@belkina said:

You don't really need muted col legno or even muted pizz is not so different.

I agree that muted legno and pizz aren't terribly different from their unmuted versions. The only places one tends to encounter them are where it would be difficult to remove a mute that was placed for some other reason.

But that got me to thinking... what about muted versus unmuted harmonics? I'm not a string player, so I can't just slap a mute on and try it. Can anybody comment on the differences here?

And, on the subject of some type of filter to mimic the effect of a mute, I'd have to object to that. What I like so much about VSL is its realism. I may be a Luddite, but I think that digital filtering would greatly diminish that realism.

K

@Another User said:

I may be a Luddite, but I think that digital filtering would greatly diminish that realism.

What about convolution for space modeling? Do you think it diminish the realism of VSL instruments? You can change the impulse response to simulate different spaces and different surround configuration. Of course, until having very good tools for it, built in reveb was prefered... Is it still the case?
Anyway, I just don't know what solution(s) VSL's team will choose for mutes, but I'm shure they'll give good results (as usual...)

@MusicianDesigner said:

What about convolution for space modeling? Do you think it diminish the realism of VSL instruments? You can change the impulse response to simulate different spaces and different surround configuration. Of course, until having very good tools for it, built in reveb was prefered... Is it still the case?

Well, the math for reverb convolution is very solid. It's computationally intensive, but it shouldn't cause serious signal degradation or introduce excessive noise (if done right). And, because it mathematically models what happens to the wave as a result of the physical room, the results sound quite realistic.

But I don't think that the same could be said for mutes. How do you sample the effect of placing a mute on the bridge of a fiddle? I don't think I even understand what that would mean. It's not like the reverb situation where you can idealize the same initial waveform being acted upon by a physical space. The sound from the muted instrument is a different sound to begin with because the bridge is part of the sound creation mechanism.

I suppose you could sample each note with and without the mute, compare the power spectrum and construct a set of EQ rules that try to mimic the same behaviour. But is that all there is to a mute? Might the extra weight on the bridge also alter the frequencies of the upper harmonics? Could there be additional phasing effects or other interesting distortions?

I'd really prefer it if they were to just sample the muted instrument and be done with it.