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SYNCHRON-ized Woodwinds - NEW: Free Expansion 2

So I wound up buying this. So far I am really happy. With the auto-speed instruments I can actually play rapid runs on the keyboard and it sounds pretty indistinguishable from pre-recorded runs - and by that I mean I don't actually miss prerecorded runs at all because I can reproduce them just by playing them in, and it is convincing.

Transitions for crossfade layers are very smooth as advertised.

I'm able to switch off all of the built in reverb and the result sounds pretty much the same as the original VI samples except with smoother velocity transition and really playable runs.
 
mducharme said:
So I wound up buying this. So far I am really happy. With the auto-speed instruments I can actually play rapid runs on the keyboard and it sounds pretty indistinguishable from pre-recorded runs - and by that I mean I don't actually miss prerecorded runs at all because I can reproduce them just by playing them in, and it is convincing.

Transitions for crossfade layers are very smooth as advertised.

I'm able to switch off all of the built in reverb and the result sounds pretty much the same as the original VI samples except with smoother velocity transition and really playable runs.
Click to expand...
Ok, so now let”s make VSL hear us loud and clear: will you add the alto flute and Eb clarinet in the near future?
 
NYC Composer said:
So, in talking to Ilio, they say there is no crossgrade from basic SE Winds..it’s full price only. Just FYI.
Click to expand...

That's not completely true. I have the basic SE winds and 15 euro was taken off the intro price in the VSL store as a result, so I paid 240 euro instead of 255 euro. However that isn't a huge savings.
 
But it’s something. Interesting that Ilio and the VSL store have different prices, but that’s probably store profit for Ilio.
 
I have both SE1 and SE2 winds (including plus for both). Also the Flute Ensemble (full Library).

All of the above seems to have given me a decent discount from the VSL store.
 

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mducharme said:
So I wound up buying this. So far I am really happy. With the auto-speed instruments I can actually play rapid runs on the keyboard and it sounds pretty indistinguishable from pre-recorded runs - and by that I mean I don't actually miss prerecorded runs at all because I can reproduce them just by playing them in, and it is convincing.

Transitions for crossfade layers are very smooth as advertised.

I'm able to switch off all of the built in reverb and the result sounds pretty much the same as the original VI samples except with smoother velocity transition and really playable runs.
Click to expand...
If this is true it’s a must buy for me. Unfortunately😀. I hoped to find enough reasons to skip it. But I’m in the 75€ upgrade category which is doable. How do you get along with setting up the synchron player? Remembering the hours it took me to set up vsl winds makes me shudder. Don’t want to go through that again. At least I have some experience to build on.
And yes alto flute, eb clarinet, oboe d’amore should also be available soon.
 
Markus Kohlprath said:
If this is true it’s a must buy for me. Unfortunately😀. I hoped to find enough reasons to skip it. But I’m in the 75€ upgrade category which is doable. How do you get along with setting up the synchron player? Remembering the hours it took me to set up vsl winds makes me shudder. Don’t want to go through that again. At least I have some experience to build on.
And yes alto flute, eb clarinet, oboe d’amore should also be available soon.
Click to expand...

I find the Sychron player is very well laid out. I always didn't like the VI player, the matrix is too confusing and I never really wrapped my head around it, such that I often just made separate tracks when I needed staccato vs legato etc. I always preferred working with keyswitches. From that perspective, the Synchron player is really simple. All I have to do is load the patch, disable the reverb and positioning stuff (because I want it to swap in for my VI winds easily), then I personally swap CC1 and CC2 so I can do crossfades with CC1, and I just hit the keyswitch for the articulation I want and go. It is so nice to be able to play both long melodies and runs with the auto speed legato without having to change anything.

It is still normalized like the old ones so you'll still have to manually adjust for like the lower register of the flute being too loud and things like that, but other than that everything is fixed. Hopefully they add a feature in Synchron to allow adjustment of loudness based on register to compensate for this in a more automated way.
 
Just to give an idea of the possibilities for runs with the auto speed legato, here is a very quick demo (not shaped at all and with the built in positioning and reverb, which is a little wet for my taste) where I just took an online MIDI of the harry potter theme, picked a random channel with a bunch of rapid runs (I think this part was written for strings), loaded up the auto speed flute 1 legato patch, and hit play. The melody bit is of course not shaped so it isn't that interesting, but the runs I think are quite impressive (and the fact that I didn't even have to change anything here, no settings, no keyswitches or other patches).
 

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And the runs by themselves with less reverb.

(I tried to do the same thing with the VI version, but it can't handle it - too fast for it and it drops half the notes.)

Again this is really just the legato auto-speed patch, which I don't think was designed for this at all, but I'm impressed by what it can do.
 

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mducharme said:
And the runs by themselves with less reverb.

(I tried to do the same thing with the VI version, but it can't handle it - too fast for it and it drops half the notes.)

Again this is really just the legato auto-speed patch, which I don't think was designed for this at all, but I'm impressed by what it can do.
Click to expand...
Sounds amazing! Those runs... my word.
 
OK so I got VI to work, here is a more apples-to-apples comparison showing the same brief passage in synchron vs. VI with equivalent settings, with the exact same reverb (Lexicon random hall instead of the built in VSL stuff, just so it would be fair). The synchron legato is noticeably more connected, especially during those descending arpeggios, while the VI legato sounds almost staccato there.
 

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mducharme said:
OK so I got VI to work, here is a more apples-to-apples comparison showing the same brief passage in synchron vs. VI with equivalent settings, with the exact same reverb (Lexicon random hall instead of the built in VSL stuff, just so it would be fair). The synchron legato is noticeably more connected, especially during those descending arpeggios, while the VI legato sounds almost staccato there.
Click to expand...
Huge improvement! Nicely matched. Can you share any other instrument solos? I’m sold on these flute runs. Would love to hear some simple lyrical legatos throughout the other instruments.
 
This seems like an excellent opportunity to buy into the VSL woodwinds. Good for someone like me who has nothing from VSL as yet. I have a few other woods libraries, so will have to carefully consider.

Thanks @mducharme for the examples and explanations on what they have improved. The flute sounds excellent and you've answered the main worry I had about the crossfading.
 
Here's the oboe. One other thing I find with this - the dynamic range is more constrained (in terms of loudest to softest) than the default VI version - I get a huge contrast (actually too much) difference between loudest and softest in VI, and Synchron features a more "compressed" dynamic range, where you get more of the timbral change and less of the amplitude shift.
 

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