Synful orchestra.. anyone try this yet?

[runamuck]

I'm trying the demo of this thing and cant figure out what all the excitment is about. What am I missing? Nothing here sounds at all like real instruments.

Of what use could this possibly be compared, say, to a real sampled library?
Even a cheap one.

Jim

[Alexcremers]

That's right, Lee. Although Enya is not excactly my cup of tea, I understand what you're saying. Creating a world of your own is perhaps even more important then perfectly trying to replicate a real orchestra. That's why sometimes I feel that "synth sounds" sound or feel more "real". They have their own special identity.They are in fact real instruments (I'm talking about vintage synths for the moment)! They don't simulate anything. Hey, who knows, perhaps one day those old samples (like those found in the Proteus Orchestral Modules) will be regarded as sounds with "character". "Character" because they don't sound like the real thing but like "real" samples.
The first two demos of Synful demonstrate a lot of musical expressiveness. So much so, that I'm happy to forgive their synthetic taste. However, I think you need to understand how to play and make those sounds "sing".

------------
Alex Cremers

[moosethree]

I think the price is too steep considering the alleged 8 new orchestral offerings coming out ........and group buyism.

[thesoundsmith]

Today, our mock-ups are Frankensteins - hulking assemblages of musical cadaver organs that we stitch together and try to zap into life. What we really want is the equivalent of a Commander Data, a tool that's not convinced it isn't the real thing.

Or perhaps what we really need is a Deanna Troi, that can read your mind for its emotional nuance! Samples are photographs, and what we're doing is akin to creating a motion picture from a series of still shots rather than a movie camera - if the expression isn't in the sample, it won't be in the finished work...

But seriously, I absolutely agree with Lee about this - rather than trying to exactly cover a symphony orchestra, write music that uses these tools in their own context to create beautiful (or exciting, or funky, etc.) music on its own terms, rather than holding the asympkony up as the great shining example. Orchestras are organizations for making music. So is GPO and Gold, and RMX. They do it differently, and with different parameters, but the goal is always the same - to make the very best sonic experience possible...

[Kanjika]

THis already sounds amazingly realistic for a synthesizer. VSL may have nothing to fear now, but if things keep improving like this, physical modeling will be the new thing. Samples have already gotten to the point where each realistic library is gigantic, and hard to deal with. Samples will contine to grow too probably.

[Frederick]

Physical modeling seems to be the wave of the future. Eric Lindemann (CEO) resides in Boulder Colorado (right up the road from me) so I might look him up for an interview.

I thought the solo instruments (particularly the woodwinds) sound really good. The solo strings sound great. I wasn't particularly impressed with the brass sustains like in the 3rd piece. But that was the only weak point I heard. Coupled with layering with better samples as Sharmy mentioned I'm really looking forward to hearing the mockups with this new technology included.

~Frederick

[fozzy]

That was my reaction at first.

I was wondering how it sounds/plays compared to Edirol's VST Orchestra which is the only other VST "orchestra" I can think of?

Playing about with the demo there is a lot of promising stuff here. I'll have to play with it a bit more, it does seem very nice in some ways.

Interesting is about all I can say for now.

I'm trying the demo of this thing and cant figure out what all the excitment is about. What am I missing? Nothing here sounds at all like real instruments.

Of what use could this possibly be compared, say, to a real sampled library?
Even a cheap one.

Jim

[gungnir]

I can never understand all this “you’ll never get it to sound like a real orchestra so just play it as it is as creatively as possible” stuff. Considering the tremendous strides forward over the last two years, why not just concentrate on discussing what must be done to finally get where most want to go, 100% realism?

Otherwise we just get the sonic equivalent to cgi. Sure, you can be creative, exciting and indeed expressive with virtual tools, but everybody still considers them a sort of toy (“the special effects were good”, etc.). Here we have a new approach that may address the next logical step forward in the quest for extreme realism, and therefore it would be fruitful to now consider the next logical step after this rather than discussing using it as the latest synthesizer.

This technology deals with those sounds between the notes and the expressive evolution of held notes, the very stuff of musical expression. There appears to be upon first listening some problems with sustains and a few other issues, but the phrasing potential appears absolutely incredible. This cannot be a smart new synthesizer, it instead has to represent the future of working with recorded sound fragments to achieve a totally convincing result.

Don

[Kanjika]

I want to try out portamento....uhh what CC# is the pitch bend wheel?

[Liam]

I think it would be great if it was just a "plug-in legato tool" to where you could use their technology to control the expression in your current lib like Gold without having to use their samples. They would then have a MUCH broader customer base. Anyone with an orchestral lib would probably buy it.

Liam