my quartet demo

[crr]

This is a suite I wrote for a string orchestra. I used the string quartet preset in GPO changing the second violin from the stradivari to the guarnieri because I prefer it. I also used the GPO reverber preset concert hall 2 changing the delay to 1000 ms and the cubase SL 1 compressor.
I used cubase SL on mac OS X 10.2.8.
I\'m an hobby composer and this is my first peace using a virtual library. I don\'t have a keyboard so I have to put every note by mouse. Probably using a keyboard is possible to have more expression from GPO.
The title is Dream of a mid-summer night.

http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/ (\"http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/\")

Any comment is welcome
thanks and happy new year
Michael

[rJames]

I get a Lycos redirect.

You might try a shorter title for each movement, taking out all spaces. And then give the entire link.

http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/movement1.mp3 (\"http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/movement1.mp3\")

[Shazbot]

Maybe it\'s just me, but these links take me to some Lycos page, which redirects me to another page with pictures that don\'t show up, and there is never any MP3 heard. images/icons/confused.gif

[Ian Westwood]

Shazbot, it\'s not just you! I get exactly the same.

Ian

[MozMaestro]

Shaz and Ian,

If you left click on the links you will get the redirection...try right clicking and selecting \"save as\". All 3 files were downloadable doing that images/icons/wink.gif

[scopey]

I *really* like these three quartet demos!! I\'ve listened to a lot of the GPO demos on the user demo page, but never found a quartet. This is the type of thing I was hoping that GPO could do, and your pieces prove that it can quite admirably. The first movement with its suspended-major-minor sound is brilliant and lovely. My favorite of the three.

Really, I\'m hoping that when my GPO arrives I can learn to create such beautiful quartets. CRR: B-R-A-V-O!!!

[nexus]

Very Good! You really should send these to Gary right away so he can put them up on his website.

I think you\'ve made the case for GPO being well suited to \'small\' works unlike some of these big expensive libraries.

[crr]

ok, thank you
the link are

http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/firstmv.mp3 (\"http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/firstmv.mp3\")

http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/second-mv.mp3 (\"http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/second-mv.mp3\")

http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/third-mv.mp3 (\"http://www.utenti.lycos.it/mcorradin/musiche/third-mv.mp3\")

thank you
Michael

[crr]

thank you very much to everyone, I\'m very happy to see that you like the piece and I hope there are no more problems to download them (I\'m using lycos because it\'s a web free space).
I have another suite ready and I\'ll try to upload it in these days: I\'m back to Italy for Chrismass and my father connection is not very fast. images/icons/frown.gif
Thank you again images/icons/smile.gif
Michael

[sirbellog]

Hello to all,
and first of all, I wish you a very good year 2004, full of music and joy.
As for GPO, it may have arrived at the home of most of you for this XMas, but it has not at mine.
----
Now, regarding CRR\'s 3 quartets that I all downloaded, well, I\'m a bit puzzled.
The music itself is quite okay to me, I hope I\'ll be able to achieve such consistent things.
But I\'m quite disapointed by the instruments, and surprised by the very positive feedback I read, to the point I must really wonder if my ears are bad or what : to me (??), the instruments sound very poor, totally unexpressive to me, very synthy, with nothing but very obvious and short loops (or ar these robotic/cyclic fluctuations in the sound supposed to be some kind of \"human\" vibrato ?).
I am very surprised, first, as I said, because nobody else seems to be disturbed by the sound, and then because the overall sonic quality in all GPO\'s orchestral demos I listened to convinced me weeks ago to order GPO... while those quartets(and once again, don\'t get me wrong, this is absolutely not the music in itself which would be to blame) would almost make me doubt.
So CRR (or other people already using GPO), may it be the fact that you did all this only with a mouse which is responsible for that sound ?
Did (or did not) you emulate controllers in your edits, such as sustain pedal, modwheel, which are told to be so important in GPO, or are your parts totally \"raw\", I mean, just pitch, length and velocity ?
That might explain the thing, and reassure me.
Thanks for any comment !

[yannitch]

Yeah it\'s most likely due to the notes being entered in by mouse, like crr says. IT\'s possible to edit those expressions by hand, if you have that capability in your sequencer, but learning to play the instruments properly on the keyboard or wind instrument surely helps a ton. Almost all of the libraries will sounds \"crap\" if all you do is enter in notes by hand like this, there\'s obviously a whole bunch more variables.

The compostion is great though. I think it has potential.

[crr]

syrbellog
I don\'t know what is your exsperience on virtual library, this is my first one as I said, before I used a roland JV1080 with an orchestra expansion and it\'s nothing compare to GPO.
As I said there I used the mouse and I don\'t have the possibility to buy a keyboard so I don\'t know what can be done but because I just put in my old files the GPO instruments and adjust something I can imagine that the result can be improved a lot using a keyboard.
I think also that it\'s probably necessary a background on virtual libraries to get a better result.
If someone want to try to get a better result I can send him the midi or the cubase files. The first and third movements are really simple so the edit part can go fast.
Happy new year to everyone and thank you for your compliments
Michael

[scopey]

CRR: Though my GPO hasn\'t yet arrived, I would love to experiment with your MIDI files (when I get it images/icons/smile.gif . Can you send them to urieow AT yahoo DOT com, thank you!

sirbellog: I appreciate your opinions-- I am also eagerly awaiting my copy of GPO. I\'m sure we all know that for $249 USD we\'re not buying a real orchestra, right?? To me, the dynamics and articulations that GPO offers seem to me miles ahead of what other sample-based products can offer. I love the idea that GPO is sold as a total product, not just a collection of samples that I have to invest much work in to sound good. By the way, I should say I\'m no expert with orchestral sounds or classical music. But I agree, the music is quite okay.

[scopey]

CRR: Though my GPO hasn\'t yet arrived, I would love to experiment with your MIDI files (when I get it images/icons/smile.gif ). Can you send them to urieow AT yahoo DOT com, thank you!

sirbellog: I appreciate your opinions-- I am also eagerly awaiting my copy of GPO. I\'m sure we all know that for $249 USD we\'re not buying a real orchestra, right?? To me, the dynamics and articulations that GPO offers seem to me miles ahead of what other sample-based products can offer. I love the idea that GPO is sold as a total product, not just a collection of samples that I have to invest much work in to sound good. By the way, I should say I\'m no expert with orchestral sounds or classical music. But I agree, the music is quite okay.

[sirbellog]

Thanks crr,
and other people too, for your replies.
-----
What worries me the most when listening to your quartets is to hear what seems to be very short, and noticeable loops in the instruments.
Or might it be a very fast built-in vibrato ? In this case, it sounds a bit artificial to me, too accentuated, or too repetitive, I do not know exactly, but something in these sounds make them unreal to my ears.
For sure, I cannot expect to have a whole orchestra, plus top of the line solo violin, viola, and cello for $249.
I already have a cheap orchestral software, Edirol HQOR, which does not sound bad, but cannot do everything because of missing articulations, etc... Nevertheless it\'s very expressive via velocity, and for most instruments, the loops are probably very short too, but also are very well done and not so obvious to my ears.
The whole library weighs probably less than 75 Mb (do not have it here on this PC to check more precisely), and GPO weighs considerably more... So I would be very surprised to find as short loops in GPO\'s violins as in HQOR\'s ones.
That is what puzzles me in this matter, and makes me wonder if those ear-disturbing cyclic fluctuations in the sustained sounds results from too-short-looped samples, or else from the lack of control of the instrument, due to the \"by-mouse-performance\".
I\'d really like to hear what other people who have GPO and can edit the midi controls with modwheel, pedal, may do with your quartets.
Or else, crr, would you mind to post 2 or 3 short excerpts of one of your quartet, with long sustained notes, and with just one instrument at one time, at least for one violin and the cello ?
It would be easier to judge.
Thank you.

[crr]

ok scopey,
today or tomorrow I\'ll send you the midi files.
I would like also to say that I think that to have a \"quartet\" soud is very very important that the sound of every instrument is humanize. You can have the best quality of sample but with a solo violin you will immediately feel that is not natural because you don\'t hear what the violinist puts playing his instrument. In this part I think that GPO should help go get a better result if you have a keyboard because GPO is thought to give you the feeling of playing an instrument.
I play the violin and because I know that it\'s impossible to get this by mouse i didn\'t work on this aspect but hearing other demos with solo violin you can hear better results in terms of sound.
This is only my music, as I said, putting GPO instrument in a midi files done by mouse and I think that the result is just better.
I\'m putting these files as a prove of the quality of GPO and for me the result is incredible compared to what I accieved before.
bye
Michael

[Jake Johnson]

I think that the problematic sound in the Quartet demo is more the vibrato than the looping, although I suspect that the vibrato is masking the loops.

To me what makes it sound a little artificial is that the vibrato rate stays constant, both in each instrument and across instruments, and it always occurs after the same amount of time has passed in the sample. Could using other samples fix this--maybe using one of the nonvibrato samples and using a modwheel or pedal to control vibrato?

[Jake Johnson]

Also posted under the Solo cellos thread:

For what it\'s worth:

I don\'t have GPO, but I\'ve listened to many of the demos. I wonder how the Cellofan cello would sound layered in with the GPO cello samples.

(Cellofan is a free and therefore somewhat limited, but useful vsti from SoundKeys Magazine using good cello samples at one velocity. Gives you control over Attack and Release. It, too, uses vibrato to mask the loops, but the vibrato rate and start point are different from those of the GPO samples, so it might be useful for layering in.)

http://www.soundkeysmag.com/download/Soft/Cellofan/Cellofan.zip (\"http://www.soundkeysmag.com/download/Soft/Cellofan/Cellofan.zip\")

Does anyone know of any other orchestral instruments out there as VSTI\'s?

[esperlad]

crr,

I would be happy to work with your quartet. The music is beautiful. Here is my email address:

dhrott@sunflower.com

[crr]

As I said, don\'t think that the sound I got in my demo is the best you can have from GPO. The cello is very beautiful and also the violins and the viola.
As I said I didn\'t use a keyboard because I don\'t have it and this is the first time I used a virtual library.
For me the result is really good I would like to hear the result using a bigger library with the same midi file without any controll used and so on.
As I said, the humanize factor is one on the most important thing in the sound of a quartet, also in a real quartet with real musicists.
Michael