+1

Hi Dave,

A marvelous piece, Dave. You know, that most of the time I can't say so much about music, except one thing: I'm fascinated by it or not, I feel (or think I feel ;) ) the intention of the composer or not, and with this piece I hear definitly something that appeals to me in one way or the other. There is something very coherent in it, it tells me something musically, the last part with some humor in it (okay, that's what I hear...). From what I remember of your music, I shouldn't be supprised if this is one of your best pieces. And writing something for Becky is always special for you, I think. Congratulations!

I enjoyed your performance of Vivaldi's Winter. May I ask which library you use for the orchestra. I suppose, that the solo violin is the first violin of Solo Strings 1 of VSL.

You can probably link with a virtual midi cable like loopmidi. Install it on your pc and choose loopmidi1 as midi input device in lmms. Choose loopmidi1 as midi output device in musescore.

On "invitation" of William (but it is not a technical story about making reeds...):

To begin with: I never made one reed. I bought them from my teacher.
I had my oboe lessons always in the attic of my oboe teacher, where his studio was, and there he was almost always working on his reeds. He was one of the first oboists of the local symphony orchestra, and every year again with the start of the new season in september the big question was: should he have a good reed for the concerts, and preferably 2 to have a reserve? It gave often stress, because he did't know when he started a reed, how the quality turned out to be. So he made many at the same time, hoping there would be at least one very good copy. Every year he went on holiday with his family to Spain to buy a lot of Arundo Donax reed. The most stems were not useful for the reed for the oboe. And he used the unused stems to decorate the walls of his studio as a wallpaper.

Hi David, to begin with: a happy New Year for you and your whole family! 
I like this piece. I like the oboe. Although I heared also the release time little thing, for the rest I loved the performance very much. Very lively, warm, musical, I really enjoyed it, very "oboe" (I played the instrument for three years in a very long past, because of this sound!). Thanks for sharing.

Do you know the Konzerthaus Organ?
This is a wonderful instrument with many possibilities, from very soft to gloriously loud.

The discussion of this thread gave me the idea to do an experiment with Synchron Strings Pro + Mir Pro. 
For this experiment I used the "close sur to stereo" preset of SSP and I placed the sections in the Gateshead the Sage Hall 1.
For those interested, here is the link.

Serenade for Synchron Strings in The Sage Hall 1

I remember the piece five years ago. I enjoyed it then.

I enjoyed this new piece also very much. Music, performance, the sound of the instruments, so pure, lively, the story, the climax. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Jos, for your explanation about the sound. I'm glad that you wrote this, because this can help me to set the next step.
In Synchron Strings Pro there are many microphones to choose. I took a rather standard preset, but there are many more, with microphones that are further away. So I tried another microphone preset and set the link here. It is possible that it need some adaptation in the articulations, but I will do this later.

Update: I just finished the adaptation, and brought some other little improvements. Just click on the link to hear the last version. 

I should really appreciate to hear your opinion about this sound, and also your opinion, William.

Serenade for Synchron Strings

(I use here the microphone preset: sur to stereo,
the other version had the preset: wide Decca tree, and the imager made the stage a little smaller)

Thanks, William, for your kind words.
After putting the Serenade on this forum I worked until today many hours to improve the performance. Creating a good and natural rhythm wasn’t easy. It is definitely not just a metronomical 1, 2, 3, 4, certainly not the first melody played by the first violins.

I learned also a lot from the video, made by Guy Bacos, called “Big Bang Orchestra, Tana”, Tana, a limited version of the first violins from Synchron Strings Pro.
Guy, as you read this, thanks for your video, very instructive!

William, I don’t have the guts now to make a version for VI strings (as you expected), because I know, that will take many hours to make a good performance.

 

Here is my final version (and in the meantime I learn again: say never "final" version )

Serenade for Synchron Strings

Congratulations, Andy, on this project. Dorico and VSL, a beautiful combination!

Hi Jerry, it is a bit quite here at the forum, I know.
I listened to the first versions a while ago. And as far as I can remember, I listened that versions on my phone. Yesterday I listened on my computer with the monitors to the remix, then just to Kira.
What I heard was a beautiful voice, beautiful set in front of the string quartet, really lovely. And the song itself is beautiful too.
Now I listened to both versions and I have a slight preference for Kira, but that is probably just a matter of personal taste.

I can imagine, that this composition is something special for you, because of the occasion, the marriage of your daughter (I didn't find it anymore in the text, but I thought, you wrote that in the forum, or am I wrong?)

I looked into it. I don't see blinking the on/off button (red or blue), I tested it with velocity changes and cc1 changes.
So I think there is a hidden cc28 signal.
Another possibility is that the dedicated cc in the Synchron Player for the on/off button is cc28 has been changed by accident. You can click with the right mouse button on the on/off button to see, if the dedicated cc is cc28 or something else.
If not: when it is in Dorico, you could have a look in the expression map if there is a cc28 signal triggered.

Good luck!

Hi Paolo,

I think that there is a cc28 signal with a value below 64. Such a signal turns the velXF mode off. The button turns red in that case.
I hope this helps.

I just finished a piece for strings, in this case Synchron Strings Pro and a little bit (only a few notes) Synchron Strings 1.
I integrated this patches in the presets of Synchron Strings Pro in the Regular Vibrato Long notes section and the Regular Vibrato Legato section.
I'm very happy with Synchron Strings Pro!

I hope you enjoy the music.

Serenade for Synchron Strings (an old version, see below the last version)

Indeed.

Wow, Bill and Tom, I'm very glad and excited to read this message, especially the fact, that this piece will be played live. You didn't make the score in vain, Bill. Here in the (for you far away) Netherlands somebody sits behind his Pc with a big smile on his face.
And I agree with you, Tom, what you said about VSL, and also about Bill of course in making this splendid example what is possible with the VSL samples.

Hi William,

That is 4 minutes and 10 seconds of enjoyment for me! A nice, cheerful piece for symphonic band, very "live" sounding also, but that we know about you, that skills you have. I was thinking: a live band has to do a good job to reach this level of playing!
And the music kept my attention until the last barlines!
I can imagine what a job it was to make all the transposed parts correct.

So thank you for sharing this with all of us!

I think there is another point of attention: the clock speed of the processor and the number of cores.
Perhaps somebody of VSL could chime in here. 
With the Synchron Player you need much processor power, when you use a lot of microphones in one instrument or instrument group. Especially with VelXF and time stretching the processor has to do a lot of work and the programm reach quickly the limit of the possible.
I see that many Xeon processors have a lot of cores but sometimes have a rather low clock speed.

My questions should be:

• what should be a decent clock speed and a decent number of cores.
• Benefit one instance of Synchron Player from a high clock speed or many cores (or both of course)?
• What is a minimum clock speed and number of cores to use VelXF and timestretching with some ease.
• What is good number of cores with use of an x number instruments?

Hi Crusoe,

To begin with: I could work well with Synchron Strings 1, also with the legato. It was just a little bit of work to overlap a little the notes. So I don't know if I am the right person to tell you about the legato of Synchron Strings Pro.
But okay: my 5 cents.

Yesterday I started working with "SSP" and Dorico. I'm just working on a piece for String orchestra. When I coupled the SSP to the music I had to adjust of course a lot, because it responds a little different from SS1. Today I went on working. Here a few of my experiences until this moment.

1. In SS1 I started always with some equing (how do you write that in English?). Here nothing. No extra reverb. I choose my microphones and off I went. (A very subjective experience of mine here: sometimes the sound is in a way just as breakable as in real life with a string orchestra, but you can build with it beautiful melodies, chords, accents, etc.)

2. The senza vibrato samples are great, because the sound is the same as the vibrato patches (without the vibrato of course), so you can very good xfade them, from senza vibrato, to regular or molto vibrato. In the past I discovered, that the senza vibrato patches were often a little brighter. I looks like that vibrato has an influence on the stroke. Of course. But it looks like now that the influence of vibrato is implemented in the non vibrato tones. Really, they are crafsmen and craftswomen.

3. In Dorico I had adjusted much tones of the piece with a little overlapping for a decent legato. Now I had to reduce or even delete most overlappings. And I have to say: I like this legato very much. I think (but I can't say of course), that you will enjoy this legato patches too.

4. Portamento. Until now I was not always a fan of Portamento, because it was often not totally the real thing (but sometimes it sounded nice in my ears). This portamento is very natural, of course the time stretch feature is a great help here. Unfortunately I encountered a bug with the violas, but that I report that to VSL. I'm sure they will fix that.

So I hope, this helps a little. I can't give you an audio example at this moment, because I have not finished yet my piece. But there are examples on the internet.

Kind regards.

Hi, if you have a problem, you can always send an e-mail to: support at vsl dot co dot at 
They answer very quickly, most of the time the same day.

I saw one thing, and I really don't know if that is the answer, but: you gave your preset the same name as the factory preset. You could try to save a preset of yours with another name than the factory preset. But I really don't know if that is the solution.

Hi, I don't want to interfere in the discussion about the money, but there is one thing I have to say: it is not true that nobody will use Synchron Strings 1 anymore. There are people (I can't say how much, I can't count them of course), who appreciate all the good things of Synchron Strings 1 and use it with pleasure (and I'm one of them). 

Yes!!!!! (sorry, this yes is not an answer on the question "Are the sforzato articulations new recordings?") 

Concerning creating a glissando for harp with the right notes:

In Dorico it is possible to create glissandi in harp music, that use exactly the notes as will be played on a harp.
First you have to create a harp player in a project.
Then you have to set the pedals in the right position in the staves.
Now you can write a glissando sign between 2 notes (can be up or down). 
When playing this fragment you hear the right tones (also the doublings if present).
After this it is possible to export the just written music to a midi file.

You have to go some steps of course, but it is possible.
And when you compose in Dorico it is a great tool!