HARPSICHORD - Amazon Web Services
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1. Ask your dealer for drives that are suitable for AV use We always recom mend as small a drive as possible as the platter will be smaller and the seek time less The library will eventually take up 5 6 Gig on your hard drive If using several large libraries or a number of Spitfire modules from the same machine we really recommend having your samples distributed over a number of drives Lacie eSata or Quadras 7200rpm we highly recommend Moreover an exciting development lies in the recent arrival of some amazing solid state SSD drives With seek times reduced to a fraction 0 1ms vs 6 9ms of what standard drives can offer we are certain you will be able to reduce your sampler s pre load page 15 buffer tenfold meaning you ll be able to load enormous orchestral palettes into a single machine HOST The Kontakt 4 platform should work comfortably on most commonly found platforms and DAWs As always make sure you re as up to date as you can afford If you re planning on building or adding Spitfire to an already large orchestral palette we recommend running your library independently of your DAW either on your host computer e g via Re Wire or on a slave device e g via Midi or MOL This will assist your loading times and will allow your DAW to do what it does best sort out all your note ons and note offs We heartily endorse Plogue Bidule www plogue com as a virtual rack routing system For more advice and information about se2. to your particular preference Remember we pride ourselves in making truly esoteric tools so if a sample you don t like you can change it for another with relative ease RECOMMENDED SPEC The better your computer the better the performance of any Spitfire module But not to worry if youre not specd up to the hilt All programs are provided with a set of parameters that enable you to tone back the CPU demands of any given patch But moving forward were confident this module will keep your computer busy for many years to come We recommend a combination of high processor speeds a good chunk of memory and a devoted 7200rpm eSata USBII Thunderbolt or Firewire audio drive The more memory you have the less demand placed on your drive and having a totally devoted drive gives you the chance to load less into memory and reduce load times The higher the speed of your CPU the more capable your computer will be to deal with some of the amazing but complicated scripts we ve written PCs We recommend an i5 or i7 Quad or 8 Core machine with 8 Gig or above memory Vista 64 or WIndows 7 However it will work with SP2 Pentium or Athlon XP 1 4GHz 1Gig RAM MACs We recommend a Mac Pro Intel Based Dual Quad or 8 Core machine with 8 Gig or above memory Mac OS 10 6 1 Snow Leopard However we have made the module work satisfactorily on a Mac Mini 2 4 GHz and a MacBook Pro 2 4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo DRIVES Firewire USBIL or eSata 7200rpm
3. AA USER MANUAL VI Welcome Thanks for purchasing the Spitfire Harpsichord an essential addition to your orchestral palette made the Spitfire way Reading manuals is a bore so stick this next to your loo and give a read whenever you can you may find a host of good tips and ideas on how to get the best out of your purchase About Spitfire Spitfire was formed in 2008 by a group of successful British composers as a means of producing the tools they needed for their busy work schedules Sick of dry humourless ugly unrealistic enormously untamable sound ing libraries Spitfire set about redefining the way samples were created Our aim is to reproduce the conditions of top movie recording sessions and approach sampling as if we were recording a film score one note at a time To record performances and parts thereof not scientifically created samples To capture the timbre of a world class set of players but also to record the room they were playing in About This Module Spitfire Harpsichord is part of what we would refer to as the Definitive range within Spitfire commercial products Whereby we aim to provide a single stop solution a definitive version of an instrument or group of instruments It is our intention that these modules are the best in their field and are sampled in a way to future proof advances in technology and provide our users with tools that make the sonic character easily adjustable for a number of appl
4. e Neighbouring Zones This activates a script that utilizes neighbouring zones to increase Round Robins from 4 to 12 This can sound a little processed though which is why the default is off 10 Reset On Key B 2 When using round robins there may be a point where you clearly want to use a specific note This ena bles you to control where you are in the round robin cycle or if you are using duplicates of patches in a sur round format page 23 this will be how you can guarantee your round robins are in sync Simply program or hit a note event on B 2 on your selected patch and it s duplicates You can click to change the default note 11 Use 8x Round Robin This refers to the number of round robins your patch uses the number can be dragged up and down 1 4 to save your memory 12 Purge Unused This control unloads any samples you are not using to keep your memory usage as low as possible SURROUND USE If you are lucky enough to work in 5 1 you will be delighted by how the piano works in this respect and with the number of mic combinations there s a number of different ways of doing it The basic principal is to load in several instances of the same patch routed to the same MIDI channel with dif ferent mics selected and each instance routed to a different out or panning selection on your surround panner Each and all microphone samples have been edited to sample accuracy together so provided you give each instance identical MIDI infor
5. e well clear of the sub Your C lose signal is a good starting point Route this to a sub bass synthesizer the Waves MaxxBass is a great plug alongside many free plugs bundled with DAWs But the DBX 120A is very much the industry standard and inexpensive bit of outboard kit for this purpose Send your C lose into this but also make sure you noise gate it Judge a point that you feel is a loud peak and set the threshold to that with a nice slow attack and re lease Hey presto you just made friends with a dubbing engineer AFAOs Anticipated FAQs Our first comment is to remind everyone that this is a manual to accompany v1 0 of a totally new line for Spit fire With a totally new set of samples scripts and UI We have used our experience as busy film composers to deliver something that wed like It is our hope that you keep in touch with us to let us know how you re getting on how you re using the Harp sichord how you re finding it and if we were to consider looking at areas in the future what youd like us to look at From this we ll form a consensus and wholeheartedly pledge that we will act upon it wherever possible or practical See you at v10 0 This library really isn t behaving how expect OK so we re now officially blue in the face But before you go ANY further please check you are using the ABSOLUTE latest version of Kontakt Visit your trusty service centre and we hope this page remains relatively under thumb
6. ed My instrument or patch seems to be playing just bits of sound some keys are missing and there s lots of clicks and crackles Make sure that your patch is fully loaded detailed on the front panel page 9 Some of these are biggies so can take a while But if problems persist make sure Kontakt memory manager is activated KMS KONTAKT Memory Seruer Use Memory Server Initial activation require then st Memory 5 Automatic KONTAKT wil unt ic and handle th Manual Instrument preload buffer size Instrument s preload size 60 00 kB You ll have to restart this instance of Kontakt to feel its benefits Another reason your system may be struggling is that you re using too many mics live for the spec of your machine Try cutting the mics as detailed on the front panel to see if this cures your problem If it does don t worry you can still use these mics just play in your parts with one active we recommend the T ree and then activate multiple mics and render down eg freeze function in Logic Studio If you re still suffering may we suggest you try and manage your pre load buffer Kontakt pre loads some sam ples into memory so that when you hit a note Kontakt plays it out from RAM whilst addressing the rest of your samples from your hard drive s The slower your drives the more you may want to rely on RAM the faster the drives or smaller RAM available the more you may want t
7. ications The Spitfire Harpsichord is presented to you by virtuoso Steven Devine who se beautiful instrument the sound board of which is used in our artwork and fervent enthusiasm and passion we hope has been captured here for your enjoyment Steven kindly took us through the technicalities of the instrument and has advised us how best to approach it s subtle complexities Combined with Jake Jackson s masterful handling of this instrument in the world famous Lyndhurst Hall Air Studios and a set of easily controllable microphone positions we believe this to be a totally unique addition to your sonic arsenal But wait til you hear it The Spitfire Harpsichord has been deeply sampled with 8 Round Robins per articulation over 7 totally unique register stops with 4 simultaneous switchable mixable mic positions and surround sound routing capabilities All run through the now omnipotent Kontakt sample engine allowing you a multitude of editing sound design and mangling capabilities System Requirements KONTAKT Spitfire Kontakt is NOT a Kontakt Player library so you WILL need a full version Kontakt to run it PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE LATEST VERSION OF EITHER KONTAKT 4 OR 5 INSTALLED Because this module doesn t authorise through the NI Service Centre and is personally watermarked you will be able to install on all the machines you own Owning a full version of Kontakt will afford you the luxury of being able to edit and revise the patches
8. ill also unload the associated samples C Close mics two matched valve mics placed for optimum focus close to the instrument This mic control is great to add in for added definition and at times a bit of rounding of sound in isolation it can be a way of achieving a more intimate or pop music style sound T Tree This refers to the Decca tree of three mics placed above the conductor s podium In the case of Albion 3 priceless vintage Neumann M50s These are placed to give the ultimate sound of the band the hall and are the default mic position that loads in with each patch A Ambient A set of condenser mics set wide apart on either side of the same lateral plane as the Tree O Outriggers A set of condenser mics placed high up in the gallery away from the band This mic position gives a massive amount of stereo spread and room sound over the band Great mixed in with the other mics but also ideal fed to your Ls amp Rs speaker sends for true surround information see page 23 As a new feature to our MM Multi Mic VI s we are now mapping the mic controllers to C CC22 T CC23 A CC24 O CC25 This is a feature requested by users with larger rigs palettes which enables mix tweaking unloading loading of samples value 0 via a controller without having to go into the UI 4 Close Mics Stereo Width Controller This control appears when you have the close mics activated It controls the pan width of the matched pair used
9. in this signal Wed recommend reducing the width if you re wanting a placed orchestral sound combined with the pan pot below For more of a stylized produced and close sound a broad signal is very useful 5 Close Mics Stereo Pan Control Again this controller only appears when the C lose mic is activated This controls the pan direction of the close mics the narrower the image selected above the more effective this spacial tool 6 Register Stops The switches will toggle your VI between 7 totally unique sets of recordings As the Harpsichord does not respond to how heavily it is played there are a number of different stop settings that alter the dynamic and tonal quality of the instrument Lo 8 Longer a rich tonal quality Hi 8 Shorter giving a slightly more nasal quality Hi 8 Lo8 Both above sets of strings together Hi 8 4 Lo Longer and 4 a very good tone 4 Lo 8 8 8 4 this is a great tone Lo Buff 8 Buff stop Hi Buff 8 This is the short 8 version of above These stops are toggled via the UI or by keyswitches 0 0 left to right top to bottom The lights beneath these controllers are cut buttons Click on lights to unload unwanted stops 7 Releases When off no release trigger samples play When on release samples play with the slider control below 8 Release Trigger Slider By popular demand this slider controls the volume of release triggers 1 100 9 Us
10. mation or indeed the same channel everything will remain true as recorded If you are concerned that a round robin cycle may be out of sync hit CO on your keyboard controller to reset Here s some suggestions Basic Quad 2 instances Output an instance with T ree to your L amp R A mbient to your Ls amp Rs Intermediate 5 0 3 instances Output an instance with T ree to your L amp R A mbient to your Ls amp Rs Bus a slightly smaller amount of Tree into your C alongside a final instance with C lose Posh 5 1 4 instances some clever routing It would be easy for us to suggest you simply pull up the LFE fader as found in Logic pictured above on one of your 4 instances Indeed the C lose mic would be a nice focussed signal for this task But your dubbing engineer wont like your for it and 9 times out of 10 he ll simply cut all of your LFE tracks You can make his life easier by understanding the much misunderstood roll of the LEE track in cinemas This is as the title suggests an effects track It is for intermittent use albeit these days often used This should never be part of your bass management and should be used in a selective manner If you give them continuous program they ll strip it out as it will interfere with their room tones nice bangs and thuds And with a 60 piece orchestra all sorts ofinfo gets into the sub range if you simply route your mix to it even with instruments play ing in a pitch rang
11. o rely or your drives If you re using the latest generation of SSDs you ll find you can radically reduce your pre load buffer Referring to the plate above tick the Instruments Default Pre Load Buffer Size and drag the fader to a setting youre happy with 10 Pm media composer and my cues take an age to load between cues Ha ha we too wish that some DAWs handled memory a bit better Make sure the Kontakt Memory Manager is on detailed above and try and cre ate a palette from which all your cues derive But most importantly if you re using a lot of our sounds Try and run your orchestral palette in the background either via rewire using Plogue Bidule for example or indeed from an entirely different slave computer You keep mentioning round robins what are they Round Robins are a method of recording a number of versions of the same sample so that when playing repeated notes in fast succession you don t get machine gunning a rapid repeat of the same sample that gives the game away immediately You keep mentioning release trigger samples what are they These are individual samples of the sound of the release trail the minute the piano keys are lifted and give you the true character of the hall They are de signed to trigger when you lift your key and the level of these can be controlled with the slider provided other Spitfire VPs you have a custom velocity curve where i
12. s it here As the Harpsichord is me chanically plucked the weight in which one plays the keys bares no relation to its volume Hence no velocity curve Use the keyswitches or panels to switch register stops to effect subtle changes in timbre and dynamic Your CC7 to mix the VI into or out of your track cue 11 A QUICK THANKS Christian Paul would like to thank Dominic Kelly Alison Burton and the whole of the Air Studios team To Jake Jackson for making everything sound so marvellous and the remarkable talents immense intellect and invention of James Bellamy Andrew Blaney Blake Robinson and Stu Kennedy Most of all we would like to thank the amazing support and loyalty of our user base our Facebook friends and everyone at VI Control We are in the same boat as all of you Were not software developers by trade so appreciate your honesty in paying your way to be a part of our family and not distributing this illegally But more importantly if you have any ideas or criticism please let us know directly via our website and in a constructive manner You never know you just may have thought of something that we hadn t considered We want to make our entire range the best there is and we rely on you to help us achieve that With thanks C amp P COPYRIGHT SPITFIRE AUDIO LLP 2012 www spitfireaudio com
13. tting up please check our website CONTENTS INSTALLATION GETTING STARTED THE FRONT PANEL SURROUND USE AFAQs 05 05 06 08 10 INSTALLATION Because youre reading this manual we can presume you have successfully downloaded The Spitfire Harpsi chord Included in your download email are some detailed installation instructions please follow these care fully before going any further We ll see you back here when you re installed GETTING STARTED Before opening Kontakt please make sure you have THE LATEST VERSION OF KONTAKT 4 OR 5 IN STALLED 95 of all service enquiries relating to spurious or strange behaviour of our wares are solved by installing the most recent version As this is NOT a Kontakt Player Library YOU WILL NOT SEE THE MODULE IN THE LIBRARY PANE Simply navigate to the Harpsichord via the File browser pane If you have never used Kontakt before we wholeheartedly recommend your familiarise yourself with the basics of patch or instrument loading multi management outputting and MIDI routing detailed in the Kontakt user manual provided with your copy of Kontakt or in the documentation folder of your Kontakt file THE FRONT PANEL A A Spitfire Harpsichord Tune Output st 1 y Voices Max 1024 Purge 0 00 Midi Ch A 1 v Memory 0 52 GB Purge Unused Use 8xR Robin Resetonkey C1 O Neighbour 2anes Releases 12 THE FRONT PANEL KEY This man
14. ual presumes that you have already used Kontakt If the main Kontakt window is unfamiliar to you please consult your Kontakt manual or the Native Instruments site They explain it better than we ever could http www native instruments com en products producer kontakt 5 1 Voices amp Max The left numeral refers to how many voices are currently being processed in the Kontakt engine Max Refers to the maximum number of voices assigned to this instance of Kontakt If you re experiencing dropouts clicks or crackles you may want to have a look at these two numbers If the voices numeral creeps up and equals the max numeral you may want to increase your voice ceiling the max setting 2 Samples Load Status Again if you re hearing clicks or crackles or if your sample is cutting out erratically check that the right most bar is illuminated This signals that all the samples for your patch are fully loaded If the lefter most panel is illuminated the patch has yet to start loading the middle the patch is in the process of doing so 3 Mic Controllers One of the most exciting aspects of the Spitfire range C lose T ree A mbient amp O utboard mics Above these letters are the mic cut buttons that dial the mic signals in or out this will unload or load the sam ples needed to keep your system lean Above the cut buttons are fader controls that allow you to mix the mic signals to your liking If you drag these faders to 0 this w
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