ar•ti•cu•lāt :
Complete articulation control for major sample libraries
Imagine not having to remember countless articulation keyswitches and controllers for all those libraries. Imagine having a consistent & informative interface for them, labeled with musical terms like staccato, marcato or pizzicato. Imagine having controllers at your fingertips for features like portamento/glissando speed, effect bypass, Kontakt scripts and more. Imagine no longer! Thanks to ar•tic•u•lāte, this is now a reality for major libraries including L.A. Scoring Strings, East West-Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra, Project Sam Symphobia and VSL Appassionata Strings, with more on the way:
Product page: http://www.whinecellarstudio.com/home/articulate2.html
Antidote :
Advanced parameter control for the Access Virus™
No other synth on the planet sounds like an Access Virus™, and none other is capable of such musical mayhem. Yet with all of its knobs and real-time control, there's still room for improvement. Enter Antidote, a new TouchOSC™ control surface for iPad. Antidote puts almost every synthesis parameter of the Virus on the iPad; furthermore, it makes them all touchable. Now you can grab several elements at a time that are otherwise buried in endless LCD menus and automate them all simultaneously; or use Antidote's X/Y pads to sweep filter cutoff and resonance at once - under just one finger - while also manipulating oscillators, envelopes, LFO's, you name it. With previously unattainable sound-sculpting ability, Antidote is definitely a cure for the common Virus:
Product page: http://www.whinecellarstudio.com/home/antidote2.html
FAQ
How much?
$20 for ar•ti•cu•lāt
$15 for Antidote
or $30 if you buy them both together ($5 bundle discount)
...I wanted to keep these affordable yet offset the cost of the carpal tunnel surgery I'll likely need after the ridiculous amount of time spent in TouchOSC Editor
Cross-platform? Well, almost. These two bundles contain everything you need to get up and running within minutes, at least on the Mac side of the fence. The crucial component that makes it plug & play is the OSCulator mapping profile (OSCulator takes incoming OSC-formatted messages from the iPad and translates them into MIDI so your sample libraries can make sense of them). However, OSCulator is Mac-only until the next major release. In the meantime, Windows users can make use of everything else but they will need a Windows alternative to OSCulator to map the incoming messages to MIDI. At the very least, Windows users still benefit from all the hard work that went into building the actual TouchOSC layers.
Why TouchOSC and not a standalone iPad app? Because we all have our preferences and I wanted you to have options. When the color coding matches your scoring template, it adds to the ease of quickly finding articulations or instrument groups. Using the TouchOSC platform allows you to make changes that better suit your preferences or workflow. And to be frank, I'm a composer, not a software developer - I don't have the time or desire to learn iOS programming!
What exactly does ar•ti•cu•lāt control?
Every keyswitched articulation in the following libraries:
- EWQLSO Gold/Platinum XP Strings, Winds & Brass (developed for the Kontakt version for backward compatibility, compatible with PLAY)
- VSL Appassionata Strings (Basic & Extended)
- Kontakt's factory content VSL strings
- Project Sam Symphobia 1
- Audiobro L.A. Scoring Strings (plug & play support initially for Lite/First Chair edition only - Full version support to follow by end of January)
It also provides dedicated controllers for these functions:
- Toggle switches for Symphobia's octaver, legato, repetition, EQ & reverb
- L.A. Scoring Strings' portamento/gliss speed, velocity limiter and toggle switches for the tuning & auto-arranger scripts (reassignable)
- 36 blank buttons assignable to any MIDI controller, computer keystroke or key combination (key commands anyone?)
What do I get with these bundles? For Mac users, everything you need to be up and running in within minutes, assuming you already have TouchOSC, OSCulator and an iPad. Same thing for Windows users except that you'll need to map the controllers to a Windows OSCulator alternative until they release a Windows version. Here's what comes with either bundle:
- TouchOSC layers for above libraries and/or Access Virus
- OSCulator profile (Mac only at the moment)
- Custom Kontakt multi & script for LASS Lite (Full version to follow shortly)
- Custom Matrices for VSL Appassionata Strings
- Complete documentation
Requirements
- TouchOSC for iPad ($4.99 in the App Store)
- TouchOSC Editor (free at www.hexler.net/touchosc)
- OSCulator for Mac OSX (Windows version to follow - donationware)
- Any combination of the above sample libraries
- Apple iPad with a WiFi connection to your host computer
- Native Instruments Kontakt 4.1.1+ for L.A. Scoring Strings support
- Access Virus B/Classic or later for Antidote users (most parameters will control an original Virus as well)
Well, there you have it. I hope these can be as helpful to you as they've already been to me!
Make great music,