Verdict on Tension

[basetwo]

It won't compete with the real world timbre of a nice string instrument, in fact the resonance nodes are quite pronounced in a way that a cheapo Chinese violin factory wouldn't allow.

LOL. I'm not really expecting it to sound close, but I am interested in the technology that's trying to get us there. Ever since I heard that speech synthesis was trying to model the mouth, throat and vocal chords I've been intrigued in the process and the gains made.

It does sound good in it's own right.

[leedsquietman]

I actually find the strings sounds are really good, especially if you blend them in with sampled strings, can make a pretty huge sound.

I don't find it effective for guitars (what is? Sampled guitars suck too), bass is variable from poor to fair, but it does decent sounding harps and oriental plucked strings and such.

[dredd i knight]

I did this little tune a while back using 4 instances of Tension and 3 patches that I made before the presets were available.

thanks for that its gives me a great indication of where one could go with it.
cool tune too!
i was starting to think i might give tension a miss, but the votes looking pretty much in its favour as long as i dont think i'll be getting "real" sounding guitars and basses, and since i've got those (well bass at least) covered, i can feel myself being perusaded to get it.
the otherworldly soundscape potential is kinda attractive in its own right.

[Pasha]

It won't compete with the real world timbre of a nice string instrument, in fact the resonance nodes are quite pronounced in a way that a cheapo Chinese violin factory wouldn't allow.

LOL. I'm not really expecting it to sound close, but I am interested in the technology that's trying to get us there. Ever since I heard that speech synthesis was trying to model the mouth, throat and vocal chords I've been intrigued in the process and the gains made.

It does sound good in it's own right.

Technology already gave us good pianos that can stand the real instrument,
like PianoTeq or Truepianos (a google search will bring you to the demos).
I was initially not impressed by how guitars and basses generated by tension sound different from their real counterparts. After some testing I discovered how sensitive to velocity Tension is and I slightly modified my keyboard dynamics using the corresponding Live MIDI effect. It's now better and closer to the real instrument, especially in a Mix.