User manual EAST WEST SYMPHONIC CHOIRS

[. . . ] ENGLISH EASTWEST/QUANTUM LEAP SYMPHONIC CHOIRS and Kompakt Instrument Operation Manual Kompakt Instrument English ­ 1 The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Native Instruments Software Synthesis GmbH or East West Sounds, Inc. The software and sounds described in this document are subject to License Agreements and may not be copied to other media. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission by Native Instruments Software Synthesis GmbH or East West Sounds, Inc. All product and company names are TM or ® trademarks of their respective owners. [. . . ] From medium volume with medium vibrato to loud volume with heavy vibrato. The first of these gives you the most flexibility to adjust volume with the Mod Wheel through the entire gamut of recorded dynamics, so it requires the most computer power and resources. The other two options use less memory and, therefore, may be better choices on hardware-constrained systems. There are, of course, other ways to control dynamics, including MIDI velocity and expression parameters. (These controls are discussed later in this chapter. ) There are two main advantages of dynamic cross-fades (DXFs) over other means. First, a DXF controls not only the volume, but also the timbre of the sound. The sound of a soprano section singing loud is different from them singing softly, even if the volume knob on the ste- Kompakt Instrument English ­ 85 reo is adjusted to normalize their output level. Because a DXF is shifting between samples and not only changing the volume, that change in timbre is preserved. Second, unlike velocity, which is fixed for the entire duration of any MIDI note, the position of the Mod Wheel can be adjusted continuously to achieve swells and other expressive details midnote. Segment Transitions and Keyswitches The samples of the sung vowels are available in 4 versions (except for the boy sopranos, which use only two). The difference among them refers to how segments transition from one to the next. · normal attack · legato · staccato (not with boy sopranos) · slurred, sliding (not with boy sopranos) When using WordBuilder to drive the choir multis, the transitions can be specified either with one of the 4 symbols "=(><" inside the typed text or by selecting properties from a dialog box. When loading individual vowels, the segment transitions are managed with keyswitches. The file names for the adult-sung vowels end in "C0-D#0" to indicate there are 4 keyswitches: C, C#, D, D# in the C0 octave. For the boy soprano files, the "C0-C#0" shows that only the first two keyswitches are available. A keyswitch is a note out of the range of the singer that can be added to the MIDI output to specify which version of the sample to play. WordBuilder generates keyswitch notes automatically; therefore, WordBuilder users will likely never use the manual keyswitches there. (They are, however, used extensively in the soloist files. ) Advanced: When playing the individual vowel programs, if you want to use this feature it must be done manually. You can include the keyswitch note a little before the Note-On event of the Kompakt Instrument English ­ 86 ENGLISH first note to play the associated version. That version will continue to be used until another keyswitch changes the setting. If you want to accept the default setting, "normal attack, " for all notes, then no keyswitch notes are necessary. Volume, Velocity, and Expression There are at least four ways to make sampled voices sound louder, or at least make the real notes seem to have been sung louder. Changing volume is basically the same as turning the volume knob on your audio system. A soprano singing softly can be cranked up; a soprano belting a note can be turned way down. [. . . ] Moving the slider to the right mixes in more reverb than dry signal. Kompakt Instrument English ­ 149 0. 12. Chorus This effect thickens the audio signal by doubling the signal and detuning the copy compared to the original signal. A pair of LFOs detunes each channel of the stereo signal to give the impression of movement. Higher time settings produce a noticeable echo compared to the dry signal. [. . . ]