So rather than feeling as though you're trying to play drums with a chromatic keyboard, you get the impression that the keyboard has been subverted into something more like a percussion controller, and you play patterns in a more drummer-like way than would normally be the case, without the 'choking' or 'machine-gunning' effects that often result from playing rhythm on a keyboard.
All hits are allowed to breathe, and in some ways it's almost like drumming patterns with your fingers on a table, except you're triggering rich, expressive samples of real percussion. The set contains a few disappointments — I was sad to see that 'gamelan chimes asian' simply contains long and mute chimes, and something equally gamelan-like is promised by 'gong set Burma', but frustratingly, it's been sampled in equal temperament. Perhaps the collective heads of Yellow Tools' developers would have exploded at the thought of sampling a typical Javanese gamelan, or similar gong, bell, drum and chime ensemble from other cultures — but in fact I think their meticulous nature and lateral approach to keymapping would have suited the job.
These niggles aside, Yellow Tools' approach has resulted in a percussion collection of massive appeal. So many users will appreciate the depth and weight of the samples — you often feel as if the drums really are in your room, a feeling helped by the way all the sampled hits have been allowed to decay to silence.
It's easy to feel you're actually playing the drums with Culture, and not just triggering samples, thanks to the thoughtful multisampling. If you're keen on the percussive opportunities offered by Culture, but know that rhythm programming is not your strong point, Yellow Tools have the answer.
Patterns haven't been built into their plug-in — an approach taken by many other developers — but registered users can download the Culture Groove Pack 1 from the Yellow Tools web site. These files can be up to two minutes long, and offer breaks, fill-ins, fill-outs and so on in a wide range of styles. The playing is natural and seems unquantised, and really shows off Culture remarkably well. This entire review could be taken up with listing the variations available: there are thousands of samples here, and every one of them was played by German session bassist UMBO or Unidentified Moving Bass Object , the player on Yellow Tools' original E Basses collections.
To summarise this set, let's just say that UMBO plays a number of excellent but equally unidentified basses though a number of amps. There are four broad categories of Multi and Layer: American tube, British tube, DI and 'Warm' the last collection is only available for download to registered users.
The names speak for themselves, though some more detailed indication of which American and British hardware was used would have been nice. Majestic's huge library isn't even hinted at when you've just loaded a Multi such as this upright bass example. Each set contains the same collection of somewhat curiously titled playing styles, fingered ballad, fingered modern, fingered muted 1 and 2, fingered rock, fingered thumb — sic!
The choices within each sub-category are also duplicated. The exception here is the Warm set: the collection is organised by style, with categories like 'American ballad', 'American hip-hop', 'British ballad', 'European rock', and so on.
There are 26 styles, each with a number of choices. The individual Layers, or instruments, come in a variety of flavours, so you can access harmonics, slides, tapping, hammer-ons, fret noise and special effects. The sample sets start at a low 'E', or 'D', or 'C' so five-string instruments are part of the set , and range just over three octaves, with multiple samples assigned to velocity splits for each note.
Looping is used in this plug-in, but with no unwanted artefacts. Amongst all the electric bass, there's an unexpected bonus in the shape of a meticulously sampled century-old upright bass. Truth be told, it sits a little uncomfortably in the collection, but it is definitely worth having.
Again, various playing styles, tricks, harmonics and noise are supplied. It's been played by fingers all the way, with no bowing, but that suits jazz and pop contexts better anyway.
An example of the nested menus that pop up when hunting through the vast number of bass instrument Layers within Majestic.
It can be fairly mind-numbing to listen to this collection all the way through; a certain 'sameyness' does creep in when listening to the repeated styles and effects. But then this is a four-DVD set of samples for the same price as the other two collections, so I think I can forgive that! There is no denying the quality of the samples, and you will find something suitable for nearly every electric bass and some upright requirements. As with the Culture set, there's a fabulous depth to the plug-in's output.
Clever Multis let you effortlessly switch, crossfade or otherwise access multiple basses to create a finished performance that could have been achieved on a real bass, moving from mute notes to long sustains, and fret noise on a note off to convincing slides and hammer-ons — the works. On the subject of tuning, any Layer can be 'moved' along the lower keyboard display, making for instant transposition, so if the lowest note in your current selection isn't low enough, you can just drag it; transposition artefacts don't really kick in for a couple of semitones.
There will always be something a little odd about playing bass guitar from a keyboard, as much as there is about playing percussion in the same way. Yellow Tools have organised the sample collections to gently manoeuvre the player into the right mindset, and the audio feedback tends to make you play more like a bassist. It helps if you actually play bass, of course, but the sounds and subtle touches do tend to move you that way, even if you don't.
This aspect of the MVIs isn't as well documented as it might be, and is a little confusing. The documentation seems to indicate these are global assignments. The Keygroup parameter assignments are global, with one MIDI controller-to-Keygroup parameter assignment tweaking that parameter in all Keygroups in a Layer. A list of controller assignments is provided, so you'll be able to set up your host sequencer or external controller accordingly.
But be prepared for a surprise: some parameters that do not graphically appear on screen are still accessible over MIDI. Culture 's 'pre-silence' parameter is one example, and can also be tweaked, if you need to, on Candy and Majestic.
The Keygroup level semitone pitch parameter can also be accessed in this way within Candy, though the AT Volume parameter knob actually moves on screen. Clearly, a little more polishing is needed, but the basic implementation is sound. His was a new name to me, too, but on this evidence, he plays really well, with an excellent tone. On Candy, he airs every modern member of the sax family — soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and even bass sax.
Having a look at the plug-in's content list reveals that a total of nine instruments were used in the Candy sessions, from such noted manufacturers as Yanagisawa, Keilwerth and Selmer, and with a range of mouthpieces and various reed options. This level of detail makes it doubly strange that the equivalent data wasn't provided for the bass collection! Each instrument has been sampled playing long and short notes at several dynamic levels, with and without vibrato, but there are also honks, key slaps, falls, growls and other effects in the set.
I was looking forward to reviewing this MVI least of all — in my experience, saxophones and sampling are not usually a happy combination. If the bass performance is an expression of an individual's connection with their instrument, it's even more the case with sax.
There are so many performance nuances available to sax players — and that's without considering the effect of changing mouthpieces and reeds — that sampled saxes can often just sound like polyphonic harmonicas in the wrong hands. Plus, it has to be said, sax can be so cheesy in so many pop contexts. Saxes galore with Candy; this is me experimenting with a small sax ensemble.
But a pleasant surprise awaited me. As I was expecting by now, the recordings were exemplary, and even though Candy features the smallest collection of samples of the MVIs on review here, there is still a great deal of variety. Timbrally and stylistically, the performance bias is jazzy, but in a classy rather than obvious way.
Solo sax parts worked much better than expected from the keyboard, and even more so from my old Casio MIDI horn. In ensembles, too, Candy 's box of saxes surprises and pleases — there's enough here to attempt big-band horn sections, and Phil Spector's wall of sound just add reverb and brick-wall that compression! To challenge the plug-in even further, I approached it as a saxophone quartet, and I was surprised to find that my efforts largely paid off!
The eight-Layer Multi suits this approach, since I was able to double each instrument, and switch different timbres by velocity or MIDI keys. This way, I could have a genuine mezzoforte alto sax crossfading or switching with a full-on forte variant, for example, making for a more dynamic 'performance' without working too hard.
Perhaps not enough timbral variety to ape a group as avant-garde as the Rova Saxophone Quartet, but enough for most normal situations! And I loved having bass sax as part of the ensemble: if your arrangements don't seem anchored enough with the baritone sax, then nothing comes more solid than this. It's not a sound for every occasion, but it's worth having. Instrument ranges are pretty closely adhered to: the lowest note of the sampled instrument is the lowest note of the instrument being played, and the highest note tends to be a couple of semitones higher than the real instrument's nominal range.
Saxes usually have a range of about two octaves and a fifth, but experienced players can often move into the 'altissimo' register, up to a sixth higher than that. Candy plays it safe, but not too safe! I liked Ralph Gundel's playing a lot.
I get the feeling he was really focused during the recording of all these long notes and key slaps and mouthpiece pops. He has a really warm sound, with an almost oboe-like feel to his soprano playing.
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