Jay Bacal

[yishai_21499]

I love the sounds and mix of Jay Bacal the most.

I believe his ears taste is the best among the other's VSL demos (who are doing very well too)

But he probably needs the best studio machines.

May I have the information regarding Jay's studio equipments, to build mine. 

Yishai Knoll

Composer 

[JBacal]

Hi Yishai,

Thanks for the kind words.   But I think it is probably best not to "rank" different demo makers as we each strive to achieve our own personal musical goals.   This is one of the great things about VSL-- each musician can have his or her own unique "sound."

I use one pentium dual core PC with 4 GB of memory, a Soundblaster Audigy sound card, Sonar 7 Producer Edition sequencer, Altiverb 6 (sometimes Wizooverb) for reverb, Waves S1 for narrowing and panning, and course VSL VI for all the instruments.   That's it.   Nothing too fancy.

Best,

Jay

[William]

I agree his demos are second to none, though it is hard to say which are the best with Guy and the others doing such virtuosic work.

BTW I am wondering Jay if you are going to continue using Waves for panning now that it is possible in VE. 

[JBacal]

Hi William-- Waves S1 has more features than the panner in VE.  I'm also more accustomed to the sonic results of S1.  However, the VE panner is very convenient and the price is right (free!).   You can always download a Waves demo and make your own comparisons.

Best,

Jay

[Fiery Angel]

Jay- are you entering notes in via Sonar's notation editor or in realtime. Reason I ask is that as a former Sonar user, I could not stand its notation editor. Completely restrictive. It's the worst notation of any major DAW. Many of Cakewalk's users were pretty annoyed that it hadn't been given the same facelift as the rest of the program when Sonar 7 came onto the scene this past Fall.

[JBacal]

I enter notes using an Axiom 25 keyboard on my desk-- but rarely in real time.  With complex passages I often use step record.

--Jay

[Mahlon]

Fiery Angel,

Just my 2 cents. I've gotten used to entering notes mostly from the keyboard (as in midi controller) in the piano roll view, or the track view in Sonar, and keeping my written score on paper. There's a certain restriction/abstraction with entering notes into a sequencer because it really seems more set up as a 'punch card' graphical interface. I know Sonar has the rudimentary notation, but you're right, it's nothing too fancy.

Have you tried Sibelius or Finale for entering your notes and then transporting the midi file over in Sonar to finesse?

Mahlon

[mhecker]

hi,

i love your interpretations, too. the beethoven string quartet is extraordinary.

do you do this with just ONE computer? and all your big orchestra stuff, too? how do you do this?

thanks for your help,

martin 

[DM33]

Jay,

How do you deal with the difference in attacks and start times
for the different notes and different instruments?

Since you are inputing notes in non-realtime how do you apply
a "human" feel to the music?

When you are done with a score does your notation in sonar
look like the actual score on paper in as far as quantization is concerned?
or do you have overlapped notes and delayed starts...?

Thanks,
DM

[JBacal]

Martin-- I only use 1 computer for all my demos.   I have 4 GB's of memory and use the 3GB switch in Windows XP.  When I run out of ram I use the learn and optitmize features to dramatically reduce the memory used by that instrument.

Best,

Jay

[JBacal]

DM-- I do us overlapped notes and delayed starts so I don't think the actual score would look right as it is.   But I currently don't have a need for a cleaned up score since real players are not involved in my process.

I create a human feel by randomizing start times slightly.   I also move notes around by mouse to create the desired nuance.   Finally I spend a lot of time tweaking the tempo map to create rubato, ritards, etc.

Best,

Jay

[mhecker]

thank you, jay, for your info.

just one last question. how du you input your key switches? do you do this by step recording, too? i sometimes find this step time consuming,

thx, martin 

[DM33]

Thanks for your reply Jay!

Are you using any of the CAL files for Sonar: random velocity, legato, time?

Thanks,
DM

[JBacal]

Martin-- I enter the keyswitches by mouse in the piano roll view.   This takes some time.   But if I wanted to record them in real time on the keyboard I would have to rehearse the maneuvers.  Also entering them by mouse enables me to test out a variety of keyswitches to better choose the desired articulations.

--Jay

[JBacal]

DM-- I use the Cakewalk midi FX in Sonar to randomize start times and sometimes velocity.  I haven't messed around with CAL yet.

--Jay

[nkt-ikbu]

Hi...

I'm quite a new user of VSL and try to work with the "Prayer" tutorial done by Jail, available in the Solo String section demo, and, when I import it in cubase, the result is quite different from the one I can hear in the mp3 demo.

Do you use additional effect to give a better sound quality, like reverb effect of something like this?

In this case, can you indicate me which software or plugin you use additionnaly ?

Thanks very much for your help,

Best wishes,

David 

[jammusique]

Hi Jay Bacal, Very nice work! I'm wondering if you've ever tried comparing your results with Altiverb to any Hardware reverbs with VSL (TC 4000, Lexicon, Bricasti). Audio engineers seem very inthusiastic about the new Bricasti reverb for authentic natural spaces. I myself plan on trying my Lexicon PCM 91. All best, Jay-Alan Miller

[soundtemps]

Hi Jay, I greatly appreciated the demo project "Meditation - Violin & Orchestra". (Composer: Jules Massenet Programming: Jay Bacalj) I have a question for you. I use Cubase 5. How can I seperate different VST instruments in the same MIDI file please? I would greatly appreciate it if you could write a line or two back. Thanks a lot. Sammy

[soundtemps]

Sorry. I opened the file. The DAW problem. Thanks. sammy

[JLDowner]

I've never really liked the quality of some other demonstrators myself here at VSL, so that's why I'm coming to you. I've put together a short 2-3 minute piece based on a scene from the second volume of Christopher Paolini's "The Cycle of Inheritance", and was wondering if you could please help share my work through the VSL site (I currently have neither the means, nor the time to do so). It's a contrapuntal work in Renaissance fashion for two flutes, tin whistle (or piccolo), two harps (the second being optional), bass drum, and high tom-tom (not the small gong). I'm willing to share a PDF of the score with you if you could send me an e-mail at NeptuneVII@att.net (set to where the caps MUST be needed). Thanks, Jacob L. Downer