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  • From Spain with Love...

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    Hi there!

    It's about three years ago that I purchased VSL products but, due to different reasons and circumstances, both personal and professional (some call it fate ^_^), I couldn't start enjoying them fully till recently. Now, the joy and fun I can derive from these incredible "toys" have exceeded all my expectations.

    In this my first post here, I'd like to express my sincere gratitud and admiration for the people who made this possible, to every member of the VSL team, for those impeccable samples, astonishingly functional interface, and a "MIRacle" of room simulator that is simply unbelievable. I guess I can only imagine the amount of work and talent behind all this. For somebody like me, who is much more a musician than a technology guy, to look at my computer and feel it like a classical musical instrument is just a source of future excitement and challenge. For sure, there's room for further improvement, but that is the only thing I saw at VSL in these last three years: improvement. So, I will let myself be surprised in the future while I learn to use your instruments.

    In the meantime, I'd like to share with you my first tries. The first thing I wanted to make use of was MIR audio input, so I asked my partner to help me record something from the Vienna masters to honour your classical tradition. We chose to dedicate this rendition of Mozart's flute concerto in D major, K. 314 - I. Allegro Aperto to you guys at VSL. She's still practicing the solo part, as I am still practicing the orchestral part, so be benevolent (^_^). We have also recorded Haydn's London Trío in C Hob. IV 3 - III. Vivace in admiration for Jay Bacal, whose musicianship and mockup standards I'll try to emulate in my future posts. I honestly think I wouldn't have bought VSL products if I hadn't heard his demos (btw, Haydn has a curious connection with the city in which I was born, Cádiz, for he composed the Seven Last Words for a masonic lodge of the city). I hope Mr. Bacal gifts us with one of his demos soon. And the last one, is basically me speaking XVIIIth century german (^_^), of course with an spanish-italian accent, like in this post (^_-), to close my tribute to you. Dedicated to Guy Bacos, for I have learned much from his works and videos (btw, congratulations for your Chopin's etudes; just superb!!)

    I am afraid I can not deliver yet the quality you all deserve, but I am still learning and trying different articulations and mixes, and also configuring my studio (yes, you hear a dog barking in Mozart, and yes, it's not your neighbour's...^_^) Any suggestions about the mix are more than welcome, for I have to work yet with a pair of headphones I can't trust.

    In short, meine Damen und Herren, herzlichen Dank für Ihre wunderschönen Produkte. [Y]


  • Thanks for the pieces, you speak XVIIIth century german very well, and me I like the Spanish Italian accents. Compliments to your partner,

    regards,

    Gerard


  •    Thank you for listening and for your kind words, Gerard. Now thinking about doing a Vivaldi to further explore the Chamber Strings before I upload some of my own works.


  • Hi Servando,

        I really enjoyed these and in particular I like the way you incorporate real flute with VSL orchestra, just great playing by both of you. Nice to see that it is Chamber Strings you are using and looking forward to hearing some of your own works as well as more from the masters!

    Regards,

        Tom


  • This is fantastic!  I loved the flute performances and the expert combination with accompaniment.  Truly a fine performance and job of mixing.  Also - I really liked your own classical style piece.  You are very modest - it is far better than just a little exercise.    Beautifully done in strict classical style and very well performend by the Chamber Strings.  Wow - this is very inspiring.  Thanks for posting these!   These great recordings show the range of VSL into many different areas of music. 


  • Well, either you are a very modest quick study or you have just confirmed that no matter how good a library is, or how powerful the computer setup and the absurd number of tracks claimed by people for their chugga-chugga epics (they are epic in their inanity), no one who doesn't have the first clue about MUSIC proper (and most don't), will ever get any results worth posting (as has been the case for many years now). Even with those "ready-made" stupid chunks that other "libraries" currently offer the deaf, the results are almost always awful as nobody can and nobody will, ever, be able to package MUSICIANSHIP in a carton box for the chimps of this world. However, nobody needs to package it for you, your students must be eternally grateful that they have such a multiversed teacher, and I cannot wait until the 1850-1950 semesters' examples...

    Congratulations!


  • Tom, William, Errikos... many thanks for your comments! I'm very happy that you enjoyed my tracks.

      Tom, I have begun with the Chamber Strings because I love them, and because I suspect they will be a basic, important part of my sound palette in the future. I plan to do more classic mockups till the summer, when I have more time (and more experience with the library) to concentrate in my music. 

      William, I really appreciate your encouraging words. I remember the days when I mastered the art of looking awake when I was actually sleeping (not just dreaming, I mean deep sleep) in front of those awful "harmony" textbooks we used to have, so I now try to be a little gentler with my students. They don't deserve the effort, though!![:P] (it's very unlikely that any of them reads this forum, but just for the case, I take this opportunity to provoke them [:D]). I was trying to make them write a little sonatina and I illustrated certain things with this movement.

      Errikos, also very nice to hear your compliments. I have no previous experience with samples and even a sequencer looks like a stranger place for me than a notation program, but I have ears... [:D] and that helps me find my way. So, I could not agree more with what you're saying about musicianship. No piano maker, no piano tuner, even no piano player, will ever make a Brahms... although I am sure Brahms is now either extremely calm or extremely grateful to all good piano makers, tuners and players. And the opposite it's also true, no matter how good you write, that doesn't mean you can come up with a Steinway or a Stradivarius. It's just creativity "focused" in different aspects of music. They are all complementary, and I guess we all feel as happy with VSL as they do when they hear their instruments making good music. Technology can only express creativity and talent, never replace it.  

      Well, gentlemen, nice time "talking" to you all. Best regards from Spain. 


  • PaulP Paul moved this topic from Orchestration & Composition on