The Sound Board

Great!

+1 Great

Add another "Great!".

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Wow, I really liked the sound. And they are debuting their own virtual space? Between these guys and Musical Sampling, lately it’s been quite tricky not to succumb to temptation, even if you’re already covered on all this….

I agree, Luke. Both companies have been releasing compelling brass and wind instruments of late.

Best,

Geoff

And that nylon guitar by Musical Sampling is also a very playable sample; I just purchased it this week.

The Double Reeds are released.





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I’ve only listened to the oboe tracks, but they all seemed to be played forte with a hard attack, which I find curious.

The Bassoons, including the Contra, stand out for me. I wonder how long before we get strings?

Lawrence wrote: ↑May 26, 2023 2:08 pm I’ve only listened to the oboe tracks, but they all seemed to be played forte with a hard attack, which I find curious.

The Couperin has some less aggressive attacks, and mostly sounds very good to me.

Speaking of oboe attacks, I'll possibly repeat a story that I might have told before. I think it's apropos. It's from one of my composition teachers, but I think he might have gotten it from Sam Adler:

Composition teacher: Looking at this section, I notice the oboe enters here in the middle of the passage. Why did you add the oboe there?

Composition student: I thought I would just have them sneak in there.

Composition teacher: Oboes don't sneak!

How would these instruments perform in an orchestral setting? The audio demos are all bone dry. The walkthrough goes over the virtual spatialization options, but shows no examples in the context of an orchestra. Would be nice to hear a few examples. I am very interested.

As an aside - I love that they used an arrangement of Gabriel Fauré's 'Cantique de Jean Racine' as a demo. Such a wonderful piece of music.

Generally speaking they will sound better for detailed soloistic and virtuous passages, but not blend as well when for instance holding down a chord. At least that always seems to be the case with instruments recorded bone-dry compared to VIs recorded in a bigger room.

Dry woodwinds are the least problematic section to mix into an orchestral environment.

Linos wrote: ↑May 28, 2023 2:18 pmHow would these instruments perform in an orchestral setting? (...)

Pretty good, I find. While it wouldn’t surprise me if many people feel that the built-in spatialization options on their own, don’t quite cut it for serious (mock-)orchestral work, after exploring the many possibilities a bit, I’m starting to get what I think are rather pleasing results. And that’s just with the plugin itself.

It is quite easy of course to drop these reeds in a virtual orchestra using 3rd party tools and all the familar techniques — it’s not all that different from how you’d spatialize SWAM, SampleModelling, XSample and/or pre-Synchron VSL —, but at the moment, I’m trying to find out how far I can get with just the VReeds software on its own, and I gotta say: it’s promising. The default spatial settings and the default ‘virtual space’ (which always sounds a bit roomy rather than hall-y) require some adjustments though before the instruments begin to sound like they could belong in a larger mock-orchestral setting.

Any concern about the useability of the VReeds as mock-orchestral instruments should, in my opinion, definitely not be the reason to doubt or dismiss this software. Of all the things you might be wondering about while contemplating a possible purchase, the only one which ought to be a decider is whether you like the timbre of the instruments, or not. If you’re not convinced by how these instruments sound in the demos, don’t buy this. If, on the other hand, you hear something for which there might be a place in your music, be assured that the control over every non-timbral aspect or factor which shapes and defines an instrument as a musically expressive presence in a piece (and/or a mix), is as satisfying as it currently can get in the virtual realm.

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Thank you all for you input. The timbre of these instruments are indeed what's holding me back. The musicality possible with these seems to be exceptional. The fact that I am raising an eyebrow at the musical interpretation of a few passages in the demo is proof of that. The eagerness to demonstrate the intonation fluctuations for the oboe is particularly troublesome. But that there is a musical interpretation is not a given with sample libraries. Here it comes to the foreground in several places for me. And even if I don't agree with all the choices, that's a very good sign.
Still, the timbre. I will have to listen some more. Maybe I will warm to the timbre. It seems to be an exceptional library that opens musical possibilities. I hear much that I can't achieve with my double reed libraries. The question is how much I will enjoy exploring these possibilities if I am not too fond of the timbre.

I am usually all over AcousticSamples products, but I just don’t need these.

Ashermusic wrote: ↑May 30, 2023 10:39 am I am usually all over AcousticSamples products, but I just don’t need these.

What a curious notion-“need.”

Acoustic Samples have released a 2.0 update for the Double Reeds.

The update includes:
- A brand new Oboe 3
- A new Virtual Space
- Enhanced sound, reworked from the ground up
- Release Time control
- Release Volume control
- Timbral Vibrato
- New Presets
- More detailed EQ controls
- Two new keyswitches, for multi-tonguing and tongued legato
- Pitch/Airflow control
- A new Attack Sharpness dial
- New visual design

The update is a free download for existing users.




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The comparison between EH v1 and v2 shows that they are really going in the right direction imo. So much better.