Acousticsamples VWinds Double Reeds User Guide

: June 16, 2024
: acousticsamples

Table of Contents

Acousticsamples VWinds Double Reeds
Specifications
Requirements and Installation
Interface and Parameters
7-Instrument Bundle
Authentic Vibrato
Multi Microphone
Virtual Space
Advanced Editing
Features
FAQ
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Download This Manual (PDF format)

Acousticsamples VWinds Double Reeds

Specifications

Product Name: VWinds Double Reeds
Manufacturer: Acousticsamples
Library Contents: 7 double reed instruments (2 Oboes, 2 English Horns, 2 Bassoons, and 1 Contrabassoon)
Technology: Hybrid technology blending recorded samples with modeling techniques
Size: ~100Mb per instrument

Welcome to Acousticsamples
Thank you for using the VWinds Double Reeds library. We hope you enjoy playing the instrument and hope it supports your musical ideas or even better: inspires new ones.
In this User Guide, we will provide you with an overview of how to use the VWinds Double Reeds library.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at: samples@acousticsamples.com
or use the contact form on our website www.acousticsamples.net

Requirements and Installation

Step 1 – Authorize your library
- The first thing to do is make sure you have an iLok ID and that it is the correct one. If you never used iLok, just go to the ilok.com website and create a free account.
- You will be asked to enter a user ID, this is what you will need to enter later on the authorization page. This will also be the ID you will need to get connected to the iLok license manager.
- On the download/serials page, you can find the serial number associated with your library, it should look like this: PROASXX-XXXXXXX.
- You can click on the authorize button or copy it and go to this
  page: http://acousticsamples.net/index.php?route=account/authorizeIlok you can find the link in the top menu under the account as well as on the “my account” page. Of course, you need to be logged in to view this page.
- Now enter the serial number in the serial number box (it will be filled already if you used the authorize button) as well as your iLok ID. The iLok ID is the username you use to log into your iLok account, don’t confuse it with the number written on the key.
- Then simply hit the authorization button and wait a little. At the end of this process, you will see a message telling you if the authorization was successful. You will also get a confirmation email.
- Sometimes the iLok servers will not respond and you will get a blank page, in this case, please contact us and we will proceed to the authorization for you manually.
Step 2 – Download and extract your libraries
- Registering your serial number will generate your download links, they will be created and available on the
  downloads/serials page.
- The files are delivered in RAR format and sometimes these files are split (for the large libraries).
- You need to use Winrar on Windows or UnrarX on Mac (www.unrarx.com or directly here) to extract them, other software will probably not extract the files properly, we use the recovery functions of Rar (to avoid download corruption) and these two software are are the only ones to handle it properly. If there are multiple parts (part01.rar, part02.rar), you need to put them all in the same folder before extracting. If the extraction gives you errors, then your download did not complete or got corrupted, you need to download it again.
Step 3 – Download and install UVI Workstation
- Download and install the UVI workstation (our free sample player) from here: http://www.acousticsamples.net/uviworkstation.
  Make sure you download the right version for your system, if you are on Windows 64, but use a daw that only allows for 32-bit plugins, you need to install the 32-bit version of UVI Workstation.
  Follow step 4 to learn how to load a library into the UVI Workstation.
Step 4 – Transfer the license to your iLok key/computer
- The license manager is installed with UVI Workstation, so you just need to launch it from your applications.
- Now make sure that your iLok key is plugged into your computer if you want to use it or just ignore this if you want to use the computer-based authorization.
- Click on Sign in and enter your iLok information, you will see the list of available licenses and your computer and iLok keys on the left panel.
- Now all you need to do is just drag and drop the license to your iLok key or your computer to authorize one or the other.
Step 5 – Load your library and start playing
Now just open UVI Workstation in Standalone or one of the plugin formats in your sequencer. There are two ways of loading the library.
- You can open the browser and navigate to the ufs file manually.
- You can place the UFS in the default UVI folder: [Startup disk]:Library: Application Support: UVISoundBanks (on Mac) and C:\Program Files\UVISoundBanks (on Windows). You can also drop a shortcut to this file in this location, provided it has the same name.
- The best practice is to have all of your UFS in a folder and let the UVI workstation index it. Simply go into the preferences/soundbanks and then add your UFS folder. If the authorization has been done, it will mount the UFS automatically (if the automount is selected) or index it in the search (if the index is selected). The recursive is for subfolders, but too many subfolders can lead to a long indexation/mounting time.

After this, when you start UVI Workstation, you will see the UFS under soundbanks, select it and just double-click on the m5p file, it will load the library and you will be able to start playing.

Interface and Parameters

SAMPLING MEETS MODELING, AGAIN & AGAIN

After the VHorns Brass section and VHorns Saxophones, we’re delighted to be introducing the latest addition to the series – VWinds Double Reeds!
We sampled/modeled 2 Oboes, 2 English Horns (/Cor Anglais), 2 Bassoons, and 1 Contrabassoon, each performed by different world-class musicians. The two versions of the Oboe, Bassoon and English Horn are separately recorded as individual instruments, to offer a variety of tones and colours.
Just as with VHorns, our core goal was to make these instruments easy to use right out of the box, without the need for key switches or multiple CCs, and controllable with just the air flow.
Thanks to our work on a hybrid technology blending recorded samples with modeling techniques, we were able to incorporate into these Double Reeds the very best of both worlds: impeccable, authentic-sounding instruments which are easily and immediately playable.
The VWinds Double Reeds also employ H.A.T. (our proprietary Harmonic Alignment Technology). This leading technology allows for a hyper-accurate reproduction of the timbre of each instrument, covering the full dynamic range across every articulation, combined with highly customizable, beautifully expressive performance techniques, such as legato transitions and vibrato.
The combination of real recorded samples with modeling techniques means that VWinds Double Reeds weighs in at only ~100Mb per instrument (retina graphics and presets included), while truly sounding like a real live instrument being recorded with all of its imperfections, alongside fully continuous response with unparalleled playability.
We are confident in saying that to our ears, and hopefully yours too, VWinds Double Reeds are the most realistic and easy-to-use instruments of their kind available today.
Here are a few performances from real musicians compared to MIDI performances created using VWinds Double Reeds (and used for our demos).
We left them very dry intentionally so that you can hear every detail.

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7-Instrument Bundle

The VWinds Double Reeds contains 7 double reed instruments:
2 Oboes, 2 English Horns, 2 Bassoons and 1 Contrabassoon.
The sound of double reed instruments depends very much on the player and the reed they use – no two instruments sound the same – so we recorded two of each of the first three performed by different musicians, in order to offer a variety of tone and color. If you would like to purchase the instruments individually, both versions of the instruments are included.
VWinds Oboe – VWinds English Horn -VWinds Bassoon – VWinds Contrabassoon

The H.A.T. – Air Flow Control

Thanks to our proprietary H.A.T.
(Harmonic Alignment Technology), VWinds Double Reeds is not just another heavily multisampled instrument – you can play articulations yourself just like a live player would, with just a MIDI controller (or even by simply drawing the automation in!). There are no complicated keyswitches involved to play staccatos or fast legatos or anything else – it’s just a case of playing it live as you think it should sound.
All you need to do is play a note and adjust the air flow, and that’s it! Vibrato is automated by default, and this can be customized or even just controlled manually.
Airflow is controlled by the middle dial on the front interface.
When set to 0, there will be no sound coming out, just as there wouldn’t be any sound if you didn’t blow any air into an instrument.
You can of course control this value with different CCs. We set it to the modulation wheel by default because it’s available on almost every digital keyboard, but you can use anything else you like, for example, CC2, which is the default for most breath controllers.
All you need to do is click on the small dot next to the CC number and move a dial/wheel/fader/etc on your controller.
As mentioned above, vibrato can be controlled with the airflow as well. When you move the air controller up and down, it will start adding slight pitch variation to the sound. To enable/disable this, go into the PREFS panel and change the “allow vibrato with airflow” value.
In some rare cases, and when using MIDI files imported from software like Sibelius, you only get velocities, so at the bottom of the CC list, we added the possibility to control the airflow with the incoming velocity – simply select “”VEL”” for this..
Lastly, if you want to use the pitch bend as the input CC, you can do so by choosing “P. BEND” from the list.

Authentic Vibrato

We carefully measured the different parameters that change when a player uses vibrato, and we combined everything into a hyper-realistic and extremely adjustable vibrato, specifically tailored for each instrument.
There are multiple ways to control the vibrato: automatic, automatic depending on time, and completely manual. Vibrato can also be replicated to an extent by using just the airflow, to replicate the diaphragm movement of a live musician.

Vibrato is controlled with the left dial on the main panel. Directly below the dial, there is a small menu with 3 options:

Auto: this enables automatic vibrato and the dial will control how much vibrato is added to the sound.
Auto time: This is similar to Auto mode, but a time envelope will control the amount of vibrato. You can edit this envelope in the preferences by clicking on “edit auto vib”. This opens a small panel that displays a table and lets you control its duration and intensity.
Manual: This is for advanced use and offers continuous control over vibrato. In reality, a woodwind player changes the shape or position of their mouth on the mouthpiece to change the pitch up and down. In this mode, the neutral position (with no pitch change) is the middle value of the knob and a value of 0.5 (and CC at value 64). Values below 0.5 will result in a lower pitch and values above 0.5 will result in a higher pitch. This is very useful for creating vibrato that doesn’t have a fixed speed.
As mentioned above, there is a fourth way to create vibrato only with airflow control. The “allow vibrato with airflow” setting has to be switched on in the preferences, and you can control vibrato by performing a fast up-and-down variation in whatever you’re using to control the airflow.

In the preferences, you have access to several ways to control vibrato (this affects all 4 modes mentioned above).

There is a small dial that controls the overall amount of vibrato. This can be set to some very high values that will sound very unnatural to some, but are sometimes necessary for those using dedicated wind controllers that might have a narrow CC range.
You can change the amount of volume modulation: vibrato isn’t just a change in pitch, it’s also timbre and volume changes; you can control exactly how much of this you want.
You can of course change the amount of pitch modulation as well.

Some controllers like the EWI use pitch bend as the vibrato source, so we added the P. Bend option to the bottom of the CC list in case you want to use it for vibrato and not bends.

Legato Transitions

We spent considerable time and effort carefully extracting every minor detail of recorded transitions in order to give a variety of customizable legato transitions, and to help make the Double Reeds indistinguishable from a live performance.
These transitions range from lightning-fast changes to extremely slow bends, with and without extra attack. We made sure to cover all of this, and you’ll see that this is all controllable in the interface. The legato behavior can even be randomized to help give a more human-like performance.

When you play a legato on the keyboard (when you overlap two notes), our engine will automatically stop the first note and play a legato instead of a normal sustain.
This is exactly what happens on a real woodwind instrument when the airflow is continuous while the player changes the note. There are several ways to play these legatos and we gave you access to everything so that it can be controlled in real time.

Velocity to attack/sustains: This controls the way new sustained notes are played, for example, if the airflow is at a CC value of 75 and you play a note at velocity 20, our engine will ramp the airflow from 20 to 75 and thus create a quick volume raise. And vice versa – if the velocity is above the airflow value, it will create a quick attack. The duration of this ramp is controlled by the velocity-to-attack time value.
Velocity to attack / legatos: This controls how legato notes are played, and the procedure is identical to that for sustains, but for legatos, it covers the joins between different notes rather than sustained notes on their own. This feature is very useful on woodwind instruments as many players play legato notes with a slight crescendo between notes, so to replicate this, all you need to do is play every new legato note at a low velocity.

Glides are not often associated with double reed instruments, but they do appear occasionally, and so we wanted to include them as an option, triggered by many different methods listed below.

Mode: velocity. In this mode, any velocity below the threshold value will trigger a glide and its duration will depend on how low the velocity is. For example, if the velocity is at 20, it will be a fast glide (comparable to a legato time), but a velocity of 1 will trigger a slow glide at the duration of the max length value you set.
Mode: CC. In this mode, you can control the glide duration with a MIDI CC, again it will go from the Max length value when the CC is at value 1 to standard short legatos when the CC is set to value 120 and above.
Mode: Manual. In this mode, the glide value is fixed and the glide speed can go from 50ms to 500ms. We added a randomized time value to give it a natural feel, but bear in mind that when increasing the randomize value, the engine can technically receive a value below 50ms in which case it will play a slow legato.
In addition to these, you can glide using the pitch bend, and the max pitch bend value will determine the bend range. The quality of that bend will depend on the “use advanced pitch bend value”. Keep in mind that that using this option will take up more CPU, even when you’re not playing pitch bends.

When a woodwind instrument player plays any note if they are very precise, they will directly land almost exactly on the correct pitch and create a very precise attack, but it is often also “missed” on purpose and a quick flutter attack then happens. You can use the Transition flutter value to control how much of this you want. Right-click on this slider
(just like for any other slider) to choose to control it with a MIDI CC or a host automation.

Another very important aspect of legatos is what happens during the transition itself. On reed instruments, a timbre variation happens when the player moves their jaw while playing (putting more or less pressure on the reed). This effect can be noticed on three occasions: while playing legatos, when playing a vibrato or when using the pitch bend. You can control how much of that effect you want for legatos and pitch bends; the part for the vibrato is fixed.

Multi Microphone

Recording

Recording a woodwind instrument can be done in various ways and at different positions. We used 3 different microphone positions so that you can get the exact sound you want, as if you had chosen the microphone placement yourself.
This can produce even better results when using the “virtual space”, detailed below.
You can apply reverb and EQ to mix it completely to your taste.

MIX Tab

We recorded each of our instruments with 3 different microphones at 3 different positions to capture their unique sounds – you can mix these however you like. At the top you can also change the routing, as explained below; we created the
Virtual Space, which places the instrument in a virtual environment, which is technically a virtual room mic pair that you can move around. Here, you can choose if you want the source for the virtual space to be just the close mic or a mix of the 3.
We also added a 3 band EQ, which you can also decide to apply to the source sound for the virtual space.
You can mix the result of the 4 microphones and the virtual mics, and we added a pan and delay for each to deal with phase problems that always occur when multiple microphones are involved.
You can also add an impulse response reverb to the whole mix, control its decay and how much is sent from the close microphones and from the virtual space. The amount on the mix panel is the same as on the front interface.

Virtual Space

The virtual space perfectly reproduces what a real recording of an ensemble would be, using convolution.
When recording an orchestra, a pair of microphones is usually placed in front of the musicians and they naturally take position in the stereo field depending on where they are in the room.
The Virtual Space does the same thing: you can place the musician wherever you like on a big stage.
When using this with multiple tracks, you immediately have the feeling of being in front of a real woodwind section.

Virtual Space tab

This Virtual space in the VWinds is different from the one in the VHorns Brass section and Saxophones and is based on a traditional orchestral seating plan, with around 80 different spots in a naturally-reverberant room.
Using only panning to place elements in the stereo field does not sound realistic as there is so much information left out, so we recreated a whole room placement simulation, based on impulse responses, where you can set the position of the instrument in the actual room.
As setting up an ensemble recording can be done in many different ways, regarding both musician placement and microphone pair selection, we included as many options as possible.
You have access to 80 positions divided into 7 rows, and you can select which microphone configuration you would like to use (ORTF, AB, AB Wide, and XY), as well as control the stereo width for a narrow or wide section and the room size for more or less reverberation time.

Advanced Editing

There are an endless number of ways to play a woodwind instrument, and we had to make a careful choice on the default settings based on our interaction with world-class players, but many of the options can be customized to your taste.
Furthermore, most settings can be randomized for more human-like and unpredictable results.

We already detailed many features above, but here are the remaining few. Please note that all of the features in the preference tab have a small die next to them which turns on randomization for an even more human-like performance. Randomize means that the value for that setting will be randomized for each new note, between the minimum value and the value you set.
Firstly, at the top, you will see a tuning button that will open a panel allowing you to tune each note to your liking. This is very useful for performing music not written for standard tuning systems, or for music that doesn’t use traditional Western classical scales.

Pitch section:

The max glide interval controls the maximum interval that you can create a continuous glide between. On a trombone for example, the maximum possible glide is from position 7 to position 1, so 6 semitones. We allow for more than 6, but to play something natural, it’s better to lower that value as in reality most players will glide a maximum of 3 or 4 semitones and “cheat” the rest. Above that value, our engine will
“cheat” as well and skip some notes while still ending up on the target note.
The note pitch imprecision is exactly what it says – it will make the notes sound very slightly out of tune, completely at random, between 0 and the value you set. A value of 100% will randomize +/-1 semitone.
The attack pitch variation is a bit different, it is technically a fast bend ramp that is almost always present in live performances. It is more or less super-human to play every single note perfectly in tune from the first attack, so in order to create a more realistic sound, this is set slightly above 0 by default. Increasing the value will control how much bend you want (in other words; how far away the sound will be from the note you’re playing) and the attack pitch variaton time will decide how quick that ramp is.
There are two pitch bend modes, a simple one that will bend up and down by pitching the note currently being played, and an advanced, more realistic one, that will transition to another note in real time. You can select one or the other using the use advanced pitch bend menu. Just remember that the advanced mode will use more CPU than the regular one.
The maximum pitch bend value controls the amplitude of the pitch bend. It ranges from 1 to 3 semitones.
The VWinds are MPE-enabled, so you can simply turn the feature on and off here and enjoy playing it on any MPE-enabled hardware. When enabled, the advanced pitch bend and max pitch bend will be disabled.
You can click on the edit tuning button to get access to a microtuning panel which allows you to control the pitch of each note independently.

General Section

The growl/flutter value controls how much growl/flutter effect is added to the sound. A MIDI controller can be assigned to control this in real-time.
The natural variation of air and pitch values control that very quick and almost undetectable variation that even the best woodwind players can’t avoid when they play. Since the airflow should never be always perfectly constant, the timbre and pitch vary all the time and you can control how much of each you want. By default, it is set to 100%, which is representative of a very good player with the least variation possible and you can go above that to make the playing more natural.
The key noises let you control how much noise you hear from the individual keys being pressed on the instrument.
The tongue noises let you control the volume of the small noise produced by the tongue as it blocks the airflow when a note is stopped.
The round robin menu lets you control if you want no round robin, a 3x round robin alternating on adjacent notes all the time, or a smart round robin which only alternates in fast passages.
You can click on the volume control panel which allows you to control the volume of each note independently.
You can click on the Formant control button to display the Formant control panel. We’ll explain more about this below, but this gives you the ability to control the overall timbre of the instrument by changing the amount of each harmonic in the sound.

MIDI section

Pitch: You can pitch the whole instrument up or down up to +-12semitones. This affects the tone of the instruments and can be useful to cover other instruments that have a different range.
TRANSPOSE: This is just a MIDI transposing tool, so for example, a value of 2 semitones will play a D instead of a C. If you use the pitch and transpose at the same time, but opposite values, you will hear the correct note and will only change the timbre and range.
The Ensemble will be detailed in the ensemble section below.
The type of controller you use can induce a few internal changes. The EWI for example requires some tweaks to play legatos as it does not overlap MIDI notes by default. You can select the type of controller you use from the list here.
Next to the controller selection, there is a small dial that controls the reactivity of the controller. On some keyboards, for example, the mod wheel can be non-continuous and have small gaps that lead to unnatural-sounding variations. To fix this, just increase the value on the dial. If you use a breath or wind controller though, make sure this value is set to 0 – otherwise, it will be hard to get very sharp attacks. Selecting the right controller will take care of this value change for you.
You can change the position on the keyboard of the few key switches we use. Here is what the key switches do:

C1 will play a key noise. There is already an automatic key sound with legatos and new notes, but sometimes players press some keys in between or before phrases. The key noise volume responds to velocity.
C#1 will trigger a fall from any note you are playing.
D#1 will trigger a rise from any note you are playing.
E1 will repeat the note you are currently playing, this is known as “static tonguing”
F1 will produce a bend half a semitone downwards.
F#1 will produce a bend half a semitone upwards.
A1 will play a ‘breath’ sound. Real players usually take a deep breath before a long phrase, or when there is enough of a gap between phrases. The volume of the breath sound responds to velocity.

The Legato transitions section is covered above.

Formant control / micro tuning / Volume adjustment
VWinds is already highly customizable with two different individual instruments, but to add even more variety, each harmonic of the sound can be adjusted.
For even more versatility, the pitch and volume of every note is adjustable, meaning the instrument can be

The Formant control panel can be opened from the preferences in the general section.
Once you enable it, the formant control allows you to adjust the volume of each of the first 16 harmonics to completely reshape the sound. As an example, you can try to lower all even harmonics and boost odd harmonics on the oboe to get closer to something like a clarinet.
Activating this panel uses a bit more CPU, not a lot, but if you are low on resources, be sure to keep this panel disabled.
You can also now control the pitch of every note to play microtonal scales. To do that, simply click on edit tuning in the preferences and adjust the tuning of each note (in cents).
Depending on the instrument/musician, specific notes can sometimes sound louder or quieter than others, so we added a panel to give full control over that. Open it using the volume control button in the preferences.
All of these adjustments are of course are saved with presets.

Keyboard, Breath Controller, Wind Controller and MPE support

VWinds can be played using a keyboard by selecting the notes on the keyboard and controlling the air flow with a MIDI controller, such as a modulation wheel or a breath controller.
You can also use a wind controller like an EWI, an Aerophone, a Sylphyo or any other brand – in order to do this the appropriate controller must be selected from the controller menu in the MIDI

Ensemble

If multiple instruments are loaded at the same time, their notes will be performed exactly at the same time.
We added some smart features that can change the timbre of the instruments, transpose everything by a fixed interval, and also act on the MIDI performance.
For example, you can have all 8 instruments with a different transposition value playing the same C minor scale, so no matter what you play on the keyboard, it will sound in key.

Playing ensembles with VWinds is relatively straightforward, as you can see in the overview video. You can adjust a few things in the MIDI tab.

The Transpose value can be changed to get the desired interval change.
You can then select a scale and root on which the instrument will be forced to play, no matter what you play on your keyboard. If you select C Major, then whatever you play on your keyboard will stay in C Major, even when using the transpose value.

The timing value will create a randomized time delay each time a new note is played, this way when you play a note on the keyboard, not all instruments will start at the same time, just like a section of musicians would do in real life, no matter how good they are.

There are a few things to add if you want to make the performance even more convincing. Here are a few tips:

Make the natural variation value quite high (air and pitch) and randomize them.
Use the round-robin feature if you are using the same instrument twice
To add some variation to the velocities, select the dice next to the velocity to attack for sustain, legatos, and time.
Set a value for the flutter transition and randomize it as well.
The most important part will be the pitch aspects, so increase the note pitch imprecision, as well as the pitch variation and pitch variation time, and randomize them.

Once all this is set, it should have plenty of variation, but a good solution to make it even more convincing is to go a step further and just have two different MIDI files with randomized note positions as well as slightly different air flow controls. The best solution would even be to just play the performance twice as it will introduce all of the necessary variations.

Features

UVI Workstation v3.1.11 is required for the library to function properly, the VWinds double reeds will not work on Windows XP, or OSX 10.6, it will not work on a receptor either.
710Mb compressed in lossless flac format (201Mb for both oboes, 177Mb for both english horns, 210Mb for both bassoons and 114Mb for the contrabassoon).

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FAQ

Q: How many instruments are included in the VWinds Double Reeds library?
- A: The VWinds Double Reeds library contains 7 double reed instruments: 2 Oboes, 2 English Horns, 2 Bassoons, and 1 Contrabassoon.
Q: Are both versions of the instruments included if I purchase them individually?
- A: Yes, both versions of the instruments are included if you purchase them individually.

The VWinds Double Reeds library, produced by
Acousticsamples