While Swing More! is focused on Brass and Sax, there are also three strings a bowing, two pianos a swinging, a ladies chorus singing and a drummer on a drum stool. We will get to the drummer later.
The Swing Piano has almost 10,000 samples and is over 6 gigs compressed and so it is far from an afterthought. With 6 velocity layers and 2 round robins it works well as a piano in this setting but can't compete the plethora of high end solo pianos that are sold separately by about every vendor on earth. In that regard it is your typical orchestral package piano, well if that orchestra swings. The Warm Piano is just the lower mid velocity range of the piano stripped of the high velocity samples. It is a one trick pony, but a pleasant one that will eat sugar cubes from your hand. They both have Close and Room mic settings.
The swing piano seems to be a bit sharper and brighter than my beloved Steinways but with less resonance and power. I have no idea what it is, but it seems to cut through the mix fairly well and play some little tinkly stuff at the top end. If you want some extra tinkle at the top end crank up the Sparkle knob. It has some growl on the low end, but nothing like a Concert Steinway or Bosendorfer. The piano does have a Concert setting that seems to add a bit more to the bottom end and mellow out the top a bit.
Cycling through the snapshots is fun. The Gloomy snapshot would sound great for a haunted house. The Vintage snapshot sounds like you are listening to a piano coming from an old time radio. The Modern snapshot cuts all reverb and adds the stereo effect and limiting. The Lo Ram snapshot just messes up the loaded samples which is just annoying.
The Strings are passable for background work, but they don't sound real. They are more like a nice string patch from a good synth than actual strings. Maybe this is unfair since swing strings aren't supposed to be orchestral, but when I listened to the strings in Swing More and then to the strings in Inspire and Anthology, the difference was painfully obvious. This is sad because there was obviously a ton of work put into the strings especially the legatos.
I would note that as I played with them some more I discovered some ways to improve the strings, especially the staccatos, well at least in my opinion. Pulling the Attack down to a lower level, say 0.32 ms helped to make the staccato attack more crisp and bumping up the reverb just a touch seemed to create a more pleasing sound. Don't go too high on the reverb or you will create mush. Finally going halfway on the mic slider bar so you have all three mic positions about equal seemed to create the best sound.
The All Strings Patch has 3 articulations, Sustain, Tremolo and Staccato and weighs in at over 5,000 samples and almost 2 gigs. There are violins, celli and basses, but no violas. This lack of violas hurts the transition from the meatier bass instruments to the thinner violins. Per usual there are 3 mic positions. The modwheel crossfade across the 4 velocity layers works quite well. At the top of the modwheel, the strings have a nice bite and fade easily down to the softer and smoother layers. The Staccato seems to be somewhat effected by both the velocity and the modwheel.It has 3 or 4 round robins.
About the lack of violas, while the viola isn't nearly the solo instrument that the violin is, it is an excellent support instrument and a necessary bridge in an full strings patch between the cello and the violin. The upper end of most instruments tends to become more shrill and weaker. To me this is especially true of the cello and the violin. While you are going to have to go high on the violin, you don't need to on the cello since you can transition from cello to viola while still in the cello's 'golden' range. Also the viola isn't tuned that much lower than the violin, so you can keep the viola as the violin's support instrument for many octaves. Having no violas in a string patch is like trying to play defensive football without linebackers.
The B1 and C2 Staccatos sound quite odd.
The Violins - Articulations has modwheel controlled 4 velocity Sustain, 3 velocity Tremolo and 3 velocity, 3 round robin Staccato that is velocity sensitive. These are basically the violins from the All Strings patch. Passable especially with a few tweaks and nice modwheel control.
The Violins - Legato Arco is heavily sampled with over 7,500 and almost 1.50 gigs of samples. There are a massive amount of true legato samples for both the fast polyphonic and slur monophonic legatos. The fast is pretty much what you expect out of a fast legato, but the slur is quite different with a sort if 'wah' effect as you slide along the string. I've heard slurs in brass, but I don't recall ever hearing them for strings. It is an interesting articulation that you can have some fun with. You need to understand strings in swing better than I to fully appreciate what it is for.
When you are playing Fast Legato, Do It Fast! Give it maybe a tenth of a second when both keys are held down. It is polyphonic which can be quite nice, but if you hold the go into the legato note too long it is just two notes playing at once which isn't what you want. Also I notice that the p - mf seems to sound better than the ff legato for some reason.
There is a glitch in the Slur Legato which doesn't loop, though the samples are plenty long, that the release sample will still play after the original sustain sample was faded to nothing. So if you would the notes too long you get an odd audio bump at the end. Also some of the slur sustains are noisy at the end. So I guess the lesson is don't hold the slur sustains for over 5 seconds, which to be fair you probably wouldn't do anyway.
The Violins - Legato Tremolo brings the Fast Legato to the stuttering Tremolo strings. My arm gets tired just listening to those violinists play. Like the Arco Legato this has tons of true sampled legato that seems to work fairly well. With all that high speed tremolo going on I wasn't sure how it would work, but things seem to sync up OK. There are three modwheel controlled velocity layers here.
Celli and Basses - Articulations sounds passible and quite meaty. In addition to 3 velocity layer modwheel Sustain and Tremolo articulations and the the 3 layer, 4 round robin Staccato there is a Pizzicato articulation with 4 round robins though only 2 velocity layers.
There is also a standalone version of the Pizzicato called Jazzy Pizz and Legato Arco for the low strings. Like the violin legatos these are truly sampled for each legato transition. These are the fast legato that last maybe 250 milliseconds, so once you trigger that transition release the old note fast.
Not to beat a dead horse, but this string section has passable sound for the purpose of background strings in a big band setting but nothing more. Project Sam is the sampling house that brought us Symphobia so they clearly know their way around strings, so I'm disappointed in the mediocre sound here.
Moving along to the Legato Ladies with 2,500 true legato samples and weighing in at half a gig. Sorry to mention weight ladies. These svelte ladies (forgive me now?) can sing Ooh and Mmm in both legato and polyphonic articulations. There don't seem to be any round robins or velocity layers save for the bends.
The polyphonic patch is nice, but the real star here is the monophonic legato here as it is very fine in both tone and transitions. It has much longer transition samples than violin as they push to almost a full second and this really seems to help the legato work more smoothly. It is better to play at this legato a bit slower. While only an octave and a half in range and only having two 'vowels', I can see using this little choral group for things beyond swing as they have a sweet sound.
Oddly the Oh ladies can Bend it like Beckham with whole and half tone bends, while the Mm ladies only sing a single tone. The bending can cause some odd effects on the legato side of things and you need to be careful of going too loud or soft on your velocity as the soft velocity trigger the half step and the loud velocity triggers the whole step. This is a situation where adding a separate keyswitch for the bendy notes might have been a better idea than putting them all in one articulation. Still especially when entering notes in your DAW or orchestration software it is easy enough not to trigger the bends.
So in summery.
A nice Swing Piano that doesn't have quite enough velocity layers or round robins to really stand on its own but should work nicely in the context of this package. Also a Warm Piano based on some of the softer velocity layers for a different sound.
A String Section sans violas that is passable for backup.
A sweet Legato Ladies Vocal Group that can probably be appropriated for other uses in your virtual musical world.
Monday, July 31, 2017
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Swing More Percussion
Big Band Drum Kit here we come. Some things in music I like to believe I sort of understand, but Jazzy and Swinging type drumming doesn't fall under that category. However I've been seeking out videos of the great drummers and studying them a bit on Youtube along with using some midis and whacking on my keyboard keys as research into sound and style.
The virtuosity of some of these drummers is amazing and I get that truly great drummers of this style can do all kinds of funky things with their drum kits that can't be completely emulated in a VST. However the Big Band Drum Kit seems to capture the sound and style fairly well. Note that it uses Sticks as the Brush Kit is in the original Swing! library. The sound is very close to what I'm hearing on the videos and what I heard when I compared it to Native Instruments Vintage Drummer which I believe has drum kits from roughly the same era and also has jazz and swing presets. When placed in a well programmed midi it sounds quite realistic however if you don't do some volume variation and overuse the cymbals you might start noticing that it sounds a bit artificial.
The variety of sound is helped by a goodly number of round robins as most of the pieces of the kit have 5 to 9 round robins for each type of hit. However the velocity curve and the variety are harmed by having only 6 velocity layers for most of the drums. It is a bit of an odd trade off in that most drums tend to have 16 velocity layers and maybe 3 to 5 round robins. The NI kits mentioned earlier tend to have 12 to 20 velocity layers and usually 3 though up to 6 round robins. They also have more articulations and about 8 times the samples of this Big Band Kit. As I suspect I will say several times in this review, remember you write blogs backwards, this is a solid instrument with a good sound that fits in well with the other instruments in the package, but it isn't to the level of the high end solo drums.
That said these drums seem to have more of a live feel than the in studio sound of many other drums and that does fit in well with the whole collection which seems to strive to have the feel of a live big band. When mixed in with the bass and the horns and the rest, it certainly sounds like a solid drummer is doing his thing. Well as long as you put a little effort into the tracks.
One of the cool things about the kit is the bottom two playable keys, the mod wheel controlled Snare Rolls that let you work your way up and down through the six velocity layers in real time. They might have been a bit louder across the board, but are quite fun to play with.
As with the rest of the library the Drums have three mic positions which blend well. They are Direct, Ambient and Wide. As mentioned there are generally 6 velocity layers and 5 to 9 round robins. The raw numbers are 3,332 Samples and 0.83 gigs. That's probably pushing toward 2 gigs uncompressed.
The keys aren't exactly in GM order so here is a list of what keys make what noise...
F0: Snare Roll Long Close - Modwheel
F#0: Snare Roll Long Open - Modwheel
G0: Snare Roll Mid
G#0: Snare Roll Short
A0: Fingersnap
A#0: Drum Sticks
B0: Kick Open
C1: Kick Damp
C#1: Rim Click
D1: Snare Middle Open
D#1: Snare Rimshot 2
E1: Snare Rimshot 1
F1: Floor Tom 2
F#1: High Hat Closed Side
G1: Floor Tom 1
G#1: High Hat Pedal Closed
A1: Tom 1
A#1: High Hat Open Side
B1: Floor Tom 1 Rimshot
C2: Tom 1 Rimshot
C#2: Crash 2 Let Ring Sind
D2: Snare Rimshot 2 FF Click
D#2: Ride 1 Let Ring
E2: China Sustain
F2: Ride 1 Bell
F#2: Crash 2 Short Damp
G2: China Short Damp
G#2: Crash 1 Short Damp
A2: Crash 1 Let Ring
A#2: High Hat Pedal Half Open
B2: High Hat Pedal Open
There are also Crazy Endings and Grooves. I've never really gotten into the whole making music by dragging premade loops around thing. However if you are going to do something like that it makes the most sense for drums. Many folks I suspect use some form of premade drum track like a repeating midi pattern or such and don't play in every drumbeat themselves or, heaven for fend, enter every single drum stroke by hand into their midi. At any rate you might find some use here especially as the groove usually occupy the lower part of the keyboard and the breaks the top even though it doesn't list breaks. The breaks might sound pretty good in a production as long as you can keep them from being jarring as they are a real drummer breaking the monotony of the computerized drum beat. The Ends are just two ending breaks and / or final hits.
The Vibraphone is quite nice. Both the Sustain and Staccato articulations have 6 velocity layers. The sustains have 2 round robins while the staccatos have 6. With 4,392 samples using 1.35 gigs compressed this is a surprisingly heavily sampled Vibraphone. There are up and down runs and tremolo repeated notes. There are two mic positions, Close and Room. Other than the close being louder I can't tell that much difference. The staccatos sound a bit dull to me but you can brighten them up a bit with the sparkle Knob. The sustains have a nice bright tone but can be difficult to access, more on that below.
The irritating thing for me as that the sustains require a foot pedal to activate. The default is the staccato and there is no way get sustains without pressing down on the pesky pedal or is there...
Well an advantage to being a little dev along with being an alleged reviewer is I can roll patches and share them with you. Here is my little work around which enables Sustains by pushing the modwheel to the top. Up is sustain and down is staccato. The modwheel still also controls the filter, but there isn't anything I can do about that. Drop the patch in your percussion folder and it should work. The easiest way to open your percussion folder is to right click on the Vibraphone.nki instead of double clicking to open it and choose 'Open containing folder'.
Vibraphone Modwheel Sustain Patch
If you turn up the Motor knob when using sustain you will get a funky wah effect on the low notes especially. If you crank up Reverb and Sparkle you get a sort of other worldly crystalline effect especially on the higher notes. If you crank up Motor, Reverb and Sparkle you get the effect of a goldfish driving a motor boat.
I have a friend who loves Bongos and he would definitely enjoy the Bongo and Conga patch. To help you avoid embarrassing mistakes in live concert, the Congas are on the bottom of the keyboard and the Bongos are on the top. It is pretty easy to get a good sounding rhythm going once you play around a bit with the multitudinous variety of available hit types. Do you call them hits?
There are all kinds of fun hits, soft, hard, quick, multi and even rolls. The Congas have high and low hits for open, damped, palm, flam and tip. The Bongos high and low for stick, regular, damped, flam and mallet along with a fun stick bounce. If you know what all that means please let us know in the comment section. Except for the rolls, the bongos and congas have 4 to 6 velocity layers and 4 round robins.
Moving on, I suspect if you are a lover of percussion, the Small Percussion Kit might excite you, but I have trouble getting too pumped up about Chimes, Maracas, Cabasas, Agogos and Plastic & Wooden Shakers. They are certainly nice to have, but I doubt anyway bought Swing More! just to get their hands on a Plastic Shaker. At any rate there are fast and slow shakes and rolls depending on the instrument. The chimes have longer sweeps up all the chimes or the tinkling of individual chimes.
These have the usual three mic positions. The velocity layers and round robins are all over the place from non-existent for the chimes to 6 velocity layers and 3 round robins for the Agogos. The Cabasas are really odd in that the first RR has 5 velocity layers, the second has 4 and the third has 3.
The bulk of the small percussion is in the bottom blue area with the chimes in the middle and the individual chimes on the top. There is a glitch on D#1 where the second round robin of the Maracas Medium doesn't sound so it only plays every other time you call for it.
So in summery.
A solid Drum Kit without enough velocity layers to be a true solo kit.
Crazy Endings and Grooves which might work for something but likely not.
A surprisingly well sampled Vibraphone with Sustains that might make their way into your regular palette.
Bongos and Congos that would have Ricky Ricardo smiling.
A Small Percussion Kit that is well a small percussion kit.
For a full summery of the whole package go back to the top. Presuming of course I actually wrote the first blog post.
The virtuosity of some of these drummers is amazing and I get that truly great drummers of this style can do all kinds of funky things with their drum kits that can't be completely emulated in a VST. However the Big Band Drum Kit seems to capture the sound and style fairly well. Note that it uses Sticks as the Brush Kit is in the original Swing! library. The sound is very close to what I'm hearing on the videos and what I heard when I compared it to Native Instruments Vintage Drummer which I believe has drum kits from roughly the same era and also has jazz and swing presets. When placed in a well programmed midi it sounds quite realistic however if you don't do some volume variation and overuse the cymbals you might start noticing that it sounds a bit artificial.
The variety of sound is helped by a goodly number of round robins as most of the pieces of the kit have 5 to 9 round robins for each type of hit. However the velocity curve and the variety are harmed by having only 6 velocity layers for most of the drums. It is a bit of an odd trade off in that most drums tend to have 16 velocity layers and maybe 3 to 5 round robins. The NI kits mentioned earlier tend to have 12 to 20 velocity layers and usually 3 though up to 6 round robins. They also have more articulations and about 8 times the samples of this Big Band Kit. As I suspect I will say several times in this review, remember you write blogs backwards, this is a solid instrument with a good sound that fits in well with the other instruments in the package, but it isn't to the level of the high end solo drums.
That said these drums seem to have more of a live feel than the in studio sound of many other drums and that does fit in well with the whole collection which seems to strive to have the feel of a live big band. When mixed in with the bass and the horns and the rest, it certainly sounds like a solid drummer is doing his thing. Well as long as you put a little effort into the tracks.
One of the cool things about the kit is the bottom two playable keys, the mod wheel controlled Snare Rolls that let you work your way up and down through the six velocity layers in real time. They might have been a bit louder across the board, but are quite fun to play with.
As with the rest of the library the Drums have three mic positions which blend well. They are Direct, Ambient and Wide. As mentioned there are generally 6 velocity layers and 5 to 9 round robins. The raw numbers are 3,332 Samples and 0.83 gigs. That's probably pushing toward 2 gigs uncompressed.
The keys aren't exactly in GM order so here is a list of what keys make what noise...
F0: Snare Roll Long Close - Modwheel
F#0: Snare Roll Long Open - Modwheel
G0: Snare Roll Mid
G#0: Snare Roll Short
A0: Fingersnap
A#0: Drum Sticks
B0: Kick Open
C1: Kick Damp
C#1: Rim Click
D1: Snare Middle Open
D#1: Snare Rimshot 2
E1: Snare Rimshot 1
F1: Floor Tom 2
F#1: High Hat Closed Side
G1: Floor Tom 1
G#1: High Hat Pedal Closed
A1: Tom 1
A#1: High Hat Open Side
B1: Floor Tom 1 Rimshot
C2: Tom 1 Rimshot
C#2: Crash 2 Let Ring Sind
D2: Snare Rimshot 2 FF Click
D#2: Ride 1 Let Ring
E2: China Sustain
F2: Ride 1 Bell
F#2: Crash 2 Short Damp
G2: China Short Damp
G#2: Crash 1 Short Damp
A2: Crash 1 Let Ring
A#2: High Hat Pedal Half Open
B2: High Hat Pedal Open
There are also Crazy Endings and Grooves. I've never really gotten into the whole making music by dragging premade loops around thing. However if you are going to do something like that it makes the most sense for drums. Many folks I suspect use some form of premade drum track like a repeating midi pattern or such and don't play in every drumbeat themselves or, heaven for fend, enter every single drum stroke by hand into their midi. At any rate you might find some use here especially as the groove usually occupy the lower part of the keyboard and the breaks the top even though it doesn't list breaks. The breaks might sound pretty good in a production as long as you can keep them from being jarring as they are a real drummer breaking the monotony of the computerized drum beat. The Ends are just two ending breaks and / or final hits.
The Vibraphone is quite nice. Both the Sustain and Staccato articulations have 6 velocity layers. The sustains have 2 round robins while the staccatos have 6. With 4,392 samples using 1.35 gigs compressed this is a surprisingly heavily sampled Vibraphone. There are up and down runs and tremolo repeated notes. There are two mic positions, Close and Room. Other than the close being louder I can't tell that much difference. The staccatos sound a bit dull to me but you can brighten them up a bit with the sparkle Knob. The sustains have a nice bright tone but can be difficult to access, more on that below.
The irritating thing for me as that the sustains require a foot pedal to activate. The default is the staccato and there is no way get sustains without pressing down on the pesky pedal or is there...
Well an advantage to being a little dev along with being an alleged reviewer is I can roll patches and share them with you. Here is my little work around which enables Sustains by pushing the modwheel to the top. Up is sustain and down is staccato. The modwheel still also controls the filter, but there isn't anything I can do about that. Drop the patch in your percussion folder and it should work. The easiest way to open your percussion folder is to right click on the Vibraphone.nki instead of double clicking to open it and choose 'Open containing folder'.
Vibraphone Modwheel Sustain Patch
If you turn up the Motor knob when using sustain you will get a funky wah effect on the low notes especially. If you crank up Reverb and Sparkle you get a sort of other worldly crystalline effect especially on the higher notes. If you crank up Motor, Reverb and Sparkle you get the effect of a goldfish driving a motor boat.
I have a friend who loves Bongos and he would definitely enjoy the Bongo and Conga patch. To help you avoid embarrassing mistakes in live concert, the Congas are on the bottom of the keyboard and the Bongos are on the top. It is pretty easy to get a good sounding rhythm going once you play around a bit with the multitudinous variety of available hit types. Do you call them hits?
There are all kinds of fun hits, soft, hard, quick, multi and even rolls. The Congas have high and low hits for open, damped, palm, flam and tip. The Bongos high and low for stick, regular, damped, flam and mallet along with a fun stick bounce. If you know what all that means please let us know in the comment section. Except for the rolls, the bongos and congas have 4 to 6 velocity layers and 4 round robins.
Moving on, I suspect if you are a lover of percussion, the Small Percussion Kit might excite you, but I have trouble getting too pumped up about Chimes, Maracas, Cabasas, Agogos and Plastic & Wooden Shakers. They are certainly nice to have, but I doubt anyway bought Swing More! just to get their hands on a Plastic Shaker. At any rate there are fast and slow shakes and rolls depending on the instrument. The chimes have longer sweeps up all the chimes or the tinkling of individual chimes.
These have the usual three mic positions. The velocity layers and round robins are all over the place from non-existent for the chimes to 6 velocity layers and 3 round robins for the Agogos. The Cabasas are really odd in that the first RR has 5 velocity layers, the second has 4 and the third has 3.
The bulk of the small percussion is in the bottom blue area with the chimes in the middle and the individual chimes on the top. There is a glitch on D#1 where the second round robin of the Maracas Medium doesn't sound so it only plays every other time you call for it.
So in summery.
A solid Drum Kit without enough velocity layers to be a true solo kit.
Crazy Endings and Grooves which might work for something but likely not.
A surprisingly well sampled Vibraphone with Sustains that might make their way into your regular palette.
Bongos and Congos that would have Ricky Ricardo smiling.
A Small Percussion Kit that is well a small percussion kit.
For a full summery of the whole package go back to the top. Presuming of course I actually wrote the first blog post.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Rinascimento Intro, Outro and Overview
Just a note. I'm not the happy mouthpiece of any company trying to sell you something, though hey review copies are welcome but I'll be just as me in those reviews. (I bought Rinascimento out of my own Visa, but was given a review copy of Dominus.) I'm a slightly grumpy, poor (in many ways) composer, musician, developer who enjoys new instruments. To quote the old baseball announcer, "I calls 'em as I sees 'em." So I do nitpick and complain. Also I'm no grammarian so yes there are mistakes scattered throughout. Point them out as you find them in the comments and you will get a glorious no-prize.
Since I am a tiny dev and am learning to compose (I hope), I do tend to dig deeper into the instruments than most reviewers. I will and do open up Kontakt to see what is underneath the instrument and play individual samples. I bet no other reviewer has ever pulled a mass of legato samples apart just to see how many there were and how they sounded by themselves. The answers, a ton of samples and they sound weird by themselves. It is sort of like a mechanic writing a review of a car. A different, grubbier perspective.
Since a blog is written backwards in time, I've had a chance to listen to and play with all three dozen or so toys in this massive collection that Summer Santa and Visa brought to my computer. The verdict is a Definite Recommendation if you are looking for authentic sounding Medieval and Renaissance instruments and don't already own ERA II Medieval Legends. Even if you do own ERA II or don't exactly need realistic medieval instruments this package is still fun and potentially useful romp. More on that in a moment.
What Rinascimento covers extensively is Lutes and Flutes. There are 7 lutes and 15 woodwinds, flutes and reeds. There is also a nice set of keys with a solid organ, a little organ, harpsichord and virginal. The Brass and Strings have fewer instruments with 2 Brass and 3 Strings, but the predecessor versions of the Trombone, Violin and Viola are very nice and worth owning. Plus there is a Hurdy Gurdy which is well... a unique instrument. There is also a nice Percussion patch with four drums and other sundries.
In general the tone of Rinascimento is quite nice. I have a buddy who is an actual musician who plays these instruments and his initial thoughts based on the demos was nice Lutes and Percussion and nice but possibly unnecessary Organ, but average Flutes and poor Reeds. With my more limited knowledge I tend to agree, though the Flutes sound fine to me. The Reeds can get quite buzzy, especially close, compared to what I've heard listening to some Youtube videos. Still that makes them a bit interesting if you want a buzzier sound.
What makes this a really useful library is the Microphones. There are Close, Mid and Far mics and they can be mixed and matched in any combination. I was surprised that many of the Woodwinds actually change tone quite a lot based on the mic position. For instance in a blind test I don't think I would have known that the Alto Crumhorn was the same instrument Close and Far. Up Close it had a buzzy, gnarly, don't mess with me sound, while on Far mic it sound like a more casual, friendly horn. This of course helps address the earlier buzzy sounding complaint. I would definitely suggest using the mic mix to modify the tone as it can have a greater effect than just giving the illusion of distance.
The other huge selling point of this library is the Legato. For Woodwinds, Brass and Strings there is a true legato. That is the transitions and the held notes were recorded for each transition from tone to tone. This makes for an especially nice legato. Many instruments have a faked legato, which I use on my own instruments and while a nice effect and better than nothing, it doesn't sound 'real'. From chatting a bit via email with Paolo, one of the nicest guys in all of Europe, he explained that the legato was "full sustain legato". I won't go into the details of what this means, since I don't really understand myself, but this gives a very natural legato transition that is one of the selling points of many Fluffy Audio Instrument Strings and Woodwinds. It is almost a trademark sound.
On that note, the thing you have to do when you are playing longs in Rinascimento is to use that Legato. Repeatedly hitting say an E note for a second, releasing and hitting it again won't sound good as it is simply playing the same sustain sample. On the other hand imagine you start with the E and then go legato down to C, then D and resolve to E, then G, back to E and C and back to E. Every single E was a different sample.I'm not sure how many legato notes there are but an average 750 sample instrument might have 30 sustain, 120 staccato and 600 legato samples. This is true legato with a different recorded note for every tone across an octave or so. And the Legato really is impressive once you figure it out. Play with it, adjust the parameters and you will start enjoying the amazing tweekability and the resulting sound. And it solves the same sample too many times thing.
In my email with Paolo, he also explained that these types of primitive instruments are significantly different than modern instruments and require different sampling techniques. Most Medieval instruments apparently tended to sound good only if played in a certain way and 'at a precise dynamic'. So you don't need or even want velocity layers on many of these instruments as too much or too little force can make the instrument sound terrible. It is the ability to play dynamically that is one of the prime differences between modern and primitive instruments. Also many of these instruments were limited in scale and range and unless you wanted to drill new holes in the woodwinds you couldn't chromatically sample them. So the instruments were sampled in their natural scales and ranges and then the closest sample was used for the non-sampled keys so you wouldn't have any dead keys.
I do want to mention how much I appreciated Paolo's attitude. I questioned many design choices and other things which could justifiably upset a developer. Paolo was constantly kind and informative to a somewhat annoying customer and I was. He didn't know I was writing a review, nor did I at the time. (I will ask his permission to quote him.) So he was simply answering a customer in far more depth than an average developer would ever go. If you like good Customer relations, this is your developer.
Another thing Fluffy Audio likes to do is make interfaces that allow for a lot of customization. I like the fact that you can change the dynamic range. As mentioned earlier, these instruments tended to have a limited dynamic range and often this library reflects that with a smaller range than I'm used to. Sometimes I like, however unrealistically, to be able to go quite soft. The adjustment lets me go all the way to -102 db which is lower than you would ever want, but -60 can give you a nice dynamic contrast from pp to ff. Another nice feature is a velocity curve that you can draw in with your mouse. Make any weird curve you want.
It should be noted that Vibrato is a modern idea. In the 'olde' days if you played vibrato, you were a crummy musician who couldn't hold a tone. The legend is that Vibrato was invented to make a louder sound for the old wax cylinder recordings since they needed much louder sounds than a traditional violin could produce. Also the good Violinists refused to record and the lousy ones had a natural vibrato. So play it loud and play it vibrato became the watchword. All the kids heard this growing up and thought vibrato was the way it was done. So now we are stuck with it in violins and opera. Anyway if you want be a crummy player and emulate wax cylinder recordings, Rinascimento has a decent faked vibrato setting with some twiddle controls to adjust.
Now if you do own the ERA the Second, should you buy Rinascimento? I don't have ERA II, so my thoughts on it are based on reading the manual, reading reviews and user comments and listening to demos. After having written the previous sentence I tried the Best Service Try where they let you play with some of their instruments for 20 minutes. This is a great service for free and much appreciated. While 20 minutes isn't long especially with some lag, it still gave me a better idea of the sound and feel of some of the instruments.
ERA II has more instruments and more articulations which is certainly a plus. It only has one mic position which is the biggest negative. However the big difference to me is tone. ERA II sounds like what Hollywood thinks Medieval and Renaissance Europe sounded like. That tone is nice but unreal. The sales page for ERA II speaks about the collection being like a fantasy novel and I think this is true. For a high fantasy sound of Medieval times and movie soundscapes, ERA II is the way to go. Elves would love this.
On the other hand Rinascimento has fewer instruments and articulations and lacks sustain round robins. What it does have is authenticity. This is much closer to what it did sound like. I'm actually something of a historian and Rinascimento takes me to plague-ridden, dirt-poor peasant laden, meed in my cup after a brutal day, a motley group of traveling minstrels on stage desperately playing lutes and flutes and banging drums for a meal and tips Europe. Was that a run-on sentence? For real world and low fantasy Medieval this is the way to go. Dwarfs would love this.
Rinascimento also has 3 well recorded mic positions that blend well together in any combination and work well on their own. The other thing Rinascimento has is a killer legato. It can be hard to tell on a fairly short internet session how good ERA 2's legato is, but from what I heard it seemed decent but not to the level of the Rinascimento legato.
And it has flexibility. The Articulation Creator screen is quite nice and can add a lot if you dig into it. It lets you adjust many aspects of the legato such as what the legato fades in and out of and how long it takes and the release, add and adjust vibrato and other things. It also lets you simply roll your own articulation choosing from legato, instant (a legato insert) and polyphonic. Then you can pick from the various articulations like sustain, legato, staccato, tongued and save it all when you are done. There is also a flexible auto-strummer for the lutes.
So ERA 2 is more instruments and more fantasy. Rinascimento is more mics and more Medieval. I think they both are great projects, they are just a little different in focus.
If you are just taking a look but don't really need a more authentic Medieval and Renaissance instruments, you might be interested in these instruments to diversify your palette in much the way world instruments can add colors to your music. It has been said that the past is a foreign land and you can definitely hear that in this pack. Actually many of these instruments have their origins in or were influenced by non-European cultures. Even the instruments like the violin, viola and trombone which evolved into modern instruments have a distinct feel that can add an other worldly quality to a soundtrack or game music.
If like me you love exploring music and hearing new things, there are lots of great adventures hear. Plus these are tweak-able toys that let you take out your mad scientist hat and play. This partly because of the flexibility of the interface, the legato and being able to roll your own articulations, but also because combining the instruments into different combinations can bring out new variations on the sounds. Take a bass guitar solo and it isn't much, add it too a band with drums, keys and rhythm and lead guitars and now you have something. Ask the Beatles. Experiment and let us know your favorite combinations.
Part 2 - Lutes
Part 3 - Strings
Part 4 - Flutes
Part 5 -Reeds
Part 6 - Brass
Part 7- Keys
Part 8 - Percussion
Since I am a tiny dev and am learning to compose (I hope), I do tend to dig deeper into the instruments than most reviewers. I will and do open up Kontakt to see what is underneath the instrument and play individual samples. I bet no other reviewer has ever pulled a mass of legato samples apart just to see how many there were and how they sounded by themselves. The answers, a ton of samples and they sound weird by themselves. It is sort of like a mechanic writing a review of a car. A different, grubbier perspective.
Since a blog is written backwards in time, I've had a chance to listen to and play with all three dozen or so toys in this massive collection that Summer Santa and Visa brought to my computer. The verdict is a Definite Recommendation if you are looking for authentic sounding Medieval and Renaissance instruments and don't already own ERA II Medieval Legends. Even if you do own ERA II or don't exactly need realistic medieval instruments this package is still fun and potentially useful romp. More on that in a moment.
What Rinascimento covers extensively is Lutes and Flutes. There are 7 lutes and 15 woodwinds, flutes and reeds. There is also a nice set of keys with a solid organ, a little organ, harpsichord and virginal. The Brass and Strings have fewer instruments with 2 Brass and 3 Strings, but the predecessor versions of the Trombone, Violin and Viola are very nice and worth owning. Plus there is a Hurdy Gurdy which is well... a unique instrument. There is also a nice Percussion patch with four drums and other sundries.
In general the tone of Rinascimento is quite nice. I have a buddy who is an actual musician who plays these instruments and his initial thoughts based on the demos was nice Lutes and Percussion and nice but possibly unnecessary Organ, but average Flutes and poor Reeds. With my more limited knowledge I tend to agree, though the Flutes sound fine to me. The Reeds can get quite buzzy, especially close, compared to what I've heard listening to some Youtube videos. Still that makes them a bit interesting if you want a buzzier sound.
What makes this a really useful library is the Microphones. There are Close, Mid and Far mics and they can be mixed and matched in any combination. I was surprised that many of the Woodwinds actually change tone quite a lot based on the mic position. For instance in a blind test I don't think I would have known that the Alto Crumhorn was the same instrument Close and Far. Up Close it had a buzzy, gnarly, don't mess with me sound, while on Far mic it sound like a more casual, friendly horn. This of course helps address the earlier buzzy sounding complaint. I would definitely suggest using the mic mix to modify the tone as it can have a greater effect than just giving the illusion of distance.
The other huge selling point of this library is the Legato. For Woodwinds, Brass and Strings there is a true legato. That is the transitions and the held notes were recorded for each transition from tone to tone. This makes for an especially nice legato. Many instruments have a faked legato, which I use on my own instruments and while a nice effect and better than nothing, it doesn't sound 'real'. From chatting a bit via email with Paolo, one of the nicest guys in all of Europe, he explained that the legato was "full sustain legato". I won't go into the details of what this means, since I don't really understand myself, but this gives a very natural legato transition that is one of the selling points of many Fluffy Audio Instrument Strings and Woodwinds. It is almost a trademark sound.
On that note, the thing you have to do when you are playing longs in Rinascimento is to use that Legato. Repeatedly hitting say an E note for a second, releasing and hitting it again won't sound good as it is simply playing the same sustain sample. On the other hand imagine you start with the E and then go legato down to C, then D and resolve to E, then G, back to E and C and back to E. Every single E was a different sample.I'm not sure how many legato notes there are but an average 750 sample instrument might have 30 sustain, 120 staccato and 600 legato samples. This is true legato with a different recorded note for every tone across an octave or so. And the Legato really is impressive once you figure it out. Play with it, adjust the parameters and you will start enjoying the amazing tweekability and the resulting sound. And it solves the same sample too many times thing.
In my email with Paolo, he also explained that these types of primitive instruments are significantly different than modern instruments and require different sampling techniques. Most Medieval instruments apparently tended to sound good only if played in a certain way and 'at a precise dynamic'. So you don't need or even want velocity layers on many of these instruments as too much or too little force can make the instrument sound terrible. It is the ability to play dynamically that is one of the prime differences between modern and primitive instruments. Also many of these instruments were limited in scale and range and unless you wanted to drill new holes in the woodwinds you couldn't chromatically sample them. So the instruments were sampled in their natural scales and ranges and then the closest sample was used for the non-sampled keys so you wouldn't have any dead keys.
I do want to mention how much I appreciated Paolo's attitude. I questioned many design choices and other things which could justifiably upset a developer. Paolo was constantly kind and informative to a somewhat annoying customer and I was. He didn't know I was writing a review, nor did I at the time. (I will ask his permission to quote him.) So he was simply answering a customer in far more depth than an average developer would ever go. If you like good Customer relations, this is your developer.
Another thing Fluffy Audio likes to do is make interfaces that allow for a lot of customization. I like the fact that you can change the dynamic range. As mentioned earlier, these instruments tended to have a limited dynamic range and often this library reflects that with a smaller range than I'm used to. Sometimes I like, however unrealistically, to be able to go quite soft. The adjustment lets me go all the way to -102 db which is lower than you would ever want, but -60 can give you a nice dynamic contrast from pp to ff. Another nice feature is a velocity curve that you can draw in with your mouse. Make any weird curve you want.
It should be noted that Vibrato is a modern idea. In the 'olde' days if you played vibrato, you were a crummy musician who couldn't hold a tone. The legend is that Vibrato was invented to make a louder sound for the old wax cylinder recordings since they needed much louder sounds than a traditional violin could produce. Also the good Violinists refused to record and the lousy ones had a natural vibrato. So play it loud and play it vibrato became the watchword. All the kids heard this growing up and thought vibrato was the way it was done. So now we are stuck with it in violins and opera. Anyway if you want be a crummy player and emulate wax cylinder recordings, Rinascimento has a decent faked vibrato setting with some twiddle controls to adjust.
Now if you do own the ERA the Second, should you buy Rinascimento? I don't have ERA II, so my thoughts on it are based on reading the manual, reading reviews and user comments and listening to demos. After having written the previous sentence I tried the Best Service Try where they let you play with some of their instruments for 20 minutes. This is a great service for free and much appreciated. While 20 minutes isn't long especially with some lag, it still gave me a better idea of the sound and feel of some of the instruments.
ERA II has more instruments and more articulations which is certainly a plus. It only has one mic position which is the biggest negative. However the big difference to me is tone. ERA II sounds like what Hollywood thinks Medieval and Renaissance Europe sounded like. That tone is nice but unreal. The sales page for ERA II speaks about the collection being like a fantasy novel and I think this is true. For a high fantasy sound of Medieval times and movie soundscapes, ERA II is the way to go. Elves would love this.
On the other hand Rinascimento has fewer instruments and articulations and lacks sustain round robins. What it does have is authenticity. This is much closer to what it did sound like. I'm actually something of a historian and Rinascimento takes me to plague-ridden, dirt-poor peasant laden, meed in my cup after a brutal day, a motley group of traveling minstrels on stage desperately playing lutes and flutes and banging drums for a meal and tips Europe. Was that a run-on sentence? For real world and low fantasy Medieval this is the way to go. Dwarfs would love this.
Rinascimento also has 3 well recorded mic positions that blend well together in any combination and work well on their own. The other thing Rinascimento has is a killer legato. It can be hard to tell on a fairly short internet session how good ERA 2's legato is, but from what I heard it seemed decent but not to the level of the Rinascimento legato.
And it has flexibility. The Articulation Creator screen is quite nice and can add a lot if you dig into it. It lets you adjust many aspects of the legato such as what the legato fades in and out of and how long it takes and the release, add and adjust vibrato and other things. It also lets you simply roll your own articulation choosing from legato, instant (a legato insert) and polyphonic. Then you can pick from the various articulations like sustain, legato, staccato, tongued and save it all when you are done. There is also a flexible auto-strummer for the lutes.
So ERA 2 is more instruments and more fantasy. Rinascimento is more mics and more Medieval. I think they both are great projects, they are just a little different in focus.
If you are just taking a look but don't really need a more authentic Medieval and Renaissance instruments, you might be interested in these instruments to diversify your palette in much the way world instruments can add colors to your music. It has been said that the past is a foreign land and you can definitely hear that in this pack. Actually many of these instruments have their origins in or were influenced by non-European cultures. Even the instruments like the violin, viola and trombone which evolved into modern instruments have a distinct feel that can add an other worldly quality to a soundtrack or game music.
If like me you love exploring music and hearing new things, there are lots of great adventures hear. Plus these are tweak-able toys that let you take out your mad scientist hat and play. This partly because of the flexibility of the interface, the legato and being able to roll your own articulations, but also because combining the instruments into different combinations can bring out new variations on the sounds. Take a bass guitar solo and it isn't much, add it too a band with drums, keys and rhythm and lead guitars and now you have something. Ask the Beatles. Experiment and let us know your favorite combinations.
Part 2 - Lutes
Part 3 - Strings
Part 4 - Flutes
Part 5 -Reeds
Part 6 - Brass
Part 7- Keys
Part 8 - Percussion
Rinascimento Lutes
Among the prime loot you get with Rinascimento is this set of seven medieval Lutes along with four open string variants. This is quite a collection which should bring a smile to the lips of any aspiring bard. There are four round robins, three mic positions, two chords, fast and slow, and one really nice auto-strummer with lots of twisty knobs and eight patterns that you can adjust at will. The only thing not included are velocity layers except for the Theorbo.
The tone is quite good all the way around on these instruments. The mics are well placed and everything is recorded in high quality. The only thing to note with the mics is that the Close mics are significantly loud than the other two. With the Close setting you definitely get the feeling that you are plucking the strings yourself or else have your ear a couple inches away from the instrument and are likely to get swatted away by an annoyed Lutist. The Far setting sounds like the Lute is being played across the fairgrounds and being wafted to your ears by the cool breeze. While the Middle Mic puts you somewhere in the adoring (possibly) crowd. I think mics get overlooked sometimes, but they can make or break a sampling session.
Now on with the Lutes. Starting with the Archlute. How does a Lute become an Archlute?
The Archlute has a wildly different sound across its long range. The top half from A5 to F3 is generally a plink and a pleasant fade away across a couple seconds like a mild guitar. By the time you get below C3, the Archlute has turned into a low growl. Across four and a half octaves you can do everything from supporting the lead lute to taking over the lead for yourself. Of course Renaissance Chet Atkins would play both the bass and the lead himself. Maybe the rhythm to for all I know.
Let me mention the Auto-Strummer here. It comes with 8 preset strums and you can easily roll your own. It has twiddly knobs for Tempo Rate, Number of Steps, Humanize and Swing. Then there are sliders for Acceleration, Decay, Notes and Speed. Someday I need to figure out what they all do. I do know if you use the Strummer and hold down a chord, it makes cool strumming sounds using the lower strings. If you play with the knobs and sliders, the strumming changes pretty dramatically. You smart folks will figure it out pretty quick. Us novice Luters might take a while longer.
I'm never going to get this review done if I don't stop having fun and start writing. Too many toys with twisty knobs. On to the Baroque Guitar. This sounds like a early Classical guitar to me on the Sustain and Slow Strum articulations in particular, it has that sweet twinkly feel on single played notes. When you do a fast chord or strum it has a more standard guitar feel. This Guitar has a single strum articulation as well as the Auto-Strummer.
The Chitarrino is something like a modern 12 string guitar but with only 8 strings.
The Colascione brings us back to a more traditional Lute sound. There is a distinct plink and then a pleasant string vibration sound fading away. The Mid and Far mic positions soften the plink.
The Gallichon is a very different kind of Lute with 12 strings and a wide body. It looks like a Lute that needs to go on a serious diet. It goes down to E2 and at its lower range has a nice bass sound, well bass for era anyway. You can really hear the individual strings sounding down low even when a chord or arp isn't being played. On the mid to higher end it sounds like a warm guitar.
The Plectrum Lute surprised me. According to the handy text description that comes as part of the GUI on all these instruments, this lute isn't plucked but uses a Plectrum made from a quill, feather or bone or the like. So it is played with something like a modern guitar pick. If you use the auto-strummer is does kind of sound like strumming a guitar with a pick. I never knew there was so much variety in Lutes.
The Theorbo is a man's man's Lute. The thing is massive. The Bass strings go all the way down to G1 which in the Renaissance world was LOW indeed. The higher strings go all the way up to C5 and have a lot of power even at the highest octave. This is essentially a massive bass lute stuck on top of a good sized regular lute. And since I've been known to complain about velocity layers, let me add that this does have two velocity layers. The softer layer has a nice mellow feel, while the louder layers has some good punch. I think I'm gonna have some fun playing with this. And I'm grateful it is a digital version as I'm nut sure I could lug the real deal around with me. The next time a Double Bass Player complains show him a picture of a man playing a Theorbo.
There are Lots of good lutes in Rinascimento verging on guitars and even acoustic bass guitars. Amazing variety and good sound. Well done Fluffy Audio. I'm liking this loot. (Insert pirate laughing and saying Aurgh here please.)
Next - Strings
The tone is quite good all the way around on these instruments. The mics are well placed and everything is recorded in high quality. The only thing to note with the mics is that the Close mics are significantly loud than the other two. With the Close setting you definitely get the feeling that you are plucking the strings yourself or else have your ear a couple inches away from the instrument and are likely to get swatted away by an annoyed Lutist. The Far setting sounds like the Lute is being played across the fairgrounds and being wafted to your ears by the cool breeze. While the Middle Mic puts you somewhere in the adoring (possibly) crowd. I think mics get overlooked sometimes, but they can make or break a sampling session.
Now on with the Lutes. Starting with the Archlute. How does a Lute become an Archlute?
The Archlute has a wildly different sound across its long range. The top half from A5 to F3 is generally a plink and a pleasant fade away across a couple seconds like a mild guitar. By the time you get below C3, the Archlute has turned into a low growl. Across four and a half octaves you can do everything from supporting the lead lute to taking over the lead for yourself. Of course Renaissance Chet Atkins would play both the bass and the lead himself. Maybe the rhythm to for all I know.
Let me mention the Auto-Strummer here. It comes with 8 preset strums and you can easily roll your own. It has twiddly knobs for Tempo Rate, Number of Steps, Humanize and Swing. Then there are sliders for Acceleration, Decay, Notes and Speed. Someday I need to figure out what they all do. I do know if you use the Strummer and hold down a chord, it makes cool strumming sounds using the lower strings. If you play with the knobs and sliders, the strumming changes pretty dramatically. You smart folks will figure it out pretty quick. Us novice Luters might take a while longer.
I'm never going to get this review done if I don't stop having fun and start writing. Too many toys with twisty knobs. On to the Baroque Guitar. This sounds like a early Classical guitar to me on the Sustain and Slow Strum articulations in particular, it has that sweet twinkly feel on single played notes. When you do a fast chord or strum it has a more standard guitar feel. This Guitar has a single strum articulation as well as the Auto-Strummer.
The Chitarrino is something like a modern 12 string guitar but with only 8 strings.
The Colascione brings us back to a more traditional Lute sound. There is a distinct plink and then a pleasant string vibration sound fading away. The Mid and Far mic positions soften the plink.
The Gallichon is a very different kind of Lute with 12 strings and a wide body. It looks like a Lute that needs to go on a serious diet. It goes down to E2 and at its lower range has a nice bass sound, well bass for era anyway. You can really hear the individual strings sounding down low even when a chord or arp isn't being played. On the mid to higher end it sounds like a warm guitar.
The Plectrum Lute surprised me. According to the handy text description that comes as part of the GUI on all these instruments, this lute isn't plucked but uses a Plectrum made from a quill, feather or bone or the like. So it is played with something like a modern guitar pick. If you use the auto-strummer is does kind of sound like strumming a guitar with a pick. I never knew there was so much variety in Lutes.
The Theorbo is a man's man's Lute. The thing is massive. The Bass strings go all the way down to G1 which in the Renaissance world was LOW indeed. The higher strings go all the way up to C5 and have a lot of power even at the highest octave. This is essentially a massive bass lute stuck on top of a good sized regular lute. And since I've been known to complain about velocity layers, let me add that this does have two velocity layers. The softer layer has a nice mellow feel, while the louder layers has some good punch. I think I'm gonna have some fun playing with this. And I'm grateful it is a digital version as I'm nut sure I could lug the real deal around with me. The next time a Double Bass Player complains show him a picture of a man playing a Theorbo.
There are Lots of good lutes in Rinascimento verging on guitars and even acoustic bass guitars. Amazing variety and good sound. Well done Fluffy Audio. I'm liking this loot. (Insert pirate laughing and saying Aurgh here please.)
Next - Strings
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
Rinascimento Strings
If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it... I've always wanted a reason to say that!
The Baroque Violin is an interesting predecessor instrument. On the one hand it sounds tantalizingly familiar and on the other hand just a bit alien. The notes sound wider and less precise that a modern violin. It sort of sounds like somehow the violinist is playing a string and a half. Also the top note is G6 so the range is about an octave less than the modern violin.
The longs tend to build up slowly here, so make sure you use the Staccato for your shorts. In quite a few of the Rinascimento instruments, the Sustains are quick enough to fake Staccato pretty well, but here you definitely need to do some key switching. Also here and elsewhere using the Staccato will help avoid the shotgun effect and the Staccatos tend to have 4x round robins.
I was just playing around with a melody I wrote for a class I'm taking about music for gaming. The melody was actually written for flute, but I figured I would try it with the Baroque Violin. At first it was too fast and sounded just OK. Then I cut the speed, used the Far mic and let the legatos linger and Wow it sounded like a really well played medieval violin tune. Imagine if you were in a tavern in 1700 and the violist stepped forward and said "Let us slowest this downeth with a melancholy tune.' and then played a slow lament which had everyone crying into their meed. That was the feel.
While I do have some issues with this package, as I play around a bit and try some composing, it really does hit a certain vibe that is quite rare. I put up two versions of something I did, one with instruments from Rinascimento and the other with nice modern instruments. Someone I respect said in paraphrase, that he preferred the Rinascimento version as the other version sounded like a standard medieval theme played by modern instruments while the Rinascimento sounded like it could really have been from the medieval world. I think for a more authentic feeling medieval historical or fantasy game or movie, this would be a perfect fit.
One of the great features of this interface, and it is a good one, is the ability to change the dynamic range. I would consider adjusting this for each instrument. I wasn't think of this on some earlier instruments and was frustrated by the lack of dynamic range. Then I looked at the "Instrument Settings" tab and there was a "Dynamic Range Adjustment". Just click, hold and pull the mouse up or down to change. I went with -60 for the Violin as I guess I like more dynamic range than most.
The other thing I didn't personally like was the Sustain / Legato release, so I clicked on the cogwheel beside Sustain and opened the Articulation Changer. I simply clicked the Staccato and Chose None and the little release was gone. Of course you may well like the release. Still it is nice to have the ability to change various parts of the Legato that easily. I don't own other Fluffy Audio instruments, largely because I had already spent money on other things before I knew Fluffy existed, but I suspect this Legato and the ability to customize it so much is a big selling point for their Modern Strings and Woodwinds. We'll get a little plug for Fluffy audio in there. Good People, Good Instruments. That's not their slogan but it should be. OK back to review and after that plug I'm going to gripe.
This is an instrument where I think the lack of round robins and chromatic sampling really does hurt. Judging from some little scores I've found of Medieval tunes and some midis, it isn't uncommon to go down half a step on occasion and to repeat notes. If you do these things using the Sustain without triggering Legato, you do notice that the same sample is being played repeatedly.
The Vielle is the predecessor to the Viola. Like the Viola today, it is a bit slower and more relaxed than the Baroque Violin. At the bottom of its range, it is somewhat raspy before becoming quite sweet at in the mid to upper mid range. At the very top it gets a bit shrill. The notes about the Violin generally apply here. Realistic sound for medieval use, lack of sustain round robins hurts and generally well sampled and well miced. It should work well in support of the Violin or as a mellower lead instrument.
The Hurdy Gurdy. I couldn't be more out of my depth if I were doing commentary on the Saturn versus Jupiter Interplanetary Luge Lacrosse Finals. Check this Ted Talks vid to see what one is.
So there seems to be a buzzing rhythm maker thingy called a Trompette that can be used at will to add a weird barking beat to the Hurdy Gurdy. The irony after my complaints about lack of sustain round robins and velocity layers, this has both. It also has a an arpeggiator that allows you to create your own rhythm, change speeds and choose keys. The Red 'Black' Keys change the arp patterns on the fly. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that this is the most advanced Trompette simulator on earth today. The Trompette play key is the Purple key closest to the blue playing keys.
There are also Drone notes due to unplayed strings on the side of the regular strings on the Hurdy Gurdy. These are influenced by the playing strings and resonate with them. I think. Anyway the lower Purple Keys seem to play the drone notes. Think of them like that constant drone on a Bagpipe.
The actual notes are somewhat like a slightly higher version of a violin mixed with a touch of bagpipe. On the lower registers you get a touch of the synthesizer sine wave sound as well. A little bit does go a long way. One note is that some of the Staccato releases have some slightly odd buzzing and one sounds a bit like a horn honking. Somehow this all just adds to the Hurdy Gurdy flavor.
Depending on how you play it, the Hurdy Gurdy can be a replacement for a Bagpipe, use the Drones, and has a much wider range. It can also sub as an odd sounding violin without the Drones. Then again you can use the Trompette for bizarre rhythm. Or you can try Drone, Trompette and the Notes all together and try to make an actually Hurdy Gurdy sound. You are definitely going to need both hands to do this. A truly bizarre and eclectic instrument. I think I'm glad I own a digital version. If nothing else it makes all the other digital instruments seem normal.
And there you have a ramble about the strings. An interesting three instrument pack that is similar but different enough from solo violin and viola to be quite useful alternatives and of course the oddball instrument that is fun just to have.
Next - Flutes
The Baroque Violin is an interesting predecessor instrument. On the one hand it sounds tantalizingly familiar and on the other hand just a bit alien. The notes sound wider and less precise that a modern violin. It sort of sounds like somehow the violinist is playing a string and a half. Also the top note is G6 so the range is about an octave less than the modern violin.
The longs tend to build up slowly here, so make sure you use the Staccato for your shorts. In quite a few of the Rinascimento instruments, the Sustains are quick enough to fake Staccato pretty well, but here you definitely need to do some key switching. Also here and elsewhere using the Staccato will help avoid the shotgun effect and the Staccatos tend to have 4x round robins.
I was just playing around with a melody I wrote for a class I'm taking about music for gaming. The melody was actually written for flute, but I figured I would try it with the Baroque Violin. At first it was too fast and sounded just OK. Then I cut the speed, used the Far mic and let the legatos linger and Wow it sounded like a really well played medieval violin tune. Imagine if you were in a tavern in 1700 and the violist stepped forward and said "Let us slowest this downeth with a melancholy tune.' and then played a slow lament which had everyone crying into their meed. That was the feel.
While I do have some issues with this package, as I play around a bit and try some composing, it really does hit a certain vibe that is quite rare. I put up two versions of something I did, one with instruments from Rinascimento and the other with nice modern instruments. Someone I respect said in paraphrase, that he preferred the Rinascimento version as the other version sounded like a standard medieval theme played by modern instruments while the Rinascimento sounded like it could really have been from the medieval world. I think for a more authentic feeling medieval historical or fantasy game or movie, this would be a perfect fit.
One of the great features of this interface, and it is a good one, is the ability to change the dynamic range. I would consider adjusting this for each instrument. I wasn't think of this on some earlier instruments and was frustrated by the lack of dynamic range. Then I looked at the "Instrument Settings" tab and there was a "Dynamic Range Adjustment". Just click, hold and pull the mouse up or down to change. I went with -60 for the Violin as I guess I like more dynamic range than most.
The other thing I didn't personally like was the Sustain / Legato release, so I clicked on the cogwheel beside Sustain and opened the Articulation Changer. I simply clicked the Staccato and Chose None and the little release was gone. Of course you may well like the release. Still it is nice to have the ability to change various parts of the Legato that easily. I don't own other Fluffy Audio instruments, largely because I had already spent money on other things before I knew Fluffy existed, but I suspect this Legato and the ability to customize it so much is a big selling point for their Modern Strings and Woodwinds. We'll get a little plug for Fluffy audio in there. Good People, Good Instruments. That's not their slogan but it should be. OK back to review and after that plug I'm going to gripe.
This is an instrument where I think the lack of round robins and chromatic sampling really does hurt. Judging from some little scores I've found of Medieval tunes and some midis, it isn't uncommon to go down half a step on occasion and to repeat notes. If you do these things using the Sustain without triggering Legato, you do notice that the same sample is being played repeatedly.
The Vielle is the predecessor to the Viola. Like the Viola today, it is a bit slower and more relaxed than the Baroque Violin. At the bottom of its range, it is somewhat raspy before becoming quite sweet at in the mid to upper mid range. At the very top it gets a bit shrill. The notes about the Violin generally apply here. Realistic sound for medieval use, lack of sustain round robins hurts and generally well sampled and well miced. It should work well in support of the Violin or as a mellower lead instrument.
The Hurdy Gurdy. I couldn't be more out of my depth if I were doing commentary on the Saturn versus Jupiter Interplanetary Luge Lacrosse Finals. Check this Ted Talks vid to see what one is.
So there seems to be a buzzing rhythm maker thingy called a Trompette that can be used at will to add a weird barking beat to the Hurdy Gurdy. The irony after my complaints about lack of sustain round robins and velocity layers, this has both. It also has a an arpeggiator that allows you to create your own rhythm, change speeds and choose keys. The Red 'Black' Keys change the arp patterns on the fly. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that this is the most advanced Trompette simulator on earth today. The Trompette play key is the Purple key closest to the blue playing keys.
There are also Drone notes due to unplayed strings on the side of the regular strings on the Hurdy Gurdy. These are influenced by the playing strings and resonate with them. I think. Anyway the lower Purple Keys seem to play the drone notes. Think of them like that constant drone on a Bagpipe.
The actual notes are somewhat like a slightly higher version of a violin mixed with a touch of bagpipe. On the lower registers you get a touch of the synthesizer sine wave sound as well. A little bit does go a long way. One note is that some of the Staccato releases have some slightly odd buzzing and one sounds a bit like a horn honking. Somehow this all just adds to the Hurdy Gurdy flavor.
Depending on how you play it, the Hurdy Gurdy can be a replacement for a Bagpipe, use the Drones, and has a much wider range. It can also sub as an odd sounding violin without the Drones. Then again you can use the Trompette for bizarre rhythm. Or you can try Drone, Trompette and the Notes all together and try to make an actually Hurdy Gurdy sound. You are definitely going to need both hands to do this. A truly bizarre and eclectic instrument. I think I'm glad I own a digital version. If nothing else it makes all the other digital instruments seem normal.
And there you have a ramble about the strings. An interesting three instrument pack that is similar but different enough from solo violin and viola to be quite useful alternatives and of course the oddball instrument that is fun just to have.
Next - Flutes
Monday, July 3, 2017
Rinascimento Flutes
When you have so many Woodwinds that you have to separate them into Flutes and Reeds, you know you have a lot of Woodwinds. The Flutes contain 5 Recorders covering the SATB range along with a high Tabor Pipe and a Traversiere.
The Sopranino Recorder is the highest of the Renaissance flutes though a shriller recorder has been added to the family in modern times (thanks Wiki). At the highest couple notes, it does venture into piccolo level shrillness. The mid and low part of the range sound pleasant though thin as expected from a high recorder.
As with most articulations labeled Sustain, this is actually Legato and as usual Legato is a better choice anyway, so I wouldn't bother making a separate Sustain. The Staccato Articulation has a solid 4 round robins as is usual in this package and are crisp and quite short.
One glitch, though Whole tone Trills are listed as an articulation there are no samples for them and nothing will happen if you pick them in the Articulation Creator. Speaking of the Articulation creator, be sure to use it to try the halftone trill and tongue articulations.
The Soprano Recorder gets us down to more standard SATB range. As with its higher sister, this Recorder sounds a bit shrill high and better a bit lower. Looking at the old Spectrotone chart it says that Flutes tend to be 'Warm' in the lower registers and 'Brilliant' at the higher registers. My ears are ringing somewhat from the 'Brilliant', so I agree. In general use a higher Recorder and go lower in its register rather than going higher pitched on a lower Recorder.
The Soprano Recorder has the Wholetone Trills along with Halftone Trills and a Tongued Articulation, so again check out that handy Articulation Creator. A note that the bottom couple notes seem quite a bit softer to me than the other notes, so hit them good and hard.
In general the scripted vibrato works pretty well, but to me it sounds somewhat odd in the higher Flutes. This is partly because there is a bit of a quaver in the longs anyway so you are kind of adding quaver to quaver.
The Alto Recorder has a haunting tone that could be good for anything from a haunted house to the lonesome wail of a lonesome medieval Shepard missing his lonesome family. While the lower register is still a bit stronger, the upper sounds more plaintive than shrill.
As is usually the case in this package, the mics for the Recorders are well positioned and work well separately or together. You get the distinct feel of either playing the instrument yourself or giving the performer far too little personal space on Close. Far feels like you are at the back of a good sized chamber. If you are going to close exclusively mic, you might consider going to a smaller room size than the default Large Chamber Reverb. At Alto and below we lose our trills so you will have to trill by hand.
The Tenor Recorder is an interesting mix. At low register it sounds very somber while at the mid range and up it starts becoming more cheerful and having quite a bite on the attack. That bite makes for a good sharp Staccato. The scripted Vibrato seems to work better down here at the Tenor / Bass end of the Recorder range.
Finally for the Recorder line comes the rumbling Bass (sort of). It does go down to E2 but that is really closer to Baritone with a good range than a Bass. Then again I've listened to too much George Younce across the years to consider any instrument that doesn't go down to a note that ends with 1 a real bass. The Recorder just doesn't have a lot of power by its nature and down at the low end that is really obvious. You can see why the Double Reed Woodwinds became the bass end of the section in the modern orchestra.
The Recorder line is interesting because it is more like the String family in the modern orchestra than the Woodwind family in a sense. The orchestral woodwinds have a wide variety of tones and come from different woodwind families. Since Recorders all come from the same family as do the Strings, there is much more consistency through the range.
My favorite of the Recorders is the Alto which is interesting to me as my favorite Saxophone is also the Alto though that might just be coincidence. I've always tended to think of recorders as toys, but these recorders can produce some very nice sounds especially if you use the correct ranges.
While the Recorders might be one family, there are still two cousins in this directory, the Tabor Pipe and the Traversiere. The two are significantly different creatures.
The Tabor Pipe sounds like what I think of when I hear the words 'Fife and Drum'. In fact the handy little description that Fluffy Audio includes on the interface says it was commonly used with a drum as dances and such. With only three holes it has only a bit over an octave range and gets very shrill at the top end of that range. If you are making a game about American Independence and show that famous drum and fife picture, use this instrument. I have no idea if it was used in an Italian Revolutions.
The Traversiere on the other hand is the predecessor to the flute and has a lovely tone. It also answers that classic question of why do you call a Flute a Woodwind when it is made out of Brass? The Traversiere is made of wood, and probably will float, and it does have a bit different feel to it than the modern Concert Flute. It seems more mellow that a regular flute and not unexpectedly a good medieval or fantasy fit. If a film were about stoned Dwarves wandering around aimlessly, the party minstrel should be playing this.
It is the most modern sounding of the Flutes. Combined with the Dulciana, the predecessor to the Bassoon it would give you something like the start of a more modern woodwinds section.
The Alto Recorder and the Traversiere are my favorite instruments here. The Recorders in general sound decent, but you can tell that Woodwinds have definitely improved with time and its kind of hard to get too excited about instruments that feel something like toys when compared to modern instruments. Many of these instruments do sound better together. When I used a couple Recorders and mixed in a Lute that definitely seemed to perk things up.
I did notice that it seems like recorders can't quite hold the tonal or volume consistency as well as we might be used to with a flute on a long note. This is why I don't think Vibrato is needed for these instruments. This isn't a fault of the sampling as best I can tell. I've listened to some other virtual recorder and virtual flutes in the same orchestral set and the recorders had the same mild consistency issue while the flutes were rock steady. Of course if recorders and flutes sounded exactly the same we wouldn't need a pack of medieval recorders.
Related to this, it seems like many of the wind instruments start a touch flat, say 8 cents and then work up to the pitch in a second or so. In slow legato pieces this sounds fine, after all legato is chopping the first half second or so off anyway, but in fast pieces it can make for a flat sound. In a faster piece you might pitch shift up say 5 cents. I've been told that the human ear has a greater tolerance for sharp than flat notes so this might improve the sound a bit. To pitch shift 'cents' in Kontakt, hold down shift while moving the 'Tune' knob to the right.
Next - Reeds
The Sopranino Recorder is the highest of the Renaissance flutes though a shriller recorder has been added to the family in modern times (thanks Wiki). At the highest couple notes, it does venture into piccolo level shrillness. The mid and low part of the range sound pleasant though thin as expected from a high recorder.
As with most articulations labeled Sustain, this is actually Legato and as usual Legato is a better choice anyway, so I wouldn't bother making a separate Sustain. The Staccato Articulation has a solid 4 round robins as is usual in this package and are crisp and quite short.
One glitch, though Whole tone Trills are listed as an articulation there are no samples for them and nothing will happen if you pick them in the Articulation Creator. Speaking of the Articulation creator, be sure to use it to try the halftone trill and tongue articulations.
The Soprano Recorder gets us down to more standard SATB range. As with its higher sister, this Recorder sounds a bit shrill high and better a bit lower. Looking at the old Spectrotone chart it says that Flutes tend to be 'Warm' in the lower registers and 'Brilliant' at the higher registers. My ears are ringing somewhat from the 'Brilliant', so I agree. In general use a higher Recorder and go lower in its register rather than going higher pitched on a lower Recorder.
The Soprano Recorder has the Wholetone Trills along with Halftone Trills and a Tongued Articulation, so again check out that handy Articulation Creator. A note that the bottom couple notes seem quite a bit softer to me than the other notes, so hit them good and hard.
In general the scripted vibrato works pretty well, but to me it sounds somewhat odd in the higher Flutes. This is partly because there is a bit of a quaver in the longs anyway so you are kind of adding quaver to quaver.
The Alto Recorder has a haunting tone that could be good for anything from a haunted house to the lonesome wail of a lonesome medieval Shepard missing his lonesome family. While the lower register is still a bit stronger, the upper sounds more plaintive than shrill.
As is usually the case in this package, the mics for the Recorders are well positioned and work well separately or together. You get the distinct feel of either playing the instrument yourself or giving the performer far too little personal space on Close. Far feels like you are at the back of a good sized chamber. If you are going to close exclusively mic, you might consider going to a smaller room size than the default Large Chamber Reverb. At Alto and below we lose our trills so you will have to trill by hand.
The Tenor Recorder is an interesting mix. At low register it sounds very somber while at the mid range and up it starts becoming more cheerful and having quite a bite on the attack. That bite makes for a good sharp Staccato. The scripted Vibrato seems to work better down here at the Tenor / Bass end of the Recorder range.
Finally for the Recorder line comes the rumbling Bass (sort of). It does go down to E2 but that is really closer to Baritone with a good range than a Bass. Then again I've listened to too much George Younce across the years to consider any instrument that doesn't go down to a note that ends with 1 a real bass. The Recorder just doesn't have a lot of power by its nature and down at the low end that is really obvious. You can see why the Double Reed Woodwinds became the bass end of the section in the modern orchestra.
The Recorder line is interesting because it is more like the String family in the modern orchestra than the Woodwind family in a sense. The orchestral woodwinds have a wide variety of tones and come from different woodwind families. Since Recorders all come from the same family as do the Strings, there is much more consistency through the range.
My favorite of the Recorders is the Alto which is interesting to me as my favorite Saxophone is also the Alto though that might just be coincidence. I've always tended to think of recorders as toys, but these recorders can produce some very nice sounds especially if you use the correct ranges.
While the Recorders might be one family, there are still two cousins in this directory, the Tabor Pipe and the Traversiere. The two are significantly different creatures.
The Tabor Pipe sounds like what I think of when I hear the words 'Fife and Drum'. In fact the handy little description that Fluffy Audio includes on the interface says it was commonly used with a drum as dances and such. With only three holes it has only a bit over an octave range and gets very shrill at the top end of that range. If you are making a game about American Independence and show that famous drum and fife picture, use this instrument. I have no idea if it was used in an Italian Revolutions.
The Traversiere on the other hand is the predecessor to the flute and has a lovely tone. It also answers that classic question of why do you call a Flute a Woodwind when it is made out of Brass? The Traversiere is made of wood, and probably will float, and it does have a bit different feel to it than the modern Concert Flute. It seems more mellow that a regular flute and not unexpectedly a good medieval or fantasy fit. If a film were about stoned Dwarves wandering around aimlessly, the party minstrel should be playing this.
It is the most modern sounding of the Flutes. Combined with the Dulciana, the predecessor to the Bassoon it would give you something like the start of a more modern woodwinds section.
The Alto Recorder and the Traversiere are my favorite instruments here. The Recorders in general sound decent, but you can tell that Woodwinds have definitely improved with time and its kind of hard to get too excited about instruments that feel something like toys when compared to modern instruments. Many of these instruments do sound better together. When I used a couple Recorders and mixed in a Lute that definitely seemed to perk things up.
I did notice that it seems like recorders can't quite hold the tonal or volume consistency as well as we might be used to with a flute on a long note. This is why I don't think Vibrato is needed for these instruments. This isn't a fault of the sampling as best I can tell. I've listened to some other virtual recorder and virtual flutes in the same orchestral set and the recorders had the same mild consistency issue while the flutes were rock steady. Of course if recorders and flutes sounded exactly the same we wouldn't need a pack of medieval recorders.
Related to this, it seems like many of the wind instruments start a touch flat, say 8 cents and then work up to the pitch in a second or so. In slow legato pieces this sounds fine, after all legato is chopping the first half second or so off anyway, but in fast pieces it can make for a flat sound. In a faster piece you might pitch shift up say 5 cents. I've been told that the human ear has a greater tolerance for sharp than flat notes so this might improve the sound a bit. To pitch shift 'cents' in Kontakt, hold down shift while moving the 'Tune' knob to the right.
Next - Reeds
Saturday, July 1, 2017
Rinascimento Reeds
Some famous European musician or other was asked about where one should stand in relation to a bagpipe to best appreciate the distinctive sound of the instrument. "As far away as possible," he replied, "Preferably in another country."
While possibly unfair, the close and far mics of the Crumhorns will give you some idea of what that bagpipe critic was talking about. On the Far mic the the higher pitched Crumhorns sound something like a Medieval Fantasy Battlehorn. I can see Dwarves playing this to sound the alarm that enemies are about to invade their mountain stronghold. At Close range they sound as if some brave or foolhardy Dwarf had found a way to make an instrument composed entirely of angry bees. The lower the pitch, the angrier the bees.
These are instruments with a limited range as the Alto and Tenor Crumhorn between basically cover C3 to not quite C5 and overlap a lot. The Bass and angriest Crumhorn drops the bass end of the range down to E2 so you end up with a roughly two and a half Crumhorn range as a Trio.
The Staccato articulations sound like an older variant of some of the woodwinds we are familiar with as the quick release doesn't give the bees enough time to get up an fervor.
One reason they sound so odd to our ears according to the fine folks at Wikipedia, "Capped double-reed instruments have the double reed covered by a cap" and none of these instrument exist in the modern orchestra. Single Reed instruments like the Clarinet and Exposed Double Reed instruments like the Oboe and Bassoon made the orchestral cut so we are used to them. This is likely because Dwarves don't exist in this world anymore. Ask Tolkien why, I've forgotten.
The Alto and Tenor Crumhorns sound good as military and patriotic instruments. As an American I noticed that I was inadvertently trying to play the Star Spangles Banner on them. The Close Mic settings especially on the Bass Crumhorn would be excellent for any Disney movie involving Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in a Honey Tree which seems to happen to the poor fellow with distressing regularity.
After the Crumhorns, we still have 5 Reed instruments in this generous Woodwinds collection. The Bombarde is a powerful instrument that sounds something like a primitive member of the Oboe family. There seem to have been variants of these across Europe under different names and in some cultures they were used in conjunction with bagpipes. They do have the sound and, from what I've been reading, the power to stand up to the bagpipe. For best effect and realism crank the Bombarde volume up and wail away.
The Bombarde does have the flare at the end that looks a bit like a Trumpet and there does seem to be just a touch of Trumpet to the sound. The interface text suggests that it was often used with trumpets, flutes and drums. When this was done, there better have been a lot of loud flutists to keep up to the power of the Bombarde! I did mess with a little piece using this instrument, the Cornett and the Alto Recorder and they do go well together.
The Ciaramello Soprano moves us up the keyboard as the name indicates to the higher pitched Shawms. The Bombarde and the Ciaremello are both part of the Shawm family which is to quote Wiki "a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century". It really does sound something like a less powerful and higher pitched Bombarde, something like when you go from Bassoon to Oboe. It also sounds something like the bagpipe when you take off the bags mixed again with a touch of trumpet.
The Dulciana is the precursor to the modern Bassoon. It sounds mellower and warmer than the Crumhorns and the Shawms and much more like an invitation to play in an orchestra than an invitation to go to war. While the Dulciana is bass and the the Bombarde is baritone they do share an octave in range and it is interesting to listen to them in duet and adjusting the volumes to hear more of one and then the other. The Bombarde really does sound as if it was from an era hundreds of years before the Dulciana. If you took your Dulciana to your local community orchestra you could probably fit in though with some comment. If you took your Bombarde they would call the police.
Up next the Rauschpfeife. This German capped Shawm is also known as the Shrieking Pipe. If the Bombarde sounds something like the chanter of the bagpipe played alone, the Rauschpfeife sounds like an angry chanter looking for the dirty rat who stole his bags. In fact according to that source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, modern versions actually use bagpipe reeds.
This is an aggressive and powerful instrument that shares most of the range with the Bombarde, it lacks the lowest notes, and can be swapped when you want a more aggressive sound. I think it works pretty well with the Crumhorns which have anger issues of their own.
And now that terror of all the reed instruments, the Zampogna. You might know it as the Bagpipe. In this case the Italian Bagpipe. The Bagpipe is notoriously hard to sample, but Fluffy Audio has done a solid job of getting that iconic bagpipe sound. The last couple notes have an odd bend to them, but overall if you want an out of the box bagpipe virtual instrument this is quite nice.
Since I'm not actually familiar with how these instruments should sound, though I did look some up on Youtube, I can't really speak to the tone. They generally have a primitive feel which works well with the other instruments in the package and aside from a few quirky notes, seem solid to me. However I have a friend, who plays these instruments along with about anything you can blow into and plays them well, and he suggested that while he thought the Lutes and Percussion were very nice, the Reed instruments were not well done. His complaints were bad tone and poor tonguing.
As with most other instruments that have long sustains I felt that these could have benefited by a second round robin layer. I would strongly suggest using the legato instead of the sustain and that isn't a problem as that is how the articulations are generally set by default. The staccatos have four round robins so they work well.
Next - Brass
While possibly unfair, the close and far mics of the Crumhorns will give you some idea of what that bagpipe critic was talking about. On the Far mic the the higher pitched Crumhorns sound something like a Medieval Fantasy Battlehorn. I can see Dwarves playing this to sound the alarm that enemies are about to invade their mountain stronghold. At Close range they sound as if some brave or foolhardy Dwarf had found a way to make an instrument composed entirely of angry bees. The lower the pitch, the angrier the bees.
These are instruments with a limited range as the Alto and Tenor Crumhorn between basically cover C3 to not quite C5 and overlap a lot. The Bass and angriest Crumhorn drops the bass end of the range down to E2 so you end up with a roughly two and a half Crumhorn range as a Trio.
The Staccato articulations sound like an older variant of some of the woodwinds we are familiar with as the quick release doesn't give the bees enough time to get up an fervor.
One reason they sound so odd to our ears according to the fine folks at Wikipedia, "Capped double-reed instruments have the double reed covered by a cap" and none of these instrument exist in the modern orchestra. Single Reed instruments like the Clarinet and Exposed Double Reed instruments like the Oboe and Bassoon made the orchestral cut so we are used to them. This is likely because Dwarves don't exist in this world anymore. Ask Tolkien why, I've forgotten.
The Alto and Tenor Crumhorns sound good as military and patriotic instruments. As an American I noticed that I was inadvertently trying to play the Star Spangles Banner on them. The Close Mic settings especially on the Bass Crumhorn would be excellent for any Disney movie involving Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in a Honey Tree which seems to happen to the poor fellow with distressing regularity.
After the Crumhorns, we still have 5 Reed instruments in this generous Woodwinds collection. The Bombarde is a powerful instrument that sounds something like a primitive member of the Oboe family. There seem to have been variants of these across Europe under different names and in some cultures they were used in conjunction with bagpipes. They do have the sound and, from what I've been reading, the power to stand up to the bagpipe. For best effect and realism crank the Bombarde volume up and wail away.
The Bombarde does have the flare at the end that looks a bit like a Trumpet and there does seem to be just a touch of Trumpet to the sound. The interface text suggests that it was often used with trumpets, flutes and drums. When this was done, there better have been a lot of loud flutists to keep up to the power of the Bombarde! I did mess with a little piece using this instrument, the Cornett and the Alto Recorder and they do go well together.
The Ciaramello Soprano moves us up the keyboard as the name indicates to the higher pitched Shawms. The Bombarde and the Ciaremello are both part of the Shawm family which is to quote Wiki "a conical bore, double-reed woodwind instrument made in Europe from the 12th century". It really does sound something like a less powerful and higher pitched Bombarde, something like when you go from Bassoon to Oboe. It also sounds something like the bagpipe when you take off the bags mixed again with a touch of trumpet.
The Dulciana is the precursor to the modern Bassoon. It sounds mellower and warmer than the Crumhorns and the Shawms and much more like an invitation to play in an orchestra than an invitation to go to war. While the Dulciana is bass and the the Bombarde is baritone they do share an octave in range and it is interesting to listen to them in duet and adjusting the volumes to hear more of one and then the other. The Bombarde really does sound as if it was from an era hundreds of years before the Dulciana. If you took your Dulciana to your local community orchestra you could probably fit in though with some comment. If you took your Bombarde they would call the police.
Up next the Rauschpfeife. This German capped Shawm is also known as the Shrieking Pipe. If the Bombarde sounds something like the chanter of the bagpipe played alone, the Rauschpfeife sounds like an angry chanter looking for the dirty rat who stole his bags. In fact according to that source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, modern versions actually use bagpipe reeds.
This is an aggressive and powerful instrument that shares most of the range with the Bombarde, it lacks the lowest notes, and can be swapped when you want a more aggressive sound. I think it works pretty well with the Crumhorns which have anger issues of their own.
And now that terror of all the reed instruments, the Zampogna. You might know it as the Bagpipe. In this case the Italian Bagpipe. The Bagpipe is notoriously hard to sample, but Fluffy Audio has done a solid job of getting that iconic bagpipe sound. The last couple notes have an odd bend to them, but overall if you want an out of the box bagpipe virtual instrument this is quite nice.
Since I'm not actually familiar with how these instruments should sound, though I did look some up on Youtube, I can't really speak to the tone. They generally have a primitive feel which works well with the other instruments in the package and aside from a few quirky notes, seem solid to me. However I have a friend, who plays these instruments along with about anything you can blow into and plays them well, and he suggested that while he thought the Lutes and Percussion were very nice, the Reed instruments were not well done. His complaints were bad tone and poor tonguing.
As with most other instruments that have long sustains I felt that these could have benefited by a second round robin layer. I would strongly suggest using the legato instead of the sustain and that isn't a problem as that is how the articulations are generally set by default. The staccatos have four round robins so they work well.
Next - Brass
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