Articulations

This library is intended as a rather comprehensive offering in terms of the patches offered (although this is admittedly subjective). It’s safe to say that it is more on the bread-and-butter side, compared to the Voyage library (coming after Pacific) which is more experimental, arguably more movement in the performances, and overall “dirtier.” Pacific Strings is comparatively a more traditional and clean library, but it does employ plenty of refined ideas as well as new ones. The library also underwent a noise reduction process more extensive than any previous Performance Samples library.

Legato Sustains

These patches are based around normale (non-sordino) sustains recorded with the active-bow approach to create more movement (though not quite as much movement as Con Moto or Vista). Hold down the sustain pedal while you play (this sustains the note) and you can re-trigger the notes to play same-note repetitions. These work in both legato and non-legato mode, so you can play chords too. You can select between the two modes with a button on the GUI. The pitch bend wheel can lengthen the releases to create loure-esque phrases.

The vibrato here is much more along the lines of Con Moto than Vista. It’s not too over-the-top at most dynamics. The legato, especially on the violins, tends toward a similar emotional accent on the front of it that Vista was going for, but is more subtle in terms of vibrato intensity. The legato in these patches is slurred, but not exclusively. During the cello sessions, I directed one or two players to change bow direction on the pitch change (of the intervals) to give slightly more emotive emphasis, while the rest of the section smoothed out the performance with normal slurred playing. This could perhaps be called mezzo slur, or divisi slur – the idea of dividing different legato styles between musicians playing at the same time. I think most will find it rather subtle in this case.

Marcatos

Marcatos with phrase-flexible, short releases. Attacks and releases have up to 3 RR. I’ve seen interest for strings in the vein of Caspian or Angry Brass Pro over the years, and these essentially fill that role. The releases are shaped by note length, and playing lines like “da-da-daaaaa” is rather intuitive. The effect is that shorter notes can sound something like a staccato in context, but given the limited RR I don’t think it’s a strong enough point to truly market these as shorts patches.

Whisper Sustains

An almost indiscernible mixture between sul tasto and harmonics. Aside from the FX and Three Violins FFF Overlay, these are generally the only patches biased towards a specific dynamic range – lower dynamics in this case. Pitch bend extends the releases. Since these releases were recorded rather loosely, you also have the option to shorten the release by moving the pitch bend wheel in the other direction.

Spiccatos and Pizzicatos

The shorts in this library could be summarized as improved Fluid Shorts but highly dynamic. As you increase velocity during playing, you may notice that the more abrasive, louder dynamics don’t come in quite as soon as you’d expect, compared to how they might on a patch with much less dynamics, such as patches from the original Fluid Shorts. In other words, there’s a wide gamut of timbral shades possible, as opposed to being constrained by broader soft, medium, and loud dynamics. I had no real bias towards a particular dynamic range on these – they get really soft and really loud.

A session detail for those interested. Pizzicato can be particularly interesting to sample, and the ones in this library were no exception. Over time, I’ve discovered that there’s a lot of variation in terms of how the musicians interpret higher dynamics. How do you define FFF for pizzicato? For instance, there is FFF while avoiding “mechanical” noises and then there is FFF while not avoiding these noises. The latter is a whole different level of energy. Historically I’ve found that musicians will initially beeline to the first, and not explore the second until it’s specifically requested. In fact – rewinding – the FFF may be played as FF to begin with, particularly if they aren’t clear where the next recording pause occurs (to preserve their energy). So that’s already three dynamics right there, not to mention retakes. Then you can have yet another dynamic, where not only are they not avoiding the noises, they’re actively trying to encourage it chaotically in their playing. Not because I love noise, but because playing with that level of fervor funnels into the actual performance and can manifest in exciting ways. To further elevate the performance, I may also make clear that they can intentionally compromise the intonation (which can be fixed later) if it serves the purpose, through extra string tension. This level of playing (especially on pizzicatos) has to be divided up into very short recording segments and even mixed with other articulations to allow the musicians a rest. It’s important to build a mutual understanding amongst the musicians (especially the concertmaster/section leader) that we’re trying new things on the sessions, and then collaborating on a game plan to execute it in a way which is sensitive to the instruments, the players, the schedule, and of course the creative request. There’s a lot of exploration to be had by stepping outside of more traditional, strict playing. However, moving back to our specific example, the gradient of timbre that results from the aforementioned process is really integral to the pizzicato patches in this library, especially the basses and even cellos. This allows the user to feather in the level of noisy chaos depending on how far up they’re exploring the higher dynamics. It’s one of the key benefits of more dynamic layers offered here.

A more technical detail, this time regarding how I built the Kontakt patches. For the short patches, I made an extra effort to control the “pre-note ambience” that is prone to happen with repetition sampling. And since these are string shorts with a naturally shorter decay compared to (for example) harp, that task was somewhat manageable. As you would expect, the envelope attack amount follows whatever delay you have set in the GUI (i.e. 100 ms, etc). However, the attack curve becomes more convex the faster you play a single pitch. In other words, it doesn’t scoop as much. This leads to more natural cohesion and nuance (to my ears). This helps when you’re playing a repeated line on a particular pitch, and it is certainly better than a global setting for all speeds that is concave-biased (and therefore has less audio data at the beginning of the note). However, an issue came up for me when playing a sudden loud note during a single-pitch sequence. The curve setting would follow into that note, making the “pre-note ambience” of the loud note pop out since the previous note’s decay was a softer dynamic and wasn’t loud enough to mask the “pre-note ambience” of the sudden louder note. So even if someone was happy with how repeated notes sounded staying around the same dynamic or in decrescendo, any sudden louder notes would stand out. Fortunately, there’s an internal KSP override to handle these situations, which resets the curve to the “default” (less convex) setting if you are 1) playing in a repeated sequence (on a single pitch, of course) and 2) you play a note that is more than a moderate upward shift in velocity from the previous note. This way you can have the cohesion of a very convex setting for repeated sequences while still smoothing over obvious notes “jumping out” if you then play a sudden louder note. There are some controls I added in the A (Advanced) tab as well if you want to play with some of the settings beyond what I ended up with (based on my own preferences).

Tremolos

Highly dynamic, unmeasured tremolos with a rather firm (but not specifically marcato) attack. Extend the releases with the pitch bend wheel, a feature that is particularly useful here to emphasize the ends of crescendo climaxes.

Trills

Again, these – like the tremolos – are very dynamic. Pitch bend extends the releases. These were recorded in half-tone and whole-tone intervals, which you can trigger simply by playing the interval(s) you want, as long as they’re half-tone or whole-tone. These were actually recorded in part using the active-bow approach, so there’s some additional movement and variation in the trills in terms of bowing (and trill speed to a lesser degree). There are times during holding down a trill sustain (particularly on the cellos and violas), that you’ll notice the performance “pops out” in terms of perceived soloistic movement, rather than remaining a homogenous blur as can sometimes happen with trill sampling.

Sordino Sustains

These were recorded with the active-bow approach, but they intentionally weren’t recorded with as much movement as the normale sustains (that go with the legatos). The vibrato is also more subdued. However, the vibrato expression does generally increase with the dynamic, especially on the highest layer of the violins. While they’re certainly not FFF-biased in any way, these can get louder than you might expect from a sordino patch. The pitch bend release extending feature is particularly useful for these patches. I also find that they are a good layer for the whisper sustains for cinematic type pads.

FX

Short clusters (arco normale, arco sul ponticello, snap pizzicato, and col legno) and rising (in pitch) arco clusters (arco normale, tremolo normale, and tremolo sul ponticello) of multiple lengths. These are all at a single, louder dynamic. The cluster rises are crescendos, soft to loud.

Bonus Content – Solo Harp and Three Violins FFF Overlay

A couple extras I recorded. The solo harp has two patches: normale and harmonics. Normale is quite a bit more dynamic than Vista’s harp (eight dynamics, versus four), while the harmonics patch has four dynamics. The harp content was recorded as moderate-speed reps, so it’s optimized for notes repeating on the same pitch. Repetition sampling sounds good on harp for repeated notes, and I’ve found that it even gives single notes more character than traditional harp sampling. But the harp as an instrument has one hefty decay. And this particular harp is recorded in an ambient hall, plus there are far mics that need to be as optimized as possible for the attacks. You can end up with a sizable amount of “pre-note ambience” inherently. It’s a tricky situation. In an effort to try to counteract this ambience/decay bleed, the envelope curve functionality from the string shorts is carried over into these. It helps a good deal, making the envelope curve more convex as you play any given pitch faster and, inversely, easing it out the longer the time between each note. You can also fiddle with the controls on the A (Advanced) tab to control the envelope slope (just like on the string shorts patches). Finally, you have the option to select between two different sample offset (delay) amounts – 140 ms and 80 ms. 

I had a bit of extra session time and I recorded a three violins legato sustains patch, similar to the one in “Vista” in that it’s an fff overlay patch. It’s not designed to be used on its own, but rather as a layer for the sixteen violins for some more definition if you wish. Though I find the sixteen violins legatos to be pretty detailed on their own, especially for a larger violin ensemble.

Bonus Content – Lite Full Strings Patches

Stacked patches, using samples from the recordings of the sixteen violins, twelve violas, ten cellos, and eight basses. They are baked together to manage voice count, and they fade between the registers. These are lightweight patches which are fine for sketching, but they lack the nuance of the dedicated section patches.

Bonus Content – Noise Floor WAVs

A recording of the ambient recording space which can be used in the background to add a noise floor if you wish. Multiple mics (AB and close).

Library Limitations

Below lies a fairly extensive write-up of various issues with the library. There’s obviously a lot of subjectivity with all this, but I tried to think of various points about the library that may not work for potential customers. In no particular order:

Noise

As mentioned in the Articulations section, the library underwent a noise reduction process more extensive than any previous Performance Samples library. It’s likely the cleanest (as far as noise reduction) Performance Samples library released thus far, which to be fair isn’t saying much. All in all, the aim was to find a balance between retaining the library’s timbral character and addressing incidental (instrument/musician/etc) and noise floor issues. The library does have low dynamics sampled (extremely low in some cases), and turning up the volume on those dynamics and processing them will certainly reveal more. The noise reduction was also somewhat minimized on the legato sustain patches (esp. the intervals) so for instance on bass legatos, you can hear some level of noise amongst the players as they move between pitches. However the release samples on the legato sustains were addressed like normal. The pizzicatos also have performance-related bow clicks present (see the Articulations write-up about the pizzicatos), particularly on the basses. But that’s mainly at the really high dynamic.

Room / Timbre

This library doesn’t have a super dramatic stereo image. That’s not to say it’s narrow sounding, but it’s certainly not wide like (for instance) Con Moto. The far mics were an AB pair of omnis. Cellos were recorded on the right, violas center-right, basses rather centered at the rear, and violins to the left. But the violins don’t sound like they’re on the far left as the players were spread out in 1st and 2nd violins position. They sound somewhat left-center.

Articulations / Performances

The 3 Violins Legato Sustains patch is very slidey/port. It’s quite pigeonholed. It can be used as a layer to give the 16 Violins Legato Sustains patch more detail, but that patch already has more detail than you’d expect for the ensemble size, especially if you bring in the close mics.

No 2nd violins.

No staccatos. The spiccatos are pretty general-use, but the closest thing to a staccato or more detache bowing is the marcatos. But those aren’t dedicated patches, and I’m trying to make a point that these really aren’t shorts patches (as mentioned in the Articulations write-up about marcatos). The limited RR is one of the big factors that holds them back. The “shorts” phasing in the marcato videos on Youtube/Instagram demonstrate how these can work. If that works better than you expected – great. However in my position, calling them staccato (or staccato-capable) patches is a bit charitable. That said, you may find the result you want by doubling the spiccatos and marcatos, but at the end of the day there are no dedicated staccatos in the library.

No control over legato speed or style. Legato speed here meaning sample offset and style here meaning portamento/slur etc. More info on the legato style recorded is in the Articulations section.

No legato on sordinos. 

Pre-note ambience. I debated with myself a bit on including this here, since it’s been pretty optimized on this library. Background: when note attacks are recorded in some sort of repetition, like for the shorts in Pacific Strings (and other articulations to various degrees), there can be some level of hearing the “ghost” of the previous note during the attack (when you play a note), even if the volume envelope curve is linear or concave. Of course, having a concave linear curve has downsides, especially on shorts patches where you can lose cohesion in a sequence. In any case, this issue is minimal in this library. But even though it is minimal, it is still subtly present – mainly on the harp, the shorts patches, and perhaps the marcatos. For the harp and the shorts patches, there are some controls and functionality to adjust it to your preference. Just keep in mind that there is a trade-off. If you want really clean attacks you may end up with a disconnected, less cohesive sound. The defaults in the patches are generally what I thought sounded pretty good (striking a balance, if you will), and you can adjust it from there (on the harp and shorts patches). Sample offset will play a part in all this too, and while I lean towards the 100 ms setting for the string shorts, for the harp patches I do find use in the tighter 80 ms setting as well.

Movement. This is a Performance Samples library after all, so there is an emphasis on movement, but it’s still relatively controlled. Take the legato sustains for instance. Since the same-note repetitions are a highlight in these patches, I wanted to at least try to have a distinction between those bow-changes and predictable bow movement crossfades after intervals (which may have been more noticeable in Vista). This is a bit challenging, since the same-note repetitions are rather subtle in the first place. All in all, there’s definitely some movement in the library, but there’s also an effort to control it and at least make it less predictable.

Marcato releases are a bit “dramatic”/abrupt (sourced from staccato type notes).

The 8 Basses Legato Sustains are rather lumbering in their performance. The patch plays similarly to the basses in Vista, based on my comparison. Nonetheless, it has a less nuanced, lively feel than the legato sustains patches for violins/violas/cellos.

DAW / Technical

Voice count can add up with this library because of the number of dynamic layers. For improved performance, I would suggest an SSD to be on the safer side.

FL Studio playback issues. There are some puzzling issues with how FL Studio handles releases during playback, at least in test cases so far. It appears that stopping playback during the middle of a note (on legato sustain patches with legato mode ON) will trigger the release to sound louder. No fixes have been found for this yet, and there’s nothing particularly out of the ordinary going on in terms of patch builds/programming.

Sample offset varies depending on the type of patch. Non-legato sustains (trills, sordinos, tremolos, etc) are 80 ms. This is the same as many older Performance Samples libraries (Oceania I & II, Caspian, etc) and thus far is a standard offset I use for non-legato sustains. Legato sustain patches are 180 ms. The extra delay is to give more nuance to the legatos. The shorts patches have a control to go anywhere between 20 and 100 ms. The harp patches have two available sample offsets: 140 ms and 80 ms.

 

 

Originally posted 19-Oct-22 / Edited 8-Jan-24

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All details and/or pricing subject to change, at any time, for any reason, in Performance Samples LLC’s sole discretion, in each instance. Qualification for loyalty pricing subject to verification by Performance Samples LLC, in each instance.

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Patch List

16 Violins

Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – FX – Cluster Risers.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – FX – Cluster Shorts.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – Legato Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – Marcatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – Pizzicatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – Sordino Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – Spiccatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – Tremolos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – Trills.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 16 Violins – Whisper Sustains.nki

12 Violas

Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – FX – Cluster Risers.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – FX – Cluster Shorts.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – Legato Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – Marcatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – Pizzicatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – Sordino Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – Spiccatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – Tremolos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – Trills.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 12 Violas – Whisper Sustains.nki

10 Cellos

Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – FX – Cluster Risers.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – FX – Cluster Shorts.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – Legato Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – Marcatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – Pizzicatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – Sordino Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – Spiccatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – Tremolos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – Trills.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 10 Cellos – Whisper Sustains.nki

8 Basses

Pacific – Ens Strings – 8 Basses – FX – Cluster Risers.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 8 Basses – FX – Cluster Shorts.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 8 Basses – Legato Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 8 Basses – Marcatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 8 Basses – Pizzicatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 8 Basses – Sordino Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 8 Basses – Spiccatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – 8 Basses – Tremolos.nki

Bonus Content – 3 Violins

Pacific – Ens Strings – 3 Violins – FFF Overlay Legato Sustains.nki

Bonus Content – Lite Full Strings Patches

Pacific – Ens Strings – Lite Full Str – Marcatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – Lite Full Str – Pizzicatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – Lite Full Str – Sordino Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – Lite Full Str – Spiccatos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – Lite Full Str – Sustains.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – Lite Full Str – Tremolos.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – Lite Full Str – Trills.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – Lite Full Str – Whisper Sustains.nki

Bonus Content – Solo Harp

Pacific – Ens Strings – Solo Harp – Harmonic Pluck.nki
Pacific – Ens Strings – Solo Harp – Normale Pluck.nki

Bonus Content – Noise Floor WAVs

perf063_roomtone_ab.wav
perf063_roomtone_cl.wav

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All details and/or pricing subject to change, at any time, for any reason, in Performance Samples LLC’s sole discretion, in each instance. Qualification for loyalty pricing subject to verification by Performance Samples LLC, in each instance.

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Customers who purchase during the intro (whether loyalty or not) will be able to pick up Pacific Solo Strings for free when it’s released (ETA Q1 2023) – offer details TBA. Early example of one of the articulations of Pacific Solo Strings can be listened to here.

Solo Strings/Perc/Winds/Brass: please see this page.

Loyalty

Loyalty information is available here.

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All details and/or pricing subject to change, at any time, for any reason, in Performance Samples LLC’s sole discretion, in each instance. Qualification for loyalty pricing subject to verification by Performance Samples LLC, in each instance.

* * *

Here are two, limited-register demo patches (Cello Spiccatos and Violin Sordinos) for Pacific – Strings that I’ve uploaded to help you evaluate the timbre, room, and general vibe of the forthcoming library to some degree. They will be available until the end of the intro period (subject to change). Both patches have 9 dynamics.

A couple points worth keeping in mind:

1. These patches have limited ranges in terms of their registers. The actual patches in the library have normal ranges, but these versions have the highest register capped (and in the case of the cellos, the lowest register as well).
2. These are not final, release-candidate patches. They are beta stage, and the final patches in the release may contain adjustments to the GUI controls, editing/timing/the samples themselves, dynamic crossfades, and scripting/behind-the-scenes/playability functionality. The sordinos may show an error message in the lower-left corner, but this shouldn’t affect the sound. All this to say that despite the technical categorization of “beta stage,” I wouldn’t hold out hope that the final patches will be significantly “improved” upon what you’re playing here (playability/expressive-wise), aside from the full registers being available and some script adjustments/bug-fixes etc..

Download is via Continuata’s Connect.

* 48kHz / 24bit
* NCW-compressed, ~994 MB total
* Built for Kontakt 6.6.0 and above – FULL, RETAIL VERSION OF KONTAKT REQUIRED (NOT KONTAKT PLAYER)
* Download via Continuata

Please note that, like all other PS products, you can generate manual links (direct HTTP links) by inserting the download code you receive on the Continuata Manual Links Generation webpage.

Performance Samples freebies can be used for commercial musical work — there are zero limitations in this regard — the freebies adhere to the same EULA that the paid products do.

This freebie consists of a full string ensemble (baked down from different sections) spiccatos patch from Pacific – Strings. It’s different from the first demo freebie for Pacific – Strings in that it’s not limited in register, so it’s more broadly useful. This freebie will be available until the end of the intro period (subject to change).

A couple points worth keeping in mind:

1. I made the decision to create full string ensemble patches for Pacific – Strings. This patch is one of them. It’s important to note that these patches are not a full ensemble recorded in tutti, but rather the various individual sections layered and “baked down” to minimize extra voice count (that you’d get with a multi). They inherently don’t have the same nuance that the individual patches have, for a variety of reasons (the obvious layering/masking, register crossover, the inevitable condensing of dynamics to a common number [some patches have more dynamics than others]). In other words, I’d consider these full string ensembles patches “light” patches.
2. This patch is not final release candidate status. As you can see, the GUI has evolved from the state of the first demo freebie for Pacific – Strings, as more features have been added. These features will be elaborated upon in the documentation/info for the final release. Also the final patch in the release may contain further adjustments to the GUI controls, editing/timing/the samples themselves (another pass of timing is likely esp. for the basses), dynamic crossfades, and scripting/behind-the-scenes/playability functionality.

Enjoy! -JB

Download is via Continuata’s Connect.

* 48kHz / 24bit
* NCW-compressed, ~1.68 GB total
* Built for Kontakt 6.6.0 and above – FULL, RETAIL VERSION OF KONTAKT REQUIRED (NOT KONTAKT PLAYER)
* Download via Continuata

Please note that, like all other PS products, you can generate manual links (direct HTTP links) by inserting the download code you receive on the Continuata Manual Links Generation webpage.

Performance Samples freebies can be used for commercial musical work — there are zero limitations in this regard — the freebies adhere to the same EULA that the paid products do.