This is one of the easier categories to cover as there are only two instruments. I guess Brass was harder to come by than wood for your average medieval musician. Size aside the two instruments here are quite enjoyable when used with other instruments in the pack. By itself the upper register of the Soprano Cornett drives me nuts.
The Renaissance Trombone is an interesting instrument. Another reviewer commented that it sounded more like a trumpet in the top octave and I think he is correct. In Legato, the lower octave or so sounds like a rough bass trombone, the middle is smooth baritone and the top end like a trumpet.So depending on the range you use, it can really have different functions in a piece of music. The upper 'trumpet' portion works nicely as a lower lead instrument.
The Staccato is similar. The bottom end has that trombone sound that when played poorly sounds like a rude human noise. Fortunately here it is played just fine. The upper end has more of a trumpet pop to it.
The Soprano Cornet reminds me of what I don't like about the vox humana organ stop and the piccolo oddly enough. Played by itself, the tone at the lower end sounds irritatingly inconsistent within the sustain of the note itself and at the upper end the sound is shrill and unpleasant. This is I believe the instrument itself and not a defect of workmanship on Fluffy Audio's part. In a sense it sounds like a lousy trumpet. This reminds me that while this instrument package is a blast to play with we really have improved instruments over time. A Trumpet is much better sounding than a Cornette and a Bosendorfer or Steinway concert level grand is a far better instrument than a Harpsichord. As I'm sure I'll have mentioned earlier it is the difference in sound and even the somewhat negative quirks of these instruments that make this an interesting package. This isn't intended to replace Berlin's Inspire or Spitfire's Albion.
The odd thing is when played as part of a larger set of these instruments, the Cornett blends nicely even when playing the lead and doesn't make me want to puncture my own eardrums. For instance that nice little picture and description of the Trombone mentions that it works well with the Cornett and Organ. I tried it in my own unique way and it is true. I used the Organ as a mild bass (C2-C3ish), Trombone as the middle instrument (C3-C4) and the Cornett as the lead (C4-A5) and it sounded quite pleasant. The other instruments sort of masked or took the edge off the Cornett in ways good composers would probably understand.
That also leads me to mentioning that the Trombone range is very important. I tried it too high at some points and the trumpet sound of the upper range really conflicted with the Cornett and sounded bad. At the mid to lower range however the Trombone made a nice support instrument.
Interesting instruments. Not good for every situation but a nice addition to the palette and they might just be a little surprise for a modern listener who is used to the more standard sounds of modern brass. Good mixers.
Next - Keys
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Rinascimento Keyboard Instrument
I've had a bit of a like / frustration relationship with some of the keyboard instruments in this package. I'll lead with a couple issues which effect the Harpsichord and the Virginal. Somehow it feels really odd to type the word Virginal.
My two issues are use of modwheel instead of keyboard velocity to control the volume and release samples lasting way too long. I wrote an email to Fluffy Audio about this and Paolo from Fluffy Audio was kind enough to tell me that both issues are on the list to be resolved. So great customer service and I'll look forward to the update. It's always great when developers are so responsive.
So let us get to the actual instruments.
The Harpsichord has always sounds a bit odd to me especially when played fast. It sounds rather like poor substitute for a harp since they are both plucked string instruments. However when you play slowly and hold the notes a very pleasant thing occurs. The held notes have a sort of an evolving pad effect. So if you play and hold the notes for a second longer than you would on a piano, kind of like how you overlap legato notes, you get this really nice sound.
I mention this specifically because these Harpsichords have a really nice sounding and long decay so this style works really well here. The pluck sound is pretty standard but that sound afterwords is has a lovely string bending slightly tone especially toward the center of the keyboard. The close mic is a bit more in your face while the far is more mellow which is a nice effect and of course you can crank up all the mics which actually sounds a bit like a harpsichord duet. Then you can also kick up the Harpsichord Second instruments to really get the multi-instrument effect. For fun you should try bumping up the 'Tune' by 4.0 (semitones) and you will be 2/3rds of the way to a major chord and some nice harmony.
A Virginal is basically a Harpsichord Junior and seems to have a somewhat thinner and less full bodied tone. Its something like the difference between a grand and a baby grand piano. For me this instrument adds to the value of this package. I probably have a dozen Harpsichords including a couple nice free ones as they and organs seem like the least rare of 'vintage instruments', but this is the only Virginal in my collection though Sampletekk and Boulder sounds both sell them.
As with the Harpsichord this is well sampled and has a nice sound. It's somewhat bell-like on the top octave and lighter Harpsichord in the middle and lower octaves. The mics share the same qualities as the Harpsichord's as well.
My first thought on kicking of the Organ was why is there all that black space between the last note and the keyswitches. Then I looked over and saw the two bass articulations and sure enough they filled in that black space with a couple octaves of juicy pedal goodness. Since most of us don't use setups that involve 4 keyboards with as many midi input channels, Organs are inherently a compromise. Fluffy Audio did a pretty nice job with this compromise however. With 3000+ samples and almost 4 gigs in compressed samples there are a lot of very long notes in this collection. They seem to average about 10 seconds and loop for about 7 seconds which is certainly more than enough for organs which tend to have a fairly steady tone. Every note is sampled and sampled well.
Part of the compromise is that there are only 9 keyboard stops and 2 bass stops, but that is still enough for a nice sound. The trick is these aren't separate articulations, but rather stops that can be turned on or off, so the 9 keyboard stops can be combined in a hundred and more different ways literally. The included stops are the Main, Octave, 8842, Mezzo Ripieno, Flute, Cl/Vc/Fl, Trumpet, Cornetto and Vox Humana. The latter two cover only the last two and a half octave while the others go over four and a half. The pedal stops Bass 8 and Double Bass cover the bottom two octaves.
Main is that traditional organ sound that we think of when we think organ while Octave is that sound pitched up an octave. It works really well for reinforcing the main stop not unlike the way many strings guys have started adding octave high violins to the the main string melody. 8842 is more the same on steroids, a lot of harmony. Mezzo Ripieno seems to be related to the Italian word for stuffing and pumps even more of the traditional organ sound with tons of thirds and fifths so its kind of a monster chord.
Flute sounds fairly like a flute and I think cl/vc/fl is basically a woodwind section it has far more on the bottom end that the flute does. Trumpet sounds like a trumpet on steroids Cornetto is an ice cream and also a higher pitched horn in this case. Vox Humana was an early attempted at a synth choir as it is supposed to represent the human voice. Bass 8 is the traditional organ sound down low while Double Bass is deep thunder for those Hollywood scary movies.
While I'm not sure they needed to include an organ and junior (more in a moment) and I might have preferred other instruments instead, this organ has a very nice sound and since it should scratch the same itch as many of the $50 buck Kontakt organs I see around it might save you some scratch too.
Finally we come to the Positive Organ which is a sort of portable organ used in chapels and small churches. It does basically sound like a small organ, maybe something like the Octave stop in the big Organ. The bottom end is fairly entertaining it sounds like a bass singer trying to go too low and just rumbling instead of singing. Like the Virginal much of the value comes from being a very rare hue for your pallet a sort of less burnter burnt umber that few others have.
The earlier mentioned quibbles aside, this is a solid collection of keyboards and very in keeping with the period. I think the organ especially couple result in some lost hours trying various combinations from tweety flutes and sounding high brass to just shaking your neighbors out of bed with all the 'organy' stop and the basses pushed in at once.
Next - Percussion
My two issues are use of modwheel instead of keyboard velocity to control the volume and release samples lasting way too long. I wrote an email to Fluffy Audio about this and Paolo from Fluffy Audio was kind enough to tell me that both issues are on the list to be resolved. So great customer service and I'll look forward to the update. It's always great when developers are so responsive.
So let us get to the actual instruments.
The Harpsichord has always sounds a bit odd to me especially when played fast. It sounds rather like poor substitute for a harp since they are both plucked string instruments. However when you play slowly and hold the notes a very pleasant thing occurs. The held notes have a sort of an evolving pad effect. So if you play and hold the notes for a second longer than you would on a piano, kind of like how you overlap legato notes, you get this really nice sound.
I mention this specifically because these Harpsichords have a really nice sounding and long decay so this style works really well here. The pluck sound is pretty standard but that sound afterwords is has a lovely string bending slightly tone especially toward the center of the keyboard. The close mic is a bit more in your face while the far is more mellow which is a nice effect and of course you can crank up all the mics which actually sounds a bit like a harpsichord duet. Then you can also kick up the Harpsichord Second instruments to really get the multi-instrument effect. For fun you should try bumping up the 'Tune' by 4.0 (semitones) and you will be 2/3rds of the way to a major chord and some nice harmony.
A Virginal is basically a Harpsichord Junior and seems to have a somewhat thinner and less full bodied tone. Its something like the difference between a grand and a baby grand piano. For me this instrument adds to the value of this package. I probably have a dozen Harpsichords including a couple nice free ones as they and organs seem like the least rare of 'vintage instruments', but this is the only Virginal in my collection though Sampletekk and Boulder sounds both sell them.
As with the Harpsichord this is well sampled and has a nice sound. It's somewhat bell-like on the top octave and lighter Harpsichord in the middle and lower octaves. The mics share the same qualities as the Harpsichord's as well.
My first thought on kicking of the Organ was why is there all that black space between the last note and the keyswitches. Then I looked over and saw the two bass articulations and sure enough they filled in that black space with a couple octaves of juicy pedal goodness. Since most of us don't use setups that involve 4 keyboards with as many midi input channels, Organs are inherently a compromise. Fluffy Audio did a pretty nice job with this compromise however. With 3000+ samples and almost 4 gigs in compressed samples there are a lot of very long notes in this collection. They seem to average about 10 seconds and loop for about 7 seconds which is certainly more than enough for organs which tend to have a fairly steady tone. Every note is sampled and sampled well.
Part of the compromise is that there are only 9 keyboard stops and 2 bass stops, but that is still enough for a nice sound. The trick is these aren't separate articulations, but rather stops that can be turned on or off, so the 9 keyboard stops can be combined in a hundred and more different ways literally. The included stops are the Main, Octave, 8842, Mezzo Ripieno, Flute, Cl/Vc/Fl, Trumpet, Cornetto and Vox Humana. The latter two cover only the last two and a half octave while the others go over four and a half. The pedal stops Bass 8 and Double Bass cover the bottom two octaves.
Main is that traditional organ sound that we think of when we think organ while Octave is that sound pitched up an octave. It works really well for reinforcing the main stop not unlike the way many strings guys have started adding octave high violins to the the main string melody. 8842 is more the same on steroids, a lot of harmony. Mezzo Ripieno seems to be related to the Italian word for stuffing and pumps even more of the traditional organ sound with tons of thirds and fifths so its kind of a monster chord.
Flute sounds fairly like a flute and I think cl/vc/fl is basically a woodwind section it has far more on the bottom end that the flute does. Trumpet sounds like a trumpet on steroids Cornetto is an ice cream and also a higher pitched horn in this case. Vox Humana was an early attempted at a synth choir as it is supposed to represent the human voice. Bass 8 is the traditional organ sound down low while Double Bass is deep thunder for those Hollywood scary movies.
While I'm not sure they needed to include an organ and junior (more in a moment) and I might have preferred other instruments instead, this organ has a very nice sound and since it should scratch the same itch as many of the $50 buck Kontakt organs I see around it might save you some scratch too.
Finally we come to the Positive Organ which is a sort of portable organ used in chapels and small churches. It does basically sound like a small organ, maybe something like the Octave stop in the big Organ. The bottom end is fairly entertaining it sounds like a bass singer trying to go too low and just rumbling instead of singing. Like the Virginal much of the value comes from being a very rare hue for your pallet a sort of less burnter burnt umber that few others have.
The earlier mentioned quibbles aside, this is a solid collection of keyboards and very in keeping with the period. I think the organ especially couple result in some lost hours trying various combinations from tweety flutes and sounding high brass to just shaking your neighbors out of bed with all the 'organy' stop and the basses pushed in at once.
Next - Percussion
Rinascimento Percussion
Of all the things in which I lack understanding non-chromatic percussion is high on the list. When you get to Renaissance Percussion, I'm totally at sea. Then again I suppose few are experts on Renaissance Percussion and those that are are currently busy at the Renaissance Faire.
The Percussion 'Instrument' is quite large in Rinascimento clocking in at almost 2 gigs compressed. This is because the sample list tops 3700. More than any other instrument type percussion needs velocity layers and round robins as the sound changes quite dramatically from soft to hard and you can get the 'machine gun effect' very easily if you don't have a decent number of round robins. All the short articulations have 4 round robins and a sufficient number of velocity layers.
Until 200 years ago the Bass Drum was called the Turkish Drum as the Turkish military regiments were the first to use them. Apparently the sound hasn't changed all that much in the last 500 years as the Bass Drum sounds solidly thumpy (technical term). The Bass Drums are the first set of colored keys on the left. As with most drums here, the single hits are on the white, OK light blue, keys toward the bottom and the black keys and light keys as you go upwards tend to be multi-hits. The Red keys are what the manual calls 'Long rolls' and they aren't kidding as they run over 10 seconds and then loop so you could play that roll for the rest of your life. The Green G# is a crescendo / decrescendo while the A is a crescendo.
The Bass Drum generally benefits from some reverb and space. If you want bass without the boom, Close works nicely but as you move out to Mid you start getting the punch and Far does feel like you are in the back of the room with the sound hitting you in a few waves. Put all three together and you have some nice BOOM! What can I say, it's a big drum that sounds like a big drum.
Up next, keyboard right, is the Rullante or Snare Drum. Don't things sound cooler in Italian? Apparently the Europeans developed the Snare during the Crusades as their answer to the Bass Drum being wielded by the other side. Neil Peart would have been a General. The configuration is the same as the Bass with the single hits lower and the red and green keys being long rolls and crescendos With all due respect to the armies of the west, the snare has always sounded like a wimpy bass drum to me and it does here as well. You can hear a bit more bite as you move up through the velocity layers. The overall volume seems a bit low to me, though I suppose you don't want it overpowering the bass drum. As with the bass, the three mic perspectives feel significantly different and summing them gives more punch.
Moving on up to the Frame Drum, which seems like a big tambourine. You'll need to play with these keys to get the feel for them. Some of the keys seem to be more of a tambourine at low velocities and more of a drum at high velocities while other keys seem like a tambourines all the way. The red key is a long tambourine shake and the greens are kind of odd. At first I was scratching my head but then as I starting playing more, the Frame Drum kind of grew on me. It is interesting how the timbre changes across the velocity curve. Same solid mic work as the other drums. Note on the green especially here, there is a final hit on release so if you leave it too late the release sounds really weird. So time your release on green.
What is a Long Sheel Drum? Anyone know as I sure don't. It seems like a more relaxed version of the Bass Drum. You can play it loud without getting that bite you get at the loud end of the true bass. It sounds quite primitive to me and if you were scoring a film about native peoples of Africa some centuries ago this would fit the bill. As before single hits low, Red is a a roll and above red is supposed to be green but someone made a mistake and made it blue. Glad I'm not the only one who makes those mistakes! So high blue here is the crescendos.
Finally at the top we have miscellaneous rhythmic sounds. If you know what these are post them in the comments section. The C# is the handclap. Each round robin sounds a bit different and you can get a pretty cool handclap groove going. D# is the woodblock which sounds suspiciously like someone hitting a block of wood. E and F sound like fairly traditional drums with skins. I'm not sure what to make of C and D.
The releases are over long, but I'm assured that there will be a patch out to fix this issue.
Overall this sounds like some good Renaissance Percussion to me. The Frame and Sheel drums are different enough to be an interesting addition to most anyone's percussive library and the Bass and Snare are solid.
Back to the top
The Percussion 'Instrument' is quite large in Rinascimento clocking in at almost 2 gigs compressed. This is because the sample list tops 3700. More than any other instrument type percussion needs velocity layers and round robins as the sound changes quite dramatically from soft to hard and you can get the 'machine gun effect' very easily if you don't have a decent number of round robins. All the short articulations have 4 round robins and a sufficient number of velocity layers.
Until 200 years ago the Bass Drum was called the Turkish Drum as the Turkish military regiments were the first to use them. Apparently the sound hasn't changed all that much in the last 500 years as the Bass Drum sounds solidly thumpy (technical term). The Bass Drums are the first set of colored keys on the left. As with most drums here, the single hits are on the white, OK light blue, keys toward the bottom and the black keys and light keys as you go upwards tend to be multi-hits. The Red keys are what the manual calls 'Long rolls' and they aren't kidding as they run over 10 seconds and then loop so you could play that roll for the rest of your life. The Green G# is a crescendo / decrescendo while the A is a crescendo.
The Bass Drum generally benefits from some reverb and space. If you want bass without the boom, Close works nicely but as you move out to Mid you start getting the punch and Far does feel like you are in the back of the room with the sound hitting you in a few waves. Put all three together and you have some nice BOOM! What can I say, it's a big drum that sounds like a big drum.
Up next, keyboard right, is the Rullante or Snare Drum. Don't things sound cooler in Italian? Apparently the Europeans developed the Snare during the Crusades as their answer to the Bass Drum being wielded by the other side. Neil Peart would have been a General. The configuration is the same as the Bass with the single hits lower and the red and green keys being long rolls and crescendos With all due respect to the armies of the west, the snare has always sounded like a wimpy bass drum to me and it does here as well. You can hear a bit more bite as you move up through the velocity layers. The overall volume seems a bit low to me, though I suppose you don't want it overpowering the bass drum. As with the bass, the three mic perspectives feel significantly different and summing them gives more punch.
Moving on up to the Frame Drum, which seems like a big tambourine. You'll need to play with these keys to get the feel for them. Some of the keys seem to be more of a tambourine at low velocities and more of a drum at high velocities while other keys seem like a tambourines all the way. The red key is a long tambourine shake and the greens are kind of odd. At first I was scratching my head but then as I starting playing more, the Frame Drum kind of grew on me. It is interesting how the timbre changes across the velocity curve. Same solid mic work as the other drums. Note on the green especially here, there is a final hit on release so if you leave it too late the release sounds really weird. So time your release on green.
What is a Long Sheel Drum? Anyone know as I sure don't. It seems like a more relaxed version of the Bass Drum. You can play it loud without getting that bite you get at the loud end of the true bass. It sounds quite primitive to me and if you were scoring a film about native peoples of Africa some centuries ago this would fit the bill. As before single hits low, Red is a a roll and above red is supposed to be green but someone made a mistake and made it blue. Glad I'm not the only one who makes those mistakes! So high blue here is the crescendos.
Finally at the top we have miscellaneous rhythmic sounds. If you know what these are post them in the comments section. The C# is the handclap. Each round robin sounds a bit different and you can get a pretty cool handclap groove going. D# is the woodblock which sounds suspiciously like someone hitting a block of wood. E and F sound like fairly traditional drums with skins. I'm not sure what to make of C and D.
The releases are over long, but I'm assured that there will be a patch out to fix this issue.
Overall this sounds like some good Renaissance Percussion to me. The Frame and Sheel drums are different enough to be an interesting addition to most anyone's percussive library and the Bass and Snare are solid.
Back to the top
bigcat review
Just what I need another blog. I hope this one will be a bit different. You won't find free instruments here, but rather reviews of whatever happens to strike my fancy. I suspect mostly this will be digital musical instruments. I've acquired many instrument across the last few years and now I want to focus on actually going through and playing around with each one. Analyzing the strengths and weakness and simply enjoying them. Since I tend a focus better if I write down my thoughts and I tend to have a poor memory, it can good for me to make notes about the instruments. So why not inflict... err... share them with my friends on a blog.
As I'm barely a musician if at all, just learning the rudiments of composition and mostly known as a freebie developer with limited knowledge even there, it might be odd for me to do a review site. However the advantage to being a neophyte is that you tend to have a sense of wonder and a more down to earth approach that can different than that of the truly brilliant and well trained musician. With my experience of making instruments I also have a deep appreciation for the wonderful and often massive projects that are available to use today in the digital musical world. As a small developer I might also have some insights into technical matters that the reviewer from a regular background might not notice.
I will be picky at times and will sometimes examine at the trees while trying to remember to focus on the forest as well. If I offend any developers I apologize. I really do respect what you do and the immense efforts that going into many of these productions. I am not however anyone's cheerleader nor being paid and I believe that honesty can sometime be lacking in reviews, so I'll call them as I see them.
Note that the reviews will be somewhat backwards as they are posted. Since blogs are by nature backwards, my first post of a review will often be the instruments that usually come at the back end of review such as percussion in an orchestral review and the last thing I write will be both the conclusion and introduction.
As I'm barely a musician if at all, just learning the rudiments of composition and mostly known as a freebie developer with limited knowledge even there, it might be odd for me to do a review site. However the advantage to being a neophyte is that you tend to have a sense of wonder and a more down to earth approach that can different than that of the truly brilliant and well trained musician. With my experience of making instruments I also have a deep appreciation for the wonderful and often massive projects that are available to use today in the digital musical world. As a small developer I might also have some insights into technical matters that the reviewer from a regular background might not notice.
I will be picky at times and will sometimes examine at the trees while trying to remember to focus on the forest as well. If I offend any developers I apologize. I really do respect what you do and the immense efforts that going into many of these productions. I am not however anyone's cheerleader nor being paid and I believe that honesty can sometime be lacking in reviews, so I'll call them as I see them.
Note that the reviews will be somewhat backwards as they are posted. Since blogs are by nature backwards, my first post of a review will often be the instruments that usually come at the back end of review such as percussion in an orchestral review and the last thing I write will be both the conclusion and introduction.
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