in collaboration with Giorgio Tommasini & Peter Siedlaczek
Yes, like all previous Samplemodeling Instruments, but exploiting a different technology on a proprietary platform, the SWAM Engine. The acronym stands for Synchronous Wavelength Acoustic Modeling, developed by Stefano Lucato.
Ms. Sax S. uses samples as a base material, chromatically performed by a professional sax player over a very wide dynamic range, and recorded with state-of-the-art technology. The resulting timbre is therefore that of the real instrument. But the analogy with a sample based library ends here. The underlying, proprietary technology allows continuous interpolation among different vectors like time, dynamics, pitch and formants. Advanced real time processing techniques yield realistic legato/portamento, vibrato, ornamentations & trills with phase continuity, constant-formant pitchbends, subharmonics, growl and flutter tongue to be performed in real time.
Differently from other Samplemodeling instruments running on NI Kontakt, Ms. Sax S. is supplied as a plugin using its own engine. It runs on PC (any host supporting VST 32/64 bit) and Mac (any host supporting AU 32 or 64 bit, and VST 32/64 bit). RTAS is not supported yet. Standalone mode on a PC requires a suitable VST host like the excellent free SaviHost by Hermann Seib. Other VST Hosts, albeit not necessarily free, can be found on http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php
Mac users do not need a VST Host, since they may directly load any Swam plugin in the built-in DAW GarageBand.
Stefano's idea was to create a musical instrument. The timbral properties should be indistinguishable from a real saxophone. It must be played as a real instrument, using a keyboard or a windcontroller, plus three or four midi controllers, including an expression pedal or breathcontroller. All articulations are easily shaped by the player, even in real time, using just velocity, pitchwheel, modwheel, an expression pedal or breath controller, a sustain pedal, plus some optional CCs to control overblow, subharmonics, growl and flutter tongue.. Virtually any windcontroller can be used to play this instrument.
Real time control of most parameters can be accomplished via midi. Ms. Sax S. exploits several MIDI controllers for optimal performance. The basic controllers are the Pitchwheel, CC11 (or CC7, or CC2) for the dynamics, CC1 (modwheel) for vibrato intensity, CC19 for vibrato rate. Portamento time can be assigned either to the velocity of the overlapped note or to any CC. Special effects are key noise (CC9), Subharmonic intensity (CC20), Growl (CC21) and Flutter Tongue (CC23). Channel aftertouch (CC129) can be used to control several parameters, such as vibrato intensity or rate, subharmonic, growl or flutter intensity.
Here you can check and set appropriate default values for several parameters. You may vary timbre, harmonic structure and formants, choose type of attack, set the intensity of subharmonic, growl, flutter tongue, key noise, breath noise, overblow. You may control random pitch and dynamics fluctuations, pitch response to dynamic changes, overall resonance of the pipe, subharmonic intensity on transitions, release and portamento time. You may also set transposition, master tune, pitchbend response, volume, pan, dynamic compression, intensity and decay of the built-in reverb. A downward fall can be triggered by pressing a button, as well as from a keyswitch or a MIDI controller.
Here you will find more advanced settings, allowing control of the transition between attack & sustain, shape of portamento, vibrato rate and random fluctuations, overblow threshold, linear or log response to the expression controller, etc. A MIDI remapper page is also available, allowing remapping of many control parameters to any MIDI CC.
Ms. Sax S. provides unprecedented realism and expressiveness. However, it represents a demanding software in terms of CPU load. An up-to-date computer with at least 1,6 GHz Core2Duo CPU is therefore recommended. Supported OS are Windows XP, 7 or Vista for the PC, or Mac OS 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7 (Intel only) for the Mac. Less powerful systems may also prove satisfactory, but may require larger buffer sizes, involving higher latency, and the number of active instruments may be limited to one.
A master keyboard (5 octaves or more) with some configurable MIDI controllers, pitchwheel, modwheel, and an expression pedal (or breath controller) is required for real time playing. Virtually any type of windcontroller can also be used to play this instrument. If real time playing is not contemplated (you will miss a great fun though) using a sequencer may obviate the need for several physical midi controllers, while maintaining full control of the instrument's expressiveness.
Ms. Sax S. has been thoroughly tested on most common sequencers, like Cubase, Logic, GarageBand and Digital Performer.
A good quality audio interface (USB, FireWire, PCI) with suitable low latency drivers (like ASIO for the PC) is required. Accepted buffer size are 128 -2048 samples (256-512 recommended). Excellent results will be obtained with any sample rate between 44.1 and 96 kHz. The 88.2 KHz sample rate recommended for optimal results with The Sax Brothers is no longer required. :-)
A simple, but effective, copy protection mechanism has been implemented in the SWAM platform. Each instrument needs to be activated using the License Key provided with the download link. Both a straightforward online activation, and an interactive email-based offline activation are provided.
We provide two license keys. How to use them is a customer's choice. One can elect to install the instrument on two different systems, if both belong to him, and are not used simultaneously. Or, one can spare one license for future upgrades. Please note that operating system, or hard drive changes do not affect instrument activation. However, major hardware upgrades, or installation of the instrument on a new computer require a new activation. That's the main reason for providing two license keys. An additional, "rescue", license key may also be obtained upon request in exceptional cases, like hardware crashes. Sharing unused license keys is strictly forbidden. Please note that all license keys are personalized, and that your email address will be displayed on the instrument GUI.
Ms. Sax S. (The Soprano Sax) is available as an individual item (no bundle), at the price of EUR 119 (+VAT, if applicable).
Yes, check out the “demos” link on top of the page.
Yes. Please click on the “buy” link on top of the page.
