I, too, would be interested in a review by someone new to the product which represents my situation. This would perhaps have a number of positive results:
1. a written user manual with tutorials repleat with midi files, enviornment setups, practical examples. And additional video tutorials. FinalCutPro's offering comes to mind.
2. a product that perhaps would have various access, use levels, ie. VSL for beginners, intermediate and advanced users.
3. a product that has broader appeal for a variety of users: those who write from score, keyboard players, programmers, experimenters.
4. a more open source approach. No one instance (even VSL) can do everything and the assistance of the users out there have made my ProEdition available in a real way to me through the articulation tool created by Kai and the Forum discussions.

We are all blind to our own errors and shortcomings or simply to unrevealed potential. The many eyes and ears and talents of the independent (relatively new) user might go a good way to assist in this worthy project.

taatsiaq

"So far, the way I see it - the basic premise of this VI tool is repetition. There are other cool features about it on paper of course - but mainly it's about repetition and people have ALREADY bought into that. They're not getting a fair deal and I am now convinced of that."

I can assure you that this is just one area the VI deals with. There are many more cool functions. As mentioned before, you may need a test drive.

@PaulR said:

The fact that you can play Bach's D minor fugue by blowing farts at a keyboard from 20 paces is neither here nor there.

Just to be clear, it's only 7 paces.

Best,
Jay

@Craig Sharmat said:

"So far, the way I see it - the basic premise of this VI tool is repetition. There are other cool features about it on paper of course - but mainly it's about repetition and people have ALREADY bought into that. They're not getting a fair deal and I am now convinced of that."

I can assure you that this is just one area the VI deals with. There are many more cool functions. As mentioned before, you may need a test drive.

I already said that. That is not the point here Craig. You are both either being obtuse or deliberately missing the point. You are both affiliated.

I just want to add that we invested twice the amount of time in reediting the repetitions than we did for the original editing. So our costs in develeoping the repetition samples for the VIs where more or less equal than the original production costs of the First/Pro/Horizon repetition stuff.

To place perfect matching release samples to each repetition part without reducing the original length of each repetition note is not easy, and it's impossible to this work with a kind of patch processing or something similiar. All in all 3 editors worked more than 18 months on the repetition reediting.

best
Herb

I think Paul's point has been missed on this.

As a former concert piano and orchestral W/W player, I've relied on what skills i have left (after a bad vehicle accident) to input speedily, and maximise the use of time. The knowledge of form, theory, orchestration, etc is still there, but plonkiing in three notes, then changing articulations, then doing another two notes then changing etc. is less like music for me and more like data input, a job i don't relish, as the boredom would drive me nuts. I do this now with samples i have, and setting up a score with multiple tracks for the same instrument is a real chore, albit for income's sake, a neccessary one.
I'm quite excited about the potential of the VI, but for me objectively, it's the repetition and multi articulation input on the fly that represents the most important part of the new library.

In reality, i'd like to set up the patch and articulations, adjust the speed, and press record.
How much inputting i can do in one run is important to me. If, as the VI tutorial seems to imply, i can do this, then i'm thoroughly interested.
If i can only input 50% of my work, it's still a step forward, but if i were a large sample library owner, i would naturally ask if the step forward was worth it. (I think the step is worth it, but i don't have a large sample library to make a comparison with travelling, as i am, to study).
I've also read much about the challenges presented using the performance tool. Given that technology is still a step ahead of the rest, it would still present to me a long and detailed program of inputting pieces at a time. This would be ok in work that wasn't on a time limit, but for work that has a schedule of completion, the VI's potential gives more monetary value if the inputting is almost all automated. e.g. 4 weeks to finish a normal project, 2 weeks to finish a VI project, Do two jobs in the same time, double the income, you get the picture.

I think Paul's question is entirely reasonable, and, as he's already said, it's not a shot at Herb or the team, but a request for a more detailed and objective report on the efficiency, level of automation, and potential increase in ease of use, of the new VI format.

As for what seems an assumption that keyboard players are restricted in understanding or emulating the particular techniques that other instruments use,
I have spent a lifetime either playing (piano and W/W) or working hard to gain an understanding from my fellow orchestral players as to exactly how their particular instrument works, how it's played, etc., and i'm absolutely sure i'm not the only one. Please let's not assume a keyboard player is just a keyboard player, and has little or no practical knowledge outside of that particular instrument, or method of computer input.

Regards,

Alex.

Herb and VSL,

Just wanted to say, I listened to a couple demos of the VI solo violin and they are............. damn good. It would take weeks to program the articulations for those with the current system to make them sound as good as those demos.

You're next beta demo should be the string section VI-14. Im interested to hear those in a real world application.

-Ben

[deleted]

@dunk187 said:

You're next beta demo should be the string section VI-14. Im interested to hear those in a real world application.

Me too.

[deleted]

@Craig Sharmat said:

"So far, the way I see it - the basic premise of this VI tool is repetition. There are other cool features about it on paper of course - but mainly it's about repetition and people have ALREADY bought into that. They're not getting a fair deal and I am now convinced of that."

I can assure you that this is just one area the VI deals with. There are many more cool functions. As mentioned before, you may need a test drive.

I already said that. That is not the point here Craig. You are both either being obtuse or deliberately missing the point. You are both affiliated.

I may be missing the point, but not deliberately. As far as being affiliated, the only ones who have had any experience with the VI are VSL and it's testers. If the answers from any of us are not what you are looking for, then you will of course need to wait to get your answers from 3rd parties.

I think that clearly one of the advantages of the new VI is greatly increased automation and custom articulation switching. The videos begin to showcase this (for those who haven't watched them yet). For those who enjoy working live, these features will be well appreciated. Exactly how much time this will save them compared with the "old" method I can't quantify, but I would guess it would be considerable. Especially for the composing part of the process, this new method/technology will be extremely time efficient. I do believe that for some final, "as-real-as-possible" end products that additional time-consuming tweaking may be necessary. It really depends on the needs and sonic goals of the individual.

I think it would be illuminating if someone could post a demo of a live real-time performance. Perhaps one of Beat's or Craig's demos is already doing this. I'm not sure exactly how they created their demos.

Those who work "live" will find much to make their their inputting of musical material easier.

This is just less of a concern to me personally because of my skills and the way I am accustomed to working. Therefore, I wanted to draw some attention to one of the other major advantages of the new VI-- namely the vastly increased palette of expressive sounds!


Dave King of all things Tuba-- For my Massenet demo, I inputted the notes on the keyboard but then tweaked everything (velocity, cc11, tempo, etc.) in my Sonar 5 sequencer. I set up all the articulations I wanted in the VI. Then I went through my sequence and added the keyswitches to change to the desired articulations. Having access to a very large number of articulations on one track made experimenting with different possibilities very painless.

I'm happy to answer any questions about my experience beta-testing the solo violin (that's all I've seen and heard at this point). I will try my best to be honest and objective. But of course, I am just one person with one way of working. Others will have different needs, experiences and methods of working. Hopefully the other testers will share their feelings here as well. But the bottom line is that in just a few more weeks there will be perhaps hundreds of new users who I am sure will have no trouble expressing their own points of view.


Proud and honored to be "affiliated" and hopefully still of some use,
Jay

@PaulR said:

[...]
You tell me to shut up again Mr Kiel - I'll come and find you - and then ask you to tell me to shut up again. Capice?
[...]

PaulR, stop threaten other forum members. Thank you.

Timkiel, there's no need to tell others to "shut up". Let's keep the discussion friendly.

First, thanks to Dietz for keeping the peace and everyone who has retained their dignity and temper throughout this thread.

Question to the creators of the files: Are these out-of-the-box "presets" for the solo violin, or are they specially configured for the demos? Obviously, when I get my hands on the Cube, I'd like to play the MIDI files and see them work for myself.

Well done guys - the demos sound excellent. Of course, a round of loud applause to VSL too....

Regards - Colin

My jazz one was made with a given preset.

Brilliant demos one and all.

Jay is so brave to post 4 minutes of unaccompanied solo violin and I thought it was really beautiful. I suspect the likes of Bruce Richardson would condemn it out of hand as being unnatural and unhuman but tosh to all of that. I'm a seasoned orchestral musician and ardent live music connosieur but Jays performance still moved me and was beautiful to listen to.

Just occasionally I thought the attack on some individual notes distracting and once or twice only the diminuendo on sustained notes lacked the change in timbre you would expect and sounded like the volume knob being turned down.

But as I say 4 minutes of solo violin - absolutely breathtaking - what wonderful tools (which I mean in the nicest possible way)

[deleted]

Colin-- My collection of articulations is a custom collection which can be saved as a matrix file (not sure this is the right term). As soon as the VI is released hopefully Herb will post a link to this matrix file (which I sent to him as well). By the way, creating a custom collection of articulations really only takes a few seconds. It is VERY simple to do-- just drag and drop.


Dave-- I tried to use as many "real" diminuendos as possible, but sometimes the beginning of the articulation was more important to me (a zigane slide or progressive vibrato) and so I used cc11 (volume) to create a diminuendo. This is only an issue with solo instruments. With ensemble instruments, I would have been able to take the beginning of one articulation and crossfade to a diminuendo without anyone noticing.

Best,
Jay

[deleted]

... gentlemen ... please!