EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

OK, for those interested, here are mp3¹s of an orchestral piece I sequenced
using GOS lite:

http://www.newmeyer.org/Glassy_Sea_GOS.mp3

The same piece using SISS Mini:

http://www.newmeyer.org/Glassy_Sea_SISS.mp3

or a blend of the two:

http://www.newmeyer.org/Glassy_Sea_GOS+SISS.mp3

These are about 5MB each and will be up on my web server for only a limited
time, as they take up a fair chunk of my space allotment.

The legato violin line starting around 2:15 was very difficult to render
realistically, and even after days/weeks of tweaking it¹s still not perfect
(I still need to adjust the overlaps between some of the legato notes,
especially in the SISS version.)

In addition to the strings, I used the following libraries:
PMI Boesendorfer piano dry
Westgate woodwinds
Sonic Implants brass cheap soundfonts (French horn)
the free SAM trumpets that used to be downloadable on their web site
the harp patch from the Alesis classical Q-card (I know there are better
harps available!)

When I get around to it, I¹ll probably record some of my own cello to double
some of the string lines. This would add a huge element of realism.

Hope this is instructive. After you¹ve had a chance to listen, I¹ll write
something about my impressions of the two string libraries.

Don

--- In exs-users@yahoogroups.com, Don Newmeyer <music@n...> wrote:
> OK, for those interested, here are mp3¹s of an orchestral piece I 
sequenced
> using GOS lite:
> 
> http://www.newmeyer.org/Glassy_Sea_GOS.mp3
> 
> 
Beautiful stuff Don...nice writing, great textures...smart idea to 
replace the cello with your own..it's probably my least favorite 
timbre. Even at that, considering it's an mp3 file, the overall 
sound is lush. Excellent.

on 5/10/04 9:57 PM, fictionmusic2000 at david@... wrote:

>> http://www.newmeyer.org/Glassy_Sea_GOS.mp3
>> 
>> 
> Beautiful stuff Don...nice writing, great textures...

Thanks!

>smart idea to 
> replace the cello with your own..it's probably my least favorite
> timbre.


Do you mean the sound of a cello or the way it's sampled in these libraries?

A cello section like that of the Phila. orchestra can be amazingly
beautiful. But I find that the cellos in both GOS and SISS, at least in the
lite versions, are too flat and lack vibrato, almost like those ensembles
that use ancient instruments. But then, as Gary Garritan wrote to me once,
if you're a cellist, you won't be satisfied with any sample library. I
haven't tried VSL, but I suspect it's not perfect either. Missing from the
SISS Mini library are the legato espressivo patches, which may be what I'm
looking for. Eventually I may upgrade to the full SISS and find out.

Don

> I'm wondering if any1 out there has experience using the EXS24 & 
> MOTU's Mach 5.
>
> If I'd appreciate your opinion on the following:
>
> 1) what "BIG" advantage(s) does that the Mach 5 have over the EXS24?
>
> 2) what DISadvantage(s) does that the Mach 5 has compared to EXS24?
>
> 3) does is the Mach 5 run "VERY" stable on LAMP 6.3.3 or Logic Pro?
>
> 4) side-by-side is the EXS24 as rich, advanced annd deep as the Mach 5?
>
> 5) which has a more user-friendly interface?
>
> 6) is the Mach 5 as easy to learn & operate as the EXS24?
>


Greetings!

I recently went through the process of finding a sampler to replace 
good ol' DigiDesign SampleCell so I could shift my Logic/TDM rig to Mac 
OSX. After a fair bit of research I went ahead and bought MachFive. I 
wouldn't say either has any big advantage over the other.

I guess the biggest advantage MachFive has are:
1. Multiple instruments within one instantiation;
2. On-board effects;
3. Gorgeous Bosendorfer.

The biggest disadvantage with MachFive is:
1. Crashes.

I ended up selling MachFive and getting Logic Pro with EXS24, and I've 
not regretted it. MachFive - in OS9 and OSX - used to hang the machine 
for minutes sometimes, and often just crash the whole thing. Too flakey 
by far. Never could get it to be reliably stable. As one who was 
worried about switching to EXS24 because of reports of bad GUI, 
instability, strange file management, slow load times etc, I have to 
say I am extremely pleased with EXS24. It has its quirks, of course, 
and can chew through the Aux objects as you load up a fresh 
instantiation for each new instrument. Yes, MachFive is deeper, but 
EXS24 is simple and reliable.



My NZ$0.02.


    Ian

                     ------------------------------
                     Ian G. Morris   -   Tonewright
                          ian@...
                          www.igmusic.co.nz

Hi, all. A thread in the VSL Forum prompted me to check here for the 
current wisdom regarding actual RAM usage with a G5. I'm about to go into 
debt for a new G5, but since the consensus seems to be that due to 
limitations in OSX and/or Logic, 3.5 Gb is the largest amount of RAM any 
one application can address. With the monstrous size of many of the current 
sample libraries, of course, even that isn't enough. So I'm prepared to buy 
a PC on which to run Kontakt as a second, independent sampler to be able to 
get more instruments running at once.

One of the VSL team claims that EXS actually maxes out at 2 Gb of RAM, but 
another poster claims that this was an OSX limitation that was raised to 4 
Gb with the release of version 10.3. I hadn't previously heard anything 
about this. Can anybody confirm or refute this with regards to EXS?

The fact that the OSX limitation seems to be for each program, not system 
wide, would open up the possibility of using multiple sample hosts on one 
system and utilizing additional RAM. There was a major buzz a few months 
ago when Evan Evans discovered that Logic could be opened multiple times, 
but the excitement died down when stability and latency issues cropped up.

But what about running Kontakt, as a standalone program,  simultaneously 
with Logic? Assuming that each program can address 3.5 Gb, and you can find 
a good way to get MIDI from Logic to Kontakt, you could in theory take 
advantage of up to 7 Gb of sample RAM and still have a gig left over for 
the OS, Logic and such. This would be fantastic, as it would eliminate the 
need for a second computer. That is, until 7 Gb also isn't enough!

Any experiences or suggestions welcome.

Sean McCoy
Oregon Sound Recording

MOTU got back to me surprisingly fast! According to Nathan at MOTU tech 
support, the PCI-424 driver is indeed multi-client, which he said he 
himself had tested and could verify. So, based on all the information I've 
gathered here and on the VSL forum, it is currently at least theoretically 
possible to run EXS with up to 3.5 Gb of samples loaded into RAM, 
simultaneously with Kontakt, either standalone or using a VST host, with 
another 3.5 Gb of samples loaded, doing all sequencing with Logic, 
triggering the Kontakt samples via Core Midi's IAC, with individually 
assignable outputs for the two samplers off of a single PCI-424.

Anybody willing to test this out?  The problem is that for the cost of 
another 4 Gig of Mac RAM, you can buy a decent PC and eliminate the 
risk.  And even with a 2.5 GhZ G5, 7 gig of streaming samples could provide 
a serious test of CPU power, not to mention disk throughput.

As obviously attractive as the idea of having that much sample playback 
power under one hood is, I think it's still not yet as practical as 
multiple machines.  Maybe once we're dealing with all 64-bit programming, 
but not now.