SHARINE User's Guide

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Table of contents

1. Welcome 3

2. The Pre-Roll 3 2.1. What's the pre-roll? 3 2.2. Why is it an issue? 4 2.3. What has been done so far? 4 2.4. How does Sharine work? 4 2.5. Practical examples 5

3. GUI 6 3.1. Main 6 3.2. Mixer 7 3.3. Sequencer 8 3.4. Info 9

4. Tips, tricks and how-to's 9 4.1. Sync issues when looping 9 4.2. General tips and tricks 10

5. Final words and Credits 10

6. EULA (End User License Agreement) 11                                                            

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1. Welcome  Sharine is a sample library for Kontakt 4.2.4 or later based on shakers and tambourines. Recorded at Sonoteque Studios, the same recording facilities as Suspended Cymbals, Demonic Virtuoso and Drum Circle. This library implements a wide variety of shakers and tambourines with different tonal characteristics for maximum versatility combined with a pioneer script that retains the pre-roll of each sample and still makes them sound in sync with your tempo. Includes 3 controllable microphone positions, individual volume, pan and pitch for each instrument, and an advanced sequencer. Sharine is the result of months of work, testing, trial-error with the aim to fix an issue that has been present since the beginning of midi-based instruments: the impossibility to trigger notes in advance instruments that have some amount of pre-roll (also called pre-shift), like tambourines and shakers. If features these instruments: - Big plastic shaker. - Cone shaker. - Metal shaker. - One-shot shaker. - Skin shaker. - Small plastic shaker. - Tiny metal shaker. - Wooden shaker. - Wooden tambourine. - Modern Tambourine. - Old Tambourine. - Stick tambourine. 2. The Pre-Roll 2.1 What's the pre-roll? Midi instruments, like a midi keyboard, generate notes which contain certain information: note number, note velocity and type of note (note on, note off). If you record a track using a drum library, there is no problem as the main transient of the drums is right at the beginning of the audio file. A midi note is received and the file is played. The player doesn't have the sensation of a delay because of the fast transient. It's not the same for tambourines and shakers. Imagine a shaker in slow motion going from one direction to another. Inside the shaker there are many tiny bouncing balls. The main transient of the shaker consists on the majority of those balls hitting one side of the shaker internally. But, while the hand is moving through the air, some of the balls are already hitting some part of the shaker, which create sound too. That sound is called "pre-roll" or "pre-shift". The next pictures show a snare sample and a shaker sample. See how the snare transient is located right at the beginning of the file while the shaker one has a big pre-roll.

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2.2 Why is it an issue? Because there is a delay between the midi note and the transient of the file. That results in your pattern not being in sync. 2.3 What has been done so far? The vast majority of sample developers haven't addressed this issue. Users had to manually anticipate the midi notes in their DAW, having in mind that the pre-roll time is slightly different for every sample, this was obviously not a good solution. Some sample developers tried to fix it by implementing a sample start offset. That means directly getting rid of the pre-roll. It sounds in sync, yes, but not realistically.

Another problem of this technique is that you can only set one global offset of X milliseconds for all the samples, but there aren't two identical hits, every pre roll is different. 2.4 How does Sharine work? Sharine uses a sequencer and, that way, it knows exactly what notes are coming in order to anticipate them. But wait, there's more. It doesn't simply add a fixed "delay compensation" of X amount of milliseconds, because as you know, each sample is different. Sharine knows exactly the time that has to anticipate each sample individually. For the techies, it has large arrays of values of milliseconds from the start of the file to the main transient, it retrieves these values and does the math per each sample. The sample start technique is very popular also in loop libraries, and it certainly has a distinctive sound to it, specially used in EDM. That's why Sharine also offers a regular sample start offset option that goes a little further. Since the library knows the amount of time that it has to wait, it can also know the exact amount of time that it has to offset the sample to get directly to the main transient. More on this later.

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2.5 Practical examples 1. No fix, samples as they were recorded (majority of shaker/tambourine libraries). The needle is placed at the third beat of the 4th measure, that's where the transient should be.

2. Sample start offset. The transient is there but look how the shape of the waveform has been completely transformed, that's not how a shaker should sound like.

3. This is what Sharine does. See how the transient is perfectly placed on the bar, being anticipated just the right amount of time.

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3. GUI The interface has been designed with the goal of being attractive, simple and powerful, offering easily accessible features that will dramatically affect the sound and response of the instrument. Although it may seem easy, please read carefully this documentation in order to get the most out of the library. 3.1 Main

This is the main view. Here you can see a studio shot of a table containing all the instruments available. In the upper row there are the shakers and in the lower one there are the tambourines. You can play any number of instruments at a time, for that there is the load/purge function controlled by the individual spot lights above each piece. By clicking on each one you'll activate or deactivate the corresponding samples, loading or purging RAM in order to save memory. There are the big buttons named "Mixer", "Sequencer" and the quotation that takes us to the "Info" panel. If you Alt+Click on any of the instruments a sub-window will appear containing three knobs: Volume, Pan and Pitch. These will only affect the current instrument you clicked on. This way you can place different elements in the stereo field, match volumes or change pitch individually without affecting the instrument as a whole. To close simply Alt+Click again on the element or click the "x" on the window.

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3.2 Mixer

Sharine was recorded with 3 mic positions: close, mid and far. The close position was a mono mic, mid and far positions were recorded in stereo, mid being a spaced pair at 3 meters from the instruments and "far" being a binaural dummy head placed at 6 meters. Here you can purge/load the individual microphones, control their volume, pan on the close position, width on the mid and far positions, and select a different output per channel. The width works this way: Fully turned to the right is hard pan L/R. As you gradually go to the center point the stereo field gets narrower until it reaches the middle position which is mono. If you begin to turn the knob to the left, the stereo will begin to be gradually wider again but it will be flipped, meaning that the right channel is now on the left channel and viceversa. Use the output selector if you want to mix the different channels in your DAW directly. You will first have to set up the internal Kontakt output channels and use the Kontakt (16x mono) version.

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3.3 Sequencer

This is where it gets serious. Important: the pre-roll script only works when using the sequencer, it doesn't work for multi-samples or live playing. In the upper section of the window you can see the sequencer, where all the magic happens. It's a bipolar table, meaning that you can set both directions of the stroke:

- Positive bar: for the shaker means that the hand goes forward. For the tambourine means that the hand goes to the left.

- Negative bar: for the shaker means that the hand goes backwards. For the tambourine means that the hand goes to the right.

- Full bar: accent on both shaker and tambourines, can be both positive or negative. If you hit the "Record Pattern" button the sequencer will be emptied and you'll be able to play your own pattern using the blue keys:

- C3: positive bar. - D3: negative bar. - E3: accent.

The pattern that you just created will be stored in the active preset (see the Presets knob). If you want to delete it you can either record it again, paint the notes by hand or Alt+Click on the table to reset it to the default state. In the lower section of the window you can see these controls. Remember that these can't be changed on the fly. Is always good to tweak them while the instrument is not playing:

- Pre Roll: if set to Off, Sharine will not anticipate the notes. If set to On, the pre-roll script will take effect.

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- S Offset: Sample start offset in milliseconds. Can't be used in conjunction with Pre-Roll, is either one technique or the other. You can set it to a fixed amount of time or turn it fully to the right to set it to the "auto" mode. This setting will offset each sample at the right time so each one begins right at the main transient.

- Swing: bring swing feel to the patterns. - Presets: Sharine comes with 7 predefined patterns (green keys) for if you want to

have different patterns in the same track. It is intended to be used with the green keys only.

- Steps: sets the amount of steps of the sequencer. - Tempo: choose between 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16.

3.4 Info

This window is a mapping guide for quick reference.

- Patterns/Presets are mapped to the green keys. - Multi-samples are mapped to the blue keys. - Rolls are mapped to the red keys. - Tambourines played with sticks are mapped to the yellow keys.

4. Tips, tricks and how-to's 4.1 Sync issues when looping When you have a loop inside your DAW with a midi note triggering a preset pattern repeating over and over, that note starts at the very beginning and finishes at the very end. The problem here is that, as Sharine advances the notes some amount of time, when it arrives at the end of the loop the first note has already been triggered. When the loop begins again triggers the same note, which is not good.

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The workaround for this is having the midi notes a bit shorter than the loop as shown in the picture:

4.1 General tips and tricks Alt+Click on any control to reset it to the default position. You can see the value of each control in the messages bar while tweaking them.

5. Final words and Credits Thank you so much for purchasing Sharine. I hope you like the library and it becomes your go-to shaker/tambourine library from now on. Produced by: Wavesfactory Recording engineer: Miquel Llinàs. Assistant engineer: Tolo Prats Shakers: Meinl, LP. Tambourines: LP, Meinl, Stack. Design: Jesús Ginard Editing: Jesús Ginard Programming: Jesús Ginard KSP Programming: Jesús Ginard Website: https://www.wavesfactory.com/sharine

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6. End User License Agreement

§ Preamble: This Agreement governs the relationship between a user or Business Entity, (hereinafter: Licensee) and Wavesfactory, a duly registered company in whose principal place of business is C/ Llorenç Villalonga, 10, 2A. 07570 Arta (Spain) (hereinafter: Licensor). This Agreement sets the terms, rights, restrictions and obligations on using products (hereinafter: The Software) created and owned by Licensor, as detailed herein. This Agreement is effective from the moment that any product is installed by any means and will remain in full effect until termination.

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not violate or infringe any 3rd party claims in regards to intellectual property, patents and/or trademarks and that to the best of its knowledge no legal action has been taken against it for any infringement or violation of any 3rd party intellectual property rights.

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