Garritan Orchestral Strings + Maestro tools + linux sampler?

[count_fuzzball]

Is it possible for me to use Maestro tools that come with GOS and Linux sampler, under linux?

Or are there any other alternative ways for me to emulate legato and alternating up/down bowings?

[Alex]

Count, i've just spotted this post.

Building manual legatos takes practise, but it not only can be done, you have a much greater control over the end result.

Some quick notes.

The transistions, from one note to the other are (obviously) the most important part of building good legatos, but it's also worth noting, that the introduction of variety (slightly different note end/beginnings) will also bring a good degree of humanity to your work.

When adding notes, with the intent of creating a legato phrase, it's worth looking at sample libs in general. Does your lib have release (R) and non release sample sets (NR)? If so, when you add notes, check you're not adding a release sample note, then something else, in the middle of the phrase.

Next, a useful tip is to create a tiny gap between notes. This seems at odds with a legato perspective, but depending how your sample lib is recorded, when you listen to the sound (and not looking at the screen), you can tweak this tiny gap, until the residue resonance of a played note, slides smoothly into the next note, I.E, if the residue resonance is about 2ms long, after you've released the note, then a 2ms gap would be a good place to start. You'll need to work with this until you get the result you want.

If you're intent on a portamento type slide from one note to the next, then instead of creating a note 1 beat long, with the intent of going to the next note, make it short by 1/64. Add a new short note 1/8 long, and place it so it's overlapping the end of the first note by, you guessed it, 1/64. Now you have a tiny note to add pitch change controller messages to, and with practise, can emulate a fairly smooth transistion. The start of this tiny note should be at the same pitch as the first note, and finish at the pitch of the note you're going to. The degree of slide, and whereabouts in the short note the pitch change takes place is up to you. Practise makes for a better result.

Hope this helps, but remember sample libs vary considerably in their architecture, and what works for one, may be problematic in another, requiring a modified approach by the user, depending on the sample lib in question.


p.s. Up and down bows are fairly easy to do with practise. Add a note. This is down bow. Add a new note, and take a little velocity off it. This is up bow. This may seem a rather crude approach, but it works as a start point. For the transistion between up and down, add a tiny 'joining' note, and put a small swell up and down on it, with the intent of emulating the change of bow direction. Keep tweaking it, until you hear a barely discernible change between your two main notes. The transistion note will be only loud enough to heard 'instinctively', so don't be afraid to turn it's volume way down, then work up from there in small increments.

These are manual methods for what a lot of modern sample libs do automatically, but they also serve as a great means of 'humanising' your work, with the user introduced variation between transistions.

Alex.

[ccherrett]

I own VSL Pro Cube and have access to all sorts of articulations, however......

My wife and I are working on a training website with Alex. Part of that process is learning how compose orchestral music through midi. Alex has proved beyong a shadow of a doubt that very simple articulations can be used to create very authentic sounding music with the right tools.

That brings me to my next point. We have been coding a branch of Rosegarden that we call Open Octave Midi for some time now and have created a great set of professional tools for midi orchestration with it. Very soon we will release v1.0. This version will make what you are trying to do much much easier than was possible in the past.

I will keep you posted.

Thanks!