All In the tests

213 Connected   /   Login   /   Register !

Now we’ll move on to Gypsy, another specialized instrument, maybe more versatile than the Fab Four. With such a name, acoustic guitars are clearly honored, but so are accordions,  bandoneons, violins, various percussion, even a trombone and a cimbalom. Once more, the overall sound quality is top-notch and the numerous articulations make these instruments really enjoyable to play (12 GB of samples).

Among the guitars, the Classical, Flamenco and Spanish Steel String are very detailed, offering between 4 and 16 articulations, from legato to taps on the guitar body, from harmonics to half or whole-tone slides, etc. Seeing that there are the three main kind of acoustic guitars, it was tempting to try this (••07-medgypsy.mp3••). The chords couldn’t always be used, since they’re tempo-dependent (strumming, rasgueado, etc.). Software such as Melodyne or Recycle could be useful in modifying and adapting the various rhythmic figures to a given tempo
.
Unfortunately, the Django guitar doesn‘t quite cut it: neither the solo guitar nor the chords are convincing, there’s no way to simulate decent gypsy comping. It’s a pity because you’ll be hard pressed to find Selmer/Maccaferi guitars in other libraries. There’s another problem: when you load any guitars, the violin or the trombone, the reverb level is at 0 dB, rendering the instrument virtually unplayable. So you’ll have to manually modify this setting and possibly save it as a new preset.

The Cimbalom is amazing, with rolls (only one tempo, alas), recorded in such a way that you can hear the sound of the beaters (mallets) as well as the wood resonance. A rare instrument, ideal for quickly creating movie ambiances. Almost every film composer has used this sound, in one way or another.

There’s not much to say about the trombone, which seemed quite ordinary, except to say that it has True Legato articulation.

The accordions and the bandoneon have that “acoustic” quality with their air and key noises, typical of this editor’s former productions. They are extremely expressive, thanks to numerous articulations, crescendo, sforzando and to the sampling of various settings (musette, single reed, double reed, etc.). Always reaching for authenticity, EW has sampled the airflow going in and out, as well as the player’s left and right hands. On the other hand, you have to get used to hearing the left hand in your right monitor and vice versa, as EW has chosen the “from the public” perspective. You can easily change this with an appropriate plugin. If you’re desperately looking for realistic though virtual “squeeze boxes”, ranging from the tension of Astor Piazzola to the lyricism of Richard Galliano, from the linear quality of Hermeto Pascoal to the swing of Gus Viseur, stop searching, you’ve found them...

We’ll end with another masterpiece, the violin. 26 different articulations make it one of the most detailed instruments of the series. Two Legato presets offer specific samples, with the Mod Wheel controlling the speed and length of the transition between notes. With some programming you can obtain stunning results with the original sound as well as with effects for some Ponty-Lockwood-like sounds, or like on this modest tribute (••08-itsbeen.mp3••).

To conclude, Gypsy is an exceptional plugin, which is perfect for when you need acoustic guitars, accordions, cimbalom or violin. However, I have two regrets: there’s no pitch bend for the violin! And sometimes the stereo image slightly differs from one articulation to another. Of course you can correct that with pan or some plugin, but it’s a bit annoying.