sounds pretty nice, and I like the way expressive e are integrating articulations into their software instruments.
its quite interesting, how they have an ‘osmose’ mode and traditional mpe mode., to handle the difference in the ‘surfaces’ work.
anyone tried it yet?
currently collection discounted at €179.40 (full price €299) , you get violin/cello/viola. you can also buy individually for €59.40 (full price : €99)
discount until July 18th - also Arché owners, get a special price.
btw: EE do put their plugins on sale a few times a year.
I thought the demos were really nice, also very skilful performance - I can imagine, takes quite a bit of practice to make these sound natural.
I was just thinking about physical modelling yesterday.
I got into physical modelling via an Akai EWI with the Yamaha VL70m and a ROM created by Matt Traum from Patchman. This set the bar pretty high - I still regard it as the gold standard for expressive sax sounds.
I was asking ChatGPT about current options. SWAM are excellent. (Obvs Pianoteq in the keyboard arena.) Aodyo dabbled and went bust. I didn’t know that Expressive E had taken the plunge. Interesting.
I just upgraded max (standalone) and finally bought rnbo, so I’m waiting 'til the last minute on Expressive E’s sale. I like what I’m hearing, though.
Worth mentioning, Richard Kram is upset in the FB group that he hasn’t found a way to play double stops, and considers these instruments to be useless for composers until that’s corrected.
a bit off topic, but Ive been playing with ‘bare metal’ feature of rnbo 1.4.0 in the closed beta (just released here . opens up some really interesting possibilities.
I’ve been using to implement (virtual) modules on the (eurorack) 4ms Meta Module.
but can be used on things like daisy/arduino/teensy for creating standalone instruments.
back on topic, I’ll probably give Soloist a go.
I’ve no experience with playing real bowed instruments, just love their sound - something simple / approachable is perfect for me. wouldn’t know a double stop if it hit me over the head
but yeah, for real players or composers (with experience) , I think its pretty common for virtual instruments to be found lacking.
all that said, its amazing how far we have come from the old samples / fm versions a few decades ago.
not just the sound, but also the way the player can include expression - they may not be perfect / complete, but these playable gestures are a far cry, from the old days of key switches
The violin and its kin is arguably one of the most expressive instruments out there. Sample wrangling has come a long way but I still feel physical modelling is hard to beat as a general approach. SWAM set the bar very high.
I’m still waiting for a multi-axis, velocity/pressure sensitive gyroscopic accelerometing MIDI bow-driven instrument.
The K-Bow was the most sophisticated thing ever attempted and it flopped spectacularly.
The abandoned O-Bow was a worthy attempt.
I even had a go myself. More research required. Someone remarked that it was no better than a cheap keyboard…harsh but fair.
This demo from eight years ago combining SWAM with a breath controller and Leap Motion is still the most expressive live performance with a VST that I’ve seen.
Soliste: I was scratching my head to figure this out and then EE confirmed the plugin is mono, so if you want to emulate stops (as most anyone working on solo string pieces will) your only option is to duplicate the plugin and then map MPE channels to match in your DAW. It’s certainly not going to give you the true stop sound but at least this method lets you use the plugin if you have stops in your piece. EE says they will be adding stops but no date given. It’s not a bad library - better for Osmose specific use than SWAM IMHO. Emulating Violin Stops with Osmose and Expressive E’s “Soliste” String Plugin
