The story
I had been searching for more information on pizzicato playing techniques and came across a video by David LePage where he demonstrated how you could play pizzicato incredibly quietly by using a finger with some rosin on to pluck up and off the strings.
See here: https://youtu.be/dcrJEGRrU-c?t=116
Similar to my Mickleburgh piano, I noticed a lot of good noise before and after the note while playing this particular technique and that is what I have sampled here.
There is control over the “Tack” sound as well as the release noise, which is actually putting your finger back on the strings ready to play the next note. I have put a sample start offset control on again, but would suggest turning the tack down if this is anything over half way up. While playing the Kontakt instrument I felt something was missing from the recordings I’d made of me actually playing the violin and that was the hiss and room tone, plus the noise of me just being there holding the instrument and moving slightly as one would while playing ( even breathing and swallowing etc. ) so I’ve added that as a latch-able button. 8x round robins except for the player noises….I got a bit bored recording them ( it’s surprisingly hard to just sit and do nothing while the record light it on :^) so only 4rr; they are looped at a good 2 minutes+ each though, and you could automate the playback for 10 mins if you really wanted that much unrepeated “nothing”.
After playing this technique for a while on the violin, playing the Kontakt instrument felt oddly backwards as it felt like I wanted the samples to trigger as I pulled my finger off the key, so I’ve included an inverted instrument that does just that. It probably needs a script to get it perfect but it’s quite pleasing as is.
Hope you enjoy
Ashley
Interface
Reviews for Tack Pizzicato Violin
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A wonderful pizzicato experience!
If you are in search of a different and human-sounding pizzicato violin articulation, this might be the perfect fit for you. This is a simple but also a very interesting and well-made patch that does just like that, that includes clean samples and additional natural noises that may occur while playing pizzicato. Everything is fully controllable too.
The playable range is a little more than 3 octaves long which is great. You might see that it seems bigger, but it's not, since after the higher C, you only get release samples. Additionally, there is a super smart "inverted" patch, which triggers the notes upon releasing the key instead of pressing it, which makes perfect sense because that's how you "pluck" the strings to produce the pizzicato effect. Brilliant!
Great sounding pizz
A really well recorded pizzicato that sounds incredibly "real". Lots of modifications to the sound are possible meaning that you can find the exact character you want or need.
The star of the show is the inverted patch which sounds the note when you release the key rather than when you press it. It's a weird experience to play but, as Alex says, it makes sense.Intimate sound
A super clean sound of some nice violin pizz.
It's nice to have control of the noises and release sounds.
The A5 has a RR that is one semitone down. I thought my fingers were slipping around at first but then caught the culprit.
The instrument works really well played -24semitones too and the sample offset was really helpful for gettin slowed down samples to hit right on time.
