TBO The Big One!

SampleTekk is proud to present TBO The Big One, the largest sampled piano in the world today!

The TBO The Big One

You want to talk about raw power and dynamics, ok lets do that: TBO has 93 unique samples/recorded notes. We are talking about 31 velocity layers pedal up, 31 pedal down and 31 release samples. Now why on earth does anyone want to produce a sampled piano of this size...?? Imagine playing a piano and only being allowed to hit keys with 8 different strengths. Hard to implement, but think of what that should do to your playing and inspiration. Think if the numbers of strength where limited to 4.or maybe if we go up to 12. Still, very frustrating for a pianist to hit a key ppp and still get note with pp timbre. Or going from ppp to fff in a crescendo and only get 5-6 transitions in between. We at SampleTekk believe that having many velocity samples/note is what makes a sampled piano realistic and inspiring to play. Our earlier pianos, Black Grand, White Grand, White Sister and Vertikal all has 16 layers pedal up and 16 pedal down, and to our knowledge, this is something that we are alone to have. But, now we set a new standard even to ourselves and give you a piano with 31 velocity

samples per note. That is 31 pedal down, 31 pedal up and 31 matching release samples. Besides great sound and almost seamless transitions when you go from soft to brutal, what does this mean to your playing? A piano is an incredibly versatile instrument! Just imagine, you can, on the same instrument, play everything from "Great Balls of Fire" to "Adagio Cantabile" and they both will come out great. The same instrument, the same location. This is possible due to a pianos incredible dynamic range. You can get so much out of a piano, just by playing it differently. Listen to the first TBO demo, then listen to the fourth. Now, compare the sound. Both demos where made using the same piano! Just by a different, softer playing, you can get a very different character out of TBO, just like you could on a real piano. This is what makes TBO unique!

Register!
All registered users of the TBO will get free updates on future releases. Only cost for the actual CDs, postage and handling will be charged. So please register.

How to register
Send a mail to register@sampletekk.com with your full name, place and date of purchase and the name of the product that you want to register. Simple as that!

A bit about SLH

When playing an acoustic instrument, theres a lot to do with velocity and timbre. Take a piano, not only do you get a louder tone when you strike a key harder, you also get a different timbre. The tone doesnt sound the same if you strike a key soft, hard or anywhere in between. This gives the acoustic instrument unparalleled ways of express yourself through dynamic playing. Since you can, technically, strike a note with infinite different velocities, you can, from one tone, again technically, get an infinite amount of different timbres. When sampling a piano, you cant sample an infinite amount of velocities since you have limitations in file size and what samplers can handle. So you have to limit yourself to a certain amount of samples per note, thus limiting the possibilities of expressive playing. In the old days ( 5 years ago), the big sampled pianos maybe had 2-4 different velocities per note, most maybe only had 1. But today, with better samplers, most serious sample producers have 6, 7 even up to 8 different velocities/note. This of course, increases the quality of the sample piano in a big way. More then 8 velocities per note are hard to record, since its very hard even for a trained player to consistently hit note after note with exactly the same strength. This is why we have developed SLH. SLH is a specially designed digital recording system that, among other things, allows us to record samples with an exactness that is unique. TBO has 31 unique samples/recorded note! Actually, it has 93, 31 for pedal up, 31 for pedal down and 31 separate release samples. This is what differs the TBO to other sampled pianos today, and this is what gives it its edge!

A Bit About Convoluting

Convoluting reverb is a type of reverb that works with actual impulses recorded from a certain room, hall or even instrument. Going into details how a convoluting reverb works is not the goal for this manual, so I wont do that. I just let you know that a convoluting reverb is a wonderful thing for sampled instruments. By recording impulses from the actual piano, you can add pedal down resonance and instrument resonance. Using these impulses then can emulate pedal down samples, thus eliminating half of the sample pool = improving

A Bit About Scripts in Kontakt 2

Kontakt 2 provides you with a unique way of handling how the samples/instrument should behave. Its called scripts, and if youre not a skilled programmer, you maybe shouldnt try to build one, but fortunately, there are many skilled programmers around that build scripts! One of the problems with sampled pianos has been that there are no way of emulation sympathetic resonance, you know, when you play a chord, with certain notes, you will get a resonance from the instrument that differs from the resonance you would get if you played another chord, with other notes. Well, for you Kontakt 2 users, this is no longer a problem! There are some great and talented programmers out there that make scripts for this and other stuff. Try out Kornels scripts, (http://music.mezo.com), where you can find scripts that are directly made for the TBO. You might also check out http://www.audiolivepro.com/ where you can find some great piano scripts.

FAQ
TBO takes ages to load
TBO is a extremely large sampled instrument. It takes a long time to load all samples. Nothing much to do about that! It it wasnt big, it wouldnt be TBO!

Velocity
No other sampled piano has so many velocity layers/samples as TBO, no one even comes close! TBO uses 93 different samples/recorded note. This is why TBO plays more like a real piano then any other sampled piano on the market today. You might need to adjust the velocity response on your MIDI keyboard to optimize your playing. Please consult the manual for your keyboard. Play and listen!

Installing TBO
Gigastudio Version
Just copy all files in the folders called TBO from Disc 1 to a folder of your choice on your harddisk. On the following discs you will find a folder called More TBO Files, copy the content in those folders to the TBO folder on your harddisk.

THE GIGAPULSE FILES

To get this baby working, you need to install the GigaPulse files. They are in the folder called, yes, "GigaPulse files"!!!! If you don't install these files, TBO will not function as it should.

Here's how it's done: Locate where you keep your Gigapulse files. (Open Gigastudio and choose "File". From the drop-down menu, choose "System setting...") Choose the tab "Gigapulse/Convoluting" and see what path is in the "Directory" textbox. Should be something like "D:\Tascam\GPulse\Common" This is the folder where you should put the following files: TBO PedalDown.fxb TBO Instrument Resonance.fxb TBO PedalDown.iis TBO Instrument Resonance.iis

HALion/Kontakt/EXS24 Version
On the first DVD you fill find a folder called TBO. Copy that to your harddisk. On the following DVDs you will find folders called More Samples. Copy the files within those folders to the folder Samples that are on your harddisk. In the folder TBO that you have copied there are several files. The files that ends with .nki is the Kontakt files, .exs the EXS24 files and .fxp the HALion files. You can delete the files that you dont need if you want.

Kontakt 2 users
The folder called SampleTekk TBO contains files that youll need to play TBO using the built in convoluting effect in Kontakt 2.. 1. Locate the folder where youve installed Kontakt 2 2. In that folder, you will find a folder called presets 3. Open that folder and click down to effects/convoluting 4. Its in the convoluting folder the SampleTekk TBO goes.

Playing TBO
Using TBO with Kontakt 1.5
Since TBO is VERY big, we had to divide it into several instruments for. For these patches, you need to load the .nkm files instead of the .nki files. The playable Kontakt files are in bold text. You CAN load any of the others, but you might just get pedal down samples ore something, not really playable
NOTE: You should NOT load the .nki files that has K2 in the name. These are for Kontakt 2 only.

TBO.nkm, loads TBO 1.nkm, loads TBO 2.nkm, loads

TBO PU.nki TBO PD.nki TBO Rel.nki TBO 1 PU.nki TBO 1 PD.nki TBO 1 Rel.nki TBO 2 PU.nki TBO 2 PD.nki TBO 2 Rel.nki TBO 3.nki TBO 4.nki

Loads TBO Start Patch Pedal Up Loads TBO Start Patch, Pedal Down Loads TBO Start Patch, Release Loads TBO Patch 1 Pedal Up Loads TBO Patch 1, Pedal Down Loads TBO Patch 1, Release Loads TBO Patch 2 Pedal Up Loads TBO Patch 2, Pedal Down Loads TBO Patch 2, Release Loads TBO Patch 3 Loads TBO Patch 4

Check further down for description of the patches!

Using TBO with Kontakt 2

Since TBO is VERY big, we had to divide it into several instruments for. For these patches, you need to load the .nkm files instead of the .nki files. Included with TBO are also impulse samples and programs to use together with Kontakt 2s convoluting reverb The playable Kontakt files are in bold text. You CAN load any of the others, but you might just get pedal down samples ore something, not really playable TBO K2 PU.nki TBO K2 PD.nki TBO K2 Rel.nki TBO K2 PUPDREL.nkm TBO K2 PU Conv PD + Res.nki TBO K2 PUPD Conv Res.nkm TBO K2 PUPDREL Conv Res.nkm TBO K2 1 PU.nki TBO K2 1 PD.nki TBO K2 1 Rel.nki TBO K2 1 PUPDREL.nkm TBO K2 1 PU Conv PD + Res.nki TBO K2 1 PUPD Conv Res.nkm TBO K2 1 PUPDREL Conv Res.nkm Loads TBO Start Patch Pedal Up Loads TBO Start Patch, Pedal Down Loads TBO Start Patch, Release Loads TBO Start Patch Pedal up, Down and Release Loads TBO Start Patch PU and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Start Patch (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Start Patch (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 1 Pedal Up Loads TBO Patch 1, Pedal Down Loads TBO Patch 1, Release Loads TBO Patch 1 Pedal up, Down and Release Loads TBO Patch 1 Pedal Up and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 1 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 1 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 2 Pedal Up Loads TBO Patch 2, Pedal Down Loads TBO Patch 2, Release Loads TBO Patch 2 Pedal up, Down and Release Loads TBO Patch 2 Pedal Up and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance

TBO K2 2 PU.nki TBO K2 2 PD.nki TBO K2 2 Rel.nki TBO K2 2 PUPDREL.nkm TBO K2 2 PU Conv PD + Res.nki

TBO K2 2 PUPD Conv Res.nkm TBO K2 2 PUPDREL Conv Res.nkm TBO K2 3.nki TBO K2 3 PU Conv PD + Res.nki TBO K2 3 PUPD Conv Res.nki TBO K2 3 PUPDREL Conv Res.nki TBO K2 4.nki TBO K2 4 PU Conv PD + Res.nki TBO K2 4 PUPD Conv Res.nki TBO K2 4 PUPDREL Conv Res.nki

Loads TBO Patch 2 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 2 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 3 Loads TBO Patch 3 (Pedal Up only) and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 3 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 3 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 4 Loads TBO Patch 4 (Pedal Up only) and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 4 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 4 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance

Check further down for description of the patches!

Using TBO with HALion 2 & 3

IMPORTANT: TBO is a VERY big piano and has EXTREMELY many samples. Ok, we all know that HALion can stream from hardisk, but all disk streaming samplers always load a portion of each sample into RAM. Many samples = lot of RAM. Please set the parameter Preload into RAM low. Absolutely not over one second. If you set it too high, you will use up all RAM while loading TBO. The HALion files are the ones that ends with .fxp. Otherwise, not much to say, really. HALion 2.x users, use the files that hasnt H3 in the name. HALion 3.x users, use the files that have H3 in the name. Load up, play away! Check further down for description of the patches!

Using TBO with EXS24 MkII

The EXS24 files are the ones that ends with .exs.. TBO is a big instrument. In fact, its so big that it doesnt fit into one single EXS24 instrument, (well, one of the patches, TBO 4 does!). In fact, TBO, TBO 1 and TBO 2 had to be divided into three separate instruments. One for pedal up, one for pedal down and one for

the release samples. TBO 3 is divided into two instruments, one for pedal up and release and one for pedal down. TBO 4 is one single instrument. To be able to play it properly, you need to load the different TBO instruments into different instances of EXS24 and then make a instrument in your environment, naming it TBO, (or whatever you want), and then connecting it to the different instances of EXS24: In arrange you just select and play that single TBO instrument as it was a single instrument.

Heres how it should look! Here is a small table telling you how to load the different TBO patches in EXS24: Patch TBO TBO 1 Needs: TBO PU.exs TBO PD.exs TBO Rel.exs TBO 1 PU.exs TBO 1 PD.exs TBO 1 Rel.exs TBO 2 PU.exs Create: Three different instances of EXS24 Three different instances of EXS24 Three different

TBO 2 TBO 3 TBO 3

TBO 2 PD.exs TBO 2 Rel.exs TBO 3 PUREL.exs TBO 3 PD.exs TBO 3.exs

instances of EXS24 Two different instances of EXS24 One instance of EXS24

Check further down for description of the patches!

Using TBO with Gigastudio 3

TBO was recorded both with pedal down and pedal up, release samples where also recorded. Special impulses where recorded to be used with GigaPulse to emulate Pedal Down and give you instrument resonance. You should use the .gsi files when loading the TBO into GS3! Ill say it again: You should use the .gsi files when loading the TBO into GS3! There, now Ive said it twice. The reason why you should do this is because the .gsi files have been prepared to load the correct combination of impulses and .gig files. You CAN load the .gig files, I mean, nothing will break, but TBO might not work like it should. Here's what the different gsi files do: TBO.gsi TBO PU Conv PD + Res.gsi TBO PUPD Conv Res.gsi TBO PUPDREL Conv Res.gsi TBO 1.gsi TBO 1 PU Conv PD + Res.gsi TBO 1 PUPD Conv Res.gsi TBO 1 PUPDREL Conv Res.gsi TBO 2.gsi Loads TBO Start Patch Pedal up, Down and Release Loads TBO Start Patch PU and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Start Patch (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Start Patch (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 1 Pedal up, Down and Release Loads TBO Patch 1 Pedal Up and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 1 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 1 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 2 Pedal up, Down and Release

TBO 2 PU Conv PD + Res.gsi TBO 2 PUPD Conv Res.gsi TBO 2 PUPDREL Conv Res.gsi TBO 3.gsi TBO 3 PU Conv PD + Res.gsi TBO 3 PUPD Conv Res.gsi TBO 3 PUPDREL Conv Res.gsi TBO 4.gsi TBO 4 PU Conv PD + Res.gsi TBO 4 PUPD Conv Res.gsi TBO 4 PUPDREL Conv Res.gsi

Loads TBO Patch 2 Pedal Up and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 2 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 2 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 3 Loads TBO Patch 3 (Pedal Up only) and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 3 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 3 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 4 Loads TBO Patch 4 (Pedal Up only) and uses convoluting to emulate pedal down & instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 4 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down only) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance Loads TBO Patch 4 (Pedal Up, Pedal Down and Release) and uses convoluting to emulate instrument resonance

Check further down for description of the patches!

Patches
TBO All 31 velocities evenly distributed over the range. Use this one for experimenting with new patches. TBO 1 All 31 velocities included, but the top levels, where keys are hit extremely hard are placed at the very top of the velocity spectra. TBO 2 The top, extreme velocity layers are removed leaving only 28 layers. Since the top three layers comes from hitting keys really, and I mean REALLY hard, you might not want to reach those ever TBO 3 Economy patch. Uses 16 velocity layers TBO 4 Economy patch. Uses 8 velocity layers

System Requirements
PC P4 3GHz with 2 Gb of RAM or similar Mac DVD reader One of the following samplers: Gigastudio 3, Kontakt 1.5/2, HALion 2/3, EXS24 MkII v.7

Eating & Sleeping

Please remember to eat & sleep! Playing TBO can be highly addictive. Have Fun! Worra