Well, as I've said many times before, I'd _love_ any extended techniques VSL was willing to sample (and no worries of modernism here, Paul - such techniques have been used by composers from all sorts of "isms"! ;-) ). Big ones that come to mind? Flute breath tone. Strings scratch tone (subtone). Smack tone. Timbral trills. Multiphonics, where possible/effective (might need some sort of chart in the manual).
And I think it would be great if the multiphonics were recorded with absolute "honesty", in the sense that the different dynamic levels of multiphonics would reflect the relative success of the multiphonic to speak (since most multiphonics only "work" at certain dynamics). That is, if the multiphonic fails to speak at a certain dynamic, the note would just be a regular sustain note. This could have the added bonus of serving as a reference for those of us who work with live musicians, to help us avoid writing multiphonics at impossible dynamics - which could be handy, if you don't have direct access to the player. (Though I realize that even "playable" mulitphonics for one player are impossible to another player, on another instrument... anyway... blah, blah...)
I'd also really love to have *individual string* articulations (and legatos) for each string. And by "strings", I literally mean _strings_, as in G D A E, not Violins, Violas, Cellos, Basses... It would be great to be able to take advantage the actual colour of the string now and then (particularly for higher parts played on the lower strings), so to have a full sampled range on the G string, D string, and so on. I know you can get a certain amount of this effect on the Solo Strings using the "sul" articulations, but that's a somewhat limited application of what I'm talking about.
There's loads of stuff I'd probably request in addition to the above, but I think those are my big wishes.
Cheers, William and All.
J.
And I think it would be great if the multiphonics were recorded with absolute "honesty", in the sense that the different dynamic levels of multiphonics would reflect the relative success of the multiphonic to speak (since most multiphonics only "work" at certain dynamics). That is, if the multiphonic fails to speak at a certain dynamic, the note would just be a regular sustain note. This could have the added bonus of serving as a reference for those of us who work with live musicians, to help us avoid writing multiphonics at impossible dynamics - which could be handy, if you don't have direct access to the player. (Though I realize that even "playable" mulitphonics for one player are impossible to another player, on another instrument... anyway... blah, blah...)
I'd also really love to have *individual string* articulations (and legatos) for each string. And by "strings", I literally mean _strings_, as in G D A E, not Violins, Violas, Cellos, Basses... It would be great to be able to take advantage the actual colour of the string now and then (particularly for higher parts played on the lower strings), so to have a full sampled range on the G string, D string, and so on. I know you can get a certain amount of this effect on the Solo Strings using the "sul" articulations, but that's a somewhat limited application of what I'm talking about.
There's loads of stuff I'd probably request in addition to the above, but I think those are my big wishes.
Cheers, William and All.
J.
