This year, I thought I’d give you a simple rendition of one of my favourite carol tunes, which doesn’t get much of an outing these days.
Here’s the same thing, rendered by different libraries. First, Iconica Sketch
Next, BBCSO
OT’s LA Studio Strings:
Noteperformer
Now Noteperformer playing Iconica Sketch
And, saving the best wine till last, Noteperformer playing BBCSO:
What this really shows is that it’s not just the sounds themselves, but how those sounds are put together into a meaningful phrase. (That’s more important when using multiple articulations, rather than legato sustain, of course.) Dorico has added some features like the pitch contour emphasis, and we may well see more of that kind of thing.
But, really, the difference that NP makes is remarkable. SINE Player’s Legato phrasing is quite good, but as soon as you add in other patches, you’re spinning plates.
@benwiggy , Mine is quieter. Did you normalize the volume in a DAW?
I use both VSL and BBCSO and think they are both good but have different sounds. I find VSL to be very pristine and BBCSO to be more lush, if that makes sense. In this example, I thiink your BBC is the best, although I was surprised how good Iconica sounds. I was not aware.
My current project uses VSL for Violins I and basses, and BBCSO for seconds, violas, and cellos.
No: straight out. It’s possible my mixers are higher by default.
I have my Mac’s speaker volume at about 50% of max. My iTunes content – video, audio, is “as loud as I would want it”, so I can turn it down from there; but videos on Facebook and adverts are far too loud.
I try to match the levels of pro recordings I have; but I really don’t know what I’m doing.
@benwiggy or others, I never heard of “pitch contour emphasis” until this thread, so I checked the manual. Mine was set on what I assume is the default of 100. Do you recommend increasing that value?
Lovely tune and beautiful string arrangement – thanks for turning us onto it! It’s fun to hear all the different renderings from everyone’s setup.
I reckon the thing I can bring to the table is my template involving NPPE Dry Multi Out > MIR Pro 3D - So I tried my two favorite string libraries and flicked through a couple presets for fun, ranging from bigger to intimate.
I haven’t changed it, but it’s worth playing around with. But that, the polyphonic balancing and the Contrapuntal playback for keyboards is pretty impressive, and hints at future managing of raw samples by Dorico.
Reverb and Space is a whole other ballgame. I find it very difficult not to make things just muddy or echoing, rather than “far away”.
Here’s “BPO6”, which is my attempt to rewrite new SFZ instrument definitions for choice samples from Garritan.
For sure, hence why I tried a few various ones because I find it quite interesting how much it changes the character of the same libraries at times in drastic ways, all else being equal. When I have the luxury I enjoy visiting symphonic concerts multiple nights in a row from different seats for this reason! For this one, I am preferential to the intimate ones, myself.
One way I can spot sample libraries is that they often have a fixed attack while a real player will attack some notes slowly but will use a faster attack in phrases with moving notes. This can be overcome to a certain degree in a DAW but it is a lot of work. Maybe a future generation of NPPE will address this.
All the versions everyone posted sound great and it is interesting to note the strengths of each library.
