IRCAM Solo Instruments 2

[torstenanders]

Hi guys,

 

Did anyone of you already look into the rather new IRCAM Solo Instruments 2 by UVI? That might be nice to control from within Opusmodus with its wide range of extended techniques available. From what I can tell from the videos, this seems to be a clear improvement over the former version and also conTimbre in terms of sounds and playability. Anyone already tried it?

 

UVI IRCAM Solo Instruments 2 - Avant-Garde Solo Instrument Collection

WWW.UVI.NET

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16 instruments, 550+ playing techniques, experience unparalleled depth and detail with classical and avant-garde articulations recorded at IRCAM Labs

 

 

Some videos that give some impression: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFNzya5iOUc&vl=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugMPNtWtLvk
 

Some review:

https://soundbytesmag.net/review-ircam-solo-instruments-2-from-uvi/

[Stephane Boussuge]

Hi,

 

yes I have this lib but still not used it really and still not did any soundest for it.

 

But I will investigate in future.

 

Best

S.

[torstenanders]

I would very much appreciate some feedback, but I am already almost decided to get it in any case. 

 

We might perhaps work on an Opusmodus sound set together. I will only use a few instruments (currently I just need the cello), but would like to make a wide range of techniques available in Opusmodus. However, instrument key-switches etc. hopefully share patterns, so once one instrument is reasonably covered it should be possible to scale that at least for the other instruments in the same family. 

 

One problem might be that they keep standard (what they call classic) and extended techniques in separate key-switch groups (and even subgroups), so one might need multiple sampler instruments on different MIDI channels to cover a single acoustic instrument. Not sure whether it would be necessary in Opusmodus then also to have different instruments. I guess currently that would be necessary, as currently AFAIK in Opusmodus a single instrument can only be allocated to a single MIDI channel (different articulations cannot be assigned to different MIDI channels, at least not yet).

 

If there are other ideas how the multiple key-switch groups could be merged into a single Opusmodus instruments, I would be all ears.  

[Stephane Boussuge]

A possibility is to use plogue Bidule to create a kind of meta-instrument with keyswitch to switch from classical to extended techniques.

 

I will have a look.

 

S.

[torstenanders]

Update:  

 

      It seems the samples are the same as in version 1 (which are now > 10 years old and with the
      original problems like rel. few samples i.e. few velocity layers or no round robins to avoid
      machine gun effect and all very closely miked), but now the scripting and instrument is much
      improved, e.g., with legato phrasing now supported, streching/shrinking notes like
      transitions, a timbre control (e.g., could be used for avoiding the machine gun effect).
      However, reviews report that these new scripts are not perfect, e.g., key switches can result
      the occasional glitch.

 

      How does conTimbre compare with that, i.e., how well is their current playback incl. switches
      between techniques and ideally also expressive playing from Opusmodus or a DAW working

      (i.e. when used as an AU or VST pluging)?

 

[torstenanders]

It looks like conTimbre would be a considerably larger collection of articulations and also better documented (e.g., I guess if you play a certain multiphonic  you are able to learn how it was produced or vice versa, which is not the case with the IRCAM Solo Instruments), but its playability as a plugin from Opusmodus or a DAW seems to be less developed. In case you played already with it: how well does the latter work, now that they have support for VST and AU plugins? 

[AM]

i have been working with conTimbre for a long time and it is exactly what i was looking for. playing techniques can easily be done by OPMO or SIBELIUS (vst3) via program changes. it has a great many different playing techniques. I always found IRCAM_LIB to be very inadequate, as there were not enough playing techniques etc. / you can also control CT via OSC (and as standalone or via MAXMSP). when I wrote for ensemble with additional e-player, CT-live always worked very well.

 

(The only negative point I could say is that there are a few SAMPLES that weren't played / recorded very well. But with the size of the library, that's okay with me)

[Stephane Boussuge]

I've tried a bit Ircam instruments2 but still feel a lack of dynamics variety...

S.

[o_e]

@ André: if you are willing to share some soundsets for CT, I would love to use them (as a template)..

 

best

 

ole

[Nikos]

I own IRCAM Solo Instruments Vol.1 and 2.  The classical articulations do not sound very convincing, but it is a good library for educational purposes in my opinion. I have created a s custom soundset with corresponding files for IRCAM string quintet. It is not perfect but may you will find it useful. Please keep it is for the first IRCAM version.

 

 

Nikos

IRCAM-String-Quintet-Files.zip

[AM]

dear ole  

 

i have no "preseted" soundsets for my work...

in my current "sketch" i'm using/something something like this..

 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

(add-text-attributes
 '(e-bow "e-bow")
 '(harm-I "harm-1")
 '(harm-II "harm-II")
 '(harm-III "harm-III")
 '(harm-IV "harm-IV")
  '(harm-V "harm-V")
 '(harm-VI "harm-VI"))

(def-sound-set gm-guitar
   :programs
  (:group guitar 
          ord 0
          bartok-pizz 1
          tap 2
          ponte 3
          harm-I 4
          harm-II 5
          harm-III 6
          harm-IV 7
          harm-V 8
          harm-VI 9))


(def-sound-set gm-vibraphone
   :programs
  (:group vibraphone 
          ord 0
          tap 2))


(def-sound-set gm-piano
   :programs
  (:group piano 
          ord 0
          e-bow 1))

 

for this CT-setup...

 

git vibra pno.cePlayerOrc