It seems the read/write speeds of of built-in SSD in these latest Macs are so fast that "virtual memory" (aka "memory swapping") is now a thing once again (previously popularised by the DEC VAX 11/780 series of computers back around the '80s). Virtual memory is storage media (e.g. HDD or SSD) used as if it was RAM.

A pro video editor has reported Mac M1 tests in which substantial amounts of memory swapping (as logged by Activity Monitor) made little if any practical difference to the total time taken by various editing tasks, when compared to another M1 doing the same tasks but with maxed-out RAM so no memory swapping happened.

I've not yet seen read- and write-cycle times officially specified for the SSD in the Mac Studio, but it's being suggested that these speeds are not radically dissimilar to RAM speed. A staggering feat of high-tech and engineering R&D! 

However, as one who may be buying a Mac Studio in the not too distant future, I see some reasons for caution:-

1. Virtual memory operations involve writing to SSD as if it was RAM, whenever free RAM space is not immediately available. No matter the speed, the fact is that writing to SSD brings it "one step closer to death" (to borrow a Pink Floyd lyric). SSD lifetime expectancy is quoted in Total Bytes Written (TBW).

2. All of the Mac Studio's RAM is now general purpose. Neither graphics nor AI processes have their own dedicated RAM. Perhaps Apple are counting on virtual memory to minimise the prospect of heavy and/or complex system usage momentarily running out of available RAM.

3. So, generally speaking, the more that virtual memory has to be used by the system in order to get around shortage of RAM, the shorter the SSD's life expectancy will become. And conversely, the more RAM the new Mac has, the better conserved SSD life expectancy is likely to be. Virtual memory was not particularly good as a general panacea back in the '80s; the Mac Studio appears to be a somwhat better panacea, but with a somewhat narrower scope of applicability.

4. In the Mac Studio, neither RAM nor SSD can be expanded later; nor is replacing dead SSD a matter of swapping plugin modules. Moreover, Mike Bombich (proprietor of Carbon Copy Cloner) reports that a part of Mac Studio's built-in SSD is always involved in booting from an external drive. Hence when built-in SSD dies, so does the possibility of booting from an external backup.

5. External SSDs can be used with a Mac Studio but are limited to Thunderbolt 4 speed of 40 Gbits/sec, which I don't think is in the same ballpark as Mac Studio's built-in SSD speed. If MacOS treats an external SSD boot drive as fair game for virtual memory operation, I'd expect to see significant performance slowdowns whenever a lot of memory swaps occur in the external boot SSD.

Choosing the Mac Studio RAM and SSD configuration when buying new appears to be far more critical than ever before, especially for those of us who require several TBytes of storage for sample libraries alone. Aiming for the very best possible return on investment in terms of economy versus system performance, flexibility and lifespan, is now, it seems to me, a bit of a nightmare.

Errikos, I'll certainly give Big Fish a look - I watched and very much enjoyed Dolores Claireborne some years back. Very happy to hear you've some pleasant experiences of my home town; growing up there has located me very positively in a historical continuum, such that 'past' and 'future' aren't as jarringly at odds to think about as some 'Hegelians' would have me believe.

I too tend to prefer the "flowing" aspect of composition that you mentioned. I think I was about 14 when I bought my first classical LP: Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade (but followed not long after by Bach's Toccata and Fugue). I'm somewhat averse to obtrusive ostinati in film music wherever it seems to me to be an instruction to march along with the metanarrative, "Simon Says" style. Perhaps my 1960s rebellious streak has never really gone away! Lol.

I agree with your comments about the strong probablity that Elfman, Damon & Afleck benefited from some serious help in the coming to prominence of their artistic endeavours. Indeed Wikipedia reports that Elfman had "orchestration" help from Oingo Boingo's guitarist and arranger, Steve Bartek, in the scoring of Pee-wee's Big Adventure. (Barf.) In the commercial arts, especially film and popular music, who knows how much crucial and pivotal "help" has never been credited or even spoken about? I'm guessing it's actually an awful lot. Some people need public accolades and adulation; others don't. Nevertheless I'm convinced there's plentiful evidence that Elfman has been a creative powerhouse in his own right. I still say, however, there's an unusually strong 'chameleon' aspect to his creative output. For my money, I've no idea who he really is or where he's really coming from. Of course that's just my three Ha'pence worth.

William, the whole of your first paragraph speaks for me also. I'd love to add some expletives of my own but I don't want to upset the Moderator, Lol.

One of my top fav Hermann compositions is Scene D'Amour from Vertigo. For me it's so very Herrmann.

Williams conducts Herrmann's Scene D'Amour (Vertigo)

But we could go on forever about superb examples of Herrmann's works.

I should perhaps point out, my use of the word "channelling" in the title of this thread doesn't quite mean "imitating." The Oxford Dictionary in my iMac defines the usage I intended pretty nicely: [verb, 2 (ii)]:- "emulate or seem to be inspired by: [e.g.] Meg Ryan plays Avery as if she's channelling Nicole Kidman." Listening to Elfman's concert suite Senerada Schizoprana, I simply couldn't escape the feeling that several of the pieces are very clear and very strong tributes to Herrmann - so much so that the word "channelling" might not be adequate, but I've chosen to use that word. Anyway, Elfman isn't shy about naming Herrmann at the top of his list of musical influences.

But to get back to the question I posed as the title of this thread. Yes, perhaps I over-egged the possible implication that Elfman has always and only channelled Herrmann - which clearly is not the case. But my point is, what's Elfman up to now, with this - for him - very uncharacteristic style in this trailer? My guess is, he's recognised that the HZ/JXL bish-bash-bosh droney hybrid bandwaggon is where the big money is these days, and he's definitely up for a bit of that.

If we're to be fair, we know we shouldn't try to typecast actors or writers or directors or composers. And yet isn't there always that nagging question - is so-and-so really suited to this, really capable of this?

In the case of Elfman, as I said in my OP, I quite like what he's done for this trailer ... but then again, I'm wondering - "well yes but it's just a trailer; what about the whole film"? Is Elfman really going to convince the Zoomers, for example, that he can speak their lingo, tune into their attitudes, lead them emotionally? Like Elfman, I'm a Boomer; also, I like to think Boomers have something pretty major in common with Zoomers (i.e. people younger than 25 today): both these generations have grown up feeling somewhat alienated from - or by - the rest of society, albeit for different reasons. Maybe that'll work in Elfman's favour for this film; we'll have to wait and see.

I recall many lame, grotesque or laughable attempts by film composers back in the '60s and '70s to engage Boomers with what was painfully obviously supposed to resonate with our own musical vernaculars. Oh dear God! Talk about cynical (or just desperate) speciousness! And I could mention a certain ex pop-band synth-player working as a 'film composer' today who seems to be up to the same kind of tricks as I've just mentioned - but I've no wish to risk perturbing Errikos' peace of mind, Lol. But I digress.

Well, maybe this film will be Elfman's gateway into the future; or not. Only time will tell.

I accepted  - and failed - the 'assignment' you set for me, Errikos. Just now watched Good Will Hunting for the first time. Jesus H .... how in God's name did I miss that film?!? About half way through, when Damon's and Williams' characters were just beginning to connect for real, I was thinking - "this screenplay and Williams' acting are totally top notch, I'd give both an Oscar"; then paused the film while I looked up its awards and was gratified to find myself in tune with the Academy Awards nominations and voting back then (unlike today). The cue you mentioned: Elfman nailed it superbly; no way around that. And I'm happy to hand it to him. But now having heard his answers to that and several other cues in this film, I wouldn't even want to try to compete with those (and yes I know that's me copping out in a very amateur way; but hey, I'm not a pro composer and have zero aspirations in that direction).

Even so, much more generally, I can't say Elfman's works are anywhere near being my cup of tea. Maybe they're just too U.S. for this Brit; maybe the majority of the films he's scored put me off him because they're just not up my alley. I don't know. Of course that's just me; I truly hope you don't feel the slightest need to defend your feelings and tastes vis-à-vis his work - different folks, different strokes, as always. I'm ok being the odd one out by not feeling drawn at all to many of the hugely popular movies you've mentioned. Pro composers, like lawyers, must of course commit their fealty to their clients and, to a large extent, to the 'industry' in which they work - another reason I'm happy not to be in that game. (I'm glad to be done with prostituting my soul since the Cold War ended).

In the realm of commercial art, yes indeed there can be no doubt Elfman has been prolific and very successful. I'm probably stupid (and I dare say a bit snobbish also) in too often having focused only on the criteria (including originality) by which the great composers have been judged, in the very different realm of the fine arts. No doubt that has something to do with me growing up in a household where music everyday came almost always from the BBC Third Programme (their classical music channel).

Just another word on this particular film: I probably related to it more deeply than many because I was born and raised in Cambridge - the original one. And although the film focused on Damon's character's very working class cultural environment and its influences on him, I was intrigued to see so many recognisable aspects of the manifiold disparities between "town and gown". A great film, and thank you so much, Errikos - you've made a most welcome addition to my list of all-time fav films.

[Edited 21/6]

Have a listen to Elfman's trailer theme for Dr Strange 2 (play pointer is preset to start at 20:42).

 YouTube - Dr Strange 2 - Trailer

Hear any Herrmann? Me neither. What a relief!

This is by no means to cast any aspersions on Bernard Herrmann's legendary works. It's simply that Elfman isn't Herrmann. That said, "tribute acts" have always been around in the commercial arts, and I suppose we shouldn't try to judge all film scoring as if it belongs to the fine arts.

It seems Elfman is now trying to aim the appeal mostly at Zoomer gamer mentality, largely by channelling HZ, JXL, Mussorgsky (Bald Mountain) and Richard Strauss (Zarathustra), among other resources.

Well actually, this Boomer quite likes this trailer, score and all. That's partly because Elfman seems to wear the mantle of today's pseudo-visceral bish-bash-bosh style of hybrid scoring for Zoomer gaming-addicts quite well; and partly because I enjoy the work of lead actor Mr Cucumber Patch (as my better half calls him).

Perhaps those who've already seen the film and have a musical ear will tell me, "nah - he's still sucking Herrmann's blood". Ah well, c'est la vie. In any case I'd be interested to hear what you made of it - trailer or full movie score.

Thank you. Melodyne has been helping me get somewhat 'forensic' in my working with audio samples for over 20 years now - it's the real "detective" here, lol.

Just discovered that with Syz Dim Violins 1 & 2, I can get them sounding phasey in unison if I have Humanize switched on in one of them but off in the other. When Humanize in both is switched off or on, there's no phasing! I'm pretty sure VSL has been very crafty as well as very pragmatic, and my hat is off to them for that. I can think of certain tricks that might be in use but since I've no wish to risk giving aid to VSL's rivals, I'll keep shtum.

Oh yes I know what you mean about auto-suggestion in this line of work - sometimes it's like having a built-in comedian who gives me a good laugh at myself; other times it's good anti-gaslighting practice for dealing with pesky narcs, lolol.

The case of Syz Appassionata Violins 1 & 2 seems to use different crafty tactics: mostly borrowing a sample from an adjacent pitch - see attached Melodyne screenshot (same arrangement as with Dim Strings testing above, but here with a few more notes in the chromatic scale).

I've never looked into this Violins 1 & 2 situation before and I'm grateful to you for having pointed it out. On the one hand, VSL have used their crafty tactics so well that I've never had cause to investigate it (and have unknowingly benefited from the price and storage advantages which come from these crafty tricks). But on the other hand, now that I'm aware, I'm prepared to find ways of going the extra mile in pursuit of even better realism whenever I feel a need for it.

Good to know you're still here and interested and bringing to bear your well-seasoned expertise, Plowman!

Dietz, a thousand thanks for finding and posting this wonderful overhead shot!

It's now included in my overall spatialisation planning diagram in Affinity Designer - incredibly useful and precise, and especially because it shows the (von Karajan?) seating plan which I prefer above all.

Thanks for the heads-up, Plowman. Very interesting.

Having compared the patch text files as you've done, and also having done some testing with Melodyne, I concur; they do indeed appear to be the very same samples.

Strange thing is though, I haven't yet been able to get them to sound phasey when played in unison. But I'll keep trying with that because of course it's crucial to know if there's any chance of the phasing horror.

Alas I've no way of going back to see if it was the same situation in the pre-iLok library, either Synchronized or VI. Perhaps someone will help us out with that question.

To corroborate your observation, I've attached a Melodyne screenshot. This shows a note by Player 1 in Violins 1, followed by the same note by Player 1 in Violins 2, in a chromatic scale. In both Synchron Players I used default Mixer Preset and switched off all mixer channels except for Player 1. Velocity was 100 for all notes, with Vel.XF and Timbre Adjust switched off in both players. The articulation played for both was All Players/Regular/Long Notes/Sustain/Regular vib. The yellow/red blobs show the amplitude envelope, and the black lines inside show the pitch oscillations of vibrato - except for open G string. For every pair of same notes, the amplitude envelopes and the pitch variations look identical for Vn1 and Vn2. (Also clearly shown is where one sample is used for two adjacent pitches, which has long been a familiar technique in high quality sample libraries.)

I'm still thinking through possible consequences for my usage of this library. Overall I'm currently feeling that I'd prefer not to have this situation - though I suspect we'll have to put up with it.

"Are we nearly there yet Daddy?"

Lolol.

Someone said that the really talented artists working in Hollywood tend to "over-deliver". Surely that can be said of Basil Poledouris, as well as the director, John Milius (who also directed Apocalypse Now), in terms of their superbly sumptuous contributions to this film. I like what the top reviewer said in the film's IMDb page:

"... the real stars are Poledouris' score and the cinematography. I have never seen a more beautifully-shot film in my life. ... They could take all of the dialog out of the movie, and just have the music and pictures and it would still be worth watching."

Poledouris' classmates at USC's School of Cinema-Television included George Lucas and John Milius. Normally I'm skeptical about giving Academia any credit in teaching the arts; indeed I suspect it's all too often a case of how well students manage to protect their creative talent from being substantially damaged by 'academic molestation' while at college. But in this particular case, I found it inspiring and encouraging to hear what Milius said of Irwin Blacker, their teacher at USC:-

Blacker would say, "I can't grade you on the content. I can't tell you whether this is a better story for you to write than that, you know? And I can't teach you how to write the content, but I can certainly demand that you do it in the proper form." He never talked about character arcs or anything like that; he simply talked about telling a good yarn, telling a good story. He said, "Do whatever you need to do. Be as radical and as outrageous as you can be. Take any kind of approach you want to take. Feel free to flash back, feel free to flash forward, feel free to flash back in the middle of a flashback. Feel free to use narration, all the tools are there for you to use." 

So-called "programme music" is designed to accompany and support an external narrative - such as that of a screenplay. And I regard the other, more 'classical' kind of composition as dealing with internal and often very deeply subjective narratives. But notably, Poledouris' piece here seems to me to span these two types with ease. Moreover, for me, his fluent switching between different rhythmic signatures stands out by not standing out; how often do we find less talented composers than him making a somewhat obvious and clunky mess of time-signature switching? And last but not least, he manages to evoke visceral engagement in powerful, almost Beethoven-ish ways, without needing today's HZ-ish incoherently-violent special effects. 

I agree, William, Poledouris was one of the most gifted and talented of US composers - though also, I'd take no issue with native Greeks who'd want to claim him as 'one of their own', as it were (just as Sweden, Latvia and Germany can claim some credit for Holst although he was born and raised in England).

Two points:

 •   Yes of course some of the older technical tools and materials in this game are still highly effective today - VSL's VI and MIR collection being a prime example. In my case, back around 2001 I bought a couple of Best Service Pro Sample CDs (Vol 11) that were a 'special edition' of Siedlaczek's Adanced Orchestra sample library. A bit later I upgraded to the full Orchestral Collection; it's all still pretty useful today though no match, for example, for the superb flexibility I now have with VSL's Dimension Strings and Dimension Brass.

 •  Some while ago I assessed this young lady Youtuber to be a card-carrying member of the "Simon Says" club as far as her craft and 'art' in digital scoring go. And I found her music to be strewn with trite, fatuous and banal rule-based clichés, just like her approach with her technology. However, she is somewhat perfidious, suprising and contradictory in one respect: she somehow got herself into the biz, despite appearing to be just another average also-ran in the field of wannabes. I'd love to know how that really happened (I'm not convinced by her anodyne account of that). And now it seems she's taking the role of "Simon" in her club - quite a turnaround!

Alas, yes it does seem we are reiterating the era of Roman bread and circuses, whereas I'm wishing we would get back into an evolutionary cultural line descended from the great storytelling art of the classical Greek didaskalos.

I see it as poetic justice to accelerate the process of this court case eventually becoming reshaped into a formally fictionalised, stylised and structured theatrical drama, given that one of the protagonists has sought to destroy the life of the other by weaponising her own Histrionic Personality Disorder as well as her 'professional acting skills'. She fully expected the world to believe her farcically coarse-acted diatribe without adversarial examination and question. She seems to believe that Tinseltown's theatrical trickery is a legitimate and blameless way of behaving in real life.

Some of her poppycock was easy to debunk, making a comedy of certain parts of the court case. Yet there is another, far darker side to her 'evidence', perhaps stemming from her Borderline Personality Disorder (hugely overlapping with Narcissistic and Antisocial Personality Disorders - the so-called "Cluster-B Disorders"). And here lies the tragedic aspect of the destructive and perverting impact that mental disorders of this kind can have at any level in our communities, societies and cultures.

The evil that can arise from these particular disorders is all too often interpreted by uninvolved and uninformed people to be simply "accidentally ill-conceived or ill-judged" actions, perhaps forgiveable in view of the circumstances, and perhaps mitigated by hope that the perpetrator will reform or in some other way be redeemed from their "mistakes". But unfortunately for the world, these kinds of actions are neither accidents nor mistakes; nor is there any realistic, practical hope of the perpetrator becoming reformed. The idea of throwing the dead body of Ajax out of the city without a burial ceremony is more applicable here - or, as one trial lawyer recently put it: "I'd want to see her expunged from society."

The ancient Greek playwrights never mixed comedy and tragedy. Up to now, the current court case in question has been treated by the general public largely as a comedy. If I were to score a drama depicting a case of this kind, I'd be looking to mark particular moments of defamation and perjury with horrific revulsion; the tragedy I'd seek to show lies in our current failure to recognise the reptilian evil from which these cases of 'bloodless murder' arise.

This is the first example I've found of a carefully curated montage of video clips from the current Big Trial, with no added narration other than music accompaniment. I'm hoping other, better examples, will follow.

[Warning: this video contains graphic images, strong language and descriptions of domestic and sexual abuse; some viewers may find it distresssing.]

Depp v Heard trial; The Guardian's video montage with piano accompaniment (8 mins)

Why this sad piano piece? I have no issues at all with the piece in itself. I'm questioning the appositeness of the piece in this video montage. Yes of course one could say the whole of this trial is a terribly sad, indeed tragic reflection on the lives of the two protagonists. But it's not as simple as that.

I'm calling The Guardian's choice of musical accompaniment here a typical cop-out. The Guardian is not known for lusty, emotionally-invested, red-blooded engagement with its news stories; they typically prefer to stand off at a safe distance - i.e. aloof - and proselytise or censure on intellectual grounds. But this trial has raised very many issues that cannot be understood or dealt with adequately by intellectual means alone, and certainly not by taking an aloof stance as suggested by this music.

The Guardian is a moderately left-leaning mainstream news corporation based in London. I don't regard myself as left-leaning, but having known The Guardian (among other mainstream news outlets) all my life, in my opinion I'd say their target demographic is largely petit bourgeois clerical and other administrative types, as well as any who prefer to intellectualise rather than engage with heart and soul in life.

Currently I happen to be closely following the new and unprecedented so-called "Law Tube" on YouTube (which is not the name of any particular YT channel but covers the many trial-focused lawyers who have been posting widely-viewed videos, individually and collectively, on this trial). Trial lawyers are not emotionally-desiccated, soulless creatures - they simply cannot be that way in their line of work. They fight, heart and soul, in the 'ring' and in the 'trenches', although intellectually they must also prepare carefully and thoroughly for their fights. They all agree about the heavy emotional toll taken by their main role in court. Their professional-insider insights and commentaries that have been popping up abundantly in Law Tube are just not available in mainstream news media.

I seriously doubt if many trial lawyers - the real movers and shakers in any courtroom drama - would be satisfied by this sad and aloof (one might even say cowardly) piano accompaniment chosen by The Guardian.

As for the people en masse, they understand drama - they can naturally live and breathe its depths and textures and colours and dynamics. And they love to watch drama on screen. Will they be satisfied by The Guardian's musical cop-out here? I think not.

What say you?

At what I now know must have been about the time of the passing of Evangelos, I felt and followed an impulsive urge to play certain scenes from the original Blade Runner film. I probably caught peripheral sight of Vangelis' name somewhere while I was browsing the web but wasn't consciously aware of it. I just acted on a strong impulse to revisit certain extraordinarily atmospheric scenes from Blade Runner that have always had a cherished place in my memory. A few days later I was surprised and saddened to discover news of the passing of Evangelos.

The originality of Vangelis' music and sound design has always been unquestionable. For example, how many soft synths don't include various factory patches that attempt to emulate certain sounds that Vangelis designed and used in the original Blade Runner film?

His music has universal accessibility and potential appeal. Vangelis clearly was not interested in signalling any sort of exclusivity in his music, nor in aiming at any particular demographic sector. His music was made for anyone and everyone. He will be missed.

First I listened to your whole suite, playing your Cthulhu Youtube playlist all through from start to finish. At various moments while just listening to this profoundly evocative music, my imagination started itching for some visual narrative also.

Some time later, I wondered what it would be like to stream Cthulhu while also streaming various Youtube videos relating to the current "big trial", either directly from the courtroom live video feed or from other Youtube videos relating to the trial. Your Cthulhu played back in one Chrome tab, while trial-related videos played back in other Chrome tabs. Sometimes I selected various Cthulhu moments while letting one video play back naturally; at other times I selected various video moments while letting Cthulhu play back naturally.

These were all simply realtime streaming experiments; I haven't attempted to record any combinations.

I can only report that during these dual-streaming experiments there were many, many superb coincidences of visual and music narratives. For me, all of these coincidences evoked and strengthened the drama of attempts to reveal the real Cthulhu, the real, horrifying monster. That revelation is dramatic enough, but confronting the foul, cunning ways in which Cthulhu attempts to assert control, and to conceal itself and throw suspicion and blame onto others, are also deeply dramatic. These disturbing and dramatic elements are brought out in especially vivid, sharp and meaningful contrast by virtue of apposite accompanying music. Your "Cthulhu" suite certainly has that power, William.

"Cthulhu" is a powerfully evocative symphonic fantasy suite - either on its own, or as an accompanying score.

Right now I must get back to the closing arguments being streamed live from the courtroom!

Dammit, when it's all over I hope someone puts together a highly dramatic video edition of the trial and relevant events, and asks to use your "Cthulhu" for the score! (It won't be me, I'm no video editor.)

The reassuringly complete competence in composition and production here played a great part in my unreserved engagement and enjoyment of this suite. Thank you for this very fine work, William.

I've been mixing various parts of the suite into various recorded video extracts and also the live video of a certain court trial going on at the moment. For me, William's horror-themed suite here works magically in giving my feelings and emotions greater strength, depth, clarity and contrast.

As one of millions of observers of this trial, it seems to me the trial is about trying to expose the "Great Old One" - Lovecraft's Cthulhu. William's suite works so very well because it addresses the multifarious deceptions of covert evil, and, corespondingly, our muted suspicions as well as our direct recognition of evil exposed. There is a wonderfully complex interplay of sub-narratives and surface narratives, both in the trial and in William's Cthulhu suite.

I was reminded at many moments of the fabulous partnership of A. Hitchcock and B. Herrmann.

A profound suite with much magic and scintillation. Bravo and thanks again, William!

In the case of 5 different-size timp patches in one SP, what you want won't happen - cuz it can't happen. Try de-activating summing for the column then have a look at the note range for each patch. You'll see they don't all overlap. You might get 2 or 3 patches sounding for any one note, but certainly not all 5 on all notes in the overall range shown when summed. Yes, one might say the summed note range shown is misleading, but surely not if you look and listen for (or know) which patch or patches are playing on each note.

In the 5 x SP case, did you have a different-size timp in each SP? If so, how did you get around the fact that they don't all overlap in note range?

When JXL made that very noisy and very busy Taiko sample library which HZ and others use, a HUGE number of individual Taiko hits were individually recorded for the purpose of emulating a huge ensemble. (Somewhere he's described how he made that library but I can't recall where I found it.)

William, nothing wrong with a 'cheeky' bit of pertinent research and doxing, lol. I also enjoyed the Python-esque humour.

I'm also amused by the use made in the OP here of the quotes of your previously positive reviews. I seriously doubt if the same sort of usage of intially enthusiastic, supportive and encouraging quotes from investors and others who at first believed in Elizabeth Holmes' "Theranos" enterprise, was even remotely contemplated by Holmes' defence lawyers during her subsequent trial for fraud. Such anachronistic usage would have been laughed out of court. But then again, the writer of the OP doesn't seem to want to notice that he's busted himself by the very nature of his own attacks. It appears he claims entitlement as the 'presiding judge' and the 'jury', as well as being not only the 'defendant' but also the 'plaintiff'! Grandiose sense of entitlement and gross disregard of boundaries tell their own tales.

I'm still amazed and amused by the fact that I didn't have him in mind in my pro-v-amateur thread before he leapt in. But talk about "if the cap fits, wear it", lol. He jumped in out of the blue and attacked me, as if to say "look, I put the cap on and it fits so I'm now wearing it, which is all your fault". Lolol. Priceless! Externalisation of blame much?

Yes of course we should be holding onto a reasonable sense of perspective. Yet we few individuals don't have the power to change global warming nor the ugly and tragic advent of miltary invasion. What we can do, however, right here and right now, is courageously and positively address wrongs perpetrated in our beloved little parish here. And I'm sure we will continue to do that - without of course rocking the boat so much that the VSL Moderator has to intervene.

I'm inclined to remind the writer of the OP here that no adverse reviews of his musical offerings is not necessarily good news - regardless of whether or not he desperately needs to interpret it that way.

Just a small side-note here on the releases of new VSL libraries while many customers are waiting for M1 native coding in VSL's current software products.

Library editors, whose painstaking, highly skilled craft and art play a huge part in making VSL's sample libraries world class, aren't necessarily also skilled in programming and coding software.

What were VSL's library editors supposed to do while all software hands were on deck working hard to get the iLok transition done? Just sit there twiddling their thumbs?

In the Internet - where traditional "cultural gatekeeping" does not apply - free expression seems to be possible. But that also means, in participating in this amazing new 'free-for-all' environment in which one may 'publish' to the entire world, that one must be prepared for free speech from others that is critical, contrary, chastising, chiding, castigating, etc - so long as it does not breach the laws of libel and slander to which virtually all advanced western nations adhere.

In so-called "Christian cultures", our laws as well as our social norms have for many, many centuries honoured the Ten Commandments, one of which is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."

Right now the whole world is privy to an ongoing court case in which the plaintiff alleges defamation against a defendant, and in which the plaintiff's lawyers are attempting to expose and unravel falsehoods used wilfully by the defendant in order to defame the plaintiff. Where it can be shown that lies, falsifications, deceptions, fabrications, etc, have been employed in order to sully, denigrate, besmirch or otherwise defame the reputation of another, our laws  - and (generally speaking) our societies - hold that to be culpable behaviour.

But on the other hand, honest opinion that happens to be critical of another is not (a far as I'm aware) legally culpable, insofar as it is proffered as subjective opinion and in no way employs demonstrable falsehoods. That's part of the price of having this new and seemingly limitless opportunity to publish to the whole world, unfettered, unfiltered and untramelled by traditional cultural gatekeeping.

It could be argued that criticism in the arts nowadays has a greater part to play than ever before, if we're to avoid being drowned by culturally ghastly offerings on internet, and if we're to do what we can to make up for the woeful lack of traditional gatekeeping measures today. Culture is, at bottom, essentially the archetype for all our democratic institutions and norms. However, to attempt to defame critics by libel or slander is still culpable, as also are, of course, attempts to silence legitimate criticism by threatening behaviour.

[Disclaimer: this post is offered as my honest opinion. It has no standing as legal opinion since I have no academic nor institutional qualifications in law whatsoever. I have a personal interest in this thread insofar as I have previously been verbally attacked - apparently in a defamatory way - by the writer of the Original Post in this thread.]

[P.S. One of the commentators on the above-mentioned court case, whose opinions I value, has made some comments that also seem apposite to our current issue here. E.g. see: "Criminal Lawyer Reacts" on YT, especially at the end where he talks about his own experience of a personal relationship with a narc.]

Errikos, oh dear what a huge giveaway gaffe by that vlogger! Lolol

P.S. Just thought of a (far too lengthy) subtitle for this thread:

"Will the next step force phoney 'composers' to finally get down to studying composition for real, or will they just  slope off and look for some other territory ripe for toxic exploitation and degradation?")

William, I'm grateful for your view on the possible future of orchestras. Yes, thinking of bicycles and celluloid film (and I'd add analogue electronics with vacuum tubes), I can now see it's highly unlikely that orchestras will disappear - at least not within the foreseeable future. Thanks for easing my anxiety on that quite a bit (though I'd still not rule out the possibility of death threats being sent to me by one or two extremely aggrieved orchestral musicians!).

On reading your deliciously cynical take on film producers, it made me laugh and I see the naive mistake in my too-generous assumption about when and why live orchestras are recorded for film scores! I guess their motivation is typically more a case of swanky commercial prestige, arising from keeping up with the Joneses.

Alas I'm unlikely ever to be able to fulfill your wish for an intonation utility; certainly not one that could emulate results of the intuition of a well trained, practised and experienced orchestral musician and composer such as yourself. I don't think so-called "artificial intelligence" technology is up to a task quite like that yet. My Situater serves in a precise but totally dumb way, in that it never tries to second-guess the composer. However, in the not too distant future a utility like Situater will perhaps benefit from something similar to the main feature of Hermode Tuning, whereby it detects chords and identifies them (using Hindemith's method), and automatically and instantly applies pitch modifications where required. That would indeed remove some of the inconvenience of Situater's current dumb innocence.

Errikos, you noticed of course that in the OP I kept away from certain (mostly speculative) causes and effects. That's largely because it was already getting too long and I didn't want to try encompassing too many topics at once. But I would certainly accept the criticism that the OP is thereby somewhat lacking in foundation, and if so, you have my unreserved apologies for that.

You've identified a highly pertinent issue:- how big or small a factor is ET v OI in so much of today's lamentable excuses for "composition"? In my opinion it's a huge factor. It's not hard to observe that people tend to get lazy and slipshod in their speaking and writing wherever slang and dumbed-down idioms are the norms - e.g. in Twitter and so many other online platforms. In my opinion, ET has had a very similar bad influence on all too many of today's writers of music - both serious and pop.

The "pidgin" I mentioned has long been for me a telltale sign that the music's writer has come to believe (or perhaps has always believed) that ET is sufficient unto itself - nuance, subtle inflection and tantalising glimpses of profound insight be damned. Henry Miller's books outsold the works of Shakespeare and Goethe put together and that's all that matters, right? I believe that focusing only on using ET as the basis of the language of music has necessarily robbed all too many of its users of the breadth, depth, richness and nuances of expression that OI has furnished for many centuries. And so it's hardly surprising to find that aesthetic taste in music is disturbingly thin on the ground these days.

Worse, I fear that ET has been and is increasingly being used as a cover or disguise by those phoneys who have nowhere near the strength, integrity, depth and sensitivity of character needed to write orchestral music as the greats once did, and yet who nevertheless harbour grandiose opinions of their own abilities and talent, and who insist on promoting themselves above others simply because of their grandiose self-image. It's all about stardom and celebrity, right? Fake it till you make it, right? Taken in isolation on its own virtues, ET is as specious and phoney a dissembler as these grandiose toxic wannabes are; hence for them it can be a Machiavellian enabler.

It's also notable how few of the great composers of the past managed to transcend the dire limitations of ET and write sublime, exquisite pieces for pianoforte. What are the chances of a great piano piece being written today that would rival those of Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, etc? I'd say nil.

If I may throw in one more metaphor, I believe far, far too many would-be composers today have given into the addictive temptations of ET as 'junk food', never mind that artistic taste, 'nutrition' and long-term health all take a serious nose dive as a result.

Anand, the Met in NY and the Royal Albert Hall in London, together with a handful of other very famous concert venues elsewhere, are hardly enough to support a 'critical mass' of competetively skiiled, highly trained and extremely well-practised orchestral musicians worldwide. Substantial charitable donations by sponsors have for a long time played a large and crucial part in keeping many of today's concert venues and concert orchestras going. And of course the demand for orchestral musicians by the multimedia industry nowadays is a huge help in supporting the profession. It's the future of this latter source of support that worries me.

Orchestral intonation is a big topic that I don't intend to go into here. But perhaps it may help to think of a skilfully 'coreographed' admixture of Pythagorean Intonation and Just Intonation. The more and further a composer modulates away from a single diatonic scale, the less able Equal Temperament is to mimic OI, and the more the sensitivity and emotional narrative of the piece is blurred, dulled and degraded by ET.

The digital revolution in music-making has already come a very long way. Is it done yet? I don't believe so. There is yet another quite radical step waiting to take its place in this revolution. But I'm not seeing this prospect with undiluted optimism and joy. This next step and its possible consequences have engendered much doubt, inner conflict and concern in me with regard to the future of real orchestras and orchestral musicians.

This next step I'm talking about is the option of using Orchestral Intonation (OI) in any and all digital virtual instruments in DAWs, including orchestral sample libraries and other digital technologies that emulate orchestral instruments. OI doesn't involve any technological breakthroughs - indeed technologically it's pretty tame stuff.

But here's the revolutionary bit. Innovation alters what is taken intuitively as "normality". Once an innovation has become naturalised, a different normality exists for those affected by the innovation. OI in DAWs would affect untold numbers of music makers who use purely digital means. Those who listen to DAW-produced music that includes OI would also be affected, perhaps even to the point where it's very difficult if not impossible for them to know whether the music has been produced by purely digital emulation or is a recording of real musicians playing real instruments. And so enters my concern for orchestral musicians.

I've long been puzzled about the continued absence of OI in DAWs. (Hermode Tuning is not OI - it's a hybrid of ET and OI.) Knowing that the technological implementation of OI is far from rocket science, I've come to regard the continued absence of OI in DAWs as a potential avalanche or a tectonic plate shift, primed but still waiting to happen - there will come a time when it can't be held back.

What might have been holding back OI as the next step in DAWs for so long? Could it be the exclusive vested interest that all orchestras have, i.e. that today only a real orchestra can render a piece of music in OI? Zimmer and others seem to have succesfully convinced orchestral musicians that they can and should contribute to the making of digital sample libraries without trepidation, since media composers who use such libraries are in many cases actually generating more work for real orchestras.

Film makers know that audiences appreciate scores recorded by real orchestras, and hence they're usually prepared to stump up the hefty fees asociated with recording a real orchestra. Would that change if DAWs had OI? Would orchestral musicians become very short of work - perhaps to the point where their profession would shrink drastically? I'd much prefer to think not. I am and will remain an ardent appreciater of the fine work that orchestral musicians do and I don't want to contemplate a world without real orchestras. But since I don't have a crystal ball, the question remains a worry and ever-present source of concern for me, as one who is in a position to trigger this next step.

Why then don't I just shut up and forget about OI for DAWs? The answer is I can't stand hearing the ever-downward trend in the musical quality of works produced only on DAWs. Far too many who call themselves composers nowadays clearly are far from fluent in the language of orchestral music - their works speak in a kind of pidgin. It's grotesque and depressing to see one of our great cultural treasures being debased like this. I know others feel the same way. And yet once OI in DAWs is a widespread reality, could that not bring about the eventual demise of real orchestras?

If someone could convince me I'm being far too pessimistic about this whole thing, I'd be grateful.

Viktor, as stated by Paul in various places, E-Licensed and iLok-licensed VSL products cannot be operated together in one computer; it's strictly either/or, per computer. And as far as I know, none of VSL's instrument libraries or players have the option of running under either E-Licenser or iLok; you'll need the version built by VSL specifically for one or the other of these two licensing technologies. Also, it appears that PE and all new VSL products now will be built for iLok only.