Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Tokyo Scoring Strings 2.0 Development Progress - New previews on page 3 (late December)

Sarah Mancuso

Sarah Mancuso

Esselfortium
So a handful of folks here might already know I’ve been working on a huge update to Tokyo Scoring Strings. It’s a version 2.0 that completely overhauls it with a new engine and a focus on smooth, versatile legato, with the intent being for it to handle basically anything you can throw at it. It’s coming in 2024 and it’s going to be free for everyone who already owns the library.

Here's a quick rundown of some of its legato features, with demo clips from speedwrite-style test sequences I've been using to run it through its paces:

It has round robin legatos,
View attachment TSS-V1VaVc-111523-011.mp3

it’s extremely agile,
View attachment TSS-V1VaVcFast-111723-010.mp3

it can be lyrical,
View attachment TSS2Proto-111123-014.mp3

it can do runs,
View attachment TSS-RandomRuns-022.mp3

and it’s supremely playable and buttery smooth. (This is me doing some completely random unedited keyboard improv on the cellos.)
View attachment TSS2-CelloImprov-111323-001.mp3

These test clips are of a pre-alpha prototype version, and so far only feature violins 1, viola, and cellos, using engineer Mitsunori Aizawa’s pre-baked board mix only. They should give an idea of what you can expect from the update, but note also that I’m still working hard on this and have been making new breakthroughs pretty regularly, so expect further changes and improvements from here.

edit: Whoops, the third clip was accidentally a repeat of the first one. Fixed now!

edit 2: New pianissimo preview on page 2! https://vi-control.net/community/th...gress-new-legato-previews.145885/post-5448425

edit 3: More new legato previews on page 3: https://vi-control.net/community/th...-legato-preview-on-page-2.145885/post-5474279
Click to read more...
 
Last edited:
Nice work! I don't own the library. I have a few other Impact Soundworks libraries but I'm hoping to pick it up at some point. Can't afford it yet.
 
Last edited:
annatar said:
it's really something that a developer is not only undertaking such a sizable update to one of their libraries, but that the update is also ridiculously good. i hope it gets all of the attention and praise you deserve for these efforts!
Click to expand...
The wait will be worth it. The time spent since our initial release, we have been overhauling our approach to engineering, going so far as to create something of a new programming language on top of KSP to create more stable advanced features.

Sarah has been trained in this new technology and has been rewriting the Tokyo engine from the ground-up under my supervision. So not only is she responsible for the incredible quality improvement to the legatos, but through my guidance she is also going to be leading more advanced feature development for the engine.

One thing that’s already been done is sustain pedal support for poly legato; so in 2.0, you can play chords piano-style with pedal footlifts and it will automatically perform legato voice-leading. This will have an incredible impact on sketching capability, especially in a full ensemble context. It is TBD if ensemble patch will make it for 2.0, but of course this feature will still work in the existing ensemble multis even if not.
 
neblix said:
The wait will be worth it. The time spent since our initial release, we have been overhauling our approach to engineering, going so far as to create something of a new programming language on top of KSP to create more stable advanced features.

Sarah has been trained in this new technology and has been rewriting the Tokyo engine from the ground-up under my supervision. So not only is she responsible for the incredible quality improvement to the legatos, but through my guidance she is also going to be leading more advanced feature development for the engine.

One thing that’s already been done is sustain pedal support for poly legato; so in 2.0, you can play chords piano-style with pedal footlifts and it will automatically perform legato voice-leading. This will have an incredible impact on sketching capability, especially in a full ensemble context. It is TBD if ensemble patch will make it for 2.0, but of course this feature will still work in the existing ensemble multis even if not.
Click to expand...
Finally someone besides Audiobro who realize the amazing benefits of this feature! This alone is a serious reason for me to make a purchase.
 
This sounds a little bit nicer than CSS.
I'm looking forward to a day when this can be utilizable under NotePerformer's playback control.
 
neblix said:
The wait will be worth it. The time spent since our initial release, we have been overhauling our approach to engineering, going so far as to create something of a new programming language on top of KSP to create more stable advanced features.

Sarah has been trained in this new technology and has been rewriting the Tokyo engine from the ground-up under my supervision. So not only is she responsible for the incredible quality improvement to the legatos, but through my guidance she is also going to be leading more advanced feature development for the engine.

One thing that’s already been done is sustain pedal support for poly legato; so in 2.0, you can play chords piano-style with pedal footlifts and it will automatically perform legato voice-leading. This will have an incredible impact on sketching capability, especially in a full ensemble context. It is TBD if ensemble patch will make it for 2.0, but of course this feature will still work in the existing ensemble multis even if not.
Click to expand...
Any chance we could get a preview of the poly-legato as well? <3
 
neblix said:
C was magnitudes more advanced than KSP in the 1970s. So really, you mean the 1960s, not 2005.
Click to expand...
To be fair KSP differs in being a non-GP non-OOP scripting language, but yeah, agree. I get the impression its originally intended design for K2 was more for simple tasks like round robin control and simple GUIs. What's funny is that NI themselves have been building some pretty complexly-programmed libraries in recent years so I'm sure they're vividly aware of it's annoying limitations, yet...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom