Demos by Rob Horvath
WIPS is a script that can breathe new life into old libraries, or make libraries you may have thought you'd never touch again useful and expressive. To illustrate that I created all these demos with instruments using the Kontakt 4 Factory Library samples. Since we all have these samples in common, and know all too well the current limitations of the factory programming, the improvement made by WIPS should be easier to hear. Note: To listen to any of the following demos, you can simply click the play button on the nearby mp3 flash player. Alternatively, you can download the mp3 file or Open it in your default mp3 player by simply clicking the demo's highlighted link. Technical Demos
The following set of technical demos focus on several important features of the WIPS scripts and how they can be used effectively. The trumpet instrument used in these demos is built using the following specifications:
Legato Demo
Legato Demo first plays the above phrase with the legato feature disabled. The phrase is performed legato, so there is still a slight overlap of notes, but it retains the attack portion of the sound. This is not realistic for emulating legato playing or detached notes (tonguing) since legato playing has no initial attack, and tonguing has a distinct break (albeit small) between notes. The second time the phrase is played, the legato feature is enabled. In the legato script, the ‘inside’ notes are offset to remove the attack portion of the sample (read the WIPS User Guide on how to set this up) and the script does it's magic using a combination of cross-fading and pitch bending to achieve more musical and realistic results.
The Breath Re-triggering
One advantage of using a breath controller is to be able to control dynamics and timbre similar to how a real wind instrument player would do it. WIPS takes this emulation one step further by allowing us to re-trigger held notes using tonguing techniques that wind instrument players use. And just as a wind instrument won't sound unless the player is blowing air through it, so to a WIPS enabled instrument (in Keys + Breath mode) won't sound unless air is being blown into the BC.
Breath Retrigger Demo plays the above phrase (shown both in notation and piano roll format). In the first part of the phrase, you'll notice that the keys are held, while the BC is in fact re-triggering the notes. (Optionally, you could blow continuously into the BC while playing the keys rhythmically – the choice may depend on the musical situation or it may simply be a matter of personal preference). The second part of the phrase shows that the keys are played legato, but the tonguing technique used on the BC is causing a detached sound. One practical application (especially in combination with the natural and TKT variations) is double or triple-tonguing.
The Glide Demo
The repeated phrase above is performed first with legato and second with glide (portamento) on. The use of glide in the second phrase is intended to show you what it actually does and I do realize it is not a very musical way to use it! A more practical use for glide (in the case of the trumpet) is to play faster lines which come out as a more jazzy and "looser" legato, or as a simulated trumpet shake which utilizes both the Glider and the Retrigger feature of WIPS as depicted in the 3rd phrase shown below.
All three of the above phrases are combined in the Glide Demo. For this demo, glide was programmed in the articulation script as a non-latching keyswitch so I could easily switch from legato mode to glide mode. Another obvious example where glide can be used effectively is with the Trombone. The glide function was also used sparingly in the Alto Saxophone Demo.
Variation Demo
The following phrase was used to illustrate the Natural and TKT Variation capability of WIPS.
Variation Demo, I set up a staccato articulation using one natural variation (so that's two sets of samples) with two TKT variations. The TKT sample zone size was set to 3. In the articulation script, there are several options on how to handle natural and TKT variations, and for this example, variations were only used for repeated notes, and Round Robin sequencing was selected. The numbers below the notes show which natural variation or TKT variation is being used at that time (zero meaning no variation). The first two bars are intended for you the listener to easily hear the differences being applied, while the third bar demonstrates a more practical application of simulating double or triple-tonguing.
The use of natural or synthesized (TKT) variations is useful to eliminate the "machine-gun-effect", and the WIPS is more than capable of handling this scenario. For the Vibrato Demo
No Vibrato Demo is a performance of this phrase without any vibrato added.
There are three methods of adding vibrato to an instrument with the Vibrato Script. The typical LFO is the easiest to use, but the least controllable – by that I mean performable - of the three. The other two available are Key-switch and Aftertouch (mono pressure) paced control. The following phrase is used throughout the various vibrato demos that follow. This first
LFO-Demo, the vibrato preset 'Trumpet' is used with the LFO rate set to 4.4 Hz and about a half second delay before the vibrato is heard. The settings used are as depicted in the following control panel display. For the
Keyswitch-Paced Demo, the piano roll looks like the following. How paced vibrato works is easier to show with a "piano-roll" display. For theFor the Keyswitch-Paced Demo, a "meta-articulation" (see WIPS User Guide for details) was set up for Ksw Paced Vibrato using a non-latching keyswitch. The rate at which you play and release this key determines the rate of the vibrato. In addition, the velocity at which you play the keyswitch determines the vibrato amount. AT-Paced Demo. In this mode, the varying rate of change in the amount of pressure controls the rate of vibrato, and also vibrato amount can be determined by the increase or decrease in the difference from the highest peak to the lowest valley. (Hard to explain in words!) The piano roll depiction for the AT-Paced demo looks like the following. My favourite is the AT-paced vibrato, to hear it listen to thisEarly on in the development of this feature, Bob and I discovered that not all keyboards respond the same to AT, which posed a bit of a challenge to implement. The two keyboards I tested had vastly different responses as shown in the diagrams below. Fortunately, Bob's clever programming has overcome this challenge so any keyboard with After Touch (Mono Pressure) capability should easily be able to handle this method of controlling vibrato. Music Demos
The following three demos puts all the previously mentioned elements together in a musical context to achieve a more realistic wind instrument emulation. In each demo, the solo instrument is right up front (where the rubber meets the road). In fact, the oboe demo was done ‘naked’ with no backing pad at all.
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