Expressive E Soliste

Expressive E’s trademark physical modelling paired with MPE control delivers an extremely playable instrument.

With the French company Expressive E, the clue is most definitely in the name. These days they may be best known for the Osmose, their groundbreaking MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) synth and controller keyboard, but they develop virtual instruments too and Soliste is the latest. It’s a suite of modelled solo string instruments — violin, viola, cello and double bass — that run in recent versions of macOS or Windows as VST2, VST3 or Audio Unit plug‑ins, with three activations possible via a virtual or hardware iLok. And it’s definitely built with real‑time expressivity in mind.

Acoustically modelled instruments typically promise greater versatility and a more involved playing experience than their sample‑based counterparts, and are often magnitudes smaller in installation size. It’s an especially attractive concept for a virtual bowed string instrument; in a solo guise they’ve always been notoriously difficult to deliver in sampled form. On top of that Soliste has enhanced compatibility with specialised MIDI controllers: the Osmose first and foremost, and also Expressive E’s standalone gesture controller, Touché. But it will work with other MPE controllers and even quite basic non‑MPE keyboards too.

Fired up in your computer, all the separate Soliste instruments present with identical controls in clean, modern‑looking, three‑way resizeable windows. They’re designed to give musical results straight off the bat, but there’s some considerable sound‑design depth available should you want to explore it.

Open Strings

A Soliste plug‑in window presents three main control areas. In the middle, below the big graphic depiction of the instrument, you get to choose a timbre characteristic based on a notional ‘resonant body’ material. VLN.356, Soliste’s violin, offers a choice of six: Spark, Hollow, Sleek, Antique, Lyric and Mellow. As you step through them the large instrument graphic changes colour and texture, so if you fancy trying a Mellow yellow and white violin, or a Hollow one made of cork, it’s there. The other instruments offer either four or five materials, incidentally.

To the left are a few controls relating to pitch, and particularly vibrato. Assisted vibrato will do a pitch wobble for you, with variable amplitude, frequency and fade‑in time. If you use your pitch‑bend wheel, or a key‑generated bend from an MPE controller, that’s taken into account too, adding to the effect. You can also turn the whole thing off, for completely manual control and sleek non‑vibrato tones.

Then, to the right, appropriately, are controls relating to the bow, and thus the actuation and excitement of the virtual strings. To dig in with this aspect of the plug‑in you’ll want to click the ‘more’ button, which opens up a page‑full of parameters. Pitch also gets a ‘more’ page, offering deeper, more finessed control of the auto‑vibrato (especially in its sensitivity to MPE pressure, aftertouch, and configurable MIDI CC messages). There’s also a portamento section there, that’s compatible with the Osmose’s see‑saw Pressure Glide feature, or can introduce inter‑note swoops based on key velocity thresholds.

The musical effect often tends towards sweet and impassioned, and it’s easy to create lines that surge and recede in much the same way that a real violinist achieves.

Jumping straight in, using an Osmose as the MIDI controller, and using the default Classic Mode preset, a freshly instantiated Soliste instrument delivers impressive expressivity with essentially zero effort. Typical MPE behaviour is to the fore: sounds can creep in, triggered by slow and shallow key‑touches, but then swell and intensify radically as you press deep into the aftertouch. Play legato and the melodic line is sewn together with brief but complex transitions; in particular, wide jumps down to a lower note sometimes take a moment to settle, and for the fundamental harmonic to fully emerge. Key‑actuated vibrato and bends also sound complex and natural. Strike faster, or play with a detached touch, and attacks become crisper. The musical effect often tends towards sweet and impassioned, and it’s easy to...