New to Horizon Solo Strings - basic workflow help please!!

[SJT]

I hope you knowledgeable people can help a newcomer to VSL...

I have recently graduated to VSL Solo strings after using a MIDI box for about 10 years, firstly with Cubase and now with Logic. I do this sort of thing for fun, not work, so please bear with me if these are horribly basic questions!

I need to understand the basic workflow for creating a single string part. In the good old MIDI days, I have a single instrument which responds (in its very limited way) to my keyboard input. If I play a minim, it sounds a minim. If I play a run of semiquavers, it sounds a run of semiquavers ... etc etc.

Now I'm faced with a bewildering array of different voices and articulations and I'm having trouble knowing where to begin. Let's take a simple example, the opening phrase of the first violin part of Bach Brandenburg 3. Now in Solo Strings, there are different "voices" for different length notes and different articulartions. Therefore, as far as I understand it so far, with Solo Strings, I need to change the "voice" depending on whether I'm playing a semiquaver, a quaver or a crotchet. This presumably means that once I have played in the basic MIDI notes, I have to go through the entire part setting the precise voice (by key switches or otherwise) for every note? Surely this would take an age!

I must be missing something here - probably very basic and I apologies for my naive questions. If I'm not missing something, then how can the workflow be optimised so it's an easy process?

Thanks for your help!

Simon

[evan evans]

I have to say, I dont understand what you are asking Simon. But, I dont work for VSL and I hope someone will respond to help you soon.

Incidentally, you do understand that not everyone uses the term Crotchet don't you? lol. It sounds quite funny over here anyway.

[:D]

Evan Evans

[james_b]

It sounds like you're essentially confused about how one deals with the myriad of different articulations. You don't just choose "trumpets" and play the part live.

In fact, you're not really missing anything. In order to get highly realistic sounds, it DOES take a lot of manual "programming." It's a huge amount of work. Unfortunately, in order to realistically simulate a natural instrument, one must switch between articulations quite often, and there's just no easy way to do this. Caveat: there are people out there trying to figure out ways to make this easier. As an example:

http://www.fx-max.com/amp.html

Generally speaking, you've got two choices: either set up a bank of instruments with the most common articulations and record the parts separately, or use a keyswitchable instrument track. I'll generally start with a template that maps all my primary instruments (or ensembles) to long phrases, sfz notes, staccato, and pizzicato (for strings). I'll then start adding specific articulations as needed, and removing others that are not being used. I'll continue this process iteratively, putting the music together piece by piece. I may replace specific sections with performance instruments (legato or repetition) in places where the instruments call for the extra realism (like solo passages).

In my opinion, you don't always have to use an exact length note for each specific situation, especially in passages where a lot of other instruments are covering up the nuances of the passage. These cases are reserved when the "standard" articulations begin to sound too artificial. In other words, don't bother changing to a new articulation until one of the basic articulations isn't doing a proper job for you.

Like you, I'm also a hobbyist, not a professional musician. I've been playing with the library for over a year, and it's still fairly daunting for me. Give yourself some time to get used to it all.

And for the record, I've been playing music most of my life (from grade school band to local symphonies), and I've never even heard the terms minim, quaver, semiquaver, and crotchet before. Had to look up their definitions. [[;)]] Are these exclusively British terms?

[PaulR]

@SJT said:

If I play a minim, it sounds a minim. If I play a run of semiquavers, it sounds a run of semiquavers ... etc etc.

Let's take a simple example, the opening phrase of the first violin part of Bach Brandenburg 3.

Thanks for your help!

Simon

I think the above advice is very good, although I somehow think you may not be British (could be wrong). [:)] Don't worry, thats not a disadvantage in any way! [:D]

Which VSL libraries have you got? Is it just Solo Strings? With a view to mocking-up Brandenburg 3, I would try the 3rd movement first actually and then go back to the First. It's mostly semi-quavers and quavers with a few crotchets, so arpticulation-wise I would think repetition and maybe alternation are going to be key.

Like James says, the fact that a note has a certain length on paper hasn't really got much bearing when a real player plays it - so I wouldn't get too bogged down with note lengths as they appear on say, the score and then say, Logics' matrix grid. The artculations will be the least of your worries once you get used to them.

You may wish to do a rendition of the Brandenburg 3 in your own style, rather than comparing it to recordings, for instance. The articulations will find themselves and I like the way James descibed his way of templating and adding in more detailed articulations as one goes. It's very much the way I see it and it could be akin to painting - colours straight out of the tubes and then mixing colours etc.

The main problem with doing something like Bach's Burgs is quantization. In other words, hardly any at all would be best, if possible. But you're only dealing with a string palette on the other hand. I remember I bought an LP in about 1968 or 9 called Switched on Bach with a picture of a guy dressed up 18th century style in front of a Moog. One of the tracks was the 3rd movement of Burg 3 and sounded very quantized, and this worked because of the sounds used. It wouldn't with a VSL lib in my view.

Old Bill K said to me the other week [I] - if you could hypothetically see a real orchestra suddenly put onto a computer screen as Midi Events - it would look a complete mess - and for the best results, that's the way it probably should look (unless it's beat stuff).

PR

[SJT]

Evan, James, Paul -

Many thanks for the advice. I appreciate your help. I need to get out of my MIDI-based mindset and start working harder for my results!

And by the way, yes, I'm a Brit (but living in Oz), so hope you all enjoyed my archaic terminology!! [:D]

Simon

[PaulR]

@SJT said:

And by the way, yes, I'm a Brit (but living in Oz), so hope you all enjoyed my archaic terminology!! [:D]

Simon

I suspected that straight away, but couldn't bring myself to say it.