VST (Virtual Studio Technology) has two types: VST effects and VST instruments. VSTi is a common name for the latter. For the time being, let’s stick to instruments that can be played.
In music production, recorded analog instruments are fantastic, but the process of recording and adding them may be time-consuming (a longer process than just simply using virtual instruments). The main reason: You must be capable of playing your instrument and the track you’re working on.
If you’re using virtual instruments, editing will be much simpler since you’ll just have to click a few times to fix a wrong tone, sound, or rhythm.
It is possible to get a broad range of sounds by utilizing virtual instruments rather than ‘real’ instruments. This might save you a lot of money, as well as the time and effort it takes to gather all the instruments you need for your music productions.
A few minor setups before playing your virtual instrument
In your DAW, locate the Virtual Instruments toolbar. In most cases, it’s in the Devices menu.
In order to load a virtual instrument, choose one and click on its empty spot. Begin with simple tools and work your way up. As a beginning instrument, the piano is an excellent choice due to its straightforward melodic structure.
Many DAWs will ask you whether you wish to record a MIDI track for this instrument when you choose it. This is standard practice for music curators, but because we’re still configuring your system, you may just decline and click no instead of continuing. Add a MIDI track to your project by selecting it in the project menu.
Just hit OK and your Daw will execute the instruction to create a MIDI track for you. Make a single MIDI track instead of many MIDI tracks.
After clicking OK, the track will appear in the main project window. The settings are normally found on the left side of the track. You may access and adjust the track’s input and output from this location. Typically, the input is set to ‘All MIDI Inputs.’ Select the instrument you wish to use for the output.
Ensure that your output only contains one instrument for the time being, and then you’re good to go. For a virtual instrument that can host numerous instruments at once, you’ll first have to decide which MIDI track you’ll utilize.
Press the button on the MIDI track to start recording. Play a note on your MIDI keyboard to see if that works. As long as you see the MIDI track’s corresponding note appear on your screen, it’s functioning. As a result, it is possible that you have pushed a note that was not sampled. Change the pitch.
Finishing setting up your VSTI
In reality, most of these tasks may be completed within a few mouse clicks. The only thing left to do is hit the record button and start playing the instruments that you’ve connected to the tracks.
To record audio, you’ll follow the same methods as before, but this time you’ll be using a MIDI keyboard.
After you’ve finished recording, go back and fix any mistakes you found in the MIDI track (and other minor issues). Double-clicking a track will show you the notes and their places. Using the DAW, you can see a typical piano roll in action. Each note may be fine-tuned by dragging the front and back ends.
Quantize may also be used to instantly correct incorrectly played notes. If you use it excessively, your songs will sound rigid and robotic. Unless absolutely required, use this option sparingly so order to preserve the quality of your music. If nothing else, pay attention to the quantize feature’s settings.
How Are Virtual Instruments Defined?
Sampling and Synthesis
We commonly refer to software instruments when we speak about virtual instruments. They are computer-based software applications that imitate the sound and features of genuine musical instruments. A wide range of sizes and shapes are available, however there are two main categories:
Instruments created with software
This is a set of mathematical techniques and algorithms aimed at simulating the sound of a genuine instrument. Despite their versatility and application in sound design and current electronic music, they don’t sound exactly like the genuine thing. For the most part, listeners will be able to discern that the sounds they hear do not come from actual instruments being performed by an instrumentalist.
You’ll probably agree that this isn’t very persuasive. Modern hybrid orchestral music (think Hans Zimmer) makes great use of synthesis, but it isn’t the focus of this article. Instead, we’ll focus on the second group in the near future.
The sampling process of sounds and instruments
In the second group, things are a lot more complicated. Using actual instruments performed by real musicians, and then constructed by software engineers, software sampled instruments are created.
It is common to refer to them as “sample libraries.” Their major purpose is to give the audience the impression that they are truly hearing a live musician by emulating musical instruments as closely as possible.
Let us examine how this enchantment occurs…
The recording is the first step.
In order to construct a virtual instrument from scratch, a firm first has to capture one or more actual musicians. One note will be requested of the musicians in a recording studio. Just one thing to say.
Let’s use the C note as an example. A sample is the recording of that particular note. There are four cellists playing at the same time in this C note sample.
If you think about it, a musical instrument can usually play more than one note. As a result, we’ll need samples for them, too. As a result, every note played on the instrument will be captured.
Only one sample per note? We need more!
When you attempt to play a virtual instrument with just one sample per note, one of the first issues you’ll notice is that it sounds mechanical and artificial. No two players will ever play the same note precisely the same way.
As a result, a single note is often captured numerous times. You can see how this may take a long time. In most cases, when a virtual instrument is performed, it will randomly choose a sample for the intended note. This results in a more believable performance.
As far as style of play goes:
Musical instruments, with the exception of a few, may be played in a variety of ways. It is possible to play both short and long notes (staccato, spiccato, etc) (sostenuto, sforzando, etc). Articulations are the collective term for these many motions.
And, yes, you got it, they must be recorded as well. For each and every one of the notes. Several times due to the need of round robins. Yes, creating a solid sample library takes time (and effort!).
It takes up a lot of space on your computer because of all these sample recordings. It’s for this reason that a single virtual instrument may easily take up a ton of space on your computer. Dozens or even hundreds of terabytes.
Of course, the number of articulations available in the library and how many of them you will need for the kind of music you are producing should also be taken into account when purchasing a new virtual instrument.
Let's also have a look at the dynamics.
For a believable virtual instrument, round robins and articulations are just a small part of the puzzle. Not everything in a piece of music is performed at the same loudness; instead, there will be a variety of tonalities, ranging from the very quiet (pianissimo) to the very loud (fortissimo).
In technical jargon, we refer to these differences as dynamics. You cannot successfully emulate these subtleties by just altering the loudness of a sample: the timbre of an instrument varies in response to how hard you play it. These will also need to be sampled at some point.
For each round robin, for each articulation, and for each note. We’ve now reached tens of thousands of samples for a single instrument!
The amount of dynamic layers refers to how many subtleties a sample library has. Depending on the sampled instrument, the range is anything from 1 to over 10. Visual input regarding the current dynamic may be provided by certain virtual instruments.
Miking it up for depth and acoustics: putting it out there
The narrative isn’t over yet. There is absolutely no comparison! Before moving on, let’s have a look at how sound is heard while listening to an instrument. The listener’s proximity to the instrument has a significant impact on the sound. Most high-quality sample libraries allow you to choose a different microphone location for each sample. Yes! In addition, each microphone will include a sample recording!
In virtual instruments, each microphone's loudness may be controlled independently.
Samples are now being processed.
Some libraries also include samples for various forms of vibrato, as well as samples for the attack and release of the notes, among other things. It might be exceedingly detailed to mimic the genuine instrument. Vendors are competing to provide libraries with the most realistic sounds possible, and the arms race is on.
After the recordings are completed, the tedious task of processing the samples begins. Fixing faults and looking for artifacts is all part of the process. This is a difficult task since there are so many of them. That’s when audio engineers go to work.
The Nerds are here!
Now that the instruments have been meticulously sampled and each audio file has been altered in accordance with that, we’re ready to begin mixing. The stage is now set for the programmer(s). Because it is necessary to create a software instrument from all of these samples.
MIDI controllers are the most common method of playing software instruments. It’s a piano-looking contraption with no musical capabilities. In order to activate a certain sample, the virtual instrument will get information about which key was pushed, for how long, and at what velocity.
The sound is generated by the virtual instrument, not the keyboard. In the music industry, this is called the MIDI standard (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Since the early 1980s, it has been in existence.
Each sample is assigned to a MIDI controller key, and the programmers are responsible for creating an interface that allows the user to manipulate the instrument, such as adjusting the microphone level and dynamics, altering articulations, and so on. They utilize a piece of software called a sampler to do this.
Native Instruments Kontakt is the industry standard for sample libraries, despite the fact that other samplers exist. It’s widely used by vendors. Programming with Kontakt is done in a specific language. Known as KSP (Kontakt Script Processor).
The legato transitions between notes must be programmed. Using a legato transition, you may change the timbre of two notes that are closely related in a piece of music. The usage of vocalists and choirs as software instruments is also common.
Time to have some fun!
The majority of software instruments may be operated on their own without the need for a computer connected to the network. Because it’s just like any other application, you can simply open it and play about with it as a stand alone.
The ability to record them and play multiples of them at the same time is what makes them so special. It is possible to do this in two different methods.
Software for musical notation
Some composers utilize a music notation program (think word processor for producing music) and assign each melodic passage to a digital instrument. Steinberg’s Dorico and Avid’s Sibelius are two of my favorites.
Audio Workstation for Digital Media (DAW)
Composing in this manner is my preferred method. The tracks on your screen will resemble those on a piece of notation software. In other words, each track is a container for a single virtual instrument or a collection of virtual instruments.
Hit the record button and start playing. This is a topic that will be covered in more detail in a future essay. Steinberg Cubase is the DAW I use, although there are many others that are just as good. Ultimately, it’s a matter of personal taste.
What's the next step?
Sample library developers are listed below if you want to get an overview of what’s available. As you’ve already learned, these libraries are expensive since they take a long time and a lot of resources to create.
Listed below are a few of my all-time favorite software developers:
- Spitfire Audio: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/
- Heavyocity: https://heavyocity.com/
- 8Dio: https://8dio.com/
- Orchestral Tools: http://www.orchestraltools.com/
- Soundiron: https://soundiron.com/
- Audio Imperia: https://www.audioimperia.com/
- Cinesamples: https://cinesamples.com/
Hope I’ve peaked your curiosity in the great realm of computer-generated music!