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Samplemodeling has announced that The Viola, the first instrument of the Solo Strings series, developed on the new SWAM Engine S by Stefano Lucato & Emanuele Parravicini, can now be purchased and downloaded from SM website.

Virtually all the elements contributing to the sound of the real instrument have been introduced in this virtual viola. Bow speed, pressure, direction and distance from the bridge are under player's control. One can also control resonance of the played string, that of the open strings, amount of rosin and bow noise, sharpness of the attack, bow lift (on the string vs. off the string) on both attack and release, position on the fingerboard, and many other parameters. Each parameter can be assigned to any MIDI CC, allowing real time control.

Three bow gesture modes are available:

1. Expression, where a balanced combination of bow speed, pressure and position is controlled by CC11 as in all previous instruments.
2. Bipolar, similar to Expression, but reversing bow direction when CC 11 crosses the value 64.
3. Bowing, where the speed of the bow becomes proportional to the speed of the controller.

This latter mode is supplied mainly to cope with particular controllers, mimicking the movements of a real bow.

Con sordino, natural and artificial harmonics, manual or automatic (tempo or time synchronous) tremolo, pizzicato and col legno modes are also available. A number of keyswitches allow quick selection of the preferred mode.

Additional parameters available to advanced users include nonlinear mapping of expression, attack envelope, activation of various bow change modes, legato vs. portamento mode, vibrato rate, tremolo mode and speed, tuning of the individual strings, microtuning, etc.

Each Viola includes several "instruments" with a different timbre which can be loaded via the main GUI.

Price: 129 EUR (+ VAT if applicable). All Samplemodeling customers are entitled to a time-limited 10% discount.
Please note that this offer expires on January 31st, 2016.

Demo Audio : http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/demos_viola.php

More iNFO : http://www.samplemodeling.com/en/swam_viola.php​

 

Last edited: Nov 26, 2015

Wow, another one on my list

 

I will check this vst but I am somewhat disappointed they stopped development for Kontakt. :|

 

I wonder if it's because Kontakt libs are easier to share. With their custom engine, it has to be cracked/keygen'd. It's been done before with the Saxes and Clarinet and Bass Clarinet, but we've yet to see any of the woodwinds or updated Brass and Clarinets (even though the Brass are still for Kontakt, excluding their Saxaphones, of course, which use their SWAM Engine). It could also be because they are able to do more with their custom SWAM engine. Maybe it's both of those reasons.

I wonder if the brother site will ever see anything from Sample Modeling again. I'm not too optimistic. Even before R2R went internal, there were no more releases from Sample Modeling. Whether it's because no one supplied them with retail installers or for some other reason, only R2R knows.

 

My issue is mainly related to workflow. To me is easier to handle a single sample engine like Kontakt with all ist features than multiple ones. Let's see what the future brings.

 

Last edited: Nov 27, 2015

Checked the demos and I must say I am kinda depressed. I don't like the sound at all.

 

Yeah, I kinda agree with you. I guess they need some more time to get the sound right. I dunno. I imagine it will improve over time. I most certainly hope that it does.

 

I am really not impressed with the sound either.

 

@Andrew , there's double post.
I have posted here:
https://audiosex.pro/threads/sample-modeling-introduces-the-viola.22043/

I invite you to delete mine because it hasn't comments and this one is more complete.
Thanks

 

I believe Andrew's went up about a week and a half ago. That, or he's exploited an anomaly in the space-time continuum again.

 

Last edited: Dec 7, 2015