Prosound News - April 2008 - (Page 32)

[32] Craig Anderton Virtual Orchestration T In his Continuing Adventures in Software, Rich Tozzoli takes a sonic visit to old Vienna. his month, let’s explore a cool piece of software that anyone who composes (or wants to) should know about. Vienna Special Edition is a complete orchestral collection built from the foundations of the Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL). Since there have been other reviews about Vienna Special Edition before, I wanted to discuss some of the technology behind the screen that makes it such a useful product. First—a few basics. All Vienna Instrument collections can run as VST, RTAS and AU or as a standalone instrument. Registered users can also download and run the free Vienna Ensemble 2 mixing and host software, offering definable play ranges, instant instrument switching, total recall and more. We all know that the true value of any orchestral library lies in its samples and articulations. Since most of the products available today have high-quality sounds, the differences from one to another lie in what you can do with the performance of your parts. All Vienna samples are recorded dry, so you can add your own reverb as needed. This allows users to create whatever acoustic environment they choose, especially useful for those who run Impulse Response reverbs such as Altiverb. Calling up some of the world’s great concert halls and cathedrals can inspire any part, making the simple often sound supreme. Vienna Special Edition breaks out the plug-in structure into three distinct areas; Patches, Matrices and Presets. Patches, chosen from the Patch Assign tab in the right side browser, are the smallest unit, containing articulations such as sustain (sus), sforzando (sfz) and pizzicato (pizz). The Matrix, located on the left side of the GUI, is used to manage and combine patches. Using a vertical “cell” structure, you can easily stack various patches and assign a controller (the modulation wheel is common) to switch between them in real time. Not stopping there, VSE lets you drag the cells out horizontally, load in more patches, and assign those to key switches—chosen notes on your keyboard such as C1 and C#1. A Matrix can hold 12 horizontal and vertical patches, for up to 144 possible choices. But how does this help you record? For example, instead of just choosing a sustained violin patch and playing a part, you can “perform” it. Let’s say you loaded in the first three patches of the “Solo Strings” from the Patch Assign tab to a vertical Matrix. 1A would be VI staccato (short notes), 1B would be VI detache (detached notes) and 1C would be VI sustain (sustained, longer notes). By assigning the V-SPAN (vertical) controller (located in the Control Edit tab) to CC1 (Modulation Wheel), you can perform the part while switching between all three articulations in real time. As you might imagine, this creates a much more realistic performance than playing a straight patch. Taking it further, you can drag the next three patches into the vertical Matrix cells, where 2A would be VI sforzando (sudden emphasis), 2B would be VI legato (smooth (continued on page 82) softwaretech Another Fine Messe T he biggest news at this show wasn’t software, or hardware, but hard currency: With the Euro so strong against the dollar, many Americans stayed home rather than pay the outrageous prices. But with Messe happening so shortly after NAMM, even local favorites Ableton and Native Instruments were no-shows, having taken care of most of their business in Anaheim. But while things may have slowed, they didn’t stop, and the most dramatic announcement by far came from Celemony. When its Melodyne program first appeared, it did a near-magical job of turning monophonic digital audio lines into MIDIlike “blobs” representing notes. You could move them in time, change their pitch, add effects like vibrato, and more—all with remarkably good sound quality. The company’s next step was applying the same technology to polyphonic material, but at Messe, it demonstrated Direct Note Access technology, which allows going “inside” a file of program material and altering individual notes within that file. During its press conference, Celemony got the point across by playing a strummed guitar track, which looked like a conventional waveform. But then they “exploded” the waveform into the individual notes of the part, and the collection of jaded journalists literally burst into applause. Those individual notes were changed in pitch, muted, moved in time, and all those other things that Melodyne does so well. Impressive? Yes. But then they “exploded” a Chet Baker tune. You could see the trumpet line, bass, drums, etc., and all of these were available for editing mindblowing. You can even change a major key song to minor key, and control note pitches from a MIDI keyboard. This is sort of an audio Holy Grail, something that people thought would maybe be possible in 10 years. I’m sure that when DNA becomes available as part of the next update to Melodyne (due in the fall), we’ll discover some limitations: For example, when asked if you could separate two detuned unison strings in a 12-string guitar, the answer was probably not but you could separate the octave strings. Incidentally, this technology isn’t just great for fixing problems, but a godsend to loopmeisters as you can go “inside” a loop and create a huge number of variations. That wasn’t the only news. I’ve been a huge fan of Creamware’s Scope system since it was introduced a decade ago; it still works, even under Vista, and still sounds good. But when the company fell on hard times, I resigned myself to the fact that I might have to move on. Fortunately, the technology was bought by two companies, and Sonic Core came to the show with a new system—Scope X-Cite 1—and new 5.0 software for existing Scope systems. The X-Cite system provides 10 times the power of the original flagship Scope card (that’s a lot of SHARC DSP!), but weighs in at twice the price—3,000 Euros. Expensive? Yes, but the hardware interface is far more sophisticated (no more breakout cables), there are new plug-ins, and remember, you’re not just getting a few DSP functions and an interface. You’re virtualizing an entire studio, including its mixer (with surround), synthesizers, signal processors and interfacing. When you add up the cost of what Scope replaces, it starts to make economic sense. Another trend is hardware for your software. Euphonix won a MIPA Award for its Artist Series controllers (MIPA, the Musikmesse International Press Award, is extremely prestigious), but the big surprise was Steinberg’s introduction of two new pieces of hardware. These are definitely not “dumb” front ends, but are tightly integrated with Cubase; for example, the MS 816 FireWire audio interface includes built-in DSP (Yamaha REV-X reverb and eight “sweet spot” morphing channel strips), and quality built-in mic pres. The effects can show up while recording, or serve as plug-ins within Cubase during playback. But the coolest thing is the routing. When you want to record, select a channel on Cubase, hit a button on the interface, and everything connects up automatically, with no latency (not typical “zero” latency, but no latency because the hardware is so tightly integrated with the software that it doesn’t just bypass the computer, but essentially becomes part of the computer). The CC121 controller offers the usual combination of dedicated knobs and controls for EQ, level, pan and other typical functions, but there’s also an “AI” knob that controls whatever control you’re pointing at in Cubase (or can be locked to a specific parameter), as well as another general-purpose knob that can control four arbitrary functions. In the “fun” category, Korg’s DS-10 synth loads software into a Nintendo DS that provides a modeling analog synth, drum machine, step sequencer and effects. The DS touchscreen acts like a KAOSS pad, and basically, you’re getting something very much like an MS-20 soft synth in a DS. And in sound-library-land, Ueberschall’s ScoreFX library is basically a construction kit for movie soundtracks. If this helps me as much as Sony’s Cinescore software, I’ll really be able to churn out trade show videos! Craig Anderton is an author, lecturer and musician. He’s executive editor for EQ magazine, editor-in-chief for www.harmony-central.com, and plays in the band, EV2, with Public Enemy’s Brian Hardgroove. psn April 2008 http://westone.com/music http://www.harmony-central.com http://www.harmony-central.com http://westone.com/music

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Prosound News - April 2008

Prosound News - April 2008 Sound Business Contents Sound Retail Mojo’s Working at NY Noise Studio Showcase: Jungle Room Studios Software Tech Tracks Sessions Nomad Takes Root TCB at NYC’s JSM SoundScreen White Space Turning Gray Audio for Video and Broadcast Field Reports:Sony PCM-D50 Linear PCM Recorder; Holophone H4 SuperMINI Surround Microphone Sound Innovations: Earthworks Audio PianoMic System Frozen Liquid Live Sound Showcase: Jill Scott Centerstage Soundcheck Sound People View From the Top Product Spotlight Advertiser Index Company Index Classifieds Music, Etc.

Prosound News - April 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.