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
No comments:
Post a Comment