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

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

Great piece Shani...  Love the atomosphere, theme, the handeling of the string section and especially the sax......  Great Job.

Good Morning William,

I've always admired your ability in music composition and how you get the most out of the virtual instruments through your mixing.  It means a lot that you find my mix good on this one.  I've been learning and trying to improve with every song I write.  Truly appreciate you taking the time to listen and comment.  Have a great week William.

Hi Raymond,

I'm happy you liked the song and appreicate you taking the time to listen.  My Mother-in-Law was very pleased.....  Thanks again.

Good Morning Thomamd,

Glad to hear you were able to get your audio working.  Glad you enjoyed the piece.  Yes, it's my mother-in-law who was born and raised in Arkansas.  I saw her at a graduation party Saturday, and yes, she couldn't stop taking about it.  Made her very happy.  Thanks for listening and commenting.  Take care.

Hi everyone,

Full Circle is a country-style instrumental of which I used VSL percussion and layered the strings and piano tracks.  You can listen to "Full Circle" by clicking on the link below.  Hope you enjoy.  Comments are always welcome.

FULL CIRCLE

Nice piece William.  Foregive me for asking on SoundCloud what MIR hall you were using.  I clicked on my email link directly to SoundCloud without visiting this forum first.  Mystic Spaces is the one as of yet, I don't own.  Plan to purchase it in the near future.....  Nice mix.....

Ok Arthur, After watching the movie, I'm really bitting at the bit to get my boat comissioned for this year of sailing.  Totally enjoyed it.

Totally enjoyed the piece suon.  Great to listen to and gives the feeling of a mouse race.  Love the mix and the performance.  Great Job.

Very Nicely Done Guy.  Very expressive piano performance.  Nice blend with the orchestra.  Great Job....

Very Nice William... Provided comments on Soundcloud....

I know, I was just saying.  When I read the announcement I thought yes, Avid has the code to Sibelius but that's just code.  It is the experienced development team that has the real value in my opinion.  That's something you just can't replace.  I believe great things are ahead for Steinberg in the area of scoring and education.

There's Hope.  Steinberg just announced the opening of a new R&D Center in London.  The announcement states that the new UK office team is a group of highly skilled developers and product specialist who will be focusing on developing software for the music notation and education markets.  If I had to guess......... 

Great Demos Guy.   I especially like "Spring Celebration" and how the various sections interacted with the harp.  Very espressive, well done.

I see now what is happening.  I have an articulation called +espressivo as a matrix assigned to B7 for my 2nd Violins.  Actually I have it for all my instruments in some form.  The matrix consist of three vertical cells controlled by a Y-Axis assigned to Speed Control.  I had the +espressivo matrix disabled.  Then in Sibelius I placed a Technique Text entitled "espressivo" which I have defined in my dictionary and soundset.

When it reach the part in the score where the espressivo technique text was positioned, it triggered a load (enabled) of only the top cell of the matrix but left the middle and bottom disabled.  I would think that this new functionality should trigger all cells within a requested matrix.

It probably only enabled the top cell because the passage is slow and only required the slow version of the three....

I'm seeing the same thing.  Some of my custom legato-type matrix cells are loading for an articulation that I haven't used in the composition.  For example, I have three cells for one legato articulation.  Two are stretched and one is not.  Usually I've been seeing one of the cells become active eventhough I haven't request it via Sibelius or enabled the matrix manually.

Hi Servando,

First off, I'm happy you liked my mock-up.  I never heard the track "On Earth as it is in Heaven".  After reading your post, I went to iTunes and purchased the entire soundtrack.  It was "Yo-Yo-Ma Plays Ennio Morricone" that introduced me to Gabriel's Oboe for the first time.  Then I purchased the single off of one of Morricone's consolidation albums but never listened to the entire soundtrack nor have I seen the movie, which I am purchasing.  I must of missed that one when it was originally released.   I just fell in love with the song......

So I thought I'd better listen to "On Earth as it is in Heaven" a few times before I respond back to you.  Yes, it's different for sure...  I haven't got to the "I like it point" yet .....  maybe too busy for my taste but it is amazing how he had everything (choir, percussion, etc.) mixed in with the Oboe theme.  I'll have to listen to it some more for sure......

Hi Goran,

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

Hi Chris,

I'm glad you like my mockup.  Yes, I agree the Oboe phrasing needs some work.  I did this piece using Sibelius and I am coming to the conclusion that I still don't have the instrument control that can be achieved when using a sequencer.  I thought I could and maybe it's just that I'm more comfortable using a sequencer rather than notation software.  I plan to import the MIDI into Cubase and refine it at some point in the near future.  Thanks Chris for taking the time to listen and critique.  I truly appreciate it. 

Hi William,

I'm glad you enjoyed my rendition and performance.  Yes, your correct as I commented to Errikos in the previous post on the oboe phrasing.  It's amazing how I can play something over and over again, but until someone actually critiques, things get missed.  Thanks again William for listening and critiquing.  I surely appreciate it.

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.

As I continue to tweak my Sibelius/MIR/VSL template, I wrote an arrangement to one of my favoriate compositions written by Ennio Morricone for "The Mission" soundtrack.  Comments are always welcome....

Gabriel's Oboe

I think back in the day when I worked in the automotive industry and was so amazed at the first robot that was brought into the plant.  I was so for it, technology everywhere I thought -- a good thing.  As time went on, the robots were actually performing the work flawless, much better than any human.  Very repeatable and higher quality....  Then the jobs opportunities began to reduce.  Good for the company, bad for people who need to be employed and support their famlies.  I was fortuniate that I continued education and stayed ahead of the threat but so many did not.

Will there come a day that software will replace the human composer?  Better quality?  I hope not but never say never........

Errikos,

I take it, you love this new program?  

What's crazy about it all is that we as a society (and I say we lightly) are conditioned by the media as to what we should like.  Top Ten music created with loops has become the norm for the most part and the record companies exploit it as the new standard.  Apple, inc. for example tells us what we need to have (i.e. iPhone, iPad, etc.) in order to be efficient and cool.

I still strongly believe there will continue to be individuals that do care and can tell the difference between a loop created piece versus one that is not...  It would be a shame for symphonic music to start all sounding alike.......