Maybe I'm not checking in the right spot, but I can't find anything "strange" on the A3 or A4 note. At least, not compared to the other notes, in particular in that same range (try F4, for example, if you want something odd).

All considered, this piano is all so "strange" – and in a very good way! – that it would not be easy to find something that is so in a special way.

Paolo

On High Sierra, I have this issue once each two times I run either a VSL product or Dorico. Sometimes just clicking Retry works. Some others I have to disconnect and reconnect the key. Some others I have to kill the synsopos process. And sometimes I have to reboot.

This happens, on three different Macs, since the first time I connected the eLicenser. You can't even imagine how tired I am of this situation.

Paolo

I can't understand how people can bear 96kHz nowadays. I can't even listen to things under 192kHz. I can feel all that aliasing! So, VSL, please, before going for low numbers, plan to offer us 192kHz samples, multi-channel and sampled in surround!

Paolo

Originally Posted by: Dietz

In these cases, the only "trick" you need to know is how to raise the level of all involved instruments by the same amount.

Dietz, would you suggest to raise the source dry instruments in the DAW/notation program, or the icons in MIR? Most often, my source instruments are already at 0dB, and I don't like to push them more toward the top.

I've not yet done experiments with very dense orchestral mixes. But in general I've been tempted to increase the level of the icons in MIR. I suspect this may damage the balance of the natural volume you have programmaed.

What would you suggest?

Paolo

Hi, I'm late in saying my opinion, but this thread is still very current.

Originally Posted by: littlewierdo

The Grassier hall (however its spelled, the super big hall) is tonally, a bit cold for my liking so I tend not to use it much

If you mean the Großer Saal of the Wiener Konzerthaus, I wouldn't call it cold. It is, instead, to my ears, incredibly transparent. It simply has no color. It has, on the contrary, luminosity.

Keep in mind this hall was conceived when Klimt was at the peak of his career. His was the color imaginary of the town. He attended to most concerts and was a close friend of most contemporary musicians (Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg…). Music couldn't not be influenced by him.

He treated color as a reflected ray, and created it with reflective surfaces (gold, ceramic mosaic tiles). The same seems to me to happen in this hall. Sound is reflected, not painted. It may change, depending on the atmosphere and the color you put in the middle. The hall will simply reflect it, transparent and faithful.

Paolo

Paul, thank you for your answer.

As for the arpeggiator, I think porting a modernized version of the APP Sequencer to Synchron Player would solve several issues.

And if you upgrade the APP Sequencer for Synchron Player, please don't forget to port it back to VIPRO!

Paolo

Paul, I just downloaded and installed the XP files, and see that a new folder ("Vienna Smart Orchestra Expansion Pack") was created in my main VSL folder.

Should it be separated, or can I move its content inside the older "Vienna Smart Orchestra" folder, to keep things together?

Paolo

Congratulation for the great project! This is the best way to go into majestic, yet less known masterworks. Thank you for letting me discover this piece!

Paolo

Originally Posted by: whlederman

have you ever comparing VI sound and Syncron ?  e.g Dimension Strings?

cause you should,then you"ll change idea

I have the SE 1/+ in both versions, and I base my judgement mostly on them. What should have I had to find in this comparison?

Paolo

Just a little experiment. Does it sound believable?

Paolo

Synchronizing older libraries makes a lot of sense to me. VSL samples have always been top quality, being perfomed by top musicians and recorded by top technicians following top ideas.

Their libraries have however been reserved to specialists. Even ready-made presets had to be known and used consciously. Mixing was required for positioning and reverb. They were not for beginners, despite the low price of the Horizon and Special Edition libraries.

The same samples, synchronized, are ready to use. Any beginner with a sense for the classical orchestra can start using and enjoying them. And they are compatible with the real Synchron libraries, in case they want to expand to them.

Synchon and Synchronized are not as flexible as VI+MIR can be. But since most beginners are asking for a big, cinematic sound, that is what is immediately provided with the Syncronized libraries without deactivating the space settings.

Paolo

Hi,

Something that I do a lot is creating my own presets in VIPRO and VEPRO. I guess I would do the same in SYP, if I used it more (and I'm already creating my own presets for it).

Something that would help creating and editing custom presets would be access to the preset files with a text editor. This would allow batch editing of several presets at once, for example to reassing control changes, or replace patches.

This could be easily done by saving presets as XML files. In case VSL wanted to still prevent easy access to inexperienced users, the native preset files could be zipped XML files, with the .zip extension replaced to something like .zvipreset. Advanced users could simply edit their files, zip them, then replace the .zip extension with the native .zvipreset.

This would save a lot of editing time, useful to make more music.

Paolo

OK, in the end I took a decision. Notes on the IV strings are the one most used when a string has to be specified. I would call "sul G" a very common articulation, while the other strings are a special case.

So, I added all the available "sul G" articulations to my universal presets. Not just a subset, but all the sustain, legato, portamento, staccato, détaché, marcato, dynamics, repetitions. As much as I'm involved with late-Romantic orchestral music, it will be useful to have them there.

The other strings will be used as needed, when needed, as à-la-carte articulations.

Paolo

I've seen that even VSL only supplies presets for the IV string. This lets me think that that one is the really important string, when wanting notes on a single one.

The lower string is obviously the warmer and more expressive one, so there are several examples of its use in the classical literature. I can believe the other strings are however of use when wanting that particular legato in the melody.

Paolo

I'm using a single intrument for each DS player. Since I'm moving to let VEPRO entirely manage my instruments, this way I gain more flexibility in creating sets.

The same DS Violins P1 can be used in an instance for the full Vni I, the full Vni II, or a divisi Vni I/a instance. If neeed, by assigning different MIDI channels to each mixer channel in VEPRO, each player can be entirely controlled via MIDI.

Paolo

Hi,

I'm continuing with building my own presets. After having completed the Regular articulations for Dimension Strings, I would like to add the sulla corda (sul G, sul D, etc.) articulations. There are two things I can do:

a) create a totally new preset for each string, each one mirroring the same complete set of articulations;
b) add a sub-set of sulla corda articulations to the main preset.

While I can do (a), I think (b) could be more useful for ordinary use, since you usually have to recall sulla corda articulations only for special situations. And you can have them in the same preset as the regular articulations. The complete set will still be available for finer work.

Am I correct in saying that I could be happy with only sustain, legato and portamento articulations? All of them in the vib, n.v., espressivo variants? These are the ones I can think of, when using sulla corda in a score.

Shorter articulations shouldn't be easy to distinguish, between the normal fingering and sulla corda fingering. Or am I wrong? Is a short détaché or staccato sul G very different from the regular one?

Paolo

Add to this issue the quality of design of the eLicenser software:

- no auto update detection (at least on the Mac);
- no way to sort the list of licenses using the basic functions you learn when first starting learning to code;
- no way to select and transfer several licenses in a single pass between keys.

Nothing against hardware protection. If done in a way that is not a real impediment to the user's work. 

Paolo

Again: impressive.

The worse reality shock, for a modern composer, is writing a passage in a notation program, and getting back some miserable fart from the virtual instrument. If you want the program to give you some musical meaning, you have to go to a sequencer.

This thing, on the contrary, seems alive. This is just a few bars played back by Dorico. An usual formulaic passage, not ready for production, but already living in its space and giving back some sense of the music!

Paolo