Sergio,

thanks for the information. I was not very helpful, but you were! :)

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Sergio,

1) You use this HDD for archiving. The way I look at this operation, its speed is not really that critical - especially if you schedule it to run at some "idle" time, such as at night. 7200 rpm = noisy, at least compared to 5400 and even 6000. I don't see why do you want exactly 7200 rpm for backups, therefore. 

2) Does the noise wake you at night, perhaps? Maybe you could simply reschedule your backups? It's not such a frequent operation, the way I imagine it.

3) Maybe you should invest in a quiet case instead of a drive? Nice bonus of this is that you reduce overall noise, not just HDD noise. I own a beQuiet case, and man it's worth the price.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Originally Posted by: William

Crusoe that is a good call as the level of the tom-toms was questionable.  I cranked them up, also adjusted their individual dry/wet to -45.12% in the MIR Vienna Konzerthaus GrosserSaal v2 Conductor position with overall dry/wet  at -35.44% and the Miracle Close Orchestral Stage Enhance default setting.  

Oh, I guess I can see the reasoning behind this. Thanks for the explanation!

Hi William,

I agree with the people who already commented - very impressive. Must have been quite a labour to create such a fluid MIDI performance.

Indeed, the piece reminded me of Mahler, those parts with a quiet harp (sounded very natural, by the way) for instance. 

Didn't see that organ coming, :) it felt right, though.

Those toms at 17:15 attracted my attention (they are concert toms, right?). I wonder if you are 100% happy with the way they worked in that part. This would be the only crticism, if it is, everything else sounded flawless to me.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Paul,

Quite fabulous, if I may say so. I'm not familiar with Stark Trek series, perhaps the main motive is somehow related to it? It does create associations with some cinematic grandeur. I liked how you developed the main theme, and how you used brass instruments to assert their statement. It sounded very natural and believable musically.

About the MIDI performance. Brass and woodwinds were all spot on, zero complaints. Percussion is actually fine, too. I just paid less attention to it, because my attention was captured by everything else. Strings were very good, too, but if I'd give 10 for brass, 9 would go for strings. I'm guessing this was no simple matter to blend the two libraries the way you did (I don't have Spitfire). 

Even in the last, busy part of the piece where you've got heavy brass and strings going at the same time, they are very clearly audible on their own. You achieved that in part by panning, which did work out in all of the piece, in my opinion, but also the voicing is pronounced so that there's no problem in hearing everything. 

I also listened to the previous parts of this symphony, and this is, in my opinion, a culmination in every sense.

Anyway, really impressive work. I'll check the score later (many thanks for publishing it!), I'm interested in that loud ending in particular.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Dominique,

Lovely piece, I enjoyed it! Can't provide any compositional critique, it all sounded right to me. The soloist and the rest of the orchestra are in balance all the time, I thought. On the technical side, one can notice the difference between the hall-esque ambience of the string and the "silently staged" bassoon. You did add reverb to the bassoon, but it still needed to "sink" into the scene just a little bit more. Which roughly means "less dry sginal/more wet", I guess.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Lokotus,

sorry to hear about your problems. I did experience noise blasts with VEP 6 back in its early days (several years ago). It never happened again since a long time now. Just to narrow down the investigation, let me ask you a few questions.

1) During the noise blast, do you see a spike in VEP meters? In Cubase meters?

2) Not likely, I guess, but could this be related to an (automatic) frequency switch on the audio interface? Maybe you could compare the "default" Windows frequency (if you use the same interface in Windows) and the frequency of your Cubase project. And anything related to a possibility of frequency change.

3) Did you try the ASIO guard advice? This is of general interest as well.

4) Last but not the least, what's the exact version of your OS ?

Regards,

Crusoe.

This is pretty much what I thought as well. At least this seems to be the case with the solo violin on top of everything else.

Regards,

Crusoe

Hi Jacques,

Fantastic job! I just don't know if I could cirticize anything at all, I guess I'm so excited by the violin(s) that you've played so well that I've lost my ability for critical thinking. Really, it all sounded quite right to me. Your interpretation made sense to me, too (to the extent of my familiarity with Boccherini's music, which is not too much). The dynamics, the tempo, it was all very organic. I recorded violin in the past (with a musician from an honored orchestra), and I think I understand the amount of work you've done for this. The violin was just tiny bit out of tune a couple of times, but even those imperfections didn't bother me as everything is too perfect in the sampled world.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi McArnes,

I asked a similar question some time ago, there was no "recommending" answer. Well, maybe there's one now, so I will just share my own experience. I use AMD Ryzen 1800X, and it does work quite well for me. Given its price, especially. My trail of thought was to save a bit of money for the data storage. If you are on a budget, I highly recommend to invest in high-speed SSD, such as modern M.2 and whatnot. Amount of pain you might get with slow disk storage is just immense. In my experience, this should be the number one priority. Once you got that right, spend everything else on a decent CPU. This is true with pretty much any product, but especially with Synchron series.

Regards,

Crusoe.

Hey Dave,

Thanks for the informative response, it actually expands my way of thinking about piano, specifically, how you tame the mids depending on pedal use (they are, indeed, a bit of a problem).

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Dave,

In contrast to what Tom said, I mostly thought about pathos :) Could be that I'm particularly sensitive to it (naturally) in music. There's a lot of expression, both in music itself and in the execution (those slight, but quite assertive tempo changes). I liked how the piece progresses compositionally, and with two parts it felt like a complete piece (although I guess there's some freedom for expansion there).

A couple of questions, if you don't mind. When the "main" theme, initially played by the piano, is repeated with strings added, those chords' harmonic balance changes a little, I guess because the the violins attract so much attention. Specifically, at 0:57 of the 1st mvt. And those recurring high notes made the rest of the harmony somewhat hidden to my ear, while it was perfect with the solo piano. Is this something you could confirm, or it's just my perception? Could very well be the latter.

Last note about piano - are you happy with the way reverb works on it? It seems as though it's in a different space compared to the rest of the ensemble.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Dave,

As it happened with your pieces before, I really did enjoy the development of the main theme. Basically, everything after the 1st minute was quite exciting to listen to. The 1st minute is fine, too, it's just where my attention was grabbed completely, and I was following (to the degree) the interplay.

Regarding the counterpoint. Seemed very clear to me, as Jasen already mentioned. The arrangement didn't sound that busy to me, maybe because this way of organizing the melodic lines is something I like doing myself (on my primitive level), and I often knew by heart when a new instrument is about to enter. So, zero complaints here. This leaning of mine might be contributing to my liking as well.

You mentioned somewhere else that you use standard editions only. Is that right? I thought that a few times those extra articulations from extended libraries could help (in terms of envelope and just plain amount of information). Not to criticize any specific moment, just recalled a couple of specific articulations that I used.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Jobauma,

this is an interesting idea, maybe even a meta-idea, not a complete work so I won't comment on the compostional merits. Did remind of Arvo Pärt's music a little bit.

My complaint would be about counterpoint, the voices compete (for atention) with each other sometimes. Also, maybe you could cleanup low-mids a bit (around 250-500Hz).

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Steffen,

both versions are pretty good to my ear, and I agree with MMKA on pretty much everything - I know what VSL is capable of, and yet there were at least a few times when I thought - man, this part is just great. SY strings sounded alright to me, although their somewhat anemic vibrato sometimes did make me prefer Alan's version if I were to judge and give scores. To your credit, it was barely noticeable, thanks to SY-zed strings (I guess).

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Leslie,

both works are equally convincing, very smooth sample-wise, and enjoyable. Solo violin 2 fits the pieces very well, too, I thought (I own it and therefore understand why you decided to go with it).

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Dave,

Even though the piece does have a theme (flute plays it), the piece improvises around quite free, for the fun of it. So it seemed to me, at least, and, of course, the name suggests that too.

Love the piano (live playing), those bold chords reminded me of Rachmaninov for some reason. My favourite moment is the quiet part that starts around 3:00. I called it "a moment when nobody watches". One moment when the music sounded strange to me was at 2:40, that unison. Not sure why it does, I can't see why it should stand out.

About the stereo field - it's quite wide, and with only two instruments playing it doesn't need to, I thought. Actually, it sounds fine on my speakers, but in the headphones the picture is just a bit disjoined, at least sometimes.

P.S. Indeed, as in those verses:

"...I wish you knew the kind of garbage heap

Wild verses grow on, paying shame no heed,

Like dandelions yellowing a fence,

Like burdock and bindweed..."

Dave, that's interesting. Not a unique experience, I suppose, but certainly not a common case either (I mean, the quality of the mixes you mentioned). My mixes are dreadful, for instance, so I use all the help I could. While a lot of aspects can't be used as a reference, obivously (William mentioned a few reasons for this, too), the balance between dry and wet is something I lose track of very quickly (because ears get used to it), and like to refresh using a trusted source.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi David,

I find it very productive to use a reference track for this kind of decisions. Excludes a lot of subjectivity. Well, if that's what you want. Sometimes subjectivity is desirable.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Oh, now I see, totally makes sense. In fact, I tried something of this sort, too (with harp, didn't work), and I even saw in a review of some harp VST something like "very nice sound, cuts through the whole orchestra playing loud". Hehe :)  

Hi David,

Relatively simple piece, if compared to your previous works that I listened to. Specifically, foreground elements are simple, but on 2nd listening I've paid attention to the background as well, and for me that was where all the interesting ideas are. I liked how rhtyhm is created by different orchestral combinations, sometimes affirmative and sometimes quite subtle. I also liked how you used marimba's lower register to blend in. 

The harp didn't sound that prominent to me as you write in your description. It does fit nicely, but prominent? Hmm, maybe I missed something. 

The performance was convincing to my ear (great job!), maybe the stage is just a bit too dry.

Good work as always!

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Dave,

Indeed, a certain degree of recreational outrage is audible in this piece, if I may say so :) The main theme is fairly straightforward (intentionally, I guess), but you've developed it in all sorts of other directions that were fun to listen to. I liked how during some busy moments the basses become very active and raise tension while still remaining in the background. Again, orchestral parts come and go quite skillfully and on purpose.

I'd like to separately mention that sound of a bottle being opened at 2:20 (and on). It's just fun :) I understand its purpose, actually. I guess it's a part of the original intention.

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Jerry,

I listened twice to get used to that combination of strings and percussion. The first listen suggested a few thoughts that are already mentioned above - totally agree on the balance, but my personal connotations attached to those instruments just didn't let me to concentrate on the music itself. Those percussive instruments just jumped out on me, and my mind was consumed :) But, on the second listen I was able to overcome this obstacle, and paid attention to that slightly "cutting" violin and overall fairly intense texture, delicately peppered by the world percussion that does its shadow work, I imagine.

So, being a fairly close-minded person, I appreciated the composition after detaching myself somewhat from the sounds and re-attaching to the notes instead. 

Cheers,

Crusoe.

Hi Gustar!

Quote:

I have been listening to your piece all evening and the part from 1:33 to 2:09 keeps making me smile. 

This was intended! Glad you wrote about this, and this reminds me of a quite similar situation. I asked one of my friends to listen, and her husband heard this very part that you mentioned from another room, so he came in and said - "what is this? I like it!" He didn't like everything else, though :). 

Thanks for the detailed comment, I really appreciate it. You are right about the mix emphasis, I was the one who specifically described it in terms of instrument balance. All the stems were dry (no extra reverb), and when I heard an intermediate version, it was so clear compared to what I've done in my own bedroom studio, that I've just locked on that and didn't care about the rest. Not that I'm unhappy with the result, on contrary, just saying.

Cheers,

Crusoe. 

Hi Paul,

Many thanks for taking time to comment! This piece was in the first ten I wrote, me thinks. So it almost deserves quite a high estimation you gave it, which I value a lot.

As for the mix depth, this was my own oversight, I think, because I didn't mention it to the mix engineer, and he was more converned with brining all those ambiences together (silent stage VI + silent stage DS + SY strings). An experience to learn from - don't assume anything, communicate instead.

Cheers,

Crusoe.