Oscillation Strings – BEN OSTERHOUSE

Oscillation Strings – Ben Osterhouse

Oscillation Strings is a Kontakt library which specializes in gentle repeated note swells.

Product Overview

Everything has been programmed into one nki which provides intuitive access to everything.

Key Features:

• Instruments – violin, viola, cello, or bass.
• Rhythms – Energetic eighth notes – Medium Quarter notes – Broad expressive half notes.
• Swells.
• Custom Compression System.
• Custom Swells.
• Polyphonic Legato.
• Two different types of legato samples.
• Double or Halve timestretching.
• Purge unused samples.
• 11427 Samples .ncw compressed.

Overview

Instruments

For all of the articulations, you can choose between violin, viola, cello, or bass. Everything has been recorded dry, close-mic’d, and is doubled (two instances layered together). It’s easy to achieve a realistic chamber strings sound this way.
Two different types of legato samples
Note Change shifts land decisively as a bow change happens during the note-change. Portamento shifts provide a more gliss-y and romantic note-change.
Purge unused samples
If all the samples are loaded at once, it takes up a hefty chunk of memory! To lighten the load, there are options to purge (unload from RAM) unused Rhythms, unused Swells, or andor unused Instruments.

Rhythms

Energetic eighth notes.

Medium Quarter notes recorded at two different speeds: 90 and 120bpm.

Broad, expressive half notes.

Double or Halve timestretching.

Everything tempo-syncs, so if the project BPM is too fast or slow, samples may get overstretched and sound un-natural. The interface includes options to halve or double the speed of everything, to avoid this overstretching.

Swells

Similar to a synth, Oscillation Strings has an attack and decay knob. What’s different is that each position in the knobs triggers a whole different set of samples. This opens up a lot of phrasing possibilities.

Custom Swells

If swells aren’t your thing, you can just switch over to “Expression” and use the modwheel to make your own phrasing.

Compression

The compression brings up the volume of the soft parts of the swell. They can be a bit dramatic, and it’s nice to be able to mellow them out. Because it’s compressing the sample for each individual note, it’s more natural sounding. You wouldn’t be able to get the same effect by just slapping a compressor on after Kontakt.

Polyphonic Legato

The legato in Oscillation Strings is one of the most unique features. Depending on where in the swell overlapping notes are played, a different legato sample will be chosen, and it’s sample offset, volume, length, and fade-in time are all automatically adjusted by the script to fit. It’s easier to describe by showing, so check out the Oscillation Strings Legato In-depth video for a more detailed explanation of how this works.