As I love the composition, I thought I'd write a comment. Very nicely done, a lot of warmth - well done, my two suggestions would be a) to give significantly more emphasis to the strings' counterpoint (they sound a little like block-chord pads now in my opinion), and b) a few more breaths for the oboe, especially towards the end; yes, double reeds can go on for longer than others, but in this case it hurts the phrasing a little as well.

On another note, I have never heard this piece done this slow - I prefer a faster tempo, but due to the slowness, it is the first time that this track sounds the way a missionary would actually perform it; more so than the original, so that was quite interesting; that I feel this performance identifies more with the character in the movie. Congratulations.

Hi Errikos,

I'm happy you enjoyed my version of "Gabriel's Oboe".  I understand what your recommending about the "block-chord pads".  I was attempting, as in the original version, to keep the string parts very simple.  I may have made them a little too simple.  It's great to have a second set of ears.  Initially, I thought the oboe part was phrased correctly but after reading your suggestions and listening to it a few times more, I realize that yes, I did hold some of the notes too long and probably should have created diminuendo's towards the end of the long notes to give it a more realistic feel.  I truly appreciate your feedback and will be more sensitive to how I construct a solo oboe part moving forward.

Again, thanks for taking the time to listen and more importantly, to critique the piece.

I thought it was a lovely performance.  I just wanted to note that the really only thing that stands out to me is the bad breathing of the Oboe (which was previously noted).  I am familiar with this piece and adore it very much.  Ennio is awesome.  Great mockup!  Fix the breathing and it will be even more realistic!  Congrats on a good mockup :).

Maestro2be

  Very nicely done, Chuck. Congratulations. It's also exciting to have something by the great Morricone done with VSL. I always found his opening track "On Earth as it is in Heaven" to be an incredible exercise of musical imagination. 

Hi Goran,

Thank you for the compliments....  I appreciate it very much.......

Speaking of the great composer

That may be the last chance to see him performing :

Live in Berlin, Zurich, Wien and Cologne between February and April.

Thank you Arbee for your kind words.  At the time, I was trying out Sibellius (contrary to the popular belief that one needs to use a sequencer in order to obtain the upmost realism) and created a complete set of Sibelius Sound Sets for a Modern Symphonic Orchestra.  I was using MIR that sat inside of Vienna Ensemble -- the first version that came out that wasn't a MIR stand-alone.  Everything on the arrangement was from the Vienna Library.  For the Strings, I blended a mixer of the Orchestra Strings and Appassionata Strings libraries.  I remember pretty much making a determination on what library I was pulling each articulation from while building the instrument presets.

I used Herb's Teldex MIR preset for a starting point, then modified it to fit the voicing of my custom orchestra.

To be very honest, I have all the competitor libraries as well but thinking back, rendering this piece using Sibelius was probably the most enjoyable, straight forward, and fun to work with.  It's pretty darn hard to beat what Vienna has accomplished with the quality of samples and the amount of articulation that one has to choose from.  Add to it, the MIR environment.... one spends more time writing and less time dealing with the mixing/technical stuff....

Very Happy you enjoyed the piece.

Chuck

Your wecome Robert.  I believe your on the right track with your thinking.  There are some great artist on this site that do an absolute great job of making VSL sound wonderful in their performances.

Chuck out Philippe Baylac performance (I just received this link in SoundCloud):

https://soundcloud.com/philippe-baylac/c-p-e-bach-symphony-for

Also William Kersten at:

https://soundcloud.com/william-kersten-music

There are so many but a couple that come to mind whose performances highlight the capabilities of VSL.

Take care and the best to you moving forward.

Chuck