Garritan - Stradivari Solo Violin v2.0 (Pc/Mac)


From the homepage:
Created by Giorgio Tommasini, Stefano Lucato & Gary Garritan
Version 2.0
Now with an Integrated NI Kontakt 2 Player - No Sampler Required
A New Breakthrough in Expressive Sampling
Featuring Ground-Breaking New "Sonic Morphing" Technology
which provides the ultimate in real-time playability

New Version 2.0 Released!

We are pleased to announce that the Stradivari Solo Violin 2.0, the latest version of the award winning virtual solo violin software created by an Italian team in collaboration with Garritan, is now shipping. The new release integrates the Native Instrument Kontakt 2 sample player. Other new features include new samples with a "Lyrical" instrument, for a fuller, sweeter and more dramatic tone, in addition to a "Classic" instrument, so there are two violin instruments to choose from. Performance and stability are improved with reduced CPU demands. There is improved legato and note transitions, new bow change features, sustain pizzicato and other features in this new version.

Paradigm Shift: This New Stradivari Sample Library Changes Everything

The Stradivari Solo Violin is a technological breakthrough in virtual instrumentation and changes the rules of sampling. It's a true musical instrument designed to be played expressively, in real time. This instrument allows the user to play beautifully expressive and believable sound that can be PLAYED and PERFORMED as music, in real-time, rather than put together like a jigsaw puzzle or tweaked after the fact. Stradivari is a name synonymous with quality. The Stradivari Violin is regarded by experts as the best violin ever made and a genuine Stravidivai violin is worth millions. An instrument of this distinction required a unique way to faithfully capture and recreate its sound quality and playability. "Sonic Morphing" technologies provided the answer. Morphing describes what can be seen in motion pictures where there is a gradual transformation from one image into another. This basic concept has been applied to sound samples allowing sound samples to morph into each other seamlessly. With the Stradivari Solo Violin, using exclusive "harmonic alignment" technology (patent-pending & developed by Giorgio Tommasini), you can seamlessly morph between different dynamics and hear authentic timbre changes as notes become louder or softer. Sophisticated modal resonance technology uses instrument body impulses and allows you to control the onset, intensity and rate of vibrato, impart portamento and much more. In addition, with the powerful AI midi processor you can change or create articulations in real time, change the type of attack or bow direction, impart legato, play trills & tremolo and have an infinite variety of playing possibilities at your fingertips. All this in real time!

The result of these technologies is extraordinary levels of realism, expressiveness and virtusosic performance capabilities in a way that preserves the natural characteristics of the Stradivari Violin. This instrument leaps to life beneath your fingertips! The rules of sampling have been rewritten with this new software instrument.

Harmonic Aligned (Morphing) Samples vs. Traditional Sampling

Harmonic Alignment provides unprecedented control over the dynamic flow of a musical passage

Traditional sample libraries use discontinuous samples and transitioning between different dynamic levels (pp, mp, mf, ff) or different vibrato levels cause the listener to hear two distinct instruments (doubling) during transitions with disjointed tones and phasing issues. It simply was not possible to have smooth transitions applied to solo instruments samples. The diagram below illustrates what a user hears during traditional sampling transitions.

By aligning the sound samples...

The samples morph into each other seamlessly with no doubling, phasing or sonic discontinuity. The result is extraordinary levels of realism, playability and expressiveness while preserving the natural characteristics of the instrument.

Harmonic alignment is a major step in the development of sampling. An upcoming complete series of solo strings instruments, for which Garritan Libraries has exclusive use of this groundbreaking technology, is currently underway.

Hybrid Instrument using Impulse Responses

The Stradivari Solo Violin is also the first hybrid violin and is based upon specially devised convolution impulses for the body of the violin, using a patent-pending technique developed by Giorgio Tommasini & Stefano Lucato. This process allows for new levels of real-time expression never before possible with a sample-based instrument.

System Requirements: Kontakt Player 2 is included. The entire Stradivari instrument works on PC & Mac platforms, and works with all sequencers that support VST, DXi, TRAS and Audio Units. It works in real time on a P4 2.6+ GHz (or a comparable Mac), with a CPU load of about 20-25% (convolution included). A faster computer will yield more efficiency. A keyboard with a six octave range, Pitch Wheel, Mod Wheel, Sustain Pedal, Channel Aftertouch and Expression Pedal or similar controllers are required to get full use of the product.

About the Development Team
The Stradivari Violin has been developed by an Italian team in collaboration with Gary Garritan, who also provided the Stradivari samples. Collaboration began in 2001 with the aim of developing expressive ways of playing this rare and exquisite instrument. There was extensive research, experimenting, trial and error in order to have better sound quality while maintaining the advantages of the new approach to expressive sampling. The founders of this team were:

Giorgio Tommasini, holds a medical degree "magna cum laude" from Milano University, and had an illustrious career as a clinical cardiologist, researcher, and head of the Cardiovascular Division of a 400-bed Hospital. His pioneering research, mainly oriented on applications of computers in cardiology, and witnessed by more than 150 scientific papers, patents and presentations at international Meetings, led to new methods for quantification and treatment of myocardial infarction, new techniques for detection of silent schema and automatic quantification of coronary narrowings by intelligent image processing, and the invention of a revolutionary, 3D approach to coronary angiography, that has been subsequently adopted by several important Medical X-ray groups.He became interested in samplers as accompaniment for his music in the mid 1980's. Very unsatisfied by the lack of expressiveness of all available sample-based instruments, he began to think of methods capable to overcome this limitation. The "phase alignment technique", now patent-pending, was the first result of this new research in an entirely different field. For the first time it was possible to crossfade different dynamics with no phase artifact. The development of a controlled vibrato technique was the next step. New research on "determination of modal resonance and the impulse response of an instrument by analysis of pitched sounds, and application to the synthesis of portamento & vibrato with samplers", now patent-pending eventually resulted in a drastic refinement of the method.

Stefano Lucato, a true professional musician and sound engineer, greatly contributed to the very innovative programming which characterizes the Stradivari Violin. Stefano Lucato was born in Gornate Olona, in a quiet Italian country landscape in 1968. To discover his predisposition to music was the priest of the nearby church who, hearing the boy playing organ at 7, provided him a teacher in exchange for the agreement to play at Sunday Masses. Play became passion. The encounter with the music world brought him across a long path including several successful records and an active collaboration with the National Broadcasting Corporation. Stefano presently works mainly as a composer and arranger, and is an acknowledged master in audio editing, mastering and development of new techniques of sound synthesis.

Gary Garritan is an award-winning developer of high-quality and innovative soundware. Garritan sample libraries have won accolades from celebrity musicians and music press alike. The libraries have been used in a variety of applications: from popular TV shows, film and attractions to video games, live concerts and ballets. In addition, hundreds of schools and universities have chosen Garritan Libraries for use with their music curriculums.

Price: 199 dollar

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