This Is How It's Meant To Sound...
With an instrument as diverse, capable, and exposed as the violin, there is no cutting corners, so we strived to capture as much of the possible sounds a violin can make as possible, resulting in the huge list of articulations you can see below, as well as four sampled legato styles, also shown below. We even specially sampled slurred and bowed legato so you can correctly and realistically phrase passages, and a specially sampled "fast legato" set of intervals, which will allow you to play virtuosic runs and scale passages.
On top of this, we want our instruments to be as close in sonic-flexibility to a real situation as they can be, so in addition to providing close and stage mic positions, we have also made sure to have both a ribbon and condenser mic, which you can choose to switch between. Both sounds offer so much in their own right, the ribbon having a beautiful smooth tone, and the condenser being ruthless in exposing every little detail in the sound.
The stereo mic position can be widened and narrowed by dragging the mics in the interface.
Full list of articulations:
Normal Sustain
Stutter (a quick stuttered grace note before the main sustain)
Crescendo
FP (loud then suddenly quiet with a crescendo back up)
Marcato (A more accented pronounced attack and note)
Harmonics
Tremolo
Trill Semitone
Trill Tone
Eight sets/combinations of grace note shorts
Octave up shorts
Pizzicato
Spiccato
Staccato on-string (detached playing without lifting the bow)
Major chords
Minor chords
Four True-sampled Legato Styles
We spent a while tackling how to approach allowing the user to play both slow more drawn out passages, and then also being able to create realistic renditions of more virtuosic, fast passages, and eventually came up with a very intricate technique which allows both.
We sampled these intervals completely differently, and set it up so you can switch between these depending on whether you are playing fast or not. So for the faster legato, you can switch to "fast" with the legato keyswitching, and play intervals up to and including a minor third in your scales and runs, maintaining a very realistic sound. The sound of the note transitions on a violin when playing fast is completely different from the sound when playing slower, and both are captured and skilfully programmed into this instrument.
Types of Legato
Slurred Legato - switching note with the finger only, without changing bow direction... the smoothest legato sound.
Bowed Legato - changing the bow at the note change. A more noticeable interval. (slurred and bowed legato are both essential in obtaining a realistic and well phrased performance)
Portamento Legato - a subtle slide between notes.
Fast Legato - Specially sampled intervals which allow you to play fast runs/scales with intervals up to a minor third between each note - something seriously lacking and rarely possible with most sample libraries.
Click here to view user manual.
A Little More About How it Works
We wanted to make this instrument even more musical, so we have once again used our idea of the "phrase builder", which allows you to select the attack, or beginning sound of a phrase, and then switch around the type of legato throughout a musical phrase.
One huge give-away that an instrument is a sampled one and not a real instrument is how the beginning of every musical phrase sounds the same. A great performer will not sound like this. They will vary the phrase beginnings, and perhaps start some quietly, some with an FP, some with a stutter, and so we have included five options for this, to ensure that your compositions sound evolving, musical, and extremely convincing.
The width of the stereo mic perspective can be changed by dragging the bottom pair of microphones in the interface, and dynamics can be brought up and down by either the mod wheel or expression Midi CC - depending on whether you have MOD or EXP selected in the bottom right hand corner of the instrument GUI, and the shorts' dynamics are controlled by velocity.
This instrument requires the FULL VERSION of Kontakt 4, or above (so it will also run in Kontakt 5 perfectly). The full version of Kontakt 4, is not the free "Kontakt Player", which can be downloaded, it is the full retail version which can be purchased from Native-Instruments' website.
You will need just over 4GB for the instrument, and almost double this for the extraction process.
All prices shown are excluding VAT and/or other applicable sales taxes. If applicable, these will be added during the checkout process.
