The O.L.C. (One Library Challenge)

Kel said:

Hey, a bit off-topic but, does anyone know where to find expression controls on sforzando player? Thanks.

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Woops, very late that I see this, but I'm not sure what you mean by that?
I'm assuming this heavily depends on the patch you got up. Other than that, I don't remember having had any troubles with using CCs like 11 for "expression". Then again, I don't remember much right now anyway, but sforzando is quite minimalistic and raw, allowing you to examine parameters and scripts fairly easily, I think.

Here's "Sky Battle" by A. Desplat with HO:
View attachment Sky B M2.mp3

It still needs adjustments and some parts are not quite there but I feel it's in a decent state.

WhiteNoiz said:

Here's "Sky Battle" by A. Desplat with HO:
View attachment Sky B M2.mp3

It still needs adjustments and some parts are not quite there but I feel it's in a decent state.

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it's good. Trumpets are the weakest thing in this library. Don't know what happened to them really.

With Hollywood Orchestra though these days you have to work with the room a little more than you would in Spitfire or Orchestral Tools libraries, or even Cinematic Studio Series recorded in Trackdown.

What I usually do for my HOOPUS is to set up a "room" reverb. Usually about 1.8 to 2 seconds. I send each individual section to it first. Strings hardly get any additional room verb, woodwinds more, Brass and percussion even more so you start to get some depth. Then, I group strings, brass, woodwind and percussion into their own sub bus (what Cubase calls "group tracks"). Then I send the groups to a hall reverb with about 30ms predelay and about 2.8-4 second tail depending on the speed of the music. That way you start to get the depth and it starts to gel a little more.

Lots of great samples in HO. It's been my main go to for years. Though I must admit lately I've been reaching for more Spitfire and VSL in my mockups, not because they are vastly better but just because I started to gravitate to a new kind of sound. But, HO is still my backbone in a lot of ways. I'll start there most of the time then transfer over to a different library if I need to.

@José Herring

All true. I really felt missing some more stabby staccatos in the brass in this for those blasting, abrupt tuttis. I think the trumpets are ok, just the brass in general misses some short(er) articulations, across the sections. Horns are still great, bones are so-so. They're ok, but a tad weird in general (artics, maybe some tone). SF has its gravitas and style, too. Synchron Brass sounds great from what I've heard. Maybe at some point...

HO is deep and very versatile. It does need its editing and production massaging, but it adapts very well (maybe except very soft pieces or ones that use very extended artics, a la SF). You can do the raw, scoring stage sound but also more produced, Air-y ones.

QLSO is similar in that way, limited by today's standards but so clean and well edited... Still some great sounds (woods, perc, espressivos, string shorts...). And KH next to it. Very limited but very musical I feel. Oh, well...

to bump the olc ...
this time versilian chamber orchestra...

dream of mice...

a rather spontaneous attempt whilst my stray cat snores happily

@mybadmemory , I finally will love to submit to the OLC clan (which I follow). I've just not had the inspiration to use just one Lib, but this last weekend I purchase Duality strings with EDU and vouchers as the motivation and wow, I kinda like the strings. I love VSL, but these strings are kinda cool.
Starting out with just a 'B' violin and moving thru the rest and giving a try for some articulations.
Cheers!
View attachment 04 Four.mp3

I’ve also just tried the OLC with Spitfire’s Orchestral Tools. I wouldn’t say I’m incredibly proud of the work but hey it got me to compose a piece of music.

Not only does the library have great textures and movement, but the included staccato articulations helps a lot into making it more versatile and complete!

So much fun to see this thread still being alive! Myself I haven’t actually made any music in over a year (just occupied with work and life in general) but the day I do I promise I’ll post something in here again!

I try to play everyday, on the otherhand for composing the goal is 7 pieces per year, so it's more inspirational than a chore. Music cannot be a chore. Love this thread.

My OLC with Arkhis

https://on.soundcloud.com/Kre27

MonsieurBasile said:

with Spitfire’s Orchestral Tools

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That's one interesting library

@Taron AI is technically one library, right?
Asking for a friend-bot.

Alchemedia said:

@Taron AI is technically one library, right?
Asking for a friend-bot.

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In case you weren't just joking: The thread is about working within limitations because it can be creatively invigorating to do that and helps us get deeper understanding of the tools that we already own. I don't think generative AI, that can spit out any kind of music that you prompt for, is the kind of creative limitation that we're looking for here.
I understand the desire to play around with it, but I don't think that kind of music will be welcome in this thread. I don't think much AI generated music has been posted on this forum yet but if that ever changes I certainly would hope it's kept in one place so that I can better ignore it. If you're looking for communities that are more welcoming to such experiments, then you'll likely find interested people on Reddit, for example on subreddits related to the tool(s) you're using.

To me, the point in creating this thread was to get back to the feeling I had when I started making music in the late 90s / early 2000s and the limitations in gear and technology put all the focus on the music instead of on the tools.

It was just so freeing. At first I worked only with the general midi sounds of my internal sound card. Then I upgraded to a Casio keyboard that sounded a lot better. After that to a Roland module. And after that to the Akai Miroslav library.

All throughout these years I always worked within the limitations of one self contained package. And partly because they were technologically limited, and partly because there wasn’t an abundance of options available, it was always about the songs and not the technology.

When I got back into it all five years ago, I was overwhelmed by the number of options, and the quality you could achieve if you just. got. the. right. tools. So I bought a lot. Started building templates. And eventually as many others just got lost in it.

I wouldn’t say this is a thread about preventing GAS specifically, but more about just reconnecting to the sheer joy of not worrying about the sounds but just write some god damn music that you actually like.

While AI is very interesting I think that is for another thread. This is about NOT focusing on the tools and technology for once, but rather on the composition itself. So for the sake of clarifying, let’s say that one tool here means one hardware or software sample based orchestral product.

MartinH. said:

In case you weren't just joking: The thread is about working within limitations because it can be creatively invigorating to do that and helps us get deeper understanding of the tools that we already own. I don't think generative AI, that can spit out any kind of music that you prompt for, is the kind of creative limitation that we're looking for here.
I understand the desire to play around with it, but I don't think that kind of music will be welcome in this thread. I don't think much AI generated music has been posted on this forum yet but if that ever changes I certainly would hope it's kept in one place so that I can better ignore it. If you're looking for communities that are more welcoming to such experiments, then you'll likely find interested people on Reddit, for example on subreddits related to the tool(s) you're using.

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That's the answer I was hoping to hear.

mybadmemory said:

To me, the point in creating this thread was to get back to the feeling I had when I started making music in the late 90s / early 2000s and the limitations in gear and technology put all the focus on the music instead of on the tools.

It was just so freeing. At first I worked only with the general midi sounds of my internal sound card. Then I upgraded to a Casio keyboard that sounded a lot better. After that to a Roland module. And after that to the Akai Miroslav library.

All throughout these years I always worked within the limitations of one self contained package. And partly because they were technologically limited, and partly because there wasn’t an abundance of options available, it was always about the songs and not the technology.

When I got back into it all five years ago, I was overwhelmed by the number of options, and the quality you could achieve if you just. got. the. right. tools. So I bought a lot. Started building templates. And eventually as many others just got lost in it.

I wouldn’t say this is a thread about preventing GAS specifically, but more about just reconnecting to the sheer joy of not worrying about the sounds but just write some god damn music that you actually like.

While AI is very interesting I think that is for another thread. This is about NOT focusing on the tools and technology for once, but rather on the composition itself. So for the sake of clarifying, let’s say that one tool here means one hardware or software sample based orchestral product.

Click to expand...

It's a VIControl thread for the ages. Instead of us bickering about what library is best for what you made us focus in on one library and people created some amazing gems.

Some real talent here. May AI never replace us.

Alchemedia said:

@Taron AI is technically one library, right?
Asking for a friend-bot.

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I was offline for a bit and still am, really, but a quick look into viC and I can't resist replying...
Although it's been more than adequately replied to already, while I do take it as a sort of joke.

Yeah, nah, not like it can be prevented for people to post dubious tracks here, the main point remains to use one single library- however one obtains it (free or commercial)- and hopefully show what they enjoy about it and can pull off with it, of course. "Let one single library shine!", so to say.

If you were to use AI to compose a track (midi), well...if you at least mention that it was done that way and it was truly using just one single library, I think it's alright. Weird choice, but it may showcase surprising things about a library, who knows?!

As passionate musicians we should never feel intimidated or betrayed by artificial or any means people may use to make music. Your music should and will be a revelation of yours you offer to us all and nothing can diminish this generosity. The commercial world will always exploit any and every way to take what it wants and must remain trapped in a never ending competition. It's a good idea to steer clear from it when it comes to what you love to do and understand that every time you share something, you weave your soul's thread into the world's tapestry, no matter what.

I had a sobering moment when I realized composing with the cinematic studio libraries was similar or maybe even slightly easier than using an SPC plugin! I also got the Roland SRX orchestra plug-in but I found it also to be quite a challenge - classic issues of sampling; always comes back to skill and experience. Decided to focus on CSS + CinePerc (as my ‘one’ library) and really learn it inside and out since I enjoy the moment to moment sound of it while in the process of writing. But I love the spirit of this thread. So many of my favorite compositions were created with what are now retro tools - we’ve already got everything we need.

I'd say that we have plenty, but these days so many film-scores rely on complex playing styles with little to even no "musical" composition that they gradually gnaw away on the perception that a "duty" library- like most of the old ones- could still "do the job".
I'm still waiting for a proper revolution in the virtual world that allows us to use or even create playing styles which allow us to express the full spectrum of our musical impulses and desires.
It feels to me like it should already have been there, but we shall see how long it will take for us to get our hands on it all, hehe. We may have to wait until the system can allow itself to vanish for the next step of our earthly progress.

Hi!
I released my little old project for zebra2. Absolutely free bank of orchestral emulation via zebra synth capabilities. 200+ patches, 4 years of work and still to this day. It would be mega cool to hear what you can do with it. If there is interest it could be usable in this thread.

What do you think?

Warm regards.