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Sample Modeling - Solo & Ensemble Strings : Tips, Tricks, Demos, Tutorials.

My try with SM violin to perform a realistic passage
if some of you have criticism or advice to give me I am interested because I really want to master this beautiful tool like my go to vsti soloist strings
 
Last edited:
Hi @Cristian Labelli
Is there a way to extend the range of the pitchbend for the SM Strings? Dorico 5.1 can realise the glissandi via pitch. While it sounds awful with traditional samples it might sound great with SM… but it only works, when the pitchbend is set to higher intervals
 
Major1981 said:
Is there a way to extend the range of the pitchbend for the SM Strings? [...]
Click to expand...
I'm not in front of it but I believe I have mine set to a range of 48 (half steps) up and down, which is enough to cover a pitch bend from one end of a Roli to the other. The setting is available under pitch options in the instrument UI. If you need more range than that...well good luck :)
 
Has anyone had success playing with both the detaché and harmonics keyswitches enabled at the same time? I'm getting this very strange bug. It looks like when an ensemble patch is used, not all the instruments are paying attention to the keyswitches so some of them play another note.

In this audio file, I have a cello ensemble patch in the left ear and a cello solo patch in the right. Both are being fed the same MIDI data. The MIDI data starts with both the keyswitch for detaché and harmonics in latch mode (velocity at 127) so they stay (but the latch mode doesn't matter, I've tested it). The cello just plays a single Ab over and over. Sometimes the ensemble gets it right, and for other notes, it's drunk.

Does this happen for anyone else? I've included both the raw MIDI file and a logic file.


View attachment Detache-Harmonics Test.mp3
 

Attachments

  • Detache-Harmonics Test.zip
    1.4 MB · Views: 2
  • Detache-Harmonics Test.mid
    374 bytes · Views: 1
mbishop said:
Has anyone had success playing with both the detaché and harmonics keyswitches enabled at the same time? I'm getting this very strange bug. It looks like when an ensemble patch is used, not all the instruments are paying attention to the keyswitches so some of them play another note.

In this audio file, I have a cello ensemble patch in the left ear and a cello solo patch in the right. Both are being fed the same MIDI data. The MIDI data starts with both the keyswitch for detaché and harmonics in latch mode (velocity at 127) so they stay (but the latch mode doesn't matter, I've tested it). The cello just plays a single Ab over and over. Sometimes the ensemble gets it right, and for other notes, it's drunk.

Does this happen for anyone else? I've included both the raw MIDI file and a logic file.


View attachment Detache-Harmonics Test.mp3
Click to expand...
When you increase the distance a little bit between the notes it works.
With "it works" I mean no drunken notes anymore...

EDIT added mp3 and logic pro file
View attachment Detache-Harmonics Test_increased_distance.mp3
 

Attachments

  • Detache-Harmonics Test_increased_distance.logicx.zip
    5.8 MB · Views: 2
Last edited:
Maarten said:
When you increase the distance a little bit between the notes it works.
With "it works" I mean no drunken notes anymore...

EDIT added mp3 and logic pro file
View attachment Detache-Harmonics Test_increased_distance.mp3
Click to expand...
Thank you! That does indeed help. I may have to fill in the gaps by making an additional track that plays through those gaps since I'd like a single continuous sound, but at least the notes are correct now.
 
I've been making an attempt to EQ match sample modelling ensemble strings to Air Lyndhurst. I did an experiment like this with the Infinite Series and it worked reasonably well so I thought why not try strings.

Match EQ of a pitch sweep from SSS along with Berlin Studio for placement. This is SM ens + SM solo layered. I did it in one take using Divisimate + @Land of Missing Parts new plugin Auto vib. I only used the modwheel here :).

View attachment SMEnsStringAirLyndhurstTest.mp3

I think after lots of tweaking, this actually sounds very close in tone. And of course with the added benefit of smoother transitions and dynamic control with sample modelling. This is the first string library where I feel that the musicality of the dynamics sound very authentic once you practice with it.

I'm still not completely happy with the solo violin tone in the lower register but it's close. I think using some resonance / further EQ tweaking I can probably fix it.
 
ibanez1 said:
I've been making an attempt to EQ match sample modelling ensemble strings to Air Lyndhurst. I did an experiment like this with the Infinite Series and it worked reasonably well so I thought why not try strings.

Match EQ of a pitch sweep from SSS along with Berlin Studio for placement. This is SM ens + SM solo layered. I did it in one take using Divisimate + @Land of Missing Parts new plugin Auto vib. I only used the modwheel here :).

View attachment SMEnsStringAirLyndhurstTest.mp3

I think after lots of tweaking, this actually sounds very close in tone. And of course with the added benefit of smoother transitions and dynamic control with sample modelling. This is the first string library where I feel that the musicality of the dynamics sound very authentic once you practice with it.

I'm still not completely happy with the solo violin tone in the lower register but it's close. I think using some resonance / further EQ tweaking I can probably fix it.
Click to expand...
That's actually really good!

Are you using stock settings on the instrument's built-in reverb and sound stage controls or disabling all of that for a bone dry sound before the Match EQ + Berlin Studio? Are you using a steady value for the vibrato rate or having it ramp up and down to some degree as well?

Stock Autovibrato settings too or did those need tweaking to find the sweet spot?
 
Trash Panda said:
That's actually really good!

Are you using stock settings on the instrument's built-in reverb and sound stage controls or disabling all of that for a bone dry sound before the Match EQ + Berlin Studio? Are you using a steady value for the vibrato rate or having it ramp up and down to some degree as well?

Stock Autovibrato settings too or did those need tweaking to find the sweet spot?
Click to expand...
Thanks! I'm using the (dry) versions of the ensemble kontakt instruments and then disabling all of the virtual soundstage (no early reflection, no distance, no predelay). I keep the width at 110 though.

To compute the ozone match EQ, I do a pitch sweep (half note chromatically for the range of the instrument with a dynamic swell from p to f) on the SSS instrument and then do the same on the SM instrument after berlin studio. The idea here is to match eq on a similar instrument ambience (the tree of SSS vs. SM + the tree of berlin studio). After the match EQ is calculated, I put it before Berlin.
I'm using TDR arbiter to clean up resonance (new plugin I just got which is amazing) as you'll want be a little aggressive with the match EQ.

I'm sending every instrument through waves nls and the entire strings bus through waves puigtech + kramer master tape. The saturation really helps the sound.

Vibrato rate is constant and low on the ensembles between 10-20.
Solo strings vibrato rate is also constant but can be a bit higher.

I'm using the progressive vibrato in Auto vib.

Settings for the ens strings auto vib:
low value: 0
high value: 34
progressive: on
reset on note: on
time for progression: 1sec
bias: 50%
vibrato curve: make it look more like an exponential curve rather than linear

Settings for the solo strings auto vib:
same as ensembles except high value is 64.

It was a bit of work to experiment with all of this and i'm not done yet. But I feel like i'm converging on something that elevates SM to my liking.
 
mbishop said:
Has anyone had success playing with both the detaché and harmonics keyswitches enabled at the same time? I'm getting this very strange bug. It looks like when an ensemble patch is used, not all the instruments are paying attention to the keyswitches so some of them play another note.

In this audio file, I have a cello ensemble patch in the left ear and a cello solo patch in the right. Both are being fed the same MIDI data. The MIDI data starts with both the keyswitch for detaché and harmonics in latch mode (velocity at 127) so they stay (but the latch mode doesn't matter, I've tested it). The cello just plays a single Ab over and over. Sometimes the ensemble gets it right, and for other notes, it's drunk.

Does this happen for anyone else? I've included both the raw MIDI file and a logic file.


View attachment Detache-Harmonics Test.mp3
Click to expand...
mbishop,

Thank you for bringing this topic to general attention.

Our keyswitches are conceived to be mutually exclusive, i.e., one cannot use more than one keyswitch at a time, with the only exception of microtuning (KS B), open strings(KS G#) and alternative positions (KS A, A#, C). That's why harmonics (KS G) cannot be played in detaché mode by using KS D or the sustain pedal. One can of course reproduce a credible detaché by playing harmonics separated by a very short gap between the notes.

Best regards,

Giorgio
 
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