frequently asked questions
General
- Can I run a my copy of vielklang on two separate machines?
- Yes, the license allows you to install and unlock it on up to two computers. On both you can use all plugin formats (VST, RTAS, AU), as you wish.
- How does the unlocking work?
vielklang has been shipped to you with a unique serial number. After you entered this serial number in the software, you will have 30 days for registration and unlocking.
To register your software, please create a new user account. To do so, please follow the register your product link in the menu.
In your user area, you will find instruction on how to generate your personal unlock key. You will also find the latest full version downloads for vielklang there.
- Is the web shop secure to use?
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Yes it is. We do the transaction through shareit (www.shareit.com), utilizing a security certificate was issued by VeriSign Inc. The server supports SSL Version 3 and 168/112-Bit Triple DES encryption. All online shoppers who nonetheless feel uncomfortable using their credit cards online can also order using the fax form at the end of the order page.
- What are the .zpa-files that are generated by vielklang?
vielklang has to analyze the audio on loading a wave to know the pitches, note lengths, key, etc.
To be able to skip this analysis process when a file is repeatedly loaded, vielklang stores the analysis results in a file with the extension .zpa. This file does not contain any project data, so if you accidentally delete it, it is just the analysis process when loading the wave file that has to be done again.
- What are the pitch correction options with vielklang?
vielklang offers two controls for each voice individually: Tune and Drift.
The Tune fader corrects the mean pitch frequency while leaving the intentional deviations like vibrato untouched.
The Drift fader does exactly the opposite: it allows to decrease or increase the amount of deviations from the mean pitch frequency (like changing the amount of vibrato), while leaving the mean pitch frequency itself untouched.
- What does vielklang mean?
vielklang (pronounce "feelklung") is a german word: translated to english it would mean something like multi-sound or many-sound. In german, it could be used for a sound or chord with multiple voices.
- Where is the difference between vielklang and harmonizers that are known?
Many traditional harmonizers call themselves intelligent, meaning that the user is able to configure the input key and set diatonic intervals at which the additional voices will be synthesized. By "intelligence" is usually meant that diatonic intervals (i.e. only pitches from the key/scale) are used in contrast to chromatic intervals (i.e. a constant offset in semitones).
This behavior is modeled by vielklang "parallel" harmonization mode, but the really interesting part of vielklang is the default ("intelligent") mode: here, vielklang doesn't synthesize plain parallel voices, but thinks in harmony progressions, resulting in a much more musically meaningful result. Furthermore, the voicing is controlled by voice leading rules to make the result as natural sounding as possible.
- Why is vielklang not a real-time effect?
There are several reasons why vielklang cannot be realtime:
- Harmony Estimation and Voice Leading is theoretically not possible in realtime.
Think of 4 singers that try to sing a four-voice choir, but only one voice knows its melody, the others do not have any clue. How should they know what harmony is intended without knowing anything about the melody, not even the key?
There are harmonizers around that do have a realtime approach, where the user has to adjust the input key, and the voices run then parallel (in diatonic intervals) to the input voice. Alternatively, the user may play all single pitches in realtime on a keyboard (knowing what harmony will fit and about a pleasant sounding voice leading). This is indeed pretty neat, but either the user exactly knows what he is doing musically or it will be the just parallel voices, which isn't very musically.
So, what we intend to do is trying to implement the musical knowledge and experience and come up with nice harmonizations even for unexperienced users. But for this, we have to know the complete melody line.
- Adding the possibility of triggering.
Using the snapshot trigger, you may use our instrument as a neat 4-voiced sample player, with all its implications. This allows a lot of new possible use cases in a production environment that wouldn't simply be possible with a real-time plugin.
- Adding the possibility of editing.
Now all the harmonization and voice leading stuff might be cool, but probably cannot be correct in every single case (in the end, the plugin tries to guess what the user wants, so we would be living in a boring world if that would be always right 8-) ). So you may want to change harmony, range, and single pitches. In a realtime plugin, this is not possible. Of course, there are workarounds for this, like recording a track and edit it afterwards, but this is automatically non-realtime, and usually a pita. So why bother with a non-realtime implementation in a realtime plugin if you can make it easier and better in non-realtime at the first place?
- Sonic Quality
The input pitch is shifted a considerable amount of pitches to generate the additional three voices. If something was wrong at the frequency detection or note segmentation stage, this would have severe impact on the quality.
While high quality formant preserving pitch shifting basically would be possible in realtime, it gets quite difficult to guess note on/off positions correctly in realtime. These note on/off detections are quite important for harmony estimation and voice leading, and the quality benefits quite a bit from a non-realtime algorithm.
HowTo
- How can I change single harmonies of the harmonization?
- In the Intelligent Harmonization mode, you may just select the fitting harmony in the harmony bar right above the piano roll display.
In the Edit Harmonization mode, you can shift the single notes to the position you prefer.
- What can I do with those Snapshots?
Snapshots enable you to store and reload a complete harmonization status. Each snapshot can have its own distinct MIDI trigger note, allowing to play different harmonizations or different play regions on different triggers.
Here are some simple snapshot usage examples:
- Storing a state for later reference
If you want to store the current harmonization for later reference, e.g. to compare the initial with an edited version of it, simply add a new snapshot for every stage of editing and simply compare them by clicking on the corresponding snapshots later on. You may also adjust different MIDI triggers for each snapshot to listen to them directly by pressing the corresponding keys on your MIDI keyboard.
- Playing different parts of the harmonization on different MIDI triggers
For each snapshot, you may set a different MIDI trigger note. If you intend to play different sections of the harmonization on different MIDI triggers, you can adjust the start and end markers for each snapshot you stored. Then, only the section between the markers is played on the trigger.
- Playing the same part with different harmonizations on different MIDI triggers
To be able to have different harmonizations for the same input (e.g. first and second chorus), store each harmonization as a snapshot and set different MIDI trigger notes for the snapshots (you can additionally use the start and end markers to constrict the section that is played by the MIDI trigger). Then, the section between the markers of the corresponding snapshot is played on the trigger.
Troubleshooting
- After successful installation, vielklang does not show up in the effects menu of my host. Why?
- Rendering and/or Freezing does not work. What is the problem?
There are two probable causes for this behavior:
- You are using the demo version. Rendering and Freezing is not supported in the unregistered version.
- You are in time synchronization mode. Many host will not render the output of an instrument if the instrument doesn't have an input. A simple workaround is to add a dummy MIDI note in the input MIDI track of the instrument, then it should work fine.
- Why is the input melody automatically modified?
You can see when the original input melody is modified because orange lines drawn by vielklang at the original pitches of the input melody.
vielklang does this automatically because the input pitch was not in the harmonization scale, and it just assumed that for proper harmonization, it should be quantized to the scale. You have the possibility to switch this automatic behaviour off by disabling the "Snap-Melody-To-Scale" option. You can find the button, marked with an "S", in the Harmonization Settings-window, right besides the Scale Selection.
If this option is turned off, the input melody pitches will remain unaltered.
- Why is there no MIDI-output with vielklang AU?
Due to technical limitations of the AudioUnit-Interface, vielklang AU is not able to provide MIDI-output. MIDI-out is available with the VST-format.
Educational Pricing
- How much money can I safe by purchasing the educational version?
- The educational version is discounted by 40%, meaning that you save more than $110!
- What are the requirements for purchase of the education version
- You will be required to send a valid copy of academic identification to us and wait for further instructions from us on how to proceed. We may need a few days to process and validate your identification, so please be patient.
contact:
email: mailto:support@vielklang.zplane.de
fax: +49-30-854.09.15.5
post: zplane.development, Katzbachstr. 21, D-10965 Berlin, Germany
- What are the restrictions in using the education version of vielklang?
- A customer may only purchase one copy of the product. It is not allowed to resale an education version.
- Who qualifies for the educational discount?
- Full or part time students, faculty, staff and employees of government-certified educational institutions qualify.
