copying the notes of the original staff to the additional staves, which can be one (1) additional staff for simple far-left and far-right "sparkling" but can be as many as seven (7) staves for the most complex "sparkling", where in the two songs linked in my earlier post, the first one with the "sparkled" Psaltery Harp is complex (all eight [8] panning locations), while the second song ("Baby You Were Only Dreaming") has mostly simple "sparkling", either (a) alternating far-left and far-right or (b) far-left, top-center, and far-right alternating in a pattern, which maps to a total of two (2) staves for (a) and three (3) staves for (b) . . .

In other words, most of the time it is easier just to put equal-valued rests on top of the notes that I do not want to be played on a specific staff; and since I focus on Pop songs, most of the time the songs are three (3) minutes to perhaps six (6) minutes, usually with faster tempos and some combination of verse, chorus, bridge, interlude, and so forth, hence a good bit of the instrumentation is identical for each section, hence for example if there are four (4) verses, then I only need to "sparkle" the instruments for the first verse, because I copy everything to create the instrumentation for the other three (3) verses . . .

Later, I usually change a few things and add some random stuff, mostly because that appears to be the general pattern, which I think is done to avoid droning everything or making it too simple, which in some respects is due to Elvis Presley . . .

Consider the "Yeah!" in the piano solo for "One-Sided Love Affair", which happens around 1:10, which is one the "three" of the count, which continues to make as little sense to me now as it did when I first noticed it over a decade ago . . .

"One-Side Love Affair" (Elvis Presley) ~ YouTube music video

Elvis had an extraordinarily acute sense of timing, as did John Lennon, and Elvis would sing cues in the background every once in a while for the musicians, which you can hear in "A Big Hunk 'O Love", although another reason could be to clear his throat rather than coughing, which makes a bit of sense . . . . . .

"A Big Hunk O' Love" (Elvis Presley) ~ YouTube music video

Something similar happened in "Louie Louie" (The Kingsmen), but it is attributed nearly exclusively to the singer starting too soon after the lead guitar solo . . .

[NOTE: I like this one, because it has the correct bass vacuum tube blur . . . ]

"Louie Louie" (The Kingmen) ~ Wand 45 RPM record ~ YouTube music video

markodarko wrote:The VSL libraries are very confusing - from a purchasing point of view. Either that or I'm a bit dumb, but there seem to be so many different string products / bundles but with no real comparison between them.


There was a discussion on this in May 2014, and you will find some useful information there . . .

[NOTE: The focus was specifically on Cello and String Bass, but the information pattern is there, including the way to get the respective VSL User Guides that have the detailed information, which you can download in PDF format once you register for a guest account or register a VSL product if you already have a VSL product. There is no charge for the basic user account, and it is not difficult to do. You can subscribe to the VSL newsletter, and they do not send a lot of emails--mostly just to announce discount sales and new product announcements . . . ]

Which VSL Strings to choose for best support in N4? (Notion Music FORUM)

You can determine the specific articulations, dynamics, playing styles, and so forth that are provided in the various versions . . .

VSL has chromatic samples, but they cost more, where the important bit of information in this respect is that there are two basic types of sampled sound libraries:

(1) partially sampled, where some but not all notes in an octave are sampled, which in turn maps to the "in-between" notes being computed by the rendering engine, which in some respects is fine for some articulations, dynamics, and playing styles so long as there are not motion-based or time-based aspects, where the problems occur for example when there is vibrato at what ideally should be a steady rate, which with chromatic sampling will be steady but with partial sampling the computed notes are created via logarithmic extrapolation to increase or decrease the pitch depending which actually sampled note is used as the basis for the computed note, hence if a lower note is "played" faster to make it a higher note, the vibrato rate is arbitrarily faster, which for electric guitar style tremolo (fluctuating volume level) is very noticeable, hence my strategy of keeping everything "dry" or pegged to a specific sample in the particular articulation when I know it is chromatically sampled, which minimizes the rendering engine "computing" and its artifacts . . .

(2) chromatically sampled, where each note for every articulation, dynamic, playing style, and so forth is sampled, which produces the highest quality sampled sounds but is expensive, since it requires recording more notes and so forth, as well as digitizing more stuff . . .

VSL has chromatic sample sound libraries for specific instruments, but they are expensive, which is reasonable because it requires more work . . .

[NOTE: Once you have registered as a guest or owner for the VSL FORUM, you can do a search on "chromatic sample", where you will find the following, which is the most current information I was able to find in a few minutes of searching and browsing search results . . . ]

The main differences with the SE samples compared to the full libraries are fewer velocity layers and whole tone samples instead of chromatic sampling. The SE libraries have fewer articulations, and they also lack the dynamics articulations of the full libraries.


[SOURCE: VSL Forum, February 2013 ]

In the VSL universe, the highest quality maps to full version of "Vienna Instrument", which has everything for the particular instrument. There are three levels (standard, extended, and full); and there are collections of "Vienna Instruments". There are various upgrade paths, as well, so it depends on how much precision and resolution you need, as well your budget, where as best as I can determine getting the full version of everything costs somewhere in the range of $13,000 to $15,000 (US), not including the various advanced software products VSL offers, which can add another $5,000 (US) to the total, hence getting everything at the most complete, fullest, and most advanced levels maps approximately to $20,000, plus approximately $33 (US) for the required "Vienna Key" USB licensing dongle . . .

Lots of FUN! :ugeek:
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