GigaStudio 3 Features:
GigaStudio 3 comes in three sizes, the Orchestra version offering
unlimited polyphony for full arrangements. GigaStudio 3.0 Solo
has 96-voice polyphony, and GigaStudio 3.0 Ensemble plays up
to 160 voices. More voices gives you the ability to layer instruments,
add parts to your arrangement and approximate huge symphonic
orchestras. And the efficient kernel-level processing and RAM
usage in GigaStudio results in more polyphony than any other
software sampler. Up to 8 banks of 16 MIDI channels can be played
back for 128-part multitimbral sequencing. Included for the
first time in version 3.0 is Rewire support for routing GigaStudio
into your sequencing program. This allows GigaStudio instruments
to appear in your workstation software, right beside plug-in
instruments and audio tracks.
Streaming Samples and You
GigaStudio can load sample files up to 512 gigabytes in length.
The first few milliseconds of each sample are loaded into RAM
for instant playback, then the rest of the sample streams off
of the hard drive. This gives you access to big, dynamic samples
without needing tons of RAM into your computer.
But what does it mean to have gigabytes of samples? How is
this better than the Piano sound in my favorite synth? Let's
compare the 3 gigabyte GigaPiano II, included with the Orchestra
and Ensemble editions of GigaStudio 3.0, with the 16 to 64 megabyte
piano sample found in a typical synthesizer.
First, every key on the piano is sampled in GigaPiano II. On
a typical synthesizer, the piano might only sampled twice every
octave, so the middle C sample may need to stretch all the way
up to middle F#. Since a piano sounds different depending on
how hard you strike the key, GigaPiano II samples each key sixteen
times at different velocities. A typical synth piano will only
have one to three "crossswitches" per key, so you
can usually hear the transition from the soft sample to the
loud sample. Some piano sounds on synths don't have any crossswitches,
filtering and attenuating one sample to cover the entire dynamic
spectrum. More crossswitches gives you a more accurate sound,
and it's also a lot more satisfying to play. GigaPiano II has
enough memory to record the entire decay of a piano note, even
though the low bass notes may decay for 20 seconds or more.
A synthesizer can't possibly do this with just a few megabytes,
so they loop the sample after only a second or so. This artificially
looped sound is then attenuated using a synth filter and DCA
to approximate the natural decay of a piano key, which is something
GigaStudio can handle by just playing the actual recording.
Many GigaStudio libraries include different mic techniques
to choose from. For example, the VintAudio Yamaha C3 library
has close mic, distant mic and player's perspective mic locations.
You can load all of these samples at once and balance between
them when mixing, or even output different mics to multiple
outputs for a 5.1 surround mix. Obviously, this is something
that's impossible to do in a synthesizer.
Finally, samples are sometimes converted to a lower sampling
rate to save on ROM space on synthesizers. Since they only have
50-100 megabytes of total sound ROM for all of the instruments
they want to include, they might cut corners by sample rate
converting to save space. For example, they may decide that
a bass guitar or kick drum doesn't have a lot of high end, so
re-sampling it at 22kHz is acceptable. GigaStudio is going the
complete opposite direction, with version 3 now offering up
to 96kHz sampling.
Hardware samplers might be able to load a bigger sample than
software synthesizer, maybe up to 128MB or more, but simply
nothing compares to GigaStudio. We don't mean to pick on your
favorite synth, but if you haven't played a 3GB piano library
you just don't know what you're missing.
|
