Hollywood Strings is the first string sample library to be recorded in a Los Angeles recording studio, specifically EastWest Studio 1, which prior to being purchased by EastWest, has boasted many a string ensemble being recorded within its walls with Frank Sinatra and others. So the studio HS was recorded in already has a longterm demonstrated track record for achieving a quality string sound.

Consequently, a key feature for HS (Hollywood Strings) is its studio sound vs. the concert hall sound in EW’s Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra.

HS’s studio sound provides composers with another choice as to which string ensemble recorded in which space do we want for the piece we’re working on. I use the word “piece” because it’s too easy to box Hollywood Strings into a specific genre when it has capabilities in virtually any musical genre.

The string ensemble size is 16-14-10-10-7 making it a large orchestral string section. The library has the strings recorded in their seated positions using this stage layout: Vlns 1, Vlns 2, Violas, Cellos with Basses behind the cellos. According to the presentation, Violins 2 are independently recorded.

Divisi for this library has been achieved through a unique mic placement technique (described by co-producer Nick Phoenix in the video presentation) allowing for div a 2.

There are three different methods by which divisi can be achieved in a string section. Per the presentation, it appears the method used by EW is, from the conductor’s position, dividing the strings so that players to the left side of the music stand play the high part while the players on the right side play the low, or inner, part.

In the presentation, Mr. Phoenix used the term first chairs to describe players on the left side of the music stand. The use of the term first chairs should not be confused with that term as used by L.A. Scoring Strings, which refers to the soloist for each section.

It should be noted that according to co-producer Nick Phoenix, Hollywood Strings have modeled muted strings. This means that the sordinos included with Hollywood Strings were not recorded with mutes on the strings. Instead, the Hollywood Strings interface creates a muted string effect. “We recorded real sordinos in HS, but they were only for analysis and comparison to the regular recordings,” explained Mr. Phoenix on the VI-Control.net forum.

Comments on the Overall Presentation
By way of background, on January 6, 2010, members of the press (including myself) received a written invitation to attend a live demonstration of Hollywood Strings on January 13 at the EastWest facilities.

Unfortunately, because of the number of journalists that didn’t come to NAMM this year, that meeting was canceled and replaced with this video presentation, which was made available to both the press and the general public on January 14th. On January 15th, a revised presentation was posted.

Observations and impressions here are from the revised video. Just to restate, the revised video is the only information journalists have at this writing with which to write about Hollywood Strings. Consequently, I’ve posed a number of product feature questions that this first introduction to Hollywood Strings didn’t cover.

After months of waiting for what promises to be a game changing library, I confess, I was somewhat let down by the video presentation  (which EW calls a tutorial). With so much time available before formal product launch, it would have been good for EW to produce, using Keynote or Power Point, a basic 5-10 minute overview that could also be posted on YouTube. Hollywood Strings has a number of features and string bowings not found in other libraries, and its approach to recording with a Decca Tree all point to the need of a presentation modeled along the lines of, The Making of… especially with a product name like Hollywood Strings.

About my Comments on the Hollywood Strings Library
My comments take into account that this is an unfinished library not shipping until mid-February. I look at the video as things to come, understanding that the programming is still being worked on. That HS was originally scheduled to ship on January 13, 2010 and has been deferred until mid-February indicates the immensity of the library.

Remarks are pegged to timings (minutes: seconds) in the revised video presentation.

2:56 - Slur Runs - compelling feature especially with five mic position choices.

3:19 - The dream - load a patch, play chords in the left hand and a melody in the right so that it sounds like finished music. A program is displayed labeled “Tommy Williams” (?). Is this a preset? A custom program? Some explanation is in order. Re: Mr. Phoenix’s comment that the demonstration at this point was on a feature that’s never been done before. This also needs a little explanation. Plenty of composers in the past and present have used a program usually labeled All Strings to quickly knock out a cue with chords in the left hand and the melody/theme in the right hand. So I’m not sure what Mr. Phoenix means when he says, “It’s never been done before,” and then refers to, “unthinkable power.”

4:12 - Celli Legato Monster Patch - If I’m understanding this correctly, what EW has programmed in the Monster Patch is comparable to the concept behind several of the Vienna Instruments programs where all the basic expressive articulations are within a single program (patch), including up bow/down bow in the demonstration.  If I’m understanding this correctly, this is an awesome programming achievement, and I’d like to know if there are equivalent patches for the violins, violas, and basses.

5:43 - Mic positions - Mr. Phoenix used the Cello Legato Monster Patch as the basis for demonstrating the five mic positions. While brief, you certainly see the great options available with this feature. It would have been useful to have a one-sentence explanation for each mic position demonstration to clarify better what you’re hearing, especially for those who are recording novices and unfamiliar with a Decca Tree and how it works.

6:47 - Mic Mixing With Reverb - Impressive. Certainly allows an ease for using HS with other libraries, and certainly with HS alone. Since there are no direct woodwind, brass and percussion libraries recorded to match HS, it would be useful for EW to provide some template setups for QLSO, StormDrum 2, Gypsy, Quantum Leap Pianos, and Ministry of Rock, so that you can have a ready-studio orchestra post-installation built entirely of EW products.

6:58 - Full Strings Patch - This was demonstrated both open and muted. It was performed live at the keyboard by Thomas J. Bergersen, one of the co-producers. Though brief, you get the idea. Quite lovely. However, the program displaying in the browser is Violas Sus RR Omni. So which program was it we were hearing?

8:05 - This is a demonstration of the First and Second Violins in octaves (Vlns 1 - Vlns 2) using what Mr. Phoenix called a Violin Performance Legato. A different group of players were recorded for each of the sections. This combination is most frequently used when Violins 1 are in the Medium through Very High registers with Violins 2 in the register an octave below.  I’m impressed with this demo. String octaves are a major writing technique, and they’re a major technique in film score writing.  This can be a very difficult technique to do with samples, and even though we’ve only heard a little portion, EW seems to have captured this.

9:07 - 2nd Violins Shorts Mod Speed Patch - Mr. Phoenix didn’t say, and I couldn’t tell from listening to the Marcato Shorts if whether the shorts, all activated by the Mod Wheel, are with an arco string program so that on the same patch, you can go back and forth between arco and a particular “short” depending on the melody’s needs. If not, it would certainly be great to have such a program so that you can have a fluid string line on a single track. Least impressed with Staccato-on-Bow in this example. Otherwise, impressive.

10:40 - This demonstration uses multiple programs but only one program displays in the browser, 1st Violin Legato (1). Very good demonstration.

12:58 - Divisi - Good explanation of their recording approach.

15:46 - Measured tremolo - Demonstrated the program and the micing. Good feature.

17:06 - Tremolo controlled by mod wheel. Good.

Audio Demos
There were two audio demos by Mr. Bergersen, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the presentation. The first demo was Hollywood Strings alone and the second was Hollywood Strings mixed in with a full electronic orchestral mix.

My questions really come from the second demo.

Was this HS with only QLSO or was this HS with Mr. Bergersen’s other libraries mixed in? If it’s with QLSO and other PLAY products exclusively, then those having QLSO will see immediately how their investment can be enhanced. If it’s with other libraries mixed in, then we have an excellent example of Hollywood Strings’ blendability. If it’s the latter, it would be most useful to have some explanation of what was used and how the mix was achieved.

Pre-Ordering Considerations
At this writing, Hollywood Strings, listing at $1699 and shipped on a hard drive, can be pre-ordered at a $200 discount off list. As a fellow composer, I believe the question is, “For what you’re writing today and what you think you might be writing in the next year, do you think having Hollywood Strings will add to your ability to earn income? “

If the answer for you is, “yes,” then by all means consider pre-ordering.

Installation - Hollywood Strings Diamond Edition comes on a hard drive that is not to be used for streaming the samples. Fair enough. But what we need to know is can HS can be split over multiple drives? Should the library be spread across a couple of computers?

Other - We need an explanation of what, “multiple finger positions for all sections including open strings,” means and how to use it.

Conclusion
There are two elements to me that are game changers with Hollywood Strings. One is the need to really understand string instrumentation and string arranging/orchestration techniques to fully get the most out of this library. The other is having the instruction to understand how to mix Hollywood Strings alone with the Decca Tree (as demonstrated in the video) and, then applying that knowledge to working with other libraries in your collection.

As composers, we need to realize that this is a musical game change. It strikes me that with Hollywood Strings the emphasis may shift from discussions about editing and envelopes, and endless discussions on eq’ing strings, to the joy of writing and creating, to having the kinds of musical discussions arrangers, orchestrators, and composers typically have with each other.

This is new. And it’s about time.

NOTE: Post publication we found a post on the Soundsonline web site stating that the samples used by Mr. Bergersen in the second demo Hollywood Strings mixed with other libraries.

Peter Lawrence Alexander is the author of the Professional Orchestration series which has been endorsed by winners of the Academy®, Grammy®, Emmy®, BAFTA®, G.A.N.G, Telly®, and AVA Gold® Awards.

Consequently, we shouldn’t get too giddy. We still need to keep our eye on the ball. But before we step up to the plate and start swinging for the fences, we need to scan the field and see where things are at.

Thus, the year-end prognostication column. Where do I see things going?

Shaking my “8″ ball, I foresee 2010 becoming even more the year for the Mac. With the Mac Pro Nehalem, we are seeing more problems solved than created. Digital Performer and Logic, unless something drastic happens, will remain with the 3.65GB limitation of RAM. But by learning more effectively how to run VSTi’s in stand alone, composers can get around that issue. I have one composer friend in Los Angeles who reduced a 7-computer studio down to one system – a Mac Pro Nehalem.

The potential bottom line – the end of black spaghetti in our studios. Simplicity. (Sigh a breath of relief here). Lower electric bills reflecting a different kind of green – money that stays in our wallets.

2010 could become the year of Kontakt. What’s in Kontakt’s favor is, “learn once.” Master Kontakt at the basic operational level, and it’s theme and variations thereafter for each licensor, making it quicker for end users to learn each library. What’s also in Kontakt’s favor are the sheer number of independent developers creating new product for it. As such, Kontakt can easily become The Standard for virtual instruments. However, K4 will not be backwards compatible to Power PCs. So G5 users are locked out of K4 and it remains to be seen if the programming will be broken on older Kontakt libraries you try to load into K4.

2010 could become the year of the Vienna Ensemble Pro Virtual Mixing Board which hosts Vienna, Kontakt and other VSTi’s. Why? Same reason as Kontakt, “learn once.” Today, it’s not yet working with PLAY, however the word-on-the-street is that this issue is now in beta. So if the Vienna wizards get this resolved, and we hope they do, that will be one more step towards the simpler recording studio.

2010 can also become the year for Canada’s Plogue Bidule. The kind of system integration and routing possibilities are truly exciting. To see Plogue Bidule in action, go to the Cinesamples web site and scroll down to the last video titled, Orchestral Film Scoring Template With Bidule and DP.

Then there is the quagmire. It’s GigaStudio. No need to rehash the past, because it’s the present that has to be dealt with, especially for those with thousands of dollars of investment with the Vienna First and Pro Editions, and its Performance Tool. The situation is as follows:

1. Machines are getting older.
2. There’s no legal mechanism in place to re-register the Giga software on a new machine.
3. There’s no formal ongoing testing to determine which older Giga versions, specifically 2.x, will work on Vista and Windows 7, assuming they can be re-registered.
4. And if a perfect world emerges, what audio cards and drivers will work with an older Giga 2.x on Windows 7?

This isn’t just about moving on. Thousands of dollars was spent on the software and hardware, but few take into account the thousands of dollars that went into learning, not just the software, but the sounds, and how they work and what they work best with.

I see two potential marketplace solutions.

The first marketplace solution is the new G-Player from Soundlib. It’s a new Mac plug-in from the folks who brought us CDXtract. It’s showing real promise and can be purchased as a digital download. It’s now available for Mac and PC.

The second marketplace solution can come from Vienna by re-opening cross grades from older Vienna product to the newer. Every First and Pro Edition owner’s name is registered in the VSL computer. Send an email. It’s an easy thing to do.

There are also marketing considerations for European developers.

2010 could be the year their sales begin to explode even more in the U.S. then in the past. But to do so, they need to seriously consider imitating Toyota and other Japanese automakers by establishing a manufacturing presence in the United States, since for now, and for the foreseeable future, the dollar will continue to remain weak against the Euro and British Pound Sterling. Exchange rates overprice European libraries by default, and sales are limited as the consequence.

The place to locate isn’t Los Angeles, it’s Nashville, or Memphis. They’re both practically in the U.S. center, and UPS shipping in any direction of the compass averages 3-4 days. Real Estate and health costs are much lower than either California or New York, there’s an active music scene, and quality DVD dupers and printers are all available in the central U.S.

It’s just a thought. The Old World has its charm, but so do the Great Smokey Mountains, and the Grand Tetons, and the Rocky Mountains, and the Grand Canyon.

We must also take into account the trend of independent sample library developers selling direct, especially with their own direct downloads. This is a firm trend for 2010 and it will continue to be so. But here’s the thing. Getting the product to buy will be faster. But my observation is that the decision making time to purchase will be slower, especially with fewer and fewer quality composers available to create great demos. The convenience will be balanced with concern. “Am I really getting what I’m being asked to pay for?” will be the not so unspoken question. It’s the challenge of a not-so-new business model.

And now, a final thought.

With 2010, we’ll have yet another opportunity to start a new year afresh to forge our way. But the better news is that we have the same opportunity before us each day we awaken with our eyes open and with limbs that move.

SC - What’s your musical background? Instrument you play? Did you go to music school? Play in a band?
AS- I learned the Piano when I was four in a conservatory, but only for two years as, as I said it back then, “there was too many notes”… so I switched to the drums that I learned for like twelve years at the conservatory. Then I have been playing and practicing it on my own. I also have learned electric bass for six years and then Upright Bass for another two.

That was the music studies part, but I am also graduated in physics and have two masters, one in acoustics (at the IRCAM research institute in Paris), it’s called ATIAM (Acoustics, Signal Processing, and Computer Science Applied to Music), and the second one in Architectural Acoustics.

So I’ve been studying a lot, but I have also been playing music in various bands, mostly jazz and funk bands, and more recently in an acoustic drum’n bass band that I started where we played my compositions Now I am creating a new one with three friends of mine that are professional musicians, but as you maybe know, good musicians are pretty busy, so it takes some time

SC - When did you decide you wanted to sample sounds?
AS - I always have loved electronic music, some of them like Amon Tobin are sampling all kinds of old Jazz or Funk records, and I wanted to do the same. At first I sampled my CD’s, tapes or vinyl records, then I realized i could record stuff on my own with my brand new mini-disc and the various instruments I had. I began copy-pasting every wav file into my sequencer, and I realized that having like 20 snare samples in the same measure would be easier to deal with if I were using like… a sampler… and I made my first libraries.

Sampling was also a need. When I started that drum’n bass band, I had to show the people I wanted to play with, something to make them trust the project, this is where I started to make larger sample libraries of my own instruments. I thought about buying some libraries, but on one hand when I was listening to the demos, I wasn’t convinced and thought mine were not that bad compared to it, and on the other hand, of course they were too expensive for me at that time

SC - When did you realize you could turn it into a viable, money making business?
AS - At first I began selling stuff on a simple website and I only thought I could earn a little money with it as a side job, but with time I saw that people really liked my job and were encouraging me. At that time, I was a computer science engineer and I didn’t like it so as I saw that it was growing and that companies like Native Instruments and Mach Five [ed. note: Digital Performer] were interested in my products, I thought I would quit my job and give it a shot!

SC - Is your total focus on acoustic instruments?
AS - For now, yes. As I told you before, I studied acoustics and really loved the part about mechanical behavior of instruments, in fact I loved it so much that I almost began a luthier career. I even builded like 7 upright basses! They did not sound as good as I wanted them to, but I really enjoyed myself. In a way, sampling instruments is also trying to simulate its behavior, at least that’s how I see it.

I still may give it a try someday because I love electronic music and strange noises.

SC - Of all the instruments you’ve sampled so far, which did you find the most challenging and why?
AS - That really is a hard question. Every instrument has its own sampling difficulties. The pianos and keyboards are quite simple because they are supposed to be played with a keyboard too, all the MIDI standards are keyboard oriented, but the time and consistency you need to record them is really enormous. It takes a lot less time to record a bass or a guitar, but then the hard part is on the scripting and articulations.

So I guess that the hardest instruments would be the horns as I am working on a horn library right now and it really is harder that everything I’ve been sampling until now simply because the way it’s played is completely different from a keyboard.

SC - What for you is the challenge in sampling a piano?
AS - For me the challenge is to reach playability and the feeling that when you play it, it actually behaves as a real one. There is a huge debate on whether the sampled piano or modeled pianos are the best. I think it can be summarized as: the sound is a lot more realistic with sample libraries, but modeled pianos just feel like a real playing experience. So my part is to make the sample libraries act and feel real.

SC - With so many sampled pianos on the market, why did you feel another one could be commercially successful?
AS - Just because I think that this Kawai-EX does fell like a real piano when you play it

I’m also thinking that people have a lot of different piano libraries because they love to have different sounds, most people that compose music on their computers are sound lovers and collectors.

SC - In creating your sales plan for each new sampled instrument, what for you is your measure of success both artistically in your work and in your sales?
AS - In my work, it’s when I release a library and am fully satisfied with it, most of the time, it’s not the case, I have the feeling that I could have done better.

In the sales, it’s obviously when a lot of people buy it as it means that people like it and recommended it to other people. But the best reward is when people send me some messages or talk about it in the forums saying that they love it AND use it.

SC - As a developer, why do you see so few companies creating product for the EXS24 since you have an automatic built-in base of customers?
AS - I think it’s mostly because it’s Mac only. There is still more than half of the audio community that use PCs. Then you have use Logic, I love Logic and am using it for absolutely everything, but some people prefer Pro Tools, Digital Performer or Cubase and they can’t use EXS. In terms of the software itself, the disk streaming is really well implemented, but there are also some basic features that are missing like the time envelope for releases that cannot go over two seconds (unless you’re using Keymap) or a good legato function. Most of all, there are no scripts and that’s why Kontakt is used the most.

SC - For you, what are the advantages of working with Native Instruments’ Kontakt program? Is there also a downside?
AS - The scripting feature is really a must in Kontakt. First you can build a product that will have a dedicated interface and some user interface controls, not just a simple .nki file that you open and looks the same as the other libraries. Secondly, the scripting capabilities allows you to simulate an instrument behavior, as a simple example, you can play a pedal noise when you press or release the sustain pedal on a piano.

Until now i did not see any downside apart from the fact that people that want to use it need to own Kontakt.

SC - Do you use the same micing techniques for each acoustic piano you sample?
AS - No, absolutely not. I’ve learned a lot about instruments acoustic radiation, microphone positioning techniques and room acoustics and you always have to take those three factors in account. The sound esthetics you want to get is also really important. For example, a jazz piano will need to be recorded closer to the strings than a classical one.

SC - From the day you started recording to the day you finished editing, how long did it take you to sample the Kawai EX?
AS - Actually, on the Kawai EX, I’ve been working with Lance Herring and he has been recording the piano and cutting the samples. My part was more the script and patch building, but this piano was sampled like 10 month ago

SC - Which for you is the most demanding: recording or editing?
AS - Frankly, i don’t know. The recording takes a lot of time and is really tiring. You really have to stay in front of a piano playing it without breathing or making any noise and, of course, stay focused and consistent on what you play.The editing is even a longer process because you have to take care of every file making sure that there is no unwanted noise in it, or that you don’t trim it too much, but that’s when you begin to hear what the library will sound like and most of the time this is when I get excited.

SC - What’s next for AcousticsampleS?
AS - Ha, good question! I have a lot of projects going on for all kinds of instruments, but I guess the one I’m the most excited about is the horns library I was talking about earlier.

I also have another piano in mind that will feature everything I’ve been thinking of while doing the Kawai

Oh and maybe I will partner up with a sampler maker to make my libraries available as virtual instruments…

I say this with the utmost of seriousness as writer, teacher, and former marketer at the Fortune 500 level.

Notion 3 sports a well designed mixing board by which to mix your virtual scores, insert plug-ins from IK Multimedia (their Classik Studio Reverb and AmplitTube are included), an enhanced orchestral and jazz rock sound set, a lyric tool, and most impressive, the ability to insert VSTi’s (virtual studio instruments) from East West (QLSO PLAY), Garritan Aria, Kontakt, and the Vienna Symphonic Libraries. The new mixing board also enables you to add effects plugins, which is good, because the Notion mixing board lacks an EQ plug-in.

Notion 3 lacks one feature to really compete with Garageband: the ability to record a vocal.

Adding this one feature would enable Notion 3 to be the basis for a beginning recording program at both the high school and collegiate level. And with a $199 street price, Notion is a program many parents and students can afford.

In its new form, complete with mixing board, reverb and guitar amps from IK Multimedia, it’s ready to be the basis of a recording training for virtual recording only. To fulfill this teaching mission, as I already mentioned above, Notion 3 only needs an EQ plug-in and basic effects package (compressor, limiter, etc.) to complete the mix (pun intended) which IK Multimedia already has.

With this brief summation, let’s get a starting look at Notion 3.

WHY NOTION 3 IS A COMPETITOR
The most compelling reason that Notion is a competitor is that Notion 3 recognizes and has setups for VSTi’s (virtual studio instruments) for : EastWest QLSO PLAY, Garritan ARIA, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments Kontakt, and the Vienna Instruments. It’s dual platform (Mac and PC) and is backwardly compatible to OS 10.4 on the Mac and Windows XP on the PC. So at the retail level, there are many bundling opportunities, not to mention the potential for sample developers to license Notion 3 to package their orchestral libraries with.

Second is that Notion 3 notation is a breeze to learn. It’s just much faster to learn than the other notation programs on the market. I can say that as a Sibelius user and as someone who’s written two books on Finale. And because of that, I always thought Notion was more fun to work with.

Third, Notion 3 has cleaned up its act in two critical areas. First, and I can’t believe I’m writing this, Notion 3 finally has both MIDI import and export. Second, it finally has a lyric notation tool. So now, you can actually do lead sheets for copyright filings.

Fourth, Notion 3, like the new GarageBand, shows the guitar fret board, has tablature and the ability to insert guitar fingerboard positions.

All of these features, and others I’m still discovering, make Notion 3 a serious contender in the marketplace.

Let’s take a look at some of these features.

IMPROVED NOTATION

This example is a demo that comes with Notion 3. It’s an avant garde work and as you can see from the graphic, this is pretty serious notation! You wouldn’t expect a notation element this complete in a $199 package, but with Notion 3, it is.

THE MIXING BOARD

This is the mixing board of the same work. Each stave has its own mixer track. There are four inserts per track and four busses. Each fader has its own Peak Meter and dB calibration. Of course, there’s panning, mute and solo.

INSERTS

This is one of the included plug-ins from IK Multimedia, their Classik Studio Reverb. This is a fully programmable reverb. So what you’re seeing is a very complete concept. However, you’re not limited to IK. You can use other audio effect VSTi plug-ins, too.

Consequently, you have a lot of options a fairly luxurious production package for a moderate sum.

FACTORY SOUND SETS
Notion 3, along with its earlier versions, has sample recordings of the London Symphony Orchestra. These have been newly programmed, and they do have a better sound. I would say if you’re just using the included orchestral sound set to give you an idea of what you’re doing, OK. You do get most of the sounds from the earlier Notion packs on a separate DVD.

But on the other hand, the real value (to me) is that Notion 3 works with Kontakt, VSL, Miroslav Philharmonik, and QLSO PLAY. That being the case, since the templates are already setup, then I can just use QLSO, key in my score, and I’m good to go.

OVERALL IMPRESSION
I have to explore more, but I’m really impressed. For professionals, Notion 3 isn’t going to replace Logic or DP. But, if you read music, and you do scoring, I can say that because it’s so quick to key in your scores, that Notion is just restful to use. With QLSO on an iLok, put Notion 3 on a laptop and go away for the weekend.

Now, my caveat emptor is that I haven’t really tried to set up QLSO or other programs inside it, but I know someone who has, and he produced a really nice demo with QLSO + Notion 3 that was most impressive.

The thing about Notion 3 is that it’s truly turnkey. Because VSTi implementation is so important, they should go back through the PDF manual, and redo that chapter by adding more screen shots so that every step is clearly mapped out. Make it as no-brainer as possible.

CONCLUSION
As a fellow entrepreneur, if I had the money, I’d buy the company. Notion Music is finally on the right path. They’ve got a great product. What they need now, is the sales marketing and licensing vision to match and take it to the moon.

For more information see www.notionmusic.com.

Evolve

Fortunately, both the manual and the free updates from the Heavyocity site gives you a list of all the sounds that you should definitely print out and put it into a notebook. Because you have different sounds mapped to both white and black keys, you’ll need to play through them and on the sound sheets, write prose statements to help you define how, when, where you’d use a particular sound.

Evolve is organized into five components each with its own “skin”. Descriptions below are from the Heavyocity web site.

1. Rhythmic Suites - Walls of cinematic percussion, punchy beats, and next-gen tonal elements make up 7 genre-specific loop suites (Dramatic EVOLVED, Dramatic Techtronic, Electro Tech, Industrial Elements, Industrial Grunge, Quirky and Cartoony, Rock Pop, and Tonal Suites.) Over 600 beat sliced loops arranged with an intuitive keymapping system.

2. Stings and Transitions - 5 categories of otherworldly sounds like Uncharted Metals, odd Noise and Buildups, and Atonal Stings, offer distinct new ways to heighten emotional impact. Perfect for adding terrifying sonic punctuation to a film soundtrack or bizarre textures to the breakdown of a pop song.

3. Seq and Arp - Utilizing a custom step-sequence arpeggiator, users can control Velocity, Pan, and Filter on nearly 60 presets, ranging from percussive hits to tweaked pianos. Develop your own groove, or choose one of the 12 factory presets to get started.

4. Percussive Kits - Over 30 modern percussive-type menus and drum-like kits containing sounds gathered from an array of bizarre sources (warehouses, amusement parks, murky stairwells, and more). Whether it’s a massive hit, an ear piercing screech, or a subtle clang, this category provides an enormous variety of sounds for beat production.

5. Tonality and FX - A mashed up array of instruments that stray from the traditional “meat and potatoes”. Including both instruments and pads like Frozen Piano and Lydian Choir Gods, this category will bring an innovative quality to your arrangements.

All of the loops are in 4/4 time and will lock to your sequencer’s tempo.

One thing you’ll need to consider is that all of the sounds are pre-effected. So if you’re using Evolve with an orchestral library, you’ll need to do some reverb matching.

Evolve is the brainchild of two fellow Berklee grads, Dave Fraser and Neil Goldberg, both of whom have nearly a decade’s worth of experience in production and sound design.

Not to be a punster, but you’re literally getting the sound of experience from Dave and Neil and their programming team whose credits include the NFL, Sony, Gillette, Atari, NBC, 2K Marin, MTV, VH1, Sci-Fi Network, NBC and many others.

From this experience and the obvious client need of being able to work quickly, Dave/Neil and Team have developed a program that clearly has a solid quality control design that leads to swift and efficient work flow. As bizarre as this may read, the menus are a joy to work with because they’re laid out in a simple, easy to follow format. And recently, the company gave away a free update that contains hundreds of more sounds, drum loops and MIDI files.

These guys take care of their customers!

Given the tight economy and the heavily competitive environment out there, Heavyocity Evolve, like Symphobia from Project SAM or LASS from AudioBro, is going to give you a serious edge. With so many sounds, you won’t run out of uses any time soon.

List Price: USD $399.00.

Minimum System Requirements:
Mac :
-OS 10.4.X or later
-G4 1.4 GHz or faster
-512 MB RAM or more
-DVD drive

Windows :
-XP SP2 or Vista
-Pentium IV or Athlon 1.4 GHz or faster
-512MB RAM or more
-DVD drive

Plug-in Formats :
AudioUnit, VST, RTAS, DXi and Stand Alone

Powered by the Native Instruments Kontakt Player 2 engine

On July 24, 2009 it began shipping and on July 28th, our review copy arrived.

Because of the importance of this new library, we’ll be doing several reviews on it. In this first part, we’ll start by reviewing what orchestral divisi is and how Andrew Keresztes, composer/developer/programmer of the library, approached its organization.

WHAT’S DIVISI ANYWAY?
Divisi is Italian for divide. With divisi, the strings are divided into smaller sections which allow for both additional vertical harmony parts and coloristic writing, since many orchestral colors are achievable with smaller ensembles within the larger ensemble. Each string section can be divided in two parts (div a 2), three parts (div a three) and four parts (div a four). Of these three techniques, div a 2 is the most common.

Two Methods of Dividing the Strings
There are two ways to divide the strings. Let’s look at the first method. Below, the violins are divided in half by left and right. The Left side of the violins (called the outer violins) play one pitch and the violins to the right (called the inner violins) play the second pitch.

The second method is dividing the strings by front and back. Half the strings in the front play one part and the other half in the back play the second part.

The decision as to how to divide the strings is made by the conductor and the concert master.

APPLICATION TO L.A. SCORING STRINGS
LASS has been recorded with a large string section. Some will say it’s a large “A-list” film orchestra. Others will note that this string section is larger than the standard orchestra string section. From that perspective, I’d define this as a Mahler-sized string section.

Does it make a difference between defining this as a “Mahler-sized” string section vs. film? It does because with such a larger string section, Mahler wrote for:

a. 3-4 flutes
b. 3-4 oboes
c. 3-4 clarinets
d. 3-4 oboes (with English horn as a double)
e. 2-3 bassoons
f. 1 contrabassoon
g. 6-7 French horns
h. 3-4 trumpets
i. 3 trombones and a tuba

Andrew Keresztes recorded LASS using a smaller ensemble within a larger ensemble approach. Because of this, composers, orchestrators, and arrangers can more effectively balance varying sized woodwinds and brass combinations. The chart below tells the beginning story.

LASS has three mini-ensembles within the larger section: C,B and A.

The C-Section, with the exception of the Cellos, is that section divided in half. Sections B and A are individually recorded smaller sections with different musicians, so each has its own personality and sound.

For a full unison section sound, you have the option of either recording with the Full Section, or creating a unison over three tracks with C, B, and A.

Here’s a simple example from Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, The Fairy Garden. In the example below, you’ll see highlighted three places where Ravel divides the Violins 2 and Violas.

While a simple execution with live players, with electronic scoring, it’s not so simple. That’s because to create a divisi “sound”, the libraries used have to match both sonically and with orchestral weighting so that when going from unison to divided parts back to unison, it sounds like the same string section. This is one of LASS’s great benefits. Instead of spending hours or days testing samples and editing to make a simple passage like this work, you just assign the parts across the tracks.

THE JOY OF CHOICE
Because of how Mr. Keresztes recorded LASS, you have the option of creating five smaller ensembles. It has to be said: for now, LASS is the only single library that enables these scoring opportunities.

These alternate ensembles offer commercial opportunity for those in and out of film scoring. For example, record dates with string ensembles will often use a size similar to jazz. In the jazz world, lots of albums have been recorded with a string quartet. In the theatre, Copland’s original orchestration for Appalachian Spring used a double string quartet which can be approximated with LASS. In fact, when LASS is used with the full Kontakt 3.5 program, there are enough instruments licensed from the Vienna Symphonic Library to do a similar sized ensemble. There are also a number of churches that have their own volunteer orchestra with small string section.

Because of how LASS was recorded, a composer can create a realistic sounding track to demonstrate the piece for these smaller ensembles.

SORDINO (MUTED) STRINGS
With the exception of the first chair player (the soloist), LASS has recorded sustained muted strings for each full section, and A, B and C ensemble sections.

SO FAR
I’ve started with this musical approach because so often with sample libraries, the tendency is to immediately jump into the more technical knob tweaking/recording issues without first looking as to what can be produced with a specific library, especially outside the world of film/TV and game scoring.

So let’s start here: with LASS you can record a lot. I can’t say, “anything you want,” because no library on the planet has that many articulations! What I can say is that LASS is not encumbered by the discussion of, “Is LASS for film or is it for classical?”

LASS is for any genre you want to write in.

HOW IT SOUNDS
Compared to other libraries, LASS is a little jolting when you first hear it in your project studio. This is because LASS was recorded on a genuine Hollywood scoring stage. So on first listen, it’s a dryer sound than what you might expect.

So, add a touch of reverb, or use the basic reverb included with either the Kontakt player or Kontakt itself.

The next step is just going through each of the string sections. You can certainly jump in and grab something for a current project. LASS is very fast that way. But, you will do yourself the greater favor by taking the time to learn the sound of each section’s full and smaller ensemble, and then, build some test tracks, in my view, preferably from the symphonic literature and the many John Williams scores out there. The advantage of this more methodical approach is comparing sampled to live, and seeing the changes that come about by manipulating the smaller sections.

This is more than an academic suggestion.

With LASS, you have the genuine opportunity of creating your own string orchestra sound. In other words, a little extra work on your part, and no one is going to listen to your music and say, “Oh, you’re using LASS, too, huh?” That’s because Andrew Keresztes has developed a specific set of tools and features within either Kontakt or the Kontakt player to enable you to customize your sound. To this you can add effective reverb (Altiverb, Lexicon PCM 90s which you can find on eBay) and custom EQ settings.

A little effort will yield a lot for yourself.

If you have several string libraries, you now have the option with LASS of asking and answering, “What kind of string sound do I want for this project?” That is a very serious scoring advantage.

THE MANUAL
As is often said at a baseball game, “You can’t know the players without a program!” This is true for LASS. Mr. Keresztes has created a manual that’s actually readable and highly useful. But more than that, it’s a mandatory read. To get the most out of LASS, you must work with the manual and the controls.

WHAT’S NEXT
In Part 2, I’ll begin benchmarking LASS with specific musical examples that I’ll be posting from Professional Orchestration Volume 2A: Orchestrating the Melody Within the String Section and other works. Where available, you’ll be referenced to YouTube videos of the examples tested.

Because of Sonic Control’s “Consumer Reports” approach, where applicable, the same examples used for LASS will be used with other string libraries so that fair comparisons can be made that you can compare to.

What we’re testing is the out-of-box experience - what you can do now with just what you have in your studio.

BUYING LASS
At present, LASS is sold direct at www.audiobro.com. You can download the PDF manual for pre-review at the Audiobro web site.

Click HERE for video demo.

Arthur was an educator and he wrote numerous books, including, for 1926, the definitive guide to dance band arranging called Arranging For the Modern Dance Orchestra. He taught at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music which later became Cal Arts.

But Arthur also created a unique booklet and matching colorized chart. And it’s that combination that merits our attention.

He titled the booklet/chart combination with a pseudo-scientific name that while sounding right for 1943, today sounds more like something you’d use to pick the right paint color for your home at Lowes. He called his colorized chart, the Spectrotone Chart. And the companion booklet, which is only a series of 8.5 x 11 sheets folded sideways and held together with two staples, he called The Spectrotone System of Orchestration.

Don’t be put off by the quaint name, because what Arthur created, which has daily practical use for both live and electronic scoring, and mixing, is nothing less than the Rosetta Stone of orchestration.

In his own words, the Spectrotone System of Orchestration is, “a colorgraphic exposition of tone-color combinations and balance as practiced in modern orchestration.”

The chart is organized by the 88 keys of the piano with each key numbered. The bottom A is 1, and the highest C is 88. Eight colors are used with the lowest pitches colored Purple and the highest, White. The simplistic view is that the chart follows the keys of the piano scale wise. But the real view is that the colors reflect not only the individual instrument’s range but also the intensity of the instrument’s sound as it’s played up the overtone series.

The color choices make a lot of sense enabling not only precision orchestral combinations, live and electronic, but also provides a gracious way to communicate with producers and directors in a language they’ll understand since each color has a single adjective to describe it.

White = Brilliant
Yellow = Bright
Green = Pleasant
Blue = Rich
Orange = Golden
Red = Glowing
Brown = Warm
Purple = Mellow
Shaded (Cross-hatched) = Dull
Black = Indefinite

Each tone color has an additional timbre description, here with multiple adjectives for greater definition.

Lange’s next step is showing how combinations are created. He has four: perfect, close, complementary and remote. As an exercise, I looked at the French horn in the Purple range to see what it blends best with. Working my way down the chart, I could easily see the zones where the French horn blends with the trumpet, tuba, the G-string of the violin, the C-string of the viola, and so on. When I compared my findings back to scores from Debussy to Mancini, it was a perfect match.

There’s more to it than what I just described, but you get the idea.

How I found it is the stuff of accident.

This past week we relaunched the 50th Anniversary edition of Joseph Wagner’s Professional Orchestration: A Practical Handbook. For the promotion, I kept looking for pictures and info on Dr. Wagner, all to no avail. Not even Oxford Online had a paragraph on him. On what must have been my 43rd search on Google, I found a monograph about Dr. Wagner written by Lance Bowling. So now I had to search for Lance Bowling. That search lead me to Cambria Recordings.

Ever the detective, I called the Cambria number on a Sunday afternoon expecting to leave a message. Mid-message this fellow picks up the phone, and identifies himself as Lance Bowling, the president of Cambria Recordings and a former student of Dr. Wagner when he taught at Pepperdine.

During our conversation, Lance casually mentioned the Spectratone Chart and gave me a thumbnail description of it. Hearing the interest in my voice, Lance sent it to me, along with two symphonies of Dr. Wagner’s on CD, both of which had been conducted by Howard Hanson.

Inside the FedEx box was the booklet, the chart and a small ingenious work showing how to work out string stops.

It only took a few seconds to recognize what I was reading. In the 1920s, a classmate of Maurice Ravel’s, Charles Koechlin, wrote the pre-eminent work on orchestration, detailing, unfortunately, in classical French, insights into Impressionistic scoring, especially volume, and intensity. I have those books. And every so often I type in a few pages trying to use various free French-to-English online translators to learn.

It is long dreary work especially if you don’t read or speak Classical French, which I don’t. I even had a native French person try reading it to me. It was too difficult, even for her, because Koechlin wrote in the older classical French. So the knowledge is locked away, and the publishers, aren’t too keen on the Yanks and the Brits getting a copy, which is one reason they never translated it into English.

But what Arthur Lange put in this 32-page booklet held together by two staples and accompanied by an 8-color chart is a visual key for understanding the kind of French coloristic writing that defines American film scoring.

And like so many wonderful things, they were just sitting in a box, actually several boxes, waiting to be rediscovered.

Now they have been.

Twelve bucks.

Now there was a time when companies would create a manual and pack it in the box. But this fading quick. That’s because getting the manuals written and designed to fit into the box, then get it printed timely, and packaged is a chore and a half. Then there’s the shipping, which is costly enough, but with a 1-2 pound manual, the shipping goes up. 

Then there’s that catch-22 situation of creating the wonderful manual that no will read. So you’ve just spent a bundle on paper that may not even be used to light a fire on the beach for a little summer night barbecue.

However, there are times I’d like to burn the manual, barbecue or not.

And the reasons are:

1. clutter creating disorganization and confusion
2. poor design for effective online use
3. poor use of color that wastes ink

Clutter
Do a piece with Project SAM, EastWest, Addictive Drums and any Vienna Instrument, and right there, you’ve got nearly 200 pages of docs either online or on your desktop. To organize, you need to buy three-hole pre-punched paper,and of course, a three-ring binder or two, or five.

And some of these manuals are genuinely indispensable, especially the Vienna Instruments manuals because they contain the data needed to more effectively MIDI edit.

As you watch the paper print (is this a new soap opera in the making?), you have to make a decision that affects room organization - will you put the manual in its own binder or put it in a binder with several manuals?

However you do it in a binder, it’s 187 square inches of space taken up on your desktop. And the standard 3-ring binders don’t always fit bookcases neatly, either.

Poor Design For Effective Online Use
Using a PDF software manual could be a great thing if it’s designed well so that you can easily go back and forth between the program and the documentation. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen this yet. You still have to scroll up and down to read.

Poor Use of Color That Wastes Ink
I’m thinking specifically of a drum manual that on the inside pages made pretty decent use of color, until you got to the cover, which was pitch black with some white lettering. My poor ink jet printer! When that cover came out, you could hold it by its page corner and just feel the weight of the ink.

Getting Organized
I tried printing out the manuals, putting them into a file folder, and then filing them. In theory, that should be a cozy solution, but in practice, you end up with folders and loose papers laying around. So in the end, I’ve opted for smaller white 3-ring binders, 1″ or smaller (when I can find them), with a plastic sheath on the front where I can slide in the cover and then on the spine, label it for quick grabbing.

However, I still end up with binders-o-rama.

Which leads me to conclude that the best way to handle things is to just learn the program so well you don’t need the manual (why create music when you can read a manual), or grow a third telescopic eye to slow down the need for bifocals (aka progressive lenses).

Oh the joys of the 21st Century composing life.

On the first reason, you do get four pianos and there are 35 disks to install, but you only have to install one piano at a time. Otherwise, as has been reported across the web, you’re looking at a 16-hour plus installation time, or an average of four hours per piano installation.

On the second reason, I do have a powerful enough system, however, I slightly fudge it by running the lite version for most cases. But since my piano touch is light to begin with, running with the full version worked out OK inside Logic (vs. in standalone mode).

The size of this library is 135GB (yipes!). On the G5, there are only two hard drives. With all the EastWest libraries I have to review, I simply ran out of space. I corrected that with a 1 terabyte Western Digital MyBook drive pre-formatted for the Mac that I ordered from CDW. The first drive was defective. So was the eSATA cable I ordered to connect the MyBook to a special eSATA interface I installed in the Mac enabling me to connect two more external eSATA drives on my system.

When the replacement drive arrived, CDW had forgotten to include a replacement eSATA cable. Fortunately, MyBook has Firewire so that’s how I connected it to the Mac.

I’ve had the MyBook running for several months and installed several other test libraries. Good news: no problems. And even though it’s connected to the Mac via Firewire, it’s still mighty fast to use.

I installed one of the four pianos, a Bechstein 280. The other three pianos include the Bosendorfer 290, the Steinway D and a Yamaha D7. After I get the next three installed I’ll report back how the total installation went. Overall, one critique for EastWest is that the graphic user interface could be clearer for the installation since part of the data goes to the C Drive while the samples go to the MyBook. This is one place where I felt that Spectrasonic’s Omnisphere manual earned an A+ by describing how to install on an external drive.

Another reason I stopped with one installation is that one of the DVDs needed for the next piano was corrupted. However, EastWest replaced the bad disk in a business day.

My keyboard for testing is an older Yamaha S90.

My opinion so far after the angst of installation - wow.

This brings me to the next reason I haven’t finished installing the other three pianos - I’m having way too much fun on the Bechstein.

Quantum Leap Pianos is a beautiful sounding piano with a touch that on my keyboard literally enables your fingers to dance across the keys. I’ve never said that about any pianos before now. But I compared the QL Pianos Bechstein for playability with several other sampled pianos. Only Hans Adamson’s Virtual Piano came the closest to the Quantum Leap for playability and sound.

When you start playing the Bechstein, the reverb, labeled Ambience, is on. For me, a real test is how well the instrument sounds when the reverb (EW Hall LR) is off. Well, it still sounds just as beautiful, as if you’re playing a “regular” piano in a room.

For each piano there are three different mic positions: close, player and room. You can also change the lid position. Here I do have a critique which is the lack of calibration on the faders. However, I don’t see this as a deal killer because you’re mixing by ear anyway, but if you’re keeping notes on your session (which I do), it’s much easier to write down a numeric position.

Overall, if you’re looking for a really stunning piano sound - consider this. List price is $499. For a lighter version, there’s a Gold version for $349 list.

What’s particularly impressive about Gypsy is the outstanding collection of guitars useful in any style from jazz to country picking. If you needed to financially justify to yourself why you should purchase Gypsy, the guitar collection, along with the solo violin, are enough.

I make this assessment having compared the guitars within Gypsy (see the list below) to that which is available from other libraries including Omnisphere, which also has a very strong collection.

Since I have most all of the solo stringed instrument libraries, including the Solo Strings in the Vienna Instruments, I can attest that there’s not another solo violin like this one.  In fact, the depth of tonal quality reminded me of Howard Shore’s use of the Hardingfele in The Two Towers (LOTR).

What can be produced with this library is quite something. There are no words that can adequately describe it which is why I’ve made Part 1 of this review a musical presentation of the instruments and styles inherently represented within Gypsy.

Here’s a list of the instruments that come with Gypsy.

Fast Overview
Accordion Article - The instrument is sometimes considered a “one-man-band”, as it needs no accompanying instrument; the performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment—consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons—on the left-hand manual.

Campana, Silvestri and Excelsior are all individual accordion makers.

Accordion Links

Bandoneon
The Bandoneon page
From Wikipedia

The Cimbalon
The cimbalon is an amazingly versatile instrument used in film, rock and modern composition including the Hary Janos Suite by Kodaly. One of the great surprises was “discovering” cymbalomist Marius Preda and his Mission Cymbalom proejct. His jazz performing on this instrument are both amazing and inspirational.

The Acoustic Guitars
There are three: classical, flamenco and Spanish steel-stringed guitar.

Classical Guitar
Classical Guitar Article
Classical Guitarist Homepage
Classical Guitar Radio from Sky.FM
Classical Guitar MIDI Archives

Flamenco Guitar
Main Article
Flemenco Guitar Homepage
Flamenco Guitar Transcriptions
Flamenco Guitar Maker

Steel String Acoustic Guitar
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Steel-string_acoustic_guitar

Django Reinhardt
Bio
Wikipedia
Django and Gypsy Jazz

Flamenco Dancing
Flamenco Dance History
Wikipedia

MUSICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Just scanning the links and watching a few videos should demonstrate how much you can produce with Gypsy. Suffice it to say, you can go as deep as you want to go. At the same time, there’s also the great challenge in learning just how to produce effectively with Gypsy.

Because there is so much here, I feel there’s something missing. And it’s the same thing that’s missing in libraries from other companies including Best Service’s Ethno World 4 - the romance of learning and doing.

Gypsy is a library that just cries out for an Apple-styled MacWorld-like presentation visually demonstrating what’s possible and how to get there. This library even has two different “Senorita” dancers and castanets. In your mind’s eye, can’t you just imagine a split screen with the dancer on the left and a keyboardist on the right mimicking the dance pattern!

In the absence of that I’ve tried to do the next best thing.

YOUTUBE VIDEOS
In the absence of the presentation I’ve wished for, below are a number of YouTube videos I researched that give you a basic overview of what’s possible to produce if you go the distance and really get into this library.

Now, is it necessary to learn castanet and flamenco dancing patterns that you can execute on a MIDI keyboard controller? No. But why not!

GYPSY VIOLIN
In watching these videos, you’ll see great close-ups of violin fingering technique. The broad sound of the Violin included in Gypsy enables you to capture many of these playing techniques. An excellent reference is The Strings Position Booklet.

Sandor Lakatos

Sultry Violinist
This is a live club performance. Excellent musicianship.

Vittorio Monti

FLAMENCO GUITAR

BULERIAS RHYTHM

FLEMENCO GUITAR AND DANCE

DJANGO REINHARDT

CIMBALON
Cimbalon in Barcelona

Gypsy Cimbalon Band

Mission Cymbalon

Place St. Henri

Gypsy Violin and Cimbalon in Performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKTEbCxaL6k&feature=related

Bandoneon
Wikipedia

Hungarian Dance #5 Performed on Accordion

Bandoneon and Guitar
This is a button accordion derived from the German Koncertina. It has left and right hand buttons but no keyboard.

Astor Piazzola

Gypsy Jazz Jam With Trombone Solo

Best Trombone Player Ever

GYPSY JAZZ - Guitars and Accordions

FLEMENCO DANCER
Castanet Patterns
Dance Steps
Flemenco Compas
Glossary of Flemenco Terms

COMING IN PART 2
In Part 2, I’ll get more into the mechanics of using EastWest Gypsy.