Live Orchestra vs. Midi

[ernstinen]

Thanks for your kind comments guys!Quote:Amazing, Ern.You were supposed to teach me how to do that.I'm working on an electric guitar concerto --- better start woodshedding, Drew! Ern

[rtucker]

very nice

[ncc1701]

I just got around to listening to this. So nice!To my ear as a woodwind player, MIDI's still got a ways to go as far as being able to capture the articulations and phrasing of wind instruments, particularly the oboe and flute.But your MIDI strings are quite fabulous. And it's so encouraging that someone is actually making some income off classical pieces! It makes me want to shelve all my attempts at cracking the pop/rock market and write the next great American symphony.Oh wait - you probably already have. Kathleen

[rfrey]

Ern,This is fantastic! I have just started to open the door to orchestral arrangements and am excited and frightened by it. I submitted one of my pieces to a listing and it was rejected due to production (yeah, I faked an orchestra sorry. So I was motivated to dig into this further and see if I can fix it. Can you give any advice as far as resources (books, Web sites, etc) for someone who is just digging into doing orchestral compositions using a DAW? I'm a Cakewalk Sonar user myself. Thanks for the inspiration. Your music is amazing!Rich

[davewalton]

Quote:Ern,This is fantastic! I have just started to open the door to orchestral arrangements and am excited and frightened by it. I submitted one of my pieces to a listing and it was rejected due to production (yeah, I faked an orchestra sorry. So I was motivated to dig into this further and see if I can fix it. Can you give any advice as far as resources (books, Web sites, etc) for someone who is just digging into doing orchestral compositions using a DAW? I'm a Cakewalk Sonar user myself. Thanks for the inspiration. Your music is amazing!RichThe concept of being able to do convincing orchestral tracks from one's living room is kind of frighteningly exciting. Just some quick thoughts in general. First and most important, I think, is to make sure you have a quality orchestral virtual instrument package. There's only so much you can do with Garritan Personal Orchestra or even EWQL Silver, although Silver can take anyone pretty far. I started with Silver and I did a lot with it. For a small package with limited articulations, it sounds great.I don't know about the other packages so those that use those should chime in. For this moment in time, I've settled on EWQL Gold and also added the Gold Expanded package. It's now called "The Gold Bundle" and at $495, it's one of the best bangs for the buck. With something similar in quality to The Gold Bundle, then it's just a matter of getting used to deciding which articulation(s) to use for various things. I'm not an "orchestra guy" so I had to do a little experimentation as I figured out things that other composers already knew... when to use martele in the strings or even what a French Horn rip was.I also use Sonar, so after the items above, the last thing was to draw my expression graphs in the various tracks so that the "orchestra" and various sections had life and breath. Well, sort of.That's the 30,000 foot overview. Please feel free to ask about specifics. I had several good people take the time to answer my questions on this issue only a couple of years ago and I learned a lot, but only because I didn't mind asking. Dave

[ernstinen]

Hi Rich (and Dave! ),Dave knows what he's talking about. I started about 10 years ago with a Proteus 2, then got into GigaStudio and began acquiring instrument libraries that played in that format. There were some free and inexpensive libraries that still sound remarkably good (G-town percussion, Sam Horns) and a few that were affordable (Dan Dean Woodwinds, Quantum Leap Brass etc.). But the tough one was strings. Garritan Orchestral Strings were popular (as well as libraries that cost a lot more), but when GOS "Lite" came out, I went for that.But I still wasn't getting that BIG sound, so after "Elegy" I settled on EWQLSO Gold, as Dave has mentioned. The Emerald version combines the "dry" Silver and the "ambient" Gold sounds, but is so expensive I didn't even consider it.Gold runs on Kontakt, so I now have a computer that can handle Gold. Some guys who score films like Hans Zimmer are running 20+ computers at the same time, but I'm up to "only" three PCs as sample players, an EMU sampler for some percussion, and an old JV-90 which has some usuable sounds.Since I've used Performer as my sequencer for years, I use a refurbished Mac G4 for that. I do ALL my mixing in Performer, adjusting the velocity of each note to approximate some realism.That's it, basically --- Good samples, PCs with quality soundcards, and a Mac! I still make one analog pass through a Soundcraft board and an Empirical Labs Fatso (to add some warmth) when I mix. Pretty basic compared to some setups I've heard of!Glad you enjoyed the "comparo" --- Good Luck!Ern P.S. I hang out some at the "Northern Sounds" website. Some good info there!

[horacejesse]

Ern,I had already listened to the midi Elegy several times because I liked the piece a lot. However, the player on the link you provided above does not work for me. I will pop over to Broadjam (which always works for me, while Soundclick works less well) and see if you have the orchestral version posted over there yet. I have to hear it, though, so if you do not have it posted over there I will probably show up at your door. You can't miss me. I have a mole that people often mistake for a goatee.

[ernstinen]

Quote:Ern,I had already listened to the midi Elegy several times because I liked the piece a lot. However, the player on the link you provided above does not work for me. I will pop over to Broadjam (which always works for me, while Soundclick works less well) and see if you have the orchestral version posted over there yet. I have to hear it, though, so if you do not have it posted over there I will probably show up at your door. You can't miss me. I have a mole that people often mistake for a goatee.LOL! If you drop by, I might mistake you for my neighbor and get my shotgun! Hmmm --- Box doesn't work for you, eh? Sometimes at my studio it doesn't work if I don't disable my Firewall.Broadjam is history for me --- There's only a couple of pieces there because I didn't renew. It's funny --- people always had a hard time getting Broadjam to work!Glad you like the piece, though!Ern

[rfrey]

Great! Thanks so much for all of the input. I've been a member of TAXI for a little over a year now and just uncovering the benefit of the forums. It is so cool how everybody helps each other out. I hope I can do that same where possible. I am really looking forward to digging into some of these packages you all mentioned. I'll keep you posted! Rich

[horacejesse]

Quote:LOL! If you drop by, I might mistake you for my neighbor and get my shotgun! Do me one small favor and shoot my mole off with a .22 caliber, will you? I know it isn't polite to ask for bread when a man offers you cheese, but I wanted to mention it anyway.