Virharmonic Cello released [update - expansion 1 out now]

[Guy Rowland]

https://www.virharmonic.com/bohemian_cello



Preorder 119 euros, 149 euros from release on July 8.

[Guy Rowland]

IMO this isn't as successful as the first violin incarnation - the bow changes in the bow change legato and the repetitious arcs are more obvious here. BUT - and it's an important CAPS LOCK BUT - this is part 1 of 4, where all those shortcomings have the potential at least to be addressed (and forced keyswitches may help, we'll see). I'm still totally sold on the concept. I think that the first expansion for the Violin will really start to show what this series can do - or not, if it doesn't deliver. As we stand right now, I'll get this as an investment on the full series (tone sounds great), but will only use with care until the first expansion is out. The violin though still sounds pretty damn incredible to these ears for a lot of parts as is.

[Scoredog]

I like the violin but the concept is not fully proven till they come out with the other arts. I bought into the violin but until I see how it plays out will not purchase the cello.

[Lawrence]

I just can't buy unfinished products. I even have problems with most crowdfunding though I occasionally do fund something. I know Guy and a good number of others are pretty convinced that the violin in its present state is proof of concept....unfortunately I'm not hearing it yet. If it comes together I'll happily pay a bit more.

[Guy Rowland]

The cello is released, but the servers are slammed. Had two attempts today to download, but both failed (after a long time, which is pretty boring). I'll wait until they give it the all clear before trying again.

[playz123]

Yes...they are "working on it" though, but don't seem to be making much progress. One recommendation is to try Firefox as the download browser. It's my usual one anyway, but currently it's downloading the file at <450 KB/sec. I agree; best wait a day or two if it gets frustrating.

[Guy Rowland]

Download problems all resolved, all came in quite quickly and painlessly today. Although not perfect, it is rather better as a 1.0 than I expected actually, plays better than the first demos I heard, I think they've been tweaking.

Here's just a little bit of ET (apologies - it's become a thing over on the Cinestrings thread). This is playing in the mp / mf range, with my stock ER and tail, not the built in reverb. So it's not quite as playable as the violin right out of the gate - I had to tweak a few more notes on playback to have it without sudden jumps, but some of that is par for the course on my combination of wretched playing / wretched es88 response.

https://app.box.com/s/ofpzji189katgbtmgkexecwtffwbrp0a

[Guy Rowland]

No time to even look at this, but I'll be road testing it in the next couple of days.



https://www.virharmonic.com/bohemian_cello

4.9Gb or 22Gb Installed based on your version selected from Download, 62Gb Original uncompressed content.
35000+ Samples recorded @96khz 24bit sample rate in pristine mid-side stereo.
Arcs, Mid Arcs, Sustains, Diminuendos, Marcatos, Staccatos, Spiccatos and Pizzicatos.
3 Deep Sampled Dynamics for Sustains with 2+ Round Robins per bow pianissimo, mezzo-forte & fortissimo. (pp-mf-ff).
2 transition (crescendo) dynamic layers with 2 round robin repetitions per bow on each arc type
3 Dynamic Layers of Diminuendos at 6+ seconds length for Beautiful end notes.
4 unique types of legatos in varied speeds in many dynamics including bow directions (C1-C5) : Slurred on bow, Fingered on bow, Bow changed, Portamento.
Virtual Performer enables incredibly easy live play, Auto selecting the bow types, legatos and bow positions based on your play style.

Price: 149€ + VAT (if applicable) until 5th March 2018 then increased to 199€ + VAT (if applicable).

[Guy Rowland]

If I were VIR, I'd not have led with their first improv in the video, which seemed to have a lot of issues. The later demos in the video where the three emotions are compared - to my ears these are, excellent. My own experience is that it is quite possible to play an improv and it not be great here and there, and usually it just needs a knock in one direction or another on key velocity for problem notes / transitions, and it sounds like that's what's happening at the top of the video.

Nice to have an everlasting bow for us hacks too.

Downloading now... it might be while I think.

[kpc]

I'm curious how this might compare (perhaps it's an unfair comparison ) to LASS First Chair Cello? I know this is a different beast, but if I were to do a solo string(s) project and my best option is the LASS FC, is this a worthwhile investment - or are there better places to look?

I know this has the Player engine/automation and all that, so if you (sort of) take that out of the equation, what do you think? Very interested to hear more from those who have it.

[Guy Rowland]

I do think they are verrrry different beasts, Kayle. I'd be interested to try the Bohemian cello against the Bonhemain violin playing the same passage to see if they can get in sync with the phrasing. See, the thing with the Bohemian violin (or cello) is that it wants to take centre stage. LASS FC in particular wants to blend into the backrgound. That said, I've layered Bohemian violin with a sampled ensemble and it really helped bring it to life. I really don't know how an (eventual) quartet would work. You really can't use it like a conventional sample instrument, even if you made every note change a forced keyswitch, you don't have CC1 control in the usual way, it would be a road to frustration.

All that said, having a VI (or VM in this case) that actually wants to take centre stage is as rare as the proverbial rocking horse poo, so no complaints from me. I think you just have to embrace it in the way it was designed to be embraced.

EDIT - dammit, accidentally cancelled my download. It was taking forever anyway, I'll try again in a coupla days when the servers are less rammed.

[Guy Rowland]

What a difference 2 days makes. Downloaded in 4 minutes - on Thursday it was to be 6 hours.

The new UI is nice and less fussy than the old. The instrument plays very well under my hands (as much as anything does, I mean). The Czardas emotion leans on the portamento on lower velocities, which is familar from LASS but not always what you need with this way of playing when key velocity determines overall bowing strength, so I'd prefer that logically to be the hardest key velocities on at least one of the emotions. You can of course force the portamento and it seems to be sampled at different strengths.

Overall it feels very fluid, and seems to handle both slow, languid phrases and very quick ones. The everlasting bow is certainly handy for hacks like me, however its worth noting that this doesn't mean a bow of infinite length, you still get a rebow but it is as gentle as possible. So if you want that vibrato note to last 30 seconds without any change, you're still stuck, but arguably you deserve to be. As with the violin, nearly always if a part of a phrase doesn't work well by default, either a tweak on the key velocity or a forced keyswitch will join up the dots.

I'd do a video, but TBH the ones in the demo video above do pretty much what I would. I'd recommend skipping the intro straight to 4'15 for Improv, 5'50 for Czardas and 6'58 for Emotive.

That said, I was curious to see how well the cello and violin could track each other. The answer - out of the box, not perfectly, and I think the issue is with the violin. I had a bit of a struggle getting the 2nd fast figure to sound right to the end, it dropped artificially to ff, and I had to rejig the midi to make it sound smoother - the last 7 notes all needing bumping up to max key velocity. When I then copied that midi to the cello and dropped it an octave, those last notes sounded crazily loud on the cello, as you might expect. I suspect their scripting has improved between the two instruments - I'd like them to now tweak EXP1 and refresh the UI of the violin, but perhaps the point is moot and they're already on to more ambitious things in EXP 2.

Here's the 10s example, where I've rejigged the key velocities between the 2 but nothing else, playing the Improv emotion - https://app.box.com/s/208dkgitn97kuzl1p37bnd8kes6zm3pd - all out of the box sound except I reduced the reverb on the cello a little.

The series remains something of a marvel for me, you can feel each step they make refining the concept more. I'm delighted that further expansions are still in the works at no cost to us brave pioneers who jumped in right from the beginning.