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 Real-Time Virtuosity
Featuring Ground-Breaking
New "Sonic
Morphing" Technology which provides the ultimate in real-time
playability ORDER NOW!
Mac Intel
Version 2.0
NOW SHIPPING!
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. Play this instrument expressively in real-tim like a real virtuoso! Hear the demos below.
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. With
the Stradivari Solo Violin, using exclusive "harmonic alignment"
technology (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.
This video performance is from Jules Massenet's Meditation from the opera "Thais". As shown in the video, the expressiveness, the vibrato and subtle nuances can be controlled by the user in real-time. Thanks to Stefano Lucato for the commanding video performance. The Meditation is regarded as one of the most beautiful pieces written for violin. The MP3 rendition was performed by Robert Davis with the Stradivari 2.0.
The solo Stradivari can also play fiddle tunes just as easy as sophisticated classical works. Here is a hot rendition of 'Orange Blossom Special'. This well known country tune displays many different bowing techniques.
Another benefit with the Stradivari 2.0 is that it can serve as the concertmaster to an orchestral mix. The concertmaster plays a special and vital role.. He or she is an exceptional player and is second in importance only to the conductor. In orchestral music you often hear the concertmaster weaving his or her violin in an out of the sonic tapestry of the orchestra. Sometimes it floats, sometimes it rises and recedes, sometimes it blends in, and sometimes it stands out. Dan Kury has blended the patches of the Stradivari 2.0 weaving them with GPO to give the string section richness and enhanced performance.
This old sailor's song is believed to have been written in the 1700's. The melody became associated with the nautical hornpipe dance and it entered popular repertoire and became fairly widely known (and later became the theme song for the cartoon character, Popeye the Sailorman).
"Lord Gordon's Reel" is a very popular Irish tune among fiddlers and has been considered a real test piece for fiddlers. Originally written in the 1700's this tune was popularized by the famous fiddler Michael Coleman in a 1930s' record. In this lively tune, the Stradivari did a superb duet and what you hear are two Strads playing the same part.
This concerto was written for flute, violin, and harpsichord and shows the violin within a chamber music ensemble configuration. Many thanks to Fabio for realizing this concerto.
This is an excellent original demo by Stefano Lucato that shows a wide variety of techniques and articulations. This demo shows a great deal of the expressive potential of the Stradivari Solo Violin library.
This video shows how to play an almost limitless variety of articulations in real-time with the Stradivari Solo Violin. Dynamic Control, Vibrato Control (onset, speed and intensity), portamento, trills, tremolos and various techniques are demonstrated.
Lo-Res (Dialup)
9 MB Medium Resolution 15MB Hi-Res Broadband
Example of the Stradivari Solo Violin playing a major run as shown in this segment from Tchaikovsky 's Violin Concerto. This shows accents, tuplets, and vibrato within the musical context of a tied major run.
This is an example of how you can do a crescendos and diminuendos with simultaneous vibrato control. This demos shows normal non-vibrato crescendo/diminuendo; non-vibrato to vibrato normal rate crescendo/diminuendo; non-vibrato/vibrato varying intensity crescendo/diminuendo; vibrato crescendo to non-vibrato dimendo; sfp non-vibrato to vibrato crescendo/diminuendo varying vibrato rate.
Thanks to Robert Davis and Stefano Lucato for their assistance in realizing these demos. In the coming weeks and months there will be additional demos showing the versatility of this extraordinary virtual instrument. Stay tuned.
We wish to also thank the people that are pivotal in making this revolutionary development work, the beta testers, consultants, and supporters all over the world. Also a special thank you to our customers for their patience for waiting since this groundbreaking approach was announced months ago. We trust the wait will be worth it.
Harmonic
Aligned 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 transition 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.
The Stradivari Solo Violin uses 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. For Mac OS 10.4 is required. 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 andExpression 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.
