Have you checked out Hermann's Symphony #1?  I like it very much.  It is consistent with his movie music but not the same either.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT_KmqNVueA

Too funny Erikos.  You and I sound similar in many ways.  Thanks for your advise and probably saving me from more frustration and wasted time and money.  

I've also read a couple of things recently where people are linking their notation software with DAW via midi time code or rewire but I haven't come to terms with whether that would help or just be an unecessary complication.  I suppose the idea would be to handle all the fine tuning CC data in the DAW while just composing in notation but kind of at the same time?  It might take care of the problem of making corrections in the notation and having to realize those corrections in the performance.  

Quite true agitato although I'll not comment on Hans Zimmer :)

Another thought I've had over the years but never heard anyone talk about is that any similarity or references to classical repetoire only helps ground the music in terms of its familiarity.  So if they are concious borrowings or just instinctive they always serve the picture IMO and again bring some familiarity to the music.  

I'd again encourage people to listen to his concert music (especially the violin concerto) and I think you'll realize he's truly a masterful composer.  

This is a very interesting thread.  I don't have too much to add except to say that when I was in college it was poplular to accuse JW of plagarism and point out all the various themes and such that he "stole".  So for a long time that shaped my opinion of him.  However some years later when I decided to think for myself I came across his concert music and realized immediately that his music is his music.  

@William I also love Korngold and Hermann.  I appreciate other movie composers of that era like Waxman and Rozsa too.   

I too compose in Finale exclusively at this point.  I have taken the time to create some Human Playback expressions and use the dump library provided by the folks at Vienna.  I used to think what's the difference between spending hours in a DAW manipulating individual notes and phrases by adding controller data, etc and dong it in Finale.  And to some extent I still think this is true. 

However I've started entertaining the idea of buying a breath controller (TEControl) and playng all the parts in once I'm satisfied with the composition.  I've not heard more expressive realistic performances than what people get with those controllers.  The part that always frustrates me about using a notation software AND a DAW is if you decide to change something you have to touch it twice.  But I suppose there's no way around it.  

The other consideration is why you're writing and what you're writing for.  If you're writing with hopes of a live performance then of course you have to produce a nicely engraved score and parts.  Otherwise you could consider not using notation software at all.  

Yeah terrific piece.  Since we're talking about your music I've found myself listening to your variations on a theme by Beethoven quite often lately.  I absolutely love the journey that takes me on. 

I'll likely upgrade to 2014.5 in the next few weeks and hopefully that will take care of some of these issues.  Thanks for checking Andi.  I appreciate your diligence and patience with us. 

Hmmm.  I wasn't aware of that bug.  That's interesting though because when I use the keyswitches the Vienna team provided Finale seems to confuse CC11 with CC1.  In other words when I use a keyswitch to do a keyswitch/CC1 patch change it also sends the same value to CC11.

So I've figured out it is Finale inserting itself somehow (percussion maps I suspect).  I opened Reaper, loaded the SE drums armed a track and no problems with midi keyboard -> virtual keyboard mapping.  It lines up as one would expect.  So I need to understand Finale's percussion maps a lot better. 

well regardless of how the octaves are mapped I'll for instance press a B which is reflected correctly on the virtual keyboard but the C 1/2 step above causes an E an octave and a fourth higher to get pressed on the virtual keyboard.  So it's not even the same note.  Very strange and like I said I'm wondering if there's some strange mapping that Finale is inserting itself into that i'm not aware of. 

True Finale isn't playing.  It's a fairly new M-Audio keyboard Keystation 61 II. 

No transposition at all.  It's strange because some of the keys match up just fine.  It could also be Finale doing something goofy with it's percussion map which is another total mystery. 

I'm using the drums from the SE library and I cannot get my head around how the keys are mapped.  I can find the sound I want on the virtual keyboard then I go to my midi keyboard and the notes don't match up at all.  I press a "C" on the midi keyboard and a B or even an E is activated on the virtual keyboard.  Can someone help me understand how this works? 

Make sure you download the Human Playback Preferences for Finale Special Edition file.  I realize you're not using a Special Edition library, but it changes things like which controller to use for sustaining instrument volume.  I'm not sure if it's the same for Finale 2014.5 but 2012 has 3 options I believe.  CC7+velocity, CC11+velocity and CC1+velocity.  Something like that anyway and you'd want to choose CC11+velocity since that's the default for VSL. 

Perfect.  That answers my question.  I figured Sibelius First was limited in some way but didn't know how.  If I decide to purchase I'll definitely get the full version just as I have with Finale. 

Thanks again. 

I'm evaluating Sibelius as a notation/playback tool for myself because of it's seemingly better integration with VSL SE libraries.  The demo unfortunately is Sibelius First so my experience may not be quite the same if I had the full blown Sibelius.  Anyway one strange thing I've noticed is for example on strings I have to use trem. to get it to trigger a tremolo chamber strings sample rather than the usual 3 lines through the note which triggers a sustained patch really fast. 

Can anyone elaborate on what might be going on here?  Is this editable if this is expected behavior.  I'm a long time Finale user and still love the program but my frustration with its HP idiosyncracies and less than stellar integration with VSL is my motivation for really kicking the tires on Sibelius.  So far I'm pretty impressed really but I haven't delved too much into the actual engraving capabilities yet. 

Thanks for any help or guidance you can offer. 

It sounds like you're getting rid of your PC altogether.  However if you're not you could probably still use Sonar to drive the samples, etc. on your new mac over a gigabit network connection. 

This is terrific Alan.  Both musically and rendering.  Very realistic sounding.  I assume you have a full version of the clarinet as the timbre changes are pretty subtle and natural sounding as they would be with a live player. 

You'll use VE with Finale. 

One more question.  Your demo is with cinematic strings which I assume is perhaps straight keyswitches.  Does this work with VSL matrices where switching is a little more complicated? 

I think I would send an email to support and they can probably send it to you directly.  That is very strange that you can't see that file. 

Wow that looks great and takes alot of tedious work out of keyswitching with piano roll view and such.  I also assume it creates a "long note" such that if you start playback in the middle of the pizzicato section it would change to the pizzicato cell? 

I wonder if this principle could be applied to other DAWS?  I use reaper personally and am thinking about how I could do this with that DAW. 

That's very strange.  Andi's link takes me right to the following page.  The 6th file down is the one you want.  Also keep in mind my instructions don't exactly apply to 2014 as I read the 2014 instructions.  It's actually easier with 2014.  Anyway I think you'll be in good shape once you're able to download this file. 

Yes you've got the keyswitch dump expressions and could use them if you wanted.  These are intended to be used with non-SE patches or could be used with SE Plus where the HP preferences won't change articulations. 

So here's a sort of step by step for importing the HP preferences.  keep in mind it won't change the articulation library whatsoever.  It simply gives you a set of Human Playback Preferences that interpret the articulations and text expressions so they're specific to VSL SE.  So here we go....

Assume you've downloaded the Preference file from MyVSL.  You'll use the 2014 file but I'm using Finale 2012 so I have a different preference file.  At any rate the same process. 

1.  Navigate to HP Preferences.....

2.  Import the preferences by clicking on Import.....

3.  Select the file from MyVSL and click Open.....

4. Select newly imported preferences from Preference Sets management dropdown..

That should be it.  Experiment and see if it works for you.  Just start with one staff and add some articulations and some slurs and watch the sounds change in the VI player. 

You should probably move it to the Libraries folder. 

Then open an file and in the File menu you'll see "Import Library....".  Click that and browse to the VSL Keyswitch library, open that and it will show up as an additional category in your test expression tool (mf).