jerrydf

After all that I've just taken the plunge with Embertone's Joshua Bell Essential. It has a fantastic tone which can easily support the folk/world requirements. The Essential version seems sufficient for most of what I need, although I've only just acquired it and I'm still low down the learing curve (but it seems quite usable). There is an upgrade path to the full version if required.

Thanks Dave, nice comparison. He probably didn't have the best demo for each. You can't transfer a set of midi notes from one vst to another; you have to hand craft them to play to their respective strengths. His first tune with the RR Bluegrass was way too choppy and ideally would have had slurs on some notes to remove some of the repetative hard edges. I'm loking at the Taylor Davis at the moment., I'd come across this before, but forgot about it for a while. jdf

Yes, that's the deal! I think, certainly as far as violins and fiddles are represented in virtual instruments, violins are smooth, sweet and full ranged, whereas fiddles are that bit rougher. As I mentioned, I often use either Embertone's Friedlander or EW Diamond Violin as a fiddle, but I tend to notch up a band around 1.5kHz to give it that impure tone! I'll proably add a bit of compression and even distortion (Ashley MacIsaac style). However, you're also correct in that it is the way the instrument is played, often with some more overstated attack on a fiddle. I'm amassing quite an armoury of violins and fiddles now in my repertoire of Celtic/folky fiddles. Looks like I'll succumb to the SWAM out of pure curiosity before too long. Maybe tomorrow *... Jerry * Maybe Tomorrow - flip side to the Everly Brothers Wake Up Little Suzie.

Dave - that's a nice demo of SWAM, but I don't hear much detail of the violin. I had a look at SWAM and it looks interesting from the point of view of playability, variations, etc. It seems there's a selection of violin bodies. Would you say there are fiddles in SWAM suitable for folk (Bluegrass, Celtic, etc)?

My go-to fiddles are - - Bolder folk fiddle. Nice and controllable. Great developer - Red Room Traveller series. They have the Bluegrass, Celtic and Gypsy fiddles. Nice tones, you'll need the celtic, I assume. Control of these fiddles is an acquired taste. - Embertone Friedlander - not really a folky fiddle, but quite controllable, especially with sordinol, and you can modify for the required folky tone with the bow position relative to the bridge. Like you, I don't play them on keyboards, I draw in on the piano roll view (actually on Cubase). For learning curves, none of them are bad, but Red Room Travellers may need a little more patience for the articulations. I recently got the Westwood Viola Untamed which is a gem. I imagine their violin is also excellent. On top of all this I'm actually taking the plunge to learning to play the fiddle, but that's going to take some time! Jerry

Great video, Reid. I love those eastern instruments like the koto and the yangqin. I've had a long interest in music around the world, both folk/custom based and modern derivations, including stuff from my own doorstep - traditional Celtic and English folk which I play in our ceilidh band. Here in the UK one of the greatest proponents of all sorts of world music is broadcaster Andy Kershaw. He had regular shows on BBC radio for a number of years (he was also a war reporter in his part time!) until he fell foul of the BBC (partly his own fault regarding a personal matter). Anyway, he's back with his own podcast - https://andykershaw.co.uk/category/podcast/ complete with playlists. He actually extends beyond the purist "world music" label, and includes whatever he likes. Andy has a no-nonsnse attitude - listen to the music, no jingles or over-chatting. Do give him a listen. Anyway it inspired me to acquire a few world music kontakt libraries. I often find these a little limiting in thier depth, so I tend to end up buying specific instruments like Boulder's Dahn Tran, etc. Personal plea: Does anyone know of a real Cajun accordian vsti? Not any old accordian - the honking bellowing Marc Savoy type of box. It's a beautiful sound. jdf

More Cowbells

What do you think of it so far, Nigel?

Yes, I've had some fun over the years building distortion and fuzz units, as well as tremolos, compressors, amps, etc. I was just looking at the Supa Fuzz. The authentic version uses the old germanium Mullard OC75s (and no feedback diodes) - I haven't seen those for a few decades (although I may actually have some in one of my old stock boxes somewhere). So I checked around and you can get some on ebay for £10 or 10Eur. I did see one advert trying to sell them for 240Eur or so. So - you can try for original authentic OC75s, or I suppose there's perfectly servicable equivalents these days. Good luck. Let us know if you take the hardware route, and how it goes.

There's a mini-series of three videos on YouTube with Justin Hayward where he talks about his amps, his guitar(s) and his guitar rack. I knew he mainly played the 355, and there's also videos of the band playing Ride My See Saw where he plays the Telecaster. There's nice little stories on here about those guitars. For the amps, his on-stage set-up seems rather complex, with a stereo Fender/Mesa Boogie set-up plus a Marshall for sustain. So good luck rigging that up in Amplitube or TH-U or whatever. Unfortunately he doesn't really discuss the actual settings here, but this is a start. It's a long time since I saw them at Leicester De Montfort Hall, just afer Question of Balance came out! jdf

Ah, Alan B'stard. Where is he now we need more honesty and integrity in Parliament?

Yes, that's a good sound, almost Byrds-y (thinking of the McGuinn chimes in "Feel a Whole Lot Better"). Nice work.

Great three tracks. Real punchy production, nice work. Do you do any Nesmith stuff? jdf

Hah hah - Great sound - voice - guitar breaks. Really gritty and punchy. Great work. jdf

What's an "insane compressor" ? Is that Boris Johnson?