SYNC STRINGS PRO: issue with agile legato of Violins

[fatis12_24918]

 

Hello Paul and dear VSL-users mates, 

first of all I take the chance to say I really loved the SynStringsPro, great improvement, lovable and clever library.

Unfortunately I have a problem with the agile legato patch of Violins (both 14 and 10) that I would like to investigate:

- playing fast with the patch, a strange out-of-tune layer is audible over the normal sound, sounding like if the legato-transition samples (the short "swipes") were mapped differently from sustain samples (like half a tone up or similar). This is very audible if you play a trill or similar fast repetitive pattern.

- other instruments (eg. agile legato violas or cellos) work totally fine, as the normal legato for all instruments including Violins.

I updated today to last SSP setup but according notes, it didn't seem to address agile legato, so actually nothing changed.

Anybody else got the problem, and perhaps found a fix? Any VSL recommendation or known fix?

I can provide sound example and system set-up to support if this will be rated as new/unknown.

Thank you in advance, Best Regards

FV

[Paul]

Hi FV, 

Please send a quick example, best with a MIDI file or sequencer project, to support@vsl.co.at, we will check it out!

Best,
Paul

[fatis12_24918]

@Paul said:

Hi FV, 

Please send a quick example, best with a MIDI file or sequencer project, to support@vsl.co.at, we will check it out!

Best,
Paul

Thank you Paul, done.

Files attached below as well.

MIDI.mid.zip-1696492420527-zjfpd.zip

[Paul]

Hi, 

Thanks. What you hear is the side-effect of this type of articulation. We have recorded longer quick phrases and extracted the transitions, which may also include a ringing decay of previous notes. 

These articulations are designed for very quick passages, which are usually also not played 100% clean, in real life.  Under scrutiny, you will hear the side effect and you can point it out as a mistake... but there is no other way we know of to get this kind of result. Trills will always be tricky when played without performance trills (quick legato transitions with a round robin of transition options). 

In other words: It's not a bug, it's a feature!

Best,
Paul

[Christian R.]

Hi, I purchased today also the Synchron Strings Pro and I noticed also the very unpleasant "feature" in the Agile Legato: I hear always a sound one Major or Minor third down off the real played note, as if it was chosen the wrong sample to make the legato transition... It sounds really bad, also playing fast passage (that is the articulation designed for): you can really hear notes that are not being played (as I mentioned: a major or minor third down)..... This is a little a deal breaker for me, because I need some faster transitions for my legatos (using Agile Legato) but if it sounds like wrong notes, thank no thank you.

I attach one sound example.

I hope that there is a solution to use agile legatos without this wrong sounding notes. Thank you for your Support

Christian Ruvolo

[fatis12_24918]

 

I had to stop using the patch (and found my self back to Dimension strings, even if I love the sound of SSP).

Actually I'm not convinced by the explanation I got from support (unavoidable echo of the room embedded into samples, so no way to edit it), because if only the feed from ambience and release were the unavoidable issue, then it should affect the other instruments also, and they are unaffected instead.

On the other side, if it was just wrong mapping of the legato transition samples, or scripting bug, I suppose the fine developers of VSL team had fixed it after a while... so it's still a mystery to me.

 

The pity is that violins are of course the prominent voice, and then the artefact is very invasive/audible.

(The development team by the way was working under pressure on a disruptive massive set of projects in a relatively short time... so perhaps sooner or later they will find time for fine tuning previous jobs... I still hope in a fix. )

[Christian R.]

The problem appears to me in all sections of the strings: as soon as you use the  Legato Agile very weird sounds come between the notes. It makes the Library for me unusable. :-(

I attach another example (audio and notes) for the Issue.

[Paul]

Hi Christian R., 

I'm afraid those are the remains of the approach we used for this specific articulation, where the tail of notes that were played earlier are still ringing with some transitions. Depending on the key you are in, this can be problematic. 

Sorry to have no immediate solution for that. 

Best, 
Paul

[Christian R.]

Hi Paul,

thank you for your reply :-)

I'm testing the Library all day long. I understand the technical background for the issue. It happens unfortunately in all keys. And I found out that the issue ("fremde Noten") is in all instruments with Legato Agile articulation, but tends to be less hearable going down in the instrument sections (less in vn2 than in vn1, less in vla than in vn2 an so on).

It is a pity because I'm loving the sound and the incredible deepness of control of the library for the rest. But if there are no hoping about a possible fixing of the Legato Agile I'm afraid I have make a return because fast legato is very important for me. :-(

Happy Holidays and stay safe

Christian

[Ben]

Hi Christian,

In my experience you can use the regular legato even for most fast passages, and the agile legato for very fast passages - in these cases the "ringing" is no longer an issue and even adds to the realism of the sound.
You can also tweak the auto-speed controller in the CONTROL tab to switch to the agile legato variant at higher speeds.

Best, Ben

[belkina]

Just want to add my voice to this request. I also have this problem, but on a few notes and velocity XFade settings. I do hope it will be fixed eventually, especially since the VI libraries had a fast legato without this problem ...

Thanks,

Alan

[slidehawk]

@belkina said:

... especially since the VI libraries had a fast legato without this problem ...

Also the Synchron Strings I and other Synchronizeds don‘t have these artefacts.

Kind Regards, Gunter

[Paul]

Hi everybody, 

It's a new approach, and it is what it is.
The lingering previous notes cannot be "edited" out, so feel free to use this patch where appropriate. 

Best, 
Paul