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Giorgio Tommasini
10-26-2006, 07:13 PM
The Floating Pitch Syndrome


Diagnosis, cause and treatment.

This recently discovered syndrome represents a serious threat to the mental health of the new customers of the Stradivari Player using a Mac. PC users are not affected.


THE BACKGROUND. The Stradivari player, vers. 2.01, has a new feature mimicking the behaviour of the real instrument, namely, a transient pitch shift on rapid CC#11 changes.

This effect is very subtle, and corresponds to the natural tune sharpening occurring when a string is stretched, for example by an increase in bow pressure.

This has been obtained by linking the first derivative of CC#11 to a script-generated controller (CC#13), slightly affecting the pitch.

THE DIAGNOSIS relies on the following symptoms:
One installs the Stradivari Player on his PC, correctly sets midi input, midi controllers and audio card, starts playing, moves the expression controller (CC#11) and hears...weird pitch changes.

THE CAUSE was identified, after exhaustive research, carried out by Dr. Giorgio Tommasini, Josef Natterer (script consultant), Stephan Sippel (Native Instruments), and many others, including Vic France (a very kind, collaborative customer), as a Kontakt2 and Kontakt Player intrinsic bug, consisting of an erroneous response of Mac-based systems to script-generated controllers.

THE TREATMENT: this is a case of palliative therapy. As a temporary workaround, we created a new nki, where all CC#13-related code has been deleted. This way, one gets rid of any pitch change related to CC#11. This basically means that transient pitch shift on rapid CC#11 changes are been disabled, as in vers. 1.08.

We therefore recommend to download and use the modified nki only in case you've got a Mac and are experiencing this malfunction. This modified nki can be downloaded here: http://www.garritan.com/support/The_Stradivari_Violin_v.2.03_L_NoDeriv.nki

Fortunately, Native Instrument has been able to reproduce and identify the cause of the bug, and they are confident that they can solve it in the next beta build (personal communication, October 26th, 2006)

We are confident as well.


Yours,

Giorgio Tommasini, MD
Cardiopath (nearly), and Developer. :)

Robert P
10-27-2006, 06:28 AM
Many thanks, Doctor Stradivari, the new .nki file does indeed fix this Mac-only problem.
Glad to hear that NI has acknowledged and is working on it.)(~

Ciao
RP

Jaimo
10-27-2006, 10:32 AM
I'm having trouble downloading this file. Right clicking usually gives me a "Download File" option, but not with this link. All I get is a page opening with hieroglyphics.

How are you Mac guys downloading this? Thanks in advance...

JamesIII
10-31-2006, 01:01 PM
I'm having trouble downloading this file. Right clicking usually gives me a "Download File" option, but not with this link. All I get is a page opening with hieroglyphics.

How are you Mac guys downloading this? Thanks in advance...

I had the same problem. PM Gary and he'll email you the file. It works fine.

theviolinist13
11-04-2006, 09:17 PM
Fortunately, Native Instrument has been able to reproduce and identify the cause of the bug, and they are confident that they can solve it in the next beta build (personal communication, October 26th, 2006)

It's November 4 now, so has the bug been fixed without downloading the modified .nki? I was a bit disappointed when I read that the modified .nki removed the one key component to make a violin sound realistic! :(

spitfire31
11-11-2006, 08:53 AM
It's November 4 now, so has the bug been fixed without downloading the modified .nki? I was a bit disappointed when I read that the modified .nki removed the one key component to make a violin sound realistic! :(

Well, I fear that you have a rather over-optimistic idea of Native Instruments update rates. Two weeks? ~| Two months would be jaw-droppingly fast from NI!

Also, "the one key component to make violin sound realistic!"? :confused:

The bug only applies to Strad v. 2, you know. And version 1 has been, and is, hailed as a uniquely realistic and playable instrument. Surely, it hasn't got any worse because an added (and some would say minor) feature currently doesn't work as expected?

/Joey

Giorgio Tommasini
11-11-2006, 10:04 AM
Theviolinist13,
Spitfire31,

I believe both of you are right. "Version 1 has been, and is, hailed as a uniquely realistic and playable instrument", and a transient pitch shift on rapid CC#11 changes is indeed a "key component to make a violin sound realistic!" :)

One might also agree with: "Two weeks? :wow: Two months would be jaw-droppingly fast from NI!".

Well, it seems we have been overly pessimistic. :rolleyes:

Giorgio

Garritan
11-12-2006, 08:28 PM
Hi,

As someone else mentioned, the link posted for the new .nki file is broken, and downloads as a text file (I've confirmed this on multiple computers, and also tried Safari, Netscape, and an old copy of MS Explorer).

Please fix it.

Thanks.

Lee BlaskeLet's try another extension as some are having problems with the nki. I zipped it and here is a zip file. Let me know if that works.

http://www.garritan.com/Strad/The_Stradivari_Violin_v.2.03_L_NoDeriv.zip

theviolinist13
11-19-2006, 08:16 PM
spitfire, I play the violin and a transient pitch shift on rapid CC#11 changes IS one of the main keys of making a violin sound realistic. Having a change from pp to ff results in a slight detuning of the note, and not having that detuning makes the violin just sound like the volume has increased or decreased.

I downloaded the nki in .zip format, and it works fine; I am using the pitch wheel to reproduce the effect.

Just hoping that NI fixes this syndrome sooooon!!! :o

:) Violinist

spitfire31
11-20-2006, 01:54 PM
Hi violinist,

Thanks for the heads up! Not being a violinist (or any other kind of -ist, for that matter), I appreciate it.

Making my living as a writer (i. a.), I'm sensitive to wordings and there's a clear distinction between the original poster's "the one key component to make a violin sound realistic!" which to me sounds somewhat exaggerated and your expression "a transient pitch shift on rapid CC#11 changes IS one of the main keys of making a violin sound realistic". :)

Regards,

Joey

theviolinist13
11-20-2006, 06:57 PM
Sorry spitfire. I am nothing close to a writer :o and I was just trying to get my point across. Transient CC11 changes are indeed ONE of the main keys to making a violin realistic in addition to vibrato, note-shaping, dynamics, mood, etc.

Sorry about the confusion.
:)

Violinist

vic_france
11-20-2006, 09:55 PM
Just a heads up for Mac Kontakt 2 users..
The new K2.2 update is up... and it does indeed fix this "floating pitch syndrome" :) (N.B. we should be using the original "Stradivari Violin v2.01 P.nki" again).
Hopefully, the update for the Kontakt 2 Player won't be far behind! :)

spitfire31
11-21-2006, 06:06 AM
Transient CC11 changes are indeed ONE of the main keys to making a violin realistic in addition to vibrato, note-shaping, dynamics, mood, etc.

Violinist

Agreed! :D

/Joey

JamesIII
11-21-2006, 05:21 PM
Oh, wait a minute. This isn't for the Kontakt player, but for the full version of K2. I see now. Hopfully the Kontakt player fix will be along shortly.



Just a heads up for Mac Kontakt 2 users..
The new K2.2 update is up... and it does indeed fix this "floating pitch syndrome" :) (N.B. we should be using the original "Stradivari Violin v2.01 P.nki" again).

Do we have to pay for the update? That doesn't seem right. I just want to be able to play the Strad 2 the way it was intended to be played and not have the floating pitch problem. Shouldn't NI give us the update for free? Just curious.