jsg - That sounds excellent, and an impressive amount of work! Very interesting also using the synthesizer addition. BTW sorry about my criticism a long time ago about the Gumby score - if offered that money I would have done the same thing and done no better.  I remember using gleefully any synthesizer or keyboard I could get my hands on...

Anyway, it is good to hear these different artistic compositions here on the Forum, and a wonderful benefit of VSL allowing composers to realize works that are otherwise either difficult or impossible to get out into the world. 

(Having been) a horn player in orchestra I was struck by that -  with Vienna Dimension brass and strings, all these players are so good, you can use any one of them to create some variation in your mix.  It is interesting how different each individual player sounds as well.

Yes, listening on headphones can be  distorting.

I hear no "boxiness" on percussion.  I used a slight decrease in individual wet on those to make it clearer.

That makes it perfect for using alongside of orchestral instruments in MIR.  The ultimate demonstration of this would be a recording of Saint Saens Organ Symphony which "surrounds" the orchestra with the rich sound of the pipe organ.    

You're right, the organ is like Synchron in that it is ready to go right out of the box with its necessarily built-in reverb.  I am not sure this is right but I believe the audible positioning of the pipes is also the exact stereo image you would have of the organ if you were in the hall.    

Paolo's idea is good. Another very easy way to layer stops and switch instantly is to create a new instrument in VI that has up to 16 selected stops combined for each keyswitched slot.  So you have 12 slots with 1 to 16 stops each if you want - on just one horizontal matrix instantly selected.  You can add even more vertically. That can be saved as an instrument for whatever composition and would have far more stop arrangements than a normal organ performance would call for.

The Hauptwerk is nice with the luxurious wood grain graphics etc. but not really needed that much for actual audio (unless you want one of those particular organs). Also the Vienna organ is so great with every stop and pipe sampled flawlessly within the awesome hall of Vienna Konzerthaus.  It's really one of the most perfectly sampled instruments in existence. 

Thanks Paolo and Macker, I appreciate your listening!  I've noticed .how it is so helpful to have a VSL performance when preparing a score, and I am getting to the point where I have to have one!  I can't stand generic MIDI note checking sounds, and so I am gravitating to using normally the detailed VSL sounds even for just checking typos and errors in the notation.  You just don't see all of them, but you instantly hear them.    

Macker, MMKA and Tom, thanks a lot, I appreciate hearing from you guys.  MMKA you are right about it being a difficult piece, I played horn on the first and so far only live performance, and received nearly fatal lip damage.  Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it has blistering horn and trumpet parts.   I did have some mercy and put the second, third and fourth parts down an octave in a couple places...

This is a piece that was really hard to notate the full score and player's parts for - symphonic band is so much more difficult to notate than orchestra, with almost every instrument in a different key, absolute necessity to have every instrument or no band will touch it, etc.  Also I had tons of errors in the score and parts, with all the enharmonics of trills for in different keys, etc., and it was a nightmare to correct.  But I survived doing it in Finale, and created a new VSL performance with MASSIVELY layered woodwinds and brass, using Dimension brass on top of solo and ensemble, and doubled or tripled woodwinds to create the large symphonic band sound as much as possible. It is mixed in the Teldex studio which seemed to have a large but clear sound that suited concert band - 

Concert March

I have a long standing project to get all my scores in some kind of printed playable form (instead of moldering pieces of paper on the floor) and completed this piece in score and parts, and while doing so decided to re-mix the VSL performance with a few tweaks - 

Achilles Concert Overture

One thing about combining reverbs -  certain venues in MIR can be used with the MIRacle close orchestral enhance, as an overall addition to the sound, and it works beautifully.  Though to use it, the convolution reverb  Wet must be turned down overall.   The advantage of that system is it has a richness but also more clarity than just convolution with more Wet.  For a while I was routing the Vienna Konzerthaus  Close Orchestral Stage, somewhat more Dry than default middle setting, into a Lexicon hardware reverb which had a Large Hall at around 40% Wet. This sounded really great and was used on a couple entire music library albums of mine. However, I discovered that MIRacle does the exact same thing without the external hardware and so have been using that on several mixes and love it.        

There was some talk about the celesta - it is a unique sound and I've had trouble with it. It doesn't cut through the orchestra like glockenspiel, but if you turn it up in volume the low/mid frequencies are exaggerated. This of course because of the close up recording as opposed to where it is placed in an orchestral setting.  I think I used an individual dry adjustment, and some EQ to tone down the low/mid.

Anyway I think overall it's sounding great and can just use some little adjustments to increase the clarity here and there.  The amazing thing about MIR is default settings are close to perfect! So if one does not stray too far from those, and just tweak things a little, it works wonderfully.    

Hi Paolo,  yes, I didn't hear that seeming wrong note either. It must have been an artifact.  This sounds great.  I was thinking you could go even drier on the overall sound but it already sounds as good as many orchestral recordings. It almost depends on what you want to emphasize.  Clarity or space.  Not that I am an expert - I struggle with that. 

Anyway, this is fabulous and should be in the Planets of VSL!  I am really impressed with what you've done.   

now - if only someone will do Saturn and Uranus!  (Or two people - easily quite enough for either...)

Paolo, that is so good!  I loved it.  It actually reminded me of how even this lighter movement of the suite is so evocative and atmospheric.  The Planets is a PAIN to do with MIDI - I know from personal experience because the orchestra is so big.  I did Mars and Neptune and they were hard!!!   So I understand how much you had to deal with.  It is beautifully done.  I felt there should be  more dry signal mixed in overall - like just a simple overall increase in the dry hall.  It seemed like a bit too much wet but that is easily changed.  I thought I heard a wrong note at around :53 - was there one? Maybe it was just some artifact.   The solo woodwinds around 1:50 could maybe be a little more upfront and louder as they got a little buried by the accompaniment and that long flute sustain could taper off instead of just hold.

But those are tiny changes - it is amazingly good, and it should be put on VSL site along with the other Planets.  If someone could do Saturn and Uranus there would now be a complete VSL Planets!     

That is a great post by MMKA about the organ!    It is such  complex instrument that learning how to select and use stops is part of the basic practice of the instrument.  So there is no instant trick to it any more than learning how to play any other instrument.   Though there are various registrations that are normally used that were sampled. 

,Also, to get the basic organ sound without the concert hall with the Vienna Konzerthaus organ you can turn off the release samples, and it works pretty well.  I remember doing that,  putting the organ into a different MIR venue and it sounded just like being in that venue.  It is not strictly kosher perhaps, but works because it is very difficult to detect the difference within the sounding sample, as opposed to the release.       

Thanks Errikos, I appreciate it.  

That was really well done!  I like the video - was that woman a ballet dancer?  She was very good.  Also, I didn't hear any problem with the music.  You are too critical!  I am also doing both film and music so it is great to see somebody else working on both.    

Dietz, thanks I'm glad you liked it!  

I think I was channeling Vienna because I had forgotten I used the reverse map in that scene.  I had a Baedecker guide to Austria circa 1908 that was the basis for it...

Seventh Sam - I love it!  

The fact that you will be rejected inevitably if the people at that station know it is MIDI shows a mindless, knee-jerk prejudice that in itself demonstrates the feebleness of the classical music establishment.

(edited after coffee consumption stopped)

What I would do in your situation is make up names and even identities of performers for the VSL chamber music recordings, and then submit them. If they were accepted it would be WONDERFUL to have them played - and then tell the fools at that station it was all MIDI. 

Wow, I'm glad Dietz understands all this and I can just use it... the end result is fantastic! 

"Hone their craft"?  Are they kidding? 

The reality is you give music to players and "hope their craft" will play it right. 

Creating a good MIDI performance is far more a matter of honing and perfecting than working with live performers which is mainly sitting and listening to what they do - for better or worse.

I have been very disturbed by rejections from film festivals - and yet the same sort of thing has to happen there as what you mentioned.  The ones who are most similar to what is "approved" win.  And  "lackeys" is the correct term - a local film festival advertised on Facebook for people to help select the "accepted" films.  In other words a doofus off the street is determining what is worth seeing.  The exact same principle has to apply to contests like what you mention.  It is total bullshit.  The normal state of affairs with art in a population of 7 billion.       

Hi Jos, that is a really charming piece and well-done with the performance!  I can definitely see a ballet choreography going with this - I hope that is going to happen.

Thanks a lot Tom, that's nice of you!  I have submitted it to some festivals - not sure what's going to happen with that though. I'm glad you noticed the noise track - I like film optical sound noise, and used that.  Somewhat perverse to add exactly what people desperately tried to get rid of in the past...