My first recording with Symphonic Instrument

lamboguy · Post by **lamboguy** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 10:12 pm

http://www.playerviolin.com/mp3/prokofiev_sym1.mp3

I'd love some comments, this is my first attempt at doing anything with DP4.6 and SI. I'm using a MacMini and to save processing power the reverb is a Roland SRV-2000.

Enjoy!

Fred

PS: I think I need to boost the bassoon a tad...

alexff · Post by **alexff** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 7:38 am

Amazing. 'Nuff said. Great skill in composition, great use of the MSI.

You've set the bar mate!

It would be great if we had a thread (sticky) where users could post efforts..

RCory · Post by **RCory** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:25 am

Very nice!

Is it in Mono?

C

papageno · Post by **papageno** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:01 am

alexff wrote:Great skill in composition
You've set the bar mate!

If you want to say this to the composer himself you need to get in touch with the spiritual world.

About Prokofiev you can read here
http://www.prokofiev.org/

lamboguy · Post by **lamboguy** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:04 am

Thanks for the kind words! And I guess I forgot to pan anything, so I need to go back and make it stereo -- ooops

I'll try it again.

Cheers,

Fred

alexff · Post by **alexff** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:49 am

papageno wrote:
alexff wrote:Great skill in composition
You've set the bar mate!

If you want to say this to the composer himself you need to get in touch with the spiritual world.

About Prokofiev you can read here
http://www.prokofiev.org/

I see! Good effort anyhow Fred. It's a pity your Mac Mini can't deal with the convolution reverb...

Spikey Horse · Post by **Spikey Horse** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:17 pm

Very tasty

How did you arrange it? - I mean, did you play in the parts from sheet music or write MIDI manually and tweak it, or a bit of both?

And how long did it take?

I keep meaning to do projects like this - ie a fairly complex simulation of someone else's work (using another orchestral sample set - I don't have MSI) just as an excersise to improve my music reading/writing skills (very slow!!) and my 'realism skills' for these kinds of sample based orchestras. I must find the time to have a go!

Obviously it doesn't sound very real - and that is a criticism I'd put at most simulations, VSL included, so no offence meant

- it does sound lively, expressive and pretty 'cohesive' which is what really matters.

Woud be great to hear it spread out, not just L and R but front/ back too, to give sense of a real orchestral layout. Some more dynamics would be good too - does this piece have much percussion? Maybe not, but I'd still like to hear some in places !

Although with this mono version with the rather thin MSI sound it gives it an almost vintage quality - maybe you should just add some crackle, hiss and needle noise....

BTW what is it? It sounds like ballet music but it's not from any Prokofiev ballet I know...

lamboguy · Post by **lamboguy** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:19 pm

papageno wrote:
alexff wrote:Great skill in composition
You've set the bar mate!

If you want to say this to the composer himself you need to get in touch with the spiritual world.

About Prokofiev you can read here
http://www.prokofiev.org/

Oh my yes!! And he was just 25 or so when he wrote that first mvt of his first sym. Just amazing -- up there with Mozart.

Cheers,

Fred

lamboguy · Post by **lamboguy** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:36 pm

Spikey Horse wrote:Very tasty

How did you arrange it? - I mean, did you play in the parts from sheet music or write MIDI manually and tweak it, or a bit of both?

And how long did it take?

.

I played it from the score, line by line. Actually, played it for piano (with a piano patch) -- it would have gone a lot faster if I had played it for the MI instruments. Kinda had to tweek all the lines to make them work for MI.

My playing isn't all that great...even though I did my senior recital on piano that was a long time ago! So I used a quantize of about 50% on most of the parts. Heck, even needed it for the whole notes. ;^D

Some of the tricky passages I played at 1/2 speed...

I'm glad to hear somebody say it doesn't sound real -- I mean, let's keep things honest. But, I think there are times when it sort of drifts in and out of sounding real. I mean, especially for the "couple of hundred bucks" that SI costs, it's pretty amazing. There are some great sounds in there.

I really do think it's good enough to give a good picture of what the piece is supposed to sound like, which is a lot better than 20 years ago. I had a pretty expensive home studio back then and I can hardly listen to that stuff today -- the sampling has come a long, long way. And it's just so much cheaper now, it's hard to believe.

My studio back then was maybe $50k -- and now this setup cost me about $1500 and sounds way better.

Nice progress!

Cheers,

Fred

lamboguy · Post by **lamboguy** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:41 pm

ok, did a stereo pan using the orchestra "picture" in the MI manual, fixed a few notes, boosted a few things here and there, and here's take 2 of Prokofiev's sym #1 first mvt:

http://www.playerviolin.com/mp3/Prokofiev_Sym1_tk2.mp3

Didn't do any work on dynamics or tempos...

Cheers,

Fred

baton999 · Post by **baton999** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:30 pm

Hi- Very nice job on the 1st movement. The stereo helps alot. However, in my opinion (and opinions are all subjective!), I get better sounds on everything except strings from my Kurzweil 2500R. Being a pops symphony conductor, I'm really picky, though. What I'm missing in this example are really good horns, bright brass, decent timp and rolls, wws that sound more "woody." Also, to my ear there's a tad too much reverb. However, for the money spent, this is a good example and a truly great effort.

And, yes, playing the score into your MIDI setup using the actual instruments really is the way to go.

Bo

lamboguy · Post by **lamboguy** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 9:15 am

Thanks Bo, excellent input.

I'd love to hear the Kurzweil 2500R, I've really been out of the loop with all this since the late 80s. I'm still using my Kurzweil 1000PX Grand Piano sound for the vast majority of my composing -- it's a good, simple setup that allows me to actually get work done instead of spending days on various MIDI problems.

Don't take my use of SI too seriously, I just opened the wrapping and assigned a few sounds. There are probably better ways of doing this, and like we both agree on it'd be better if I actually played the samples in instead of first "scoring" for piano and then just assigning sounds.

I'm getting more into it now and creating passages by playing the actual samples. It's getting better and better, but -- I'm also getting into that strange world where the sounds are "always similar" -- because, of course, they are the same samples used over and over.

I think the next big step with all this will be literally 1000s of different samples for each instrument instead of a few, and computers that can intelligently create diverse lines as you play. It's the sameness that is a problem at this point.

That's better than back in the 80s when the stuff just didn't sound good. I have to say, the SI library sounds good -- especially for the money.

But something has to come along to take it to the next level. Physical Modelling? Probably a combination of a bunch of things, combined with much faster computers and much more storage.

Anyway -- WE'RE GETTING THERE!

Thanks again,

Fred

Psalms98_4 · Post by **Psalms98_4** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:22 am

lamboguy wrote:http://www.playerviolin.com/mp3/prokofiev_sym1.mp3

I'd love some comments, this is my first attempt at doing anything with DP4.6 and SI. I'm using a MacMini and to save processing power the reverb is a Roland SRV-2000.

Enjoy!

Fred

PS: I think I need to boost the bassoon a tad...

I just listened to the song that you did with DP and SI. I'm blown away! Awesome work!! MOTU should put you on the payroll. You're the best advertisement SI could have. Great job! I hope to hear more of your work!

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:15 pm

Great use of MSI! I really enjoyed listening to that.

I recently picked up MSI. I feel like the Violins and Violas sound a little bit crunchy, like 8-bit samples or maybe a little distorted. Others have said the same thing. Then I listen to your song and just like the MOTU demos on their web site, everything sounds perfect. There must be something that some of us are overlooking.. Possibly using the "raw" Violin and Viola samples is incorrect and we need to play with dynamics. Or maybe I'm being way overly critical and that's how a violin really does sound!

Anyway, fantastic piece!

excatcher · Post by **excatcher** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:27 pm

Nice work, Fred. I had no idea that SI could sound this good. Mine doesn't. How'd you do that? I was surprised to read that you entered everything using a piano patch only; it doesn't sound it. I think you'll love actually entering the parts using the intended instrument(s). I'm with you all the way on your observation that, though the sounds aren't all aces, it's a gas to create and hear back orchestral works in this palette.

Elliott

in

lamboguy wrote:http://www.playerviolin.com/mp3/prokofiev_sym1.mp3

I'd love some comments, this is my first attempt at doing anything with DP4.6 and SI. I'm using a MacMini and to save processing power the reverb is a Roland SRV-2000.

Enjoy!

Fred

PS: I think I need to boost the bassoon a tad...

MOTUnation.com

My first recording with Symphonic Instrument

My first recording with Symphonic Instrument

Re: My first recording with Symphonic Instrument

Re: My first recording with Symphonic Instrument