Congratulations Jay!  A truely remarkable achievement, and I can't think of a better sample library than VSL to give you the right tools to do it!   You're the man Jay!

I noticed that Jay has not responded to anyones questions yet...he must be drunk, hibernating or on a well deserved vacation...maybe all 3! LOL!

Anyway, this is truly a landmark achievement and the apex in the history of MIDI orchestration (IMHO). The Le Sacre MIDI file has been available on the net for some time but shaping and contouring it into a "performance" is really the hard part.

I think this piece could only have been done with VSL products (and of course Jays master craftsmanship didn't hurt either :-) , the others just don't have enough articulations to achieve this level of realism for the orchestrational devices Igor used in it's composition. It requires all the "optional" articulations like the fA and Harsh, Rep, and Rep-Legato, ponticello, harmonics...The key to achieving such quality is to start with the best articulations for each note/phrase, shaping Vel and dynamics will definitely help but they can't be substituted for the wrong/inadequate/unavailable articulations.

One more device that, I think, allowed for such an accurate reproduction of such a difficult piece was the VI itself. It's architecture and design were probably extremely helpful in realizing this complex work of art. Can you imagine how many tracks Jay would have needed doing it the "old" way? (with each articulation on its own track). Probably 10 times the amount he used!

Thanks to VSL for creating such a work of art in its own right! And Jay, with your skill and talent, you've shown us all (yet again) the potential we each have every time we sit down and use the VI. I am inspired and have new found energy to persevere and overcome the daily grind of life in-order to achieve something even half as good as this mock-up!

Regards,

DM33

Thank you everyone for the very warm response.   And a special thanks to Herb, Michael, Dietz and team VSL for creating such an amazing musical "instrument!"

Paul,  I sent the string ensembles to the Todd AO narrow 3m50 (wet/dry mix to taste). I sent the solo strings and woodwinds to the Todd AO 8m (wet/dry mix to taste). The horns to Todd AO narrow 11m70 (wet/dry mix to taste). And I sent the brass and percussion to Todd AO wide 18m90(wet/dry mix to taste). Finally I sent everything through a small amount of the Mechanics Hall to add a bit more "reverb."   I used Waves S1 to narrow the stereo width and pan the instruments into position on the stage.

Dave, I played some in below tempo, I used step record, I drew the notes in with a mouse.   If there really is a way to simply scan a score into the computer I would love to know more about it.  Does such a technology really exist?

Bill, I'm afraid my neighborhood is fresh out of virgins at the moment but oldly irregular dance steps pretty accurately describes my dancing abilities.

Cheers,

Jay

I think if Stravinski could of been around to hear this, he would of been very impressed and proud.

 Jay, here,s Photoscore http://www.neuratron.com/photoscore.htm 

I think with printed scores it is meant to do a good job but the more complex the score the more tidying up there will be. Worth a look. And I would bet my bottom dollar that someone somewhere on the web has already created a score of the rite and any other major work either in sibelius or finale.

 Looks like it works quite well.   I owe you a beer Dave (and some louder tubas!).

--Jay

 I think I'm going to try this on my own music - an old score printed in Music Printer Plus.

Yes, I was wondering - what could someone do that could outdo this?  And of course the Alpensinfonie came to mind. However, since programming it would result complete homicidal madness, I don't advise anyone to take that step.   Purely on altruistic grounds.

Jay, don't even think about it.  You need rest now.  No more MIDI for you.  At least for a good long period of recuperation.  Or the men in white coats will soon be calling.  Trust me on this. 

This is an amazing feat of arranging. Congratulations Jay. Nice to hear the lower horns for a change! But there is one sound that doesn't work well enough - muted trumpets!

Which reminds me, where are the muted horn samples for the Special Edition? Please can I have some?

Ross

 welcome basso,

the downloader from the player is based on an older technology and according to the huge number of downloads it seems there was a memory problem and it did no longer respond.

the issue is fixed for the moment and i ask you to revisit - sorry for the inconvenience,

christian