SampleModeling's The Cello is now available

[bkshepard]

Thanks, Mike that's a good idea to try out their MIDI files. I've been particularly impressed with the CAPSULE performance engine that Orchestra Tools has developed for their Berlin series. It provides a really nice expressive interface for solo playing right out of the box, but then also allows for a great deal of further customization.

[mhschmieder]

I own the IRCAM Solo Instruments, and they are primarily for quirky stuff and special effects, which I have occasional need of but usually depend on Spitfire products if only due to ease of use.

I had forgotten that OT had a strings library, as I mostly have them earmarked for eventual purchase of the brass and maybe winds, for the German flavour to complement my London and Vienna flavours (along with Praha/Prague).

MIDI files are not usually a good way to judge string libraries, due to articulation switching being the driving factor (along with timbre and dynamics handling). For instance, you won't find "detache" in the MIDI spec, or anything else that you need to handle yourself when using sample libraries vs. Sample Modeling.

[cuttime]

Anyone having trouble with the keyswitches? C1 puts the Play Mode in "Col Legno", and I can't seem to get out of that setting, no matter what. I tried this VI with MainStage and got the same result. Maybe I have to consult SampleModeling.

[cuttime]

FWIW, I got a response from SampleModeling, and it turns out the keyswitches are velocity sensitive - duh.
- low velocity: bowing
- mid velocity: pizzicato
- high velocity: col legno
There is a chart in the pdf manual that details all of this, but the print is damn near unreadable, at least with these eyes.

[mikehalloran]

I know what yo mean — had to blow up that PDF file on another monitor so that I could read it.

[bkshepard]

I bought it and am really enjoying all the flexibility it provides! One thing that puzzles me is the "Instruments" menu. Has anyone come across descriptions of what those are? I couldn't find anything in the manual or the SampleModeling website. They have rather cryptic names:

• 01 - A stereo 14
  02 - A stereo 6
  03 - A mono 16 e
  04 - A stereo 16 e
  05 - A mono 18 e
  06 - A stereo 18 e
  07 - B mono 22
  08 - B stereo 1
  09 - B mono E
  10 - B mono 15
  11 - B stereo 2
  12 - A stereo 1

I'm guessing the A and B are two different cellos and the mono/stereo part is pretty obvious. You can certainly hear differences in the timbre, I'm just curious about what the numbers and "e" mean.

[cuttime]

Has anyone come across descriptions of what those are?

I've wondered about this as well. Anything I can come up with is pure conjecture. I thought that the numbers might be mic distances, but what units? Could the "e" mean electric cello? Perhaps it is something in Italian that is completely escaping me.

Glad you are enjoying this instrument, as I have had a blast over the past week or so playing it on a keyboard with two pedals. It is far subtler than meets the eye at first glance. My only complaint is that the tone gets a little fatiguing after a while, and I found that a small cut around 7.5 kHz smoothes everything out to a delightful level.

[Shooshie]

Has anyone come across descriptions of what those are?

I've wondered about this as well. Anything I can come up with is pure conjecture. I thought that the numbers might be mic distances, but what units? Could the "e" mean electric cello? Perhaps it is something in Italian that is completely escaping me.

Glad you are enjoying this instrument, as I have had a blast over the past week or so playing it on a keyboard with two pedals. It is far subtler than meets the eye at first glance. My only complaint is that the tone gets a little fatiguing after a while, and I found that a small cut around 7.5 kHz smoothes everything out to a delightful level.

Me too. (EQ, that is)

However... Since DP 9.1 I'm unable to use The Cello much. It is causing spikes in the performance meter, and no amount of buffer seems to be enough to fix it. It's even set for pre-gen. I wonder what the heck is going on.

Shooshie

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It is causing spikes in the performance meter, and no amount of buffer seems to be enough to fix it. It's even set for pre-gen. I wonder what the heck is going on.
Shooshie

I'm concerned and confused about (DP 9.1) "To fine-tune the responsiveness of plug-ins and virtual instruments, go to Setup menu > Configure Audio System > Configure Studio Settings and adjust the Prime Milliseconds setting."
This has been the most mysterious and confusing thing about DP since what, DP6?

[Shooshie]

Update: When playing an instrument live, you must have the track record enabled. I suppose that a live track cannot be subjected to Pre-Gen, so it's in real time. It's only when the MIDI track is record enabled that DP is overloaded. Switch to MIDI playback and The Cello places only a minuscule load on DP. Again, this never happened in DP 9.02. Live performance was well within acceptable limits of loading, even at a 128 buffer. Now, even 1024 isn't enough. It all depends on whether that little record button is enabled on the Cello's MIDI track. That's all there is to it.

I understand that when you're playing it live, pre-gen cannot work, but I can't see any reason for it to overload a buffer of 1024. 128 was sufficient in DP 9.02.

Shooshie

[cuttime]

I feel your pain, Shooshie, but I'm just not seeing this. With 9.1 I can actually play the Cello live at a 64 buffer, when I couldn't do that with 9.02. But of course that doesn't help you. I'm beginning to think there are more differences to Apple hardware than immediately meets the eye, and what a nightmare that would pose for developers and beta testers.

[mikehalloran]

For the moment, I'm playing with it in Finale. I think I'll wait till I really get into pre-gen before trying it in DP.

Worst case, I still have DP 8.07 active while I try to figure out 9.1.

[David Polich]

Update: When playing an instrument live, you must have the track record enabled. I suppose that a live track cannot be subjected to Pre-Gen, so it's in real time. It's only when the MIDI track is record enabled that DP is overloaded. Switch to MIDI playback and The Cello places only a minuscule load on DP. Again, this never happened in DP 9.02. Live performance was well within acceptable limits of loading, even at a 128 buffer. Now, even 1024 isn't enough. It all depends on whether that little record button is enabled on the Cello's MIDI track. That's all there is to it.

I understand that when you're playing it live, pre-gen cannot work, but I can't see any reason for it to overload a buffer of 1024. 128 was sufficient in DP 9.02.

Shooshie

I don't have The Cello but because your post about it overloading was alarming,I launched DP 9.1 and tested all the SM products I do have - the Saxophones, The Trombone V3 and The Trumpet V3. Zero issues with any of them. The Saxophones run on Sample Modeling's SWAM engine (I think The Cello runs on that engine as well) and they purr along just fine at 512, 256, 128. The Trombone and The Trumpet are Kontakt5 instruments and they work great as well in 9.1.
I'm finding that in 9.1 I can run most VI's at 512 and get latency so low that it is nearly imperceptible, and at 256 buffer it is completely imperceptible. I have no need to run any VI's at 128 buffer in DP anymore.

Sorry to hear about your trouble with The Cello. Do you still have the installer for it? Might be worthwhile to un-install and then re-install it.

[mhschmieder]

I haven't taken The Cello for a spin since my El Capitan and DP 9.1 upgrades this week, but I'm using the Clarinet last night and today and it is faster by a factor of four to ten or so, and more reactive.

[Shooshie]

Maybe the file I'm using is corrupted. I'll try again with a new file and see if that fixes things.

I can see the gains you guys are talking about. If my track is not record-enabled, the meter is barely visible. But record enable its MIDI track, and it's like a weather thermometer in an oven. The mercury shoots through the roof! But I'll try a fresh project and see if that fixes anything. If not, I'll try reinstalling some things.

Shooshie