Looking for a good single string VSTi with bowing control to make a sorta virtual tagelharpa.

[BrinzerDecalli]

Hey all!

So I have a severe physical disability that makes it so I can't really play any instrument, but I have always loved singing and writing music. I've recently become obsessed with tagelharpas [since my D&D character found one in their travels] however this is an instrument that I have no hope of playing... conventionally...



There are many great VSTs and VSTis out there for all different types of stringed instruments, however, to make an instrument similar I need two isolated properties that I've not found many to have:

A single string, or the ability to isolate the single string - There's just something very different about the tonality between moving on a single string and switching between different strings that seems hard to capture.

Bowing control - it doesn't need to be fully one-to-one, but the ability to control starting and stopping of bowing independent from the note selection is absolutely paramount to achieving the right sound.

This way you are able to sync up the bowing across different tracks, with each track as a string. I then will play it with my Dubler MIDI mic in Bitwig.


Due to absurd government limitations on people with disabilities, I'm on SSI, so the cheaper the better!


Thanks a bunch!

[vurt]

welcome, first, i too have a disability that developed later in life in my case, so i lost (what little) ability i had, but like you, im not letting it stop me enjoy making noise

now your instrument, how realistic do you need? are you talking indistinguishable from the real thing, or is an "uncanny valley" type synth sound ok too?

i personally don't know the instrument you are after, but im sure someone here will have better ideas for you, if you can answer the above

[BrinzerDecalli]

welcome, first, i too have a disability that developed later in life in my case, so i lost (what little) ability i had, but like you, im not letting it stop me enjoy making noise

now your instrument, how realistic do you need? are you talking indistinguishable from the real thing, or is an "uncanny valley" type synth sound ok too?

i personally don't know the instrument you are after, but im sure someone here will have better ideas for you, if you can answer the above

Ty yo! Always love to see fellow cyborgs creating cool shiz! I am super weak and functionality full quad since I was born, so never even tasted the sweet sensation of really playing an instrument frfr. I had a little band in college which was awesome but since I fell off music after repeated denials from bands I wooed on craigslist once I dropped the d-bomb on them [tell them I have a disability and use a powerchair] lol but finding the Dubler is making me want to get back in the game... You hear of it before? Feel free to DM a link if you're up to sharing what you've made!

This is the tagelharpa basically Nordic upright bass... and so b-a

I'm all for uncanny and creating my own instrument [a friend and I are talking about making an arduino rig to turn a guitar into a tagelharpa / hurdy-gurdy monstrosity] Just as you hear, the main thing is that the bowing is independent from the note movement. So an ebow-sounding physical modeling synth or something wound be cool!

[vurt]

ah, i have heard them before, didn't know the name though, turn up in a lot of sound tracks
it is a lovely sound, something haunting in the tones.

i see what you mean about the bowing and the notes being a separate thing timing wise. and think you may well be right regarding physical modeling being your best option.
there are some specific string physical modelling, but as far as i know they're violin or cello, which while obviously similar the sound is not so close.
but then something like plasmonic, isn't aimed at a particular instrument, but can do some very nice string type sounds and may have more options to shape it to something closer than a cello.
they're not exactly cheap though, but inexpensive for what they are if that makes sense.

the hurdy gurdy guitar thing sounds interesting too hope your friend can come up with something!

as for me, i played guitar (not awesome but we'll enough) from teens, then in my mid 30s things started going wrong, fingers not doing what i wanted, then lacking strength.
i still use the guitar, but i use an ebow and play one string now, but mostly i use a modular synth.
build patches and let them run while i relax and occasionally tweak a control here n there

that's my mobility scooter in the short too but under "live" is where i think the more interesting stuff is

[CrystalWizard]

I'm all for uncanny and creating my own instrument [a friend and I are talking about making an arduino rig to turn a guitar into a tagelharpa / hurdy-gurdy monstrosity]

That sounds like a fun project. Last hardware project i worked on was an arduino programmed as a small neural network set up to output all kinds on strange control voltages. It was to fit in a modular.

Just as you hear, the main thing is that the bowing is independent from the note movement. So an ebow-sounding physical modeling synth or something wound be cool!

Reaktor (i vaguely remember an ens that did ebow on a string, String Studio?, there must be a few choices. Hurdy gurdy and ebow, both awesome things. I'm all for more PM synths that can ebow and more.

[glokraw]

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/boing2-by-xoxos


Boing2 xoxos modeled string:


might be in the Xoxos pages: https://plugins4free.com/dev/13/

[glokraw]

M-Theory has a 'bowed' option for it's string action, in the list here:


https://plugins4free.com/dev/26/

[BrinzerDecalli]

ah, i have heard them before, didn't know the name though, turn up in a lot of sound tracks
it is a lovely sound, something haunting in the tones.

I always love dark tones in music, and all art to be fair.

i see what you mean about the bowing and the notes being a separate thing timing wise. and think you may well be right regarding physical modeling being your best option.
there are some specific string physical modelling, but as far as i know they're violin or cello, which while obviously similar the sound is not so close.

A single-string isolated cello or upright bass or like an ebow on an electric bass. I had access too a demo of SWAM's double bass solo strings, and even though it in actually isolate strings, I was able to create this interesting sound, without even having any way to individually control the bowing or the note progression besides painting it in [by the time I got the proper controllers my demo expired lol]. This effect sounds pretty close, and I bet I could get even closer with the use of additional controllers.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pHonqN ... sp=sharing This was me just playing around writing a cover of Eye of the Tiger, but it shows off how the droning/open note on each string really makes the sound iconic. In this example, each new note was the beginning of a bowing direction unless a note is already being played and overridden as a new note is pressed in that track.

but then something like plasmonic, isn't aimed at a particular instrument, but can do some very nice string type sounds and may have more options to shape it to something closer than a cello.
they're not exactly cheap though, but inexpensive for what they are if that makes sense.

I'll try to look up plasmonic. Is there anything to point me towards what you're referring to?

the hurdy gurdy guitar thing sounds interesting too hope your friend can come up with something!

fingers crossed!

as for me, i played guitar (not awesome but we'll enough) from teens, then in my mid 30s things started going wrong, fingers not doing what i wanted, then lacking strength.
i still use the guitar, but i use an ebow and play one string now, but mostly i use a modular synth.
build patches and let them run while i relax and occasionally tweak a control here n there

that's my mobility scooter in the short too but under "live" is where i think the more interesting stuff is

Awesome, I'll have to check it out! Thanks for sharing!

[BrinzerDecalli]

That sounds like a fun project. Last hardware project i worked on was an arduino programmed as a small neural network set up to output all kinds on strange control voltages. It was to fit in a modular.

Sound really cool!

Reaktor (i vaguely remember an ens that did ebow on a string, String Studio?, there must be a few choices. Hurdy gurdy and ebow, both awesome things. I'm all for more PM synths that can ebow and more.

I've heard that name before when researching. Serenade https://www.native-instruments.com/en/r ... show/7463/ showed up a bunch, and it was free, but when they went to the site, I couldn't download it... it seems you have to have some sort of package that you buy but it wasn't really clear. Do you use Reaktor? For String Studio, do I have to download something or pay for something before downloading this synth itself?

[BrinzerDecalli]

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/boing2-by-xoxos


Boing2 xoxos modeled string:


might be in the Xoxos pages: https://plugins4free.com/dev/13/

Very cool thanks for pointing me to that! It sounded a little bit too bitcrushed in the demo, but with some delay and reverb it may work... hmmm....

[BrinzerDecalli]

M-Theory has a 'bowed' option for it's string action, in the list here:


https://plugins4free.com/dev/26/

That seems like quite a dynamic and multitudinal synth! If it actually does have bowing independent of note selection we may have a winner!... I've yet to find the demo pointing this feature out, but I'm still looking...

[CrystalWizard]

That sounds like a fun project. Last hardware project i worked on was an arduino programmed as a small neural network set up to output all kinds on strange control voltages. It was to fit in a modular.

Sound really cool!

Reaktor (i vaguely remember an ens that did ebow on a string, String Studio?, there must be a few choices. Hurdy gurdy and ebow, both awesome things. I'm all for more PM synths that can ebow and more.

I've heard that name before when researching. Serenade https://www.native-instruments.com/en/r ... show/7463/ showed up a bunch, and it was free, but when they went to the site, I couldn't download it... it seems you have to have some sort of package that you buy but it wasn't really clear. Do you use Reaktor? For String Studio, do I have to download something or pay for something before downloading this synth itself?

Yes, Serenade by Chet Singer is really good. OK, it's a Reaktor ensemble, basically it's an instrument that runs in Reaktor. Reaktor is a pay synth. It's often on sale these days i think (like $100) or as part of the huge package Komplete. Serenade is free as are a ton of other weird and wonderful (and regular) things people have created with Reaktor that are available in the User Library. Yes, i use it a lot but there are others around here that i would say are way more advanced. There's lotsa discussion about Reaktor here.
String Studio is also a pay synth which is also on sale year round it seems. It's quite good with some questionable designs. Both of these are borderline abandonedware so perhaps there are better choices like Plasmonic, SWAM, or Imagine. PM sysnthesis is also a popular topic if you search through KVR.

Somehow i recall a Reaktor synth in the UL that could do Hurdy Gurdy but those memory cells are buggy, it was in the 2000s.

[CrystalWizard]

M-Theory has a 'bowed' option for it's string action, in the list here:


https://plugins4free.com/dev/26/

That seems like quite a dynamic and multitudinal synth! If it actually does have bowing independent of note selection we may have a winner!... I've yet to find the demo pointing this feature out, but I'm still looking...

it's a good price!

[neverbefore]

A single-string isolated cello or upright bass or like an ebow on an electric bass. I had access too a demo of SWAM's double bass solo strings, and even though it in actually isolate strings, I was able to create this interesting sound, without even having any way to individually control the bowing or the note progression besides painting it in [by the time I got the proper controllers my demo expired lol]. This effect sounds pretty close, and I bet I could get even closer with the use of additional controllers.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pHonqN ... sp=sharing This was me just playing around writing a cover of Eye of the Tiger, but it shows off how the droning/open note on each string really makes the sound iconic. In this example, each new note was the beginning of a bowing direction unless a note is already being played and overridden as a new note is pressed in that track.

that track - particularly the intro - is quite something!

[Saffran]

Decent Sampler has a bunch of sampled instruments that are "different".
Check it out. Both the player and most samples is free.
https://www.decentsamples.com/product-c ... t-samples/