_TUTORIALS_
DM33, thanks again for your advice about the tutorials. I would like to learn from them. It's proving more difficult than I expected, though:
- The CPU issue is a big handicap. In order to play the first 9 notes of the Bridge, I had to get past 15 interruptions of either "running out of CPU power" or "the operating system held off interrupts for too long". And I had muted every track except for the solo viola.
- Every tutorial I've looked at uses the Extended Edition. So far, I've been able to play them because of the 30-starts free license, but it won't be long before the tutorials become unplayable for me.
- The things I really want to learn, aren't satisfactorily demonstrated.
I've gone over the Bridge in more detail, and found several instances of
notes that were intended to be sustained, but weren't. The following timings
are what I get after importing the MID file into Pro Tools. The first piano
note is at 25.2 seconds and the first viola note is at 40.5 seconds.
- At 1:53, G#4 is notated as 4.52 seconds but dies after 2.68 seconds.
- At 2:18, F#3 is notated as 4.66 seconds but dies after 4.2 seconds.
- At 2:57, the last viola note in the piece, the harmonic on C#5 is notated as 8.66 seconds but dies after 4.76 seconds.
And these are the officially published examples of what the product can do? Unsatisfactory.
_SUSTAIN_
I've found that using controller 64 (sustain) leads to more problems. If the sustain starts just before the end of part 1 of the note, and ends just after the start of part 2, I get the sound of two violins playing the same note slightly differently. When a subsequent note (on a different pitch) starts, it sounds like one of these two violins is dropping out. This problem is at its worst for a diminuendo -- when the first part has a higher velocity than the second part. So I've stopped using ANY controllers to paper over the bow changes. Of course this leaves audible bow changes. Many more of them, and more audible, than in a professional performance. Unsatisfactory.
_HARMONICS_
I've been trying to use Solo Strings to demo a piece I wrote two years ago. That piece includes violin harmonics sounding D#5 and F#5. These are produced by fingering bottom G# and touching the D# a fifth above it, and by fingering bottom B and touching the F# a fifth above it. This sounds the third partial. Apparently the guys in Vienna have never heard of such a thing. Their software cannot be coaxed into sounding violin harmonics in this range.
No combination of "Oct" and "Transp" in the Edit Cell page will allow you to produce these harmonics from the violin patches.
My demo will have to use viola harmonics for these two notes. The sound is noticeably different from the surrounding violin harmonics. Anyone listening to my demo will say "what an unprofessional job he did".
I now realize that this oddity is why I came to the false conclusion that the harmonic patch was monophonic. In my tests, the lower notes were E5 and F#5, and they never sounded. Now I know that the VSL design correctly allows double-stopped harmonics, but incorrectly omits the valid pitches D#5 through F#5.
Another bad design decision about harmonics is less serious, because the workaround is easy and the sound is not bad. That was the decision to map harmonic patches an octave lower than they sound. I don't recall any score where this practice was followed. In fact the OPPOSITE has sometimes been done, in double bass parts, where harmonics sound an octave lower than written. But I can work around this problem using "Oct".
Another thing about harmonics: Vienna Symphonic Library GmbH is guilty of false advertising. Read their web page
http://vsl.co.at/en/211/442/344/350/217.htm which clearly states that the Standard Edition (Solo Strings I) contains "numerous natural and artificial harmonics". In fact, the natural harmonics are not included in the product. Articulation 11 VI_harm-nat_sus is a Level 2 articulation. Therefore the very commonly used violin harmonics G4 and D5 will not be available to me. I have been cheated.
Dear forum members: Convince me that I'm wrong about any of the above, please. I paid more for this product than the cost of some computers, and I would like to believe that I have paid for a great product. So far it appears to be a collection of beautiful samples that will require many headaches to work with.