RESPIRO, a new soft-synth for Wind, Breath and MPE controllers.

[liqih]

That video a is a very cool teaser of what can be done with multiple Respiro instances and an MPE table controller, either Linnstrument 128 or Seaboard.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I just purchased this (site says it's going up to 192 euros in January and it's still 96 now) but didn't realize it was VST3 only. That's ok but would have rather stuck to all VST2 for now. I wonder if they weren't able to get the license to make the VST2 from Steinberg because they got in after the cutoff date? I guess this will happen more and more.

Haven't been able to get any sound out of the thing though, guess I'll have to dig through the manual! I couldn't find any preferences, I thought there would be default settings for seaboard etc. Am I missing a menu somewhere? Also the GUI size reverts when I open it again. How do you lock it to the chosen size?

[simmo75]

It’s a wind synth, it needs assigning to the cc.

[Echoes in the Attic]

It’s a wind synth, it needs assigning to the cc.

Yeah figured out the expression thing right after i posted. I find the macros aren't as good for real time manipulation as I'd hoped, more for slight tweaking the overall sound. Nice sounds in here, but some serious glitching of the pitch when bending the pitch and quickly playing legato to a new note. And i don' tlove teh sound of note transitions when legato playing in general. Still exploring though...

[simmo75]

It’s a wind synth, it needs assigning to the cc.

Yeah figured out the expression thing right after i posted. I find the macros aren't as good for real time manipulation as I'd hoped, more for slight tweaking the overall sound. Nice sounds in here, but some serious glitching of the pitch when bending the pitch and quickly playing legato to a new note. And i don' tlove teh sound of note transitions when legato playing in general. Still exploring though...

I love playing it with the Touché, so responsive.
I’m not getting any glitches here.

[Echoes in the Attic]

It’s a wind synth, it needs assigning to the cc.

Yeah figured out the expression thing right after i posted. I find the macros aren't as good for real time manipulation as I'd hoped, more for slight tweaking the overall sound. Nice sounds in here, but some serious glitching of the pitch when bending the pitch and quickly playing legato to a new note. And i don' tlove teh sound of note transitions when legato playing in general. Still exploring though...

I love playing it with the Touché, so responsive.
I’m not getting any glitches here.

I only get glitches when the input channels are ALL and it's set to MPE mode in Bitwig (to take advantage of the MPE expressions with a seaboard). If you bend a note and then play legato it confuses it. Some plugins can handle this and some can't. This one can't unfortunately.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Been in touch with the developer and he's added the ability to listen to all midi channels and not get glitches when changing notes, so that's pretty cool - Let's you use mpe mode for mono to be able to use the note expressions. I've tested a pre-release version but I'm sure it will be an official update soon. It still can be quite clicky when transitioning notes unfortunately but I think he's going to be working on that.

[ThomasHelzle]

Yeah, the latest pre-release is really good.
Overall the improvements since the initial release were all great and improved Respiro a lot.
My current favourite patch is "Mutated Duduk", plays very nice with my EWI USB - great that they added more world instruments lately.
I hope this will be further improved and added to over time.
I'd love to dive deeper into the engine and see what else can be created.

Cheers,

Tom

[Echoes in the Attic]

The main issue I think at this point is the potential for a bad click when overlapping from one note to another. They need some kind of transition there, hopefully like audio modeling does it, where there is a natural legato type transition. Even when there is no click, there is usually a very abrupt note change which doesn't sound very natural. Hopefully they will work on that next. I've been using mpe devices so I'm not sure how it would be with a wind controller.

[VL-Wizard]

I'm Rudy (IMOXPLUS), the Respiro developer.

Please give the updated Respiro 1.2.5 (Beta) a try. It is available in the download page of licensed users.
The MPE legato transition is a big challenge for a mono synth like Respiro and can still be improved but it should work already much better.

The issue with a Physcial Model mono-synth like Respiro is the handling of multiple competing pressures inputs. Example: you press first note with a pressure of 80 and then you press a legato second note with pressure 10. These kind of fast pressure jumps are hard to deal with, even when smoothing is used. Another situation is when you press the second note and in the meantime you are gliding the first note to another position. Respiro is now applying a clever queuing to handling such situation.

You can now set Respiro into CE mode (continuous expression) and set the note queue to ALL (meaning that Respiro accepts all incoming notes and activates the note transition mechanism).

For MPE usage I strongly recommended to use synth-note-transition more and increase the transition time. Doing this reduces the potential "clicks". When using synth-note-transition you can right-click on the glide-time value and adjust the time divider and/or use velocity to influence the glide time.

When trying Respiro for MPE you better use this Mutated Duduk instrument first to get a feel..

HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF MPE/RESPIRO: The best and far most expressive configuratio is to load multiple Respiro instances in a DAW like Bitwig (fantastic for MPE support) and have each instance listening to another MPE channel (see Respiro queue number). Doing this avoids the fact that Respiro has to kick-in legato for MPE. My favorite approach is to have MPE channel 1 and 2 assigned to a Respiro instrument that sounds great in the lows and can be used as a deep breathing drone soudn / chord. And have MPE channel 3 4 5 assigned to an instrument like the Mutated Duduk. You need to arm all DAW tracks so they receive at the same time input of your MPE controller. Also important, disable the Respiro Impuls Response (Reverb) of each instances and route the output of each instance to a bus with a nice reverb (I love the NI-Replica XT), doing this consumes less CPU. By the way, with the new version you can load your own IR's. Some very ambient results can be achieved by loading a hihat or drumloop wav instead of a typical IR file.

About macros. The usage of real-time modulation of macros depends a bit on each instrument. A macro is internally mapped to one or more Physical Modeling parameters. Some allow nice modulation while others less. The art is to set the modulation curve such that the impact of the change is just right. Example: the new Respiro 1.2.5 has a wavetable engine added, sliders that shift the wavetable position can drastically change the sound. It is therefore better to use the wavetable fine adjust slider for modulation.

About Pressure sensitivity The MPE controllers allow for great expression, but they do not give you the "connection" with Respiro like if you are using a wind-controller such as an EWI, Sylphyo or WX. It is therefore important to adjust the pressure sensitivity curve so that Respiro responds gently to your finger pressures.

About VST2: Indeed, IMOXPLUS did not get VST2 license from Steinberg. They do not hand out to new developers and this creates a very unfair situation versus established developers. Anyway, if somebody really needs a VST2 then they can contact me personally and I will be happy to help (unofficially).

some latest videos on Respiro 1.2.5 (beta)
https://youtu.be/mGRAEoyj8cs
https://youtu.be/uMjSPobc-Yc

Voila, hope this is helpfull. Again, I welcome suggestions to make Respiro better..
Cheers
Rudy

[ThomasHelzle]

Version 2.5 is great and "Mutated Duduk" is one of the best instruments in the library IMO.
This has drawn both me and my girlfriend much deeper into playing our EWI USB than ever before, it's now one of our main instruments instead of something we just dabble with every now and than - thanks a ton for that!
We even think about buying a Sylphyo if finances allow...

I miss stronger modulation options in many of the other presets, so Mutated Duduk also is hopefully the direction to go there.
Great would also be to have things like the Reaktor ensembles by Chet Singer, options growl/flutter and overblowing, that go a bit more into the extremes.

And yeah, the IR reverb is a real CPU killer - I disabled it in my default preset in Bitwig.

Really looking forward to deeper access/an instrument editor.

Thank you so much, I'm now a convinced and happy customer

Cheers,

Tom

[Meffy]

D'oh, missed the intro price! Oh well, that's what I get for not being at KVR last year. It'll be on my wish list.

[Echoes in the Attic]

FYI, real transition mode is working much better for me than synth mode with mpe. Synth mode tends to cause glitches on larger jumps, especially after a pitch bend.

[ThomasHelzle]

I'd say the full price is fully justified with the work Rudy is putting in since the release.
I've never played anything that sounds so good, natural and alive with my EWI USB.
Highly recommended if you have a wind controller.
With MPE it's also good, but with a wind controller you really forget that this is virtual stuff and can just getting lost in the sound (at least I am).
In my book it's the most interesting VSTi that came out in the last couple of years.



Cheers,

Tom

[Meffy]

Oh, I'm sure the price is justified. I just don't have the money to buy it at present and regret missing out on the introductory offer.