How does this work?

[sam stryke]

I do not have Gigasampler but am considering puchasing it to use with VSL. I just received the Demo Cube but it shows me little more than this website in terms of the practical functioning of this library and in particular the performance tool.

How does the performance tool work? Say, for example, I have a violin phrase that contains staccato notes, legato notes, portamentos, crescendos/decrescendos, a variety of dynamics, as well as tremelos and/or trills. Which of these might I be able to play in real time and what would I have to create through editing (after the performance) in order to create a performance to my liking? I've heard the demos, and while they sound good, I can't tell if they involved a tremendous amount of editing or relatively little editing. I might need a pretty thorough explanation since I'm not yet familiar with the use of Gigasampler. I do, however, have the EXS24.

Thanks to anyone who can respond.

Sam Stryke

[herb]

Hello Sam,

my approach was, to design a very flexible mapping matrix.
The limits we have to handle in Gigastudio are 16 stereo dimensions at the moment.

That's why, we designed "Basic setups" for all instruments.
Here you find the most important playingstyles in one instrument
Violins for example: staccato, short detaches, long detaches, sustains, sforzato, espressivo (crescendo-diminunedo), tremolo, and pizzicato.
8 playingstyles with 2 velocities = 16 Dimensions.

These Basic sets are part of the orchestral cube.
Using our alternation tool with this stuff, you don't have to keyswitch during your performance anymore. You just have to know what articulations you need.
For example 4 staccato notes, 2 long detaches, and a sforzato
You can setup this "matrix" in the tool, and just play on your keyboard.
Finally you can setup 12 different macros each handling up to 12 different notes. This could be very helpful for live performances, or even when you simply want to concetrate on your playing performance.

If you use a performance legato instrument on a different miditracks, you only have to manage two tracks and you are able to layout your music very effectively.

It simply depends what the instruments you are programming is playing.
If there are a lot of repetitions and many crecsendos and diminuendos, than you would start with different gigfiles.

My experience is, if you start with the right setup, you can perform most of the stuff in an effective way, just using 2 or 3 different miditracks per instrument. Sometimes I need only one.

After the composing process, I'm checking all instruments and spread them up, if it is necessary.

best wishes
Herb

[sam stryke]

Thanks for the answer, Herb. I have a follow-up question.

I had assumed that the alternation tool just flipped between upbows and downbows. Am I correct now to think that with the alternation tool I can predict the order of sample "switches" so that a phrase of, say, 50 notes would be calculated and mapped out ahead of time and the samples would switch at the correct times while the phrase was performed? Sort of an advanced program change ordering?

You said that a legato passage requires two MIDI tracks. Why is that?

Sam

[herb]

You can use the alternation tool for simple switching between up and down bows, and you can setup very complex alternations.

A performance legato instrument needs one miditrack.
I meant if you use a Basic setup and a performance legato instrument, you can work very advanced with 2 instruments on two miditracks.

best wishes
Herb

[Bruce Richardson]

@sam stryke said:

Thanks for the answer, Herb. I have a follow-up question.

I had assumed that the alternation tool just flipped between upbows and downbows. Am I correct now to think that with the alternation tool I can predict the order of sample "switches" so that a phrase of, say, 50 notes would be calculated and mapped out ahead of time and the samples would switch at the correct times while the phrase was performed? Sort of an advanced program change ordering?

You said that a legato passage requires two MIDI tracks. Why is that?

Sam

Hi Sam,

I'll pinch hit for Herb.

The performance legato patches are extremely complex keyswitching matrices. You never see this, because the performance tool is handling all the translations in real time--you just play, and it works. The "patch" itself is made up of samples FROM every note, TO every note--so that, for instance, you hear the actual sound of a clarinet breaking from one note to the next, or a trumpet slurring realistically. The actual interval is being played in real time. Very cool stuff. However, this requires SO many samples of each note (26 to be exact) that just the legato trick alone eats up the sampler's bandwidth for a given MIDI channel.

So, you load up the legato performance samples, and play the track through. This gives you the bones of your track. You then load up that instrument's sustain samples, and where the legato samples don't give you full expression, you drag those notes down to the sustain track.

So, yes, it's a bit of post-editing, but very little. In fact, I generally don't drag the notes individually, but instead copy the track two or three times, then just cut out the unneeded notes.

If your musical passage is really complex from an articulation standpoint, and you are really focusing on super-detail, you might even load four or more articulations for each instrument. You can get as detailed as you like, but don't feel put off by this, because you can very effectively play with simpler setups and get very fine results.

In fact, I rarely use multiple articulations on most parts. I save the really detailed work for what I'd call the "hero" parts...exposed or solo passages that really stand front and center.

Good luck.

Bruce