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  4. OrchStrng Muted Legato Viola kinda sounds like Portamento

  • OrchStrng Muted Legato Viola kinda sounds like Portamento

    M
    M

     Hi folks. Maybe it's just my stupid, untrained ears, but as i was composing some junk, i noticed this oddness with the Orchestral Strings 1 Viola Con Sordino Legato patch. When played at its lowest velocity, it sounds fine, but when the loudest velocity layer is played, it sounds strangely almost like portamento. 

    heres an example of what im referring to:

    http://www.soulwhirlingsomewhere.com/vsl/con_sordino_examp.mp3

    a simple line, played three times, first with muted viola Legato at lowest vel. layer, then highest legato layer, and the third part is the real portamento patch, for comparison.

    Granted, in the REAL portamento patch, the slide is much more obvious. But still, the High Velocity Legato samples just dont sound right to me... sorta like somewhere inbetween a legato and portamento.

    I doubt this is an oversight on the part of the VSL crew; so then, is it just a weird artifact of the way a legato manifests when the strings are being muted?  Or am i just stupid? i guess im just curious about it. Not really a problem, but i wouldve been happier if the phantom "slide" on the Hi-vel Legato wasnt there..

    thanks in advance 

    >michael 
  • C
    C

    Hi Michael. Yes, those louder muted violas legato intervals were played with portamento. There's no logical reason why using a mute would cause the effect, so the players must have deliberately played the intervals that way. I've noticed other examples of portamento creeping into VSL legatos - only the producer and players know why it happened on those con sordino legato violas samples and not on the unmuted legatos!
  • B
    B

    ON the subject of mutes:

    Has anyone found or created a patch like Appassionata Strings Mutes, but for Orchestral Strings library? I just need a basic composing sketching patch but muted - and I was hoping to do this with Orchestral Strings and have a breather form Appassionata.

    Thanks
  • M
    M

    I suppose you could EQ it enough to get a "fake" version of a mute... I have noticed, in comparing  VSL strings to other libraries' Con Sordinos.... VSL really seems to have a distinct and more pronounced EQ "scoop".. which i LIKE. In researching actual violas and the mute things you put on them, there seem to be some different kinds, of varying quality each which mute the tone more than others.

    Either way, if you're not able to dish out the money for the Appasionata 2 library, i guess the best you can do is import some examples of muted string audio files into your DAW, use an EQ Analyzer to look at  the frequency spectrum, and then try to apply that EQ curve to your non-muted strings. Granted, it will be "fake" and not give you perfect results, but with enough attention to it, you might be able to approximate it once you get a good EQ and some reverb on it....

    Thats about all i can suggest  :)

    - michael