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Agitato I don't agree with that at all.  (Though I usually like your posts here!)  There are many examples of MIDI that are actually BETTER than live orchestra. One thing that is always happening is people compare a normal MIDI performance to the greatest orchestra in the world and then immediately exclaim "Listen! It's nowhere near as good!"  The reality is very few orchestras can play as well as VSL.  In fact, none of the live orchestras that ever did any of my music can begin to compare. 

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Everything is sounding right for levels and instruments in general, but there is a clarity and spacious quality that I don't remember even though I loved the "Old Mir" !   

Interesting statements by both Federico and Macker.  I think that the intuitive aspect of composition can go beyond any theory, though with study of theory one can get ideas.  I remember when studying music theory in high school parallel fifths were frowned upon. I immediately went home and wrote several melodies with all parallel fifths.  Just to be contrary.  With Williams, Federico is correct in that he didn't particularly "innovate" but his music is so perfect it doesn't matter.  I completely agree he is on a par with many great classical composers, and will be known for his great work in the future.   Bernard Herrmann definitely innovated, with his refusal to use the popular (among film composers such as Max Steiner)  Wagnerian leitmotif style, and instead wrote purely symphonic scores with extremely detailed orchestration.  But in general the knowledge of orchestral performance gained from the real world - like playing or conducting - is of huge value for a composer. It gives specific ideas about what exactly each instrument really does best, and that can inspire more ideas for composition.

After converting to the Ilok VI and MIR 3D I've been trying to organize my enormous, terribly disorganized MIDI/VE files.  In doing so I've been listening to various old files now played through MIR Pro 3D.  They sound startling and extremely beautiful.  Am I just imagining this or does a file from the "old MIR" now played with 3D sound different?   

I had a startling experience with the volume levels of MIR Pro 3D - I had a legacy MIR project that I had very carefully set levels for an entire orchestra of VI in Vienna Ensemble.  When I upgraded it to MIR Pro 3D I noticed - all the levels were zeroed.  I thought "Oh no!" and that everything was messed up. But actually when I played the entire piece the levels were almost perfect - within and across all the sections of the orchestra.  All I had to do for the rest of the mix was take the first players up a little, or a particular instrument that I wanted to emphasize.  It's extremely accurate for getting a basic level for every instrument of the orchestra - which in the past was very laborious.  

MIR Pro 3D is not designed for Synchron at all. It is for the "dry" sound of VI, other libraries or any audio input you want to use.  

You could use it with Synchron but the whole concept is that Synchron has its own built-in ambience of the Synchron stage, and using MIR Pro with that would be like washing additional reverb over the natural sound.   

MIR Pro is not for Synchron.  It's for either VI or other sample libraries/audio inputs. 

The default audio levels for instruments in MIR Pro are very natural and give a good basis for the mixing so you can tweak them to make an instrument stand out a little - like a first player or section.   

I am using MIR Pro 3D so far with a large orchestra of VI woodwinds, brass, Dimension brass, percussion, Appassionata strings, Chamber strings, Orchestral strings.  I think there may be a demo soon of the piece I'm working on (somewhat secretly - it's all very hush-hush at this point...)

Oh, sure, Dietz!

I just did my first mix with MIR Pro 3D and it is like earplugs were removed and total realism of sound is right there.  I am doing a really huge orchestral piece and it just blows me away how great this masterpiece of software makes everything sound.  Congratulations to the brilliant Dietz and the great VSL team  for this wonderful creation!  I am super excited by this! It may be the greatest thing VSL has yet done and they've done one great thing after another! 

That sounds like you had the same professor!  

Speaking of the Batman score, I thought a brilliant thing about that was how Elfman transformed the main motif - which is somewhat similar to Herrmann's motif from Journey to the Center of the Earth. He developed it completely differently, and all the rest of the music was different. But it was a marvelous effect with the minor key motif C-D-E flat-A flat-G, that at the end becomes a major key motif, heard instead of starting on the tonic, starting on the major third.  That was an example of a subtle development that was far beyond those bad academic criticisms Elfman was getting.   

I read that exchange when it first came out years ago.  i was extremely annoyed by the professor, because he was so obviously assuming Elfman is just an ignoramus who can't possibly write good music due to never studying. That was right after the Batman score which is an all-time great film music score. 

The problem with that academic attitude is it's completely false, as having a real ability to conceive musical ideas that are interesting is the main thing in composition - NOT technical knowledge.  And Elfman's ideas are fantastically good.  His musical technique is something that is trivial and easy to learn, once someone like him has that talent.  

But all the snob professors, who are so great in their learning, can't even begin to write anything that anyone wants to hear after the one pathetic performance with their wretched little college orchestra.  Even though they know everything!  I was exposed to one of these professors. I even played at one of the those performances. He was bragging about how there were no mistakes in the player's parts.  But every time I went up to him at the University, naively trying to talk about composing, he made me feel like a bug. a nothing.  Because i didn't have all the academically approved knowledge he had.  But his music was completely dull and dead.

That is the exact same thing this twerp was trying to do with Elfman.  It is laughable now, as Elfman is world-famous as a film composer and this guy is - what?