Wallander Instruments WIVI v2 (PC/ MAC)

This virtual brass and woodwind system has been upgraded, so we take up a listener's position and judge the performance

This is an update to the synthesised brass software we reviewed back in cm117, giving it a respectable 7/10 at the time. In addition to the 12 orchestral brass instruments (three trumpets, three trombones, four horns, two tubas), we now have a range of woodwinds in three packs; the basic set (several examples each of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons), extended woodwinds (piccolo, bass clarinet, etc) and more exotic varieties (oboe d'amore, bass flute, etc). Only traditional orchestral instruments are included, so you'll find no saxophones, cornets, flugelhorns or euphoniums.

The sound engine has an installer but each instrument is simply copied onto your hard drive - there's no messing around with dongles or challenge codes. The interface doesn't have a built-in help file and there is no supplied manual. You can double-click features to get a brief description, butthe only serious guidance you're going to get is the comprehensive documentation on the Wallander website. Understanding is quickly reached, however, and basic operation of the app isn't complicated.

Once loaded into your VST/AU host, the WIVI Universal Player (included with each set of instruments) appears as a stage upon which may be positioned a virtually unlimited number of instruments. The latter, the auditorium walls and listener may be re-positioned to your liking, which has an audible, if subtle, effect on the acoustics. Version 2 gives even more venue possibilities, and these may be considerably adjusted in the leftmost panel, as may the details of how each instrument sounds and responds to MIDI in the right. Instruments can be tweaked using conventional mutes (for brass) or rather less conventional formant shifting to create otherworldly sonorities.

The screen grab above shows a French horn and bass clarinet in a church acoustic setting with the listener a moderate distance away and this combination is used in the sound file on the DVD, firstly solo and then embedded in a Reason string texture. This is followed immediately by the same passage played with Reason's Orkester instruments alone for comparison.

Virtually there?
Wallander's offering is a good one, and certainly well up there in terms of creating realistic instruments. The problem remains of inputting notes, especially for expressive sustaining passages, from a keyboard that is intrinsically unable to output appropriate data. Ideally, parts should be played in with a MIDI wind controller, but these require nearly as much expertise as a real-world wind or brass instrument. Let's be realistic, though: the gap between a Wallander Instruments performance and a real one is small enough that perhaps only experienced real-world arrangers would notice it, especially when it's mixed down in a track. This leaves only the question of price: this is quality software and the price reflects this.

Web: www.wallanderinstruments.com
Info: Brass, €449; Extended Woodwind €219; Basic Woodwind, €299; Exotic Woodwind, €219
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Control yourself, please
Playing a wind or brass instrument is difficult. It takes years to learn to master minute gradations of control over lip and air, especially when it comes to the many ways of connecting notes. Players are able to shape sounds from the raucous to the demure, but achieving the same level of expressiveness using a traditional MIDI keyboard is almost impossible.

Wallander strongly encourage you to use a breath controller if you have one to hand, which gives more expressive volume and timbre and will set you back around £50. Failing this, you can do a fairly good job by re-mapping essential parameters to some other MIDI controls, such as the modulation wheel, which will then adjust both volume and timbre simultaneously.

If your technique at the keyboard does not permit an expressive real-time input then you may have to resort to drawing in automatic control curves.
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System requirements
(PC) P4/Athlon 64,256MB RAM,
290MB drive space, VST 2.4 host

(MAC) G4/lntel Mac. 256MB RAM.
290MB hard drive space, VST/AU host

Test system
(PC) Core 2 Duo 1.86GHZ, 1 Windows XP SP2, Live 7, Sibelius 5

Alternatively
Synful Orchestra cm91» 7/10 » £426
Modelled orchestra, with strings as well as brass and woodwinds

Garritan Personal Orchestra cm76»9/10»£97
Garritan also offer marching band and big band libraries

Verdict
FOR
- Flexible
- Sensible learning curve
- Brass sounds are good
- Modest system requirements

AGAINST
- The price!
- Woodwind sounds are less convincing
- No PDF pr paper manual
- Mixed results

WIVI v2 is a sound improvement on the first version, and is a flexible alternative to hard drive-munching ROMplers

MARK: 7/10

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