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  • there's still time - $100 reward

    Amazingly, there have only been two submissions for the little contest I am doing. Here's the original text of the notice on December 31.

    $100 REWARD. I purchased the VSL pro edition last summer, but my busy schedule has kept me from really using it and learning it. So, I’ve decided to see if I can learn from those who are smarter than I (which would be just about everyone) by having a little contest. I have written a very short chorale for string orchestra and posted it on my website as an adobe acrobat (.pdf) file. It is a one-page, nine-measure piece scored for violin 1, violin 2, viola, cello, and double bass. Each part has between 19 and 34 notes. Bowing, dynamics, tempo, and articulations are included. To participate, simply record the chorale as an .mp3 and email it to me. In the email please include your contact information. The winning entry will be the one that sounds most like a live string orchestra. I will have my student orchestra at Taft High School, Woodland Hills, CA help me decide which entry is the best. The winner will be asked to provide information on which patches were used with which notes, and if gigastudio was used, what the settings were. I will then send a cashier’s check (bank check) drawn on Bank of America in the amount of $100 (U.S.) to the winner. If you want to participate, please go to the following link: http://burchmusic.com/vsl/chorale.pdf . Entries must be submitted by January 31, 2006. The winner will be announced in mid-February. Send your mp3 to my email: steve@burchmusic.com. If you have questions you can also reach me on my cell at (805) 807-3272 (USA). This could be a fun way to learn from others. If this is a worthwhile experience I will also do one for woodwinds, brass, and perhaps other ensembles.
    _________________

  • Not so amazing, really, if you think about it. I'm kind of a sucker for goofy projects, but it took me over an hour to make a rather simple version of your choral. Even if I were certain of winning, $100 per hour of concentrated work is not that great. And competitions of any sort are notoriously unpredictable, so I must multiply that $100 times the probability of winning, say an optimistic five percent: thus, effectively $5 per hour. Really less, because if I win I have to correspond with you, listen to your student orchestra, etc.

    This is not to criticize you, just to point out why most folks might not take the time to respond to your offer.

  • This kind of post is setting the composer back 75 years. How can Steve not be conscious of his stingy $100.00 reward, I'm ashamed at the ones who went for it.
    A group of real musicians would immediately walk away at that offer and the winner will probably sound nearly as good. Pretty good deal from Steve.

    Steve, $100.00 reward is to find your missing dog, not the result of years of hard work over 10, 15 or 20 years not including all the financial investments and sacrifice.

  • It's only for fun. It has nothing to do with money. If you enter and win - give the money to a charity of your choice. I had a go at it for fun and fun only because I hardly ever use the solo strings library.
    You could do this very quickly - and mix it a thousand different ways. I had forgotten I'd done it until this thread came up.
    You're taking things way to seriously here - it's just a short piece for fun.

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    @PaulR said:

    It's only for fun. It has nothing to do with money. If you enter and win - give the money to a charity of your choice. I had a go at it for fun and fun only because I hardly ever use the solo strings library.
    You could do this very quickly - and mix it a thousand different ways. I had forgotten I'd done it until this thread came up.
    You're taking things way to seriously here - it's just a short piece for fun.


    I just hate to encourage this sort of thing.

  • Hey folks, it's not meant to make any enemies. It's just for fun. If you are offended, I'm sorry, but there's no need to get bent out of shape. I'm just trying to get some education here and I don't mind paying for it. Chances are pretty decent that I'll get a hundred bucks worth of education from people who know more than I do. No worries.

  • Well, to each his own.

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    @Guy said:

    Well, to each his own.


    Steve Burch is a music teacher as far as I can ascertain. This is not like doing a full blown Hollywood score. This is just an exercise for educational purposes - presumably to help and show kids aspects of string trios/quartets/quintets etc. in respect of sound, tone and samples.
    Getting worried about $100 is certainly confusing to me. I would get worried about $50K - but not $100. I wouldn't even take the money anyway. I don't understand your problem.

  • I teach public high school orchestra and I play the viola. I'm definitely not in the rarified atmosphere of film score compoers.

  • This could very well be an innocent project, and probably is, but I don't know that for a fact. Musicians of all trade are the most vulnerable people...

  • "Steve, $100.00 reward is to find your missing dog, not the result of years of hard work over 10, 15 or 20 years not including all the financial investments and sacrifice." - Guy

    Wow! I am so impressed by this Guy whose time cannot be wasted because of all his SACRIFICE.

    If he had half a brain he would take the money and run. Any money. That is what a composer worth his salt does. Pretentious twits don't do that. They start talking about.... "sacrifice."

  • Amen for that, William...............

  • William,

    Who the hell cares about the word; "sacrifice" I never should of used that word, it made no difference what-so-ever to the point I was making, the emphasize was NOT on that word as you tried to make it, you derange lunatic!

    Oh, and William, your such an idiot.

  • Well I tried to do this chorale thing out of curiosity, but sadly I have no idea how to turn this into useful midi info. I can just about read music notes, but understanding the timing and dynamic stuff, .... forget it!

    But please, do continue to rant as I find it most entertaining. [:P]

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    @hetoreyn said:

    Well I tried to do this chorale thing out of curiosity, but sadly I have no idea how to turn this into useful midi info. I can just about read music notes, but understanding the timing and dynamic stuff, .... forget it!

    But please, do continue to rant as I find it most entertaining. [:P]


    Happy to entertain this thread dude. This is what I do. [:D]

  • This is very entertaining to watch. That's almost worth the hundred bucks by itself, just to see all the friendly (?) insults being passed around. Now we have three submissions and they all sound pretty good. I'm mostly interested in how transitions from note to note in a legato passage can be most effectively made. The individual samples sound great but when I want to hear a smooth upbow legato passage I don't really know the best samples to use for the subsequent notes. I've listened to several examples on this website and have noticed that it is one thing to sound great when you use a big orchestra with lots of brass and percussion, but an entirely different thing to make a simple string passage sound convincing. Since I'm both a conductor and a performer I work with the real thing every day. (In honor of Mozart's birthday my school orchestra sightread the entire 25th symphony - the "littel g minor".) So I'm really interested in just hearing some beautiful strings.

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    @steve@burchmusic.com said:

    Chances are pretty decent that I'll get a hundred bucks worth of education from people who know more than I do.


    Offers like those have this smell to it. My ways of learning are a little bit more different than offering some bucks for some elaborate pieces. I don't exploit a community by offering a petty cash for an artistic effort. Of course, musicians are always in need for money and just for the slightest chance, they will do almost anything, out of desperation.

    In the years that I am in the forum, I have developed relations with quite a few very talented and gifted people. They share thoughts and pieces by email or otherwise, without asking or offering money. It is a give and take of thoughts and abilities, not tangibles.

    Luckily, I can treat my music as a hobby, so I can spent money without looking for the revenue. This puts me also in the comfort situation to not respond with my own work to some cheap pleas.

    Too old for Rock n Roll. Too young for 9th symphonies. Wagner Lover, IRCAM Alumni. Double Bass player starting in low Es. I am where noise is music.
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    @Another User said:

    If he had half a brain he would take the money and run. Any money. That is what a composer worth his salt does.

    Hey William,
    if you had to take the 100 $ and run in dire needs, we should start setting up a fund for you... I am fearing about your monthly grocery bill if that is the case

    Too old for Rock n Roll. Too young for 9th symphonies. Wagner Lover, IRCAM Alumni. Double Bass player starting in low Es. I am where noise is music.
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    @Guy said:

    Happy to entertain this thread dude. This is what I do. [:D]


    ...besides wasting your precccious time on the dog's cash you'll never earn. Hey, I'm not participating, but I think I would if I had the time, as a learning opportunity for myself, not necessarily needing the money. And now that I'm not participating, I'm not going to comment on that a lot more. Well, if you push me to do so, I maybe will. It's nice for someone to get 1/4 of his investment in solo strings back by simply doing a mockup. Of course it's not enough to make a living, but hey, if you have to make a living and need the money, you have better opportunities. Mostly at least. The key word here should be "passion" and not "money", which is why PaulR and Hetoreyn entered.

    Best,
    PolarBear

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    @steve@burchmusic.com said:

    I'm mostly interested in how transitions from note to note in a legato passage can be most effectively made. The individual samples sound great but when I want to hear a smooth upbow legato passage I don't really know the best samples to use for the subsequent notes.


    Instead of sequencing the chorale, I almost spent the time addressing, in words, the articulations you chose for the chorale. Maybe after your deadline we can all give some friendly (?) and conflicting opinions about the bowing choices, some of the part writing, etc, etc .... with the nastiest or the longest or the pithiest entrant getting another $100?

    And, Polarbear, I've been puzzling over your signature line about the zero for what seems like years ... in english, "decouple" has an O in it, but an O is not a ZERO ... is it nothing more than a spelling pun?