Difference between Steinberg lute and medieval lute and theorbo packages

[nomisllewdor]

I originally sent this to the virtual instruments forum but got no reply - so I know there are some early music enthusiasts on this forum.
…
Can someone outline the differences between these two packages. I was all set to buy the lute as a vst3 instrument. The lute and theorbo package is now on offer but I am unclear whether this is exclusively a package of loops and stock phrases or whether standalone lute and theorbo vst3 instruments are included in this product as well.
Many thanks
Simon

[Mike_Philcox]

The linked video on YouTube suggests the lute does work as a standalone instrument:

Walkthrough | Lute

[benwiggy]

@nomisllewdor

I was all set to buy the lute as a vst3 instrument. The lute and theorbo package is now on offer but I am unclear whether this is exclusively a package of loops and stock phrases or whether standalone lute and theorbo vst3 instruments are included in this product as well.

For the record, the Lute VST is a full instrument; the Lute & Theorbo package is just “phrases”. Anything in the Steinberg instruments collection that says “Phrases” is not a general instrument for use with Dorico.

[nomisllewdor]

Thanks very much for the response so long after my original query. Actually I did end up purchasing both packages and it does appear that the theorbo can be used within halion as an independent instrument as well. Still, over time I’ve picked up a few different theorbo/chitarrone libraries - for example the conservatoire collection bundle (which was a lucky half price offer) and additionally things like miroire which I went for after your own reccomendation. The Steinberg packages are good as they sound great without a lot of tweaking - I set up a Dowland song (from the old Stainer & Bell settings for voice and piano and simply swapped the piano for lute + theorbo and it didn’t sound too bad (incidentally used Cantai beta for the vocal part as well).

The options for Renaissance/Baroque mock ups are now really good compared to what they were even 10 or 15 years ago. Best wishes and thanks.

[benwiggy]

@nomisllewdor

I set up a Dowland song

I’m working my way through the books of airs. The lute tab isn’t quite right, but it’s close enough to check against the source, and get a working version until such time as Dorico does lutes.

[Derrek]

I hope some day the Team will have time and justification for taking on Dulcimer TAB for DAD configuration that incorporates 6+ and 1+ frets.

[nomisllewdor]

Very nice indeed. I was assuming Dorico does not do letters for lute tablature yet - so is that done in another score writer maybe? Best.

[benwiggy]

@nomisllewdor

orico does not do letters for lute tablature yet - so is that done in another score writer maybe?

No: it’s Dorico – I’ve just used a font that has letters instead of numbers.

[nomisllewdor]

Great stuff. Which font out of interest? Best.

[benwiggy]

Valerio: a 16th-century Music Font

Of course, the SMuFL standard does have categories for all the Renaissance and Medieval notation symbols; but if you actually want to use them in Dorico, you’d have to replace every “normal” symbol that you use, in the Music Symbols editor; and in the Tonality Editor (in the case of accidentals); and in the Notehead Set editor (which doesn’t consider Renaissance & Medieval noteheads to be “noteheads” that you can add to sets). And you’d still have to sort out things like stem positions, flags, …

[nomisllewdor]

These fonts you are creating are so so useful. Thanks very much for all your efforts.

[SteveMain]

The only remaining issue in creating Lute tablature is that Dorico doesn’t (as far as I know) allow you to move the tab letters to spaces instead of lines… which is an important point since many lutenists prefer French tab (which uses letters) with the letters on spaces. If anyone has a way of changing this, I’d LOVE to hear about it!

[benwiggy]

Also the rhythm flags are wrong for lute. And there’s the occasional extra bottom note on an extra string. (“Not a lutenist.”)

[SteveMain]

Absolutely correct, of course. Finale never really had the rhythm flags right either, so Dorico will be the first to really tackle lute tablature properly!