EXs3 - Initial thoughts and possible [minor] issue(?)

[Kevin Nolan]

Hi -

Just received my EXs3 CDs from Korg UK today. Thank you most sincerely for that - a very nice gesture on Korg's part.

I have installed the package and auditioned the programs in demo mode only, so far. I intend to buy the package.

My initial reaction is that this is a very nicely constructed library indeed. The quality of the samples is impeccable, and a lot of though has gone into the programs. They are very useful. I own both East West Platinum XP Pro, and a Yamaha VL1, so I'm very well catered for in this regard already. Nevertheless, I'm genuinely convinced EXs3 will be equally as useful in my setup. While the VL1 is absolutely fantastic with a breadth controller, it is none the less mono-timbrel and duophonic. Hence it is best suited for up front solo sections. The East West library is fabulous in its own way, but having owned it for several months only and not having a chance to learn it yet, I realise a long term and laborious path lies ahead to make the best use of it. Hence, to me, the EXs3 package provides a comprehensive package in between both of the others - it provides excellent voices needed for orchestral / jazz type pieces; and from auditioning them so far, they are very capable indeed.

My favourites are the wood wind - I absolutely love the flutes, oboes, cor anglais and bassoons. The cor anglais is better than East West's IMO. The Tubas are also very strong. That's a difficult instrument to sample and voice in a useful way, and the ESx3's are very strong. Trumpets and trombones are also excellent, though I would have liked more dynamics in the ribbon and modulation controller - perhaps in the combis that I haven't auditioned yet? I also like the French Horn timbre very much, but again they are not very well represented at ff dynamics in the programs.

But overall, I can see this is going to be a very useful package. In pieces where the micro-management of articulations of the likes of East West is not required, this library is going to find lots of use. Into the bargin, it makes the OASYS that much more an all embracing workstation.

A minor issue I noticed is that on programs 32, 33, 78 and 79, playing the keyboard at high velocity brought in a repeated note from a grand piano! Not sure if this is a bug or simply an anomaly when in audition mode only. It certainly does not sound right.

While I eventually intend to buy KARO Philharmonic Strings (sorry KARO and E2J for being a slow adopter of your work - I'll get there eventually); I notice that with EXs1, EXs2 Piano and EXs3 loaded into the OASYS that the total RAM used is 1457 MB. Hence, at just shy of 700MB, the KARO Strings cannot also be loaded into RAM at the same time. I notice from one or two other posts here that some are having difficulty when both are loaded - it might be that the EXs3 package has written over some of the KARO library when in RAM?

Ii would be absolutely excellent if Korg and KARO could work together on this with a view to one of them releasing a minor update to ensure that both libraries can load at the same time - that would be in line with the OASYS philosophy of providing a self-sufficient workstation environment. This might be achieved in one of two ways - either or both of Korg and KARO offering two installation options, where one of those options slightly reduces the size of the library to accommodate both; or to provide adequate documented instructions on what the user can do to make choices on what to delete so that a user can have both at the same time. And while I haven't heard the KARO strings, feedback here seems to be strong enough to suggest that an OASYS capable of loading its Piano, KARO Strings and EXs3 would make it a formidable beast across the full gauntlet of music genres. Surely a worthwhile objective?

Anyway, EXs3 is in my opinion a very capable addition to the OASYS and to any set up needing wind instruments, even if in the illustrious company of Yamaha virtual acoustics and top end dedicated orchestral packages. Each EXs3 instrument sounds correct, acoustic and programmed with excellent playability and expression. A lovely package indeed.

Cheers,
Kevin.

[ski]

..

[MrT-Man]

Actually, Kevin raises an interesting point. v1.3 of the Oasys brought us lossless compression of the sample library, allowing us to squeeze more into RAM. I wonder if it'd be worthwhile to add support for lossy compression.

Then when you buy the Karo strings, for example, Karo could give you both a lossless & lossy version of the library, and the user could decide which to load in, depending on what's more important to them: having the utmost in sound quality, or giving up a bit in order to get more space in RAM. (& similarly you could choose whether to load lossless or lossy versions of EX1, EX2, EX3...)

[Kevin Nolan]

MrT-Man -

That's an excellent suggestion. It would definitely do the trick and offer the best of both worlds, given the RAM constraints.

Kevin.

[Charlie]

It would be even nicer to get rid of the RAM-constraint.

@Kevin: Thanx for this review. I like the KPS-library and it's worth the price. I did not like so much the arising problems EXs3 + KPS as the Strings are more important to me. This needs a solution - otherwise I'm not so sure anymore about getting EXs3.

[ski]

What I meant to say in my post above..... If you're hearing the repeating piano notes, it means that the wavesequence file hasn't been loaded. I'll venture a guess that if you're in some kind of "demo mode" that the WS files aren't loaded until you "commit" to a purchase (or something like that).

[Mike Conway]

I notice that with EXs1, EXs2 Piano and EXs3 loaded into the OASYS that the total RAM used is 1457 MB. Hence, at just shy of 700MB, the KARO Strings cannot also be loaded into RAM at the same time.

The nice thing about the Karo libraries is that the samples are accessible. You can choose your favorites and just load those. For example: I like the factory Pizzicato samples more than the Karo versions, so no need to load those. Personally, I would load all the Spiccato sounds, along with the Solo instruments and small sections. (The OASYS already does large sections well) That would mean a handfull of multisamples taking up around 100 - 200 megs. This is not good, if you use Combis, as they are dependent on programs and their locations. If you score like I do, which is using mainly Programs, this is something to consider.

Just a thought, though this requires going to the SAMPLER....MULTISAMPLE tab and deleting the multisamples that you don't need and saving what's left into a small file. One other thing, if you look at how the Karo samples are saved - one clump, followed by a lot of spaces, then another group, and so on - you could MOVE any sample and check the little box, which will get rid of any empty slots, grouping all of them together. I did this, so I could fit Granular Atmospheres, at the same time.

I have not loaded EXs3 and Karo at the same time, yet. I will try some configurations.

[sebbytriton]

Mike, on the Dan's Whishlist there is a feature which will allow to only load in RAM the sample that are used and not the complete bank. More Free memory to load all the Exs/Karo you want

[Kevin Nolan]

Hi Mike -

That's great that the KARO library can be selectively loaded. That solves the problem surely.

Note also that the issue I notices in audition mode does not arise when you load EXs3 programs into a user bank.

Kevin.