16 February 2011

The package is available for 11 trials (switch-ons), after which it would have to be purchased to continue to be used. Having just activated the trials and started to investigate the package, I have quickly realised that understanding exactly what to do is going to be a steep learning curve: hence this page. Although the manual covers the structure of the software and what it can do, it would have been helpful to have had an example of setting up a sound from start to finish which could be followed: what at school maths lessons was called a “worked example”.

 

There is also what appears to be an error on page 18 of the German manual and which, ignorant of that, I duly translated into the English manual, also on page 18. The first two functions under “Pitch Bend - Voices” are “Pitch Bend Range High” and “Pitch Bend Range Low”. The content of both the “Data” column and the “Explanation” column for these appears to be just a repeat of the following “Global LFO1 and LFO2” section, rather than providing the range of values which can be set within the boxes on-screen under “Pitch Bend Range High” and “Pitch Bend Range Low”. Before I adjust the English translation accordingly I should appreciate confirmation of this observation from anyone who “knows about these things”.

 

Also on page 17, the table for Matrix - LFO3, the Explanation for the Source parameters offers a range of values for each. Where are those values adjusted?

 

I am now down to ten “lives” as the software decided to crash when I tried to make the sample layer I was working on adopt the name of the sound sample I had adjusted. I realise that I do not know exactly how to cause that naming result and must now go back to first principles. Software is prone to crash when being fumbled by those who don’t know what they’re doing and therefore just experiment to see “what happens if”. So if anyone “who knows about these things” would care to write a brief “worked example” for the rest of us to follow, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

Colin

 

21 February 2011

Well, I’ve now only four trials left to go. I’ve not heard from anyone with material to place here - am I the only one investigating this software? Anyway, here’s my current diatribe on my situation to date. Of the shut-downs so far, four were caused by crashes. One was at the end of a session anyway, but two occurred merely when I clicked on the Sample Banks “Wersi User Drums” and “Wersi Effekte”, at the bottom of the Sample Bank drop-down list, just out of curiosity to see what samples they contained: so don’t attempt to do that yourself! Surely, while investigating, it’s curiosity which will be the driving factor.

 

It’s not until you get into this software that you realise the enormity of it. Having seen many words come up in drop-down lists, I decided I needed those lists set out in table form so I could relate to exactly what was going on. I’ve repeated them here for you to download:

Globals - this gives the values available in the Global panels under the General Tab.

LFO-Matrix - this provides lists of all the Source, Modifier and Destination possibilities: not fully conversant with all these yet!

Samples in Sounds - this gives a table of all the Sample Banks and the Samples contained therein - several pages of data!

Some Sound Samples - one of the most interesting observations while using this software has been to look at the samples actually used in the sounds. This document charts just a few of those sounds with the samples they contain. Of course, you have to look a little deeper to see how those samples have been set up in order to obtain the full picture, and that’s quite involved and requires a lot of experimenting - great fun, though. That’s when the editing possibilities show themselves.

 

Altogether I’ve produced some thirty five new User Sounds, like Strings Ensemble and Flute & Clarinet, while others are just named as the original followed by SF. Sound Control can change sounds a lot but often an annoying vibrato cannot be adjusted that way. With Sound Factory that vibrato can be tamed and, I’m pleased to say, I’ve finally gained control of that Sustain Girl, both when she’s on her own and when in Vocal 2!

 

Now, what to try next?

 

Colin

 

14 March 2011

Only one trial left today so I thought I’d spend the whole day making a final assessment. The best laid plans........ One hour in and I suffered a crash! The reason seems to be that I tried to insert the Stereo Delay Effect. None of the parameters was adjustable. I then tried the Delay Effect - same problem. That was when the Windows shut-down of the OAS Installer message came up. There could be a problem with those Effects. The other aspect I’ve now discovered is that all saved sounds while the trials were running are now no longer accessible without Sound Factory being activated. I expected that to be the case so no surprises there.

 

So what’s my verdict, then? I must say I’m a little disappointed that there’s been no correspondence yet from other WersiClub members about their experiences with this software. You are therefore limited to just my view at the moment, which is rather limiting, but here goes.

 

1. It’s quite a massive piece of software. There are many adjustments possible to any sound as well as the opportunity to create your own combinations of samples to provide a totally new sound. This is always an interesting experience for me, but I’m also sure there are many Wersi owners who just wish to play their instrument and not fiddle around with settings. If you like playing around with sound settings then this software is paradise.

 

2. I found it fairly easy to make adjustments to turn a sound which I’ve not used very much into one which I would use more often. One example was the Bagpipes. I wish I could have kept my edited version for “Highland Cathedral”. I’ve mentioned the female vocal singer elsewhere and all the Vocal sounds seem to make the pitch rise when using After Touch. I was able to change that into a swell of sound instead which was much more satisfying to play. I also made the “Horn Section Swell” sound actually do so with After Touch, though it is necessary to heed the volume warning in the manual.

 

3. The greatest educational result was to inspect exactly how the sounds already provided had been set up with samples and effects layers. There was a fair number of inaccessible layers, especially in the synthesiser section, but the manual did say that would be the case. What was a surprise was that some sounds include Akai sounds and, of course, these are not adjustable. Some effects are also factory locked and cannot be changed. A simple blue warning panel comes up stating that the sound or effect is inaccessible, though it’s a pity that such benign warnings can’t have a different colour from the lethal ones. That would certainly save on the adrenalin!

 

4. There are still some sections which are a bit of a mystery to me. The WaveStart function in WaveEdit is not at all clear in many cases, yet that was how I tamed the Bagpipes - purely by chance! There are many, nay most, sections of the Matrix table which I’ve absolutely no idea about. The manual says there are more possibilities with the Source and Modifier functions than the examples described there and that some would produce unwanted effects unless used in a particular way. With the thought of possible crashes in mind I steered well clear of experimenting with those! There’s certainly a long list but what do they all do? I could cope with After Touch as a Source and Amp as a Destination, using Depth to change the amount of the swell effect, and could adjust the appropriate LFO settings to change the vibrato when that occurred, but very little else.

 

5. What was also intriguing was how the Modulation Wheel can be assigned many different functions. There’s no documentation elsewhere, so far as I know, about the factory assignment of this Wheel to each sound so it’s well worth trying it out on each sound to see what it actually does. There were also some very interesting possibilities in the assignment to the Pitch Wheel which would be very useful in particular circumstances.

 

I hope Robert New will be able to shed some light on these particular areas of Sound Factory at the Wersi Direct Oktoberfest later this year. I’m starting my list of questions now, Robert!

 

Colin

 

Members’ Comments

 

1 June 2011

From Dave Cookie, New York State, USA.

On my wish list of sounds would be a wah-wah trumpet sound.

 

23 July 2011

Reply from Ian Terry

Hi Dave,

Greetings from sunny Cornwall in the UK. Here is one possible solution to your question of creating a 'Wha-Wha Trumpet' on WERSI OAS.

 

It goes without saying you will need Sound Factory (activated) on your system. If you do this edit in 'Demo' mode you will only be able to access this sound until all the trials run out.

 

Pick a Trumpet to edit, I used (for this example):- 090-000-055 Trumpet Muted *. (This sound already has the 'mute' attached to the instrument, we only need to make a small edit to turn this into the sound we would want, and to be able to control this in real time from the instrument).

 

Activate Sound Factory to edit this sound.

Once in Sound Factory activate 'Expert Edit'

Go to the 'Filter-Map' page,

 Change Cutoff to 26%

 Resonance to 0%

 Velocity to 0%

 Key to 12%

 

Now the clever bit.

Go to 'LFO/Matrix' page, (working from left to right in the Matrix),

 Pick a free/empty slot in the 'Source' column, (number 6 for example), select the source box so it's highlighted (red), and using the 'Data Wheel/Encoder' dial in the words 'Mod Wheel'.

 In the next column (to the right, called 'Modifier'), dial up the word 'Off'. In the next (Modify) set to 0%. {These two columns are used for 'Side Chaining' to give us further control over modulations, we don't need these in this example).

 In 'Destination', dial in the word 'Cutoff'

 In the last box, set the value to 35%.

So just to recap, you should see from left to right:- Mod Wheel, Off, 0.0%, Cutoff, 35%. (I decided to use the Mod Wheel for this as it allows the player to 'mimic' the left hand behaviour that Trumpet players do to create the effect that we are after).

 Switch off any other 'Mod Wheel' destinations (in the Matrix), as they will interfere with our effect.

Save with a suitable title into your user database.

 

When you call this edit up to play make sure that 'Mod Wheel' is enabled in the 'Selectors' page of OAS.

 

That's basically it, here's a small teaser of what it can sound like. It's all controlled from the instruments 'Pitch' and 'Mod Wheels' in real time via the left hand. The Mod Wheel controls the filter to open and close the mute, just as Trumpet players would. Right hand plays the keyboard to trigger the notes. This is straight out of the instrument and recorded into Logic Pro for preparation and conversion to MP3.

 

Wah-Wah Trumpet Solo.mp3

 

Hope this grants your wish…

 

4 October 2011

From David Dunlap.

Here is a PDF article about creating a new sound in Sound Factory. It's actually an alternative to Ian Terry's suggestion for a "wah" trumpet.