An idea: A Listening Room Festival

[rbowser-]

David "Et Lux" has recently posted many wonderfully insightful responses to music in The Listening Room. He single handedly did a lot to help wake up our sleepy little Forum. His encouragement for others to get more involved has been especially appreciated.

And David passed on some thoughts about the use of The Listening Room which are things I think we should take to heart:

--Basically, he's suggesting people go ahead and post much more often. Get that front page active and rotating. Don't leave it so that day after day it looks pretty much the same.

I agree. And I've been the person probably most concerned with details about posting which actually have ended up making participation less instead of more. Earlier this year, for instance, I posted a few times the reminder that we need to share the space. Those reminders were in response to PMs I got from members who were upset that some people were posting new material day after day, sometimes without even bothering to respond to replies they'd gotten on previous posts.

Well, posting every single day of the week is excessive, BUT, much more important, is for people to feel free to go ahead and post much more often than they have been.

I've probably been more worried about hogging space than anyone has. My first "Tom Sawyer" post went up a full year ago, July of 2011. It took me a FULL FOUR MONTHS to put up the next piece, because it took that long for the first one to go off the front page. I've posted more regularly since then, but still averaging only 1 post a month. That's too slow a rate.

It goes to show that the old Sticky Post from 2007 about sharing the space simply doesn't apply to conditions as they now are.

The one guideline which I feel still MUST be followed to the letter is to only post music which uses at least some Garritan instruments. The main topic of this group of Forums is Garritan - It would be insulting to not follow Gary's request that we use his instruments in music we share in The Listening Room. Fine - that's an easy guideline to follow. Music doesn't have to be 100% Garritan, but does need to include at least some instruments from any of the Garritan Libraries.

PROPOSAL - Why don't we celebrate the summer with a Big Explosion Of Music in The Listening Room? Everyone with music in the can that they can share - jump in and post it, and post often. Re-post things from years ago that new members haven't heard. Get that page really rolling - Replies are bound to follow, enthusiasm can come back, and we could have a blast hearing a lot more music from each other.

What think ye? Discussion on this? - I don't think any guidelines than those I've mentioned need apply. No contest to enter, no penalties, but plenty of rewards - we'd get to hear more music from our fellow members, and not feel like we have to sit and twiddle our thumbs between our own postings.

Let's Do It!--- But I'd like to hear feedback - So please post anything you'd like to say about this idea.

Randy

[Raymond62]

I will as soon as there are new Garritan Strings. It is rather useless posting some new symphonic material with only the flute coming from Garritan (or one or two more woodwinds, which are great by the way). With that new Organ and the coming new strings - I hope - we can add some substantial Garritan "hardware" to our compositions. Right now I am busy with a new symphony, but it is all EWQL. Sorry. All newly released business news doesn't comfort me at all.

Raymond

[DPDAN]

I understand Raymond's perspective and opinion. I too think it is ridiculous when someone posts something with libraries that are superior sounding to GPO and states,... "I used a few woodwinds and a percussion instrument from Garritan, the rest is blah blah library". That very thing happend AGAIN just recently,... that serves NO purpose here. It is not about "percentages" of library sounds used from other sample developers, and how would that be determined anyway? The majority or "bulk" of the piece should contain Garritan sounds with only a few instruments from other developers. OK enough said and that is only my opinion.

I think what Randy has posted is great, let's do it.

Dan

[sanyarem]

Though I don't churn out music at the speed of some others on this forum (the name Larry Alexander rings a bell ) I do like the idea of being able to post more often. I especially like the idea of bringing back older posts (or perhaps just re-posts of the same music) There has been some really great music posted here in the past that I would love to hear again! Personally, I enjoy bringing up my older pieces and rewriting sections, or simply improving the recording. Perhaps I could look at my nostalgia folder and go through some stuff to consider posting again!

[Michael_uk]

I understand Raymond's perspective and opinion. I too think it is ridiculous when someone posts something with libraries that are superior sounding to GPO and states,... "I used a few woodwinds and a percussion instrument from Garritan, the rest is blah blah library". That very thing happend AGAIN just recently,... that serves NO purpose here. It is not about "percentages" of library sounds used from other sample developers, and how would that be determined anyway? The majority or "bulk" of the piece should contain Garritan sounds with only a few instruments from other developers. OK enough said and that is only my opinion.

I think what Randy has posted is great, let's do it.

Dan

I completely agree with you Dan. I too believe that the bulk of the piece should be Garritan libraries with a few other libraries acceptable.

However, the Listening Room rules state some Garritan instruments and this, in my view, is open to abuse and happens quite often. I agree that this serves no purpose here but there it is, the rules allow it!

Whilst on the subject. I have noticed over the past few months more and more pieces being posted here in the Discussion forums rather than in the Listening Room. There was one just a few days ago and these postings are not by people new to our forums. I really do have to query their motives for this.

I think the Listening room is a great feature but I feel unable to contribute there and keep away from it. I do wish every 'genuine' posting there the very best.

As Dan says, enough said and this is just my opinion.

[AlanPerkins]

For me, the bottom line is that the forum posts in the listening room and elsewhere need to be for the edification of the purpose of the forum.

It makes no sense to let arbitrary rules dictate what is right - circumstances change, as we have seen, so the application of what is fair and reasonable must also change.

I agree with Randy's proposal. A good use of multiple posting would be for someone to show how their work has progressed, for example a piece that they learned on and then came back to and reworked, with comments perhaps how their learning had improved it. This would violate the rule of one post per screen, but it would be an improvement on the use.

[Silh]

I like the idea of a 'festival'. Maybe it will spur me to complete this one piece which has been bugging me for the last couple months...

As to the 'bulk' being Garritan instruments, I agree with it, considering this nature of this (section of the) forum. A question that has been in the back of my mind for a while though... considering the collection of samples some of us may have (have a few other libraries as well as a good number of ancient soundfonts and other favourite samples which I still like to use often...), where would one post music of this sort? The 'Listening Area' outside the Garritan zone on NS is virtually dead. Being a self-taught amateur having limited spare time who only finishes a small handful of songs a year, what are my options? Namely, looking at useful, constructive feedback and ideas for improvement, without being overwhelmed by elitism, whether intentional or not, or the other side of the balance with excessive back-patting, or being torn down simply because the style of music isn't what the listeners may like. I guess I'm in a bit of a weird place, since many music sites tend to be focused towards people who are being educated in it, or looking at a career in it, but as for myself, I'm likely never going to be going either of those routes (even though I am always striving to learn more at whatever pace I can manage), yet I'm beyond the point of 'just playing around for fun', being the perfectionist personality type, even if I can only spend a few hours in a week at it. (Am I making sense at all?)

[Followup question/comment... have considered posting music of mixed sample sources in General Discussion just because it didn't match Listening Room Garritan content requirements (at least not in my mind)... and was wondering perhaps if that might be the reason some people have been posting music in there instead?]

[DPDAN]

Considering the collection of samples some of us may have (have a few other libraries as well as a good number of ancient soundfonts and other favourite samples which I still like to use often...), where would one post music of this sort?

That is a great question and I am going to offer my opinion again,

If you ask Gary Garritan, he will tell you that he wants his products to help musicians and hobbyists get to the "real" thing which is musicians playing real instruments. He never set out to make sample libraries that would replace real musicians.

I have been one of the members here that has caused some disturbance about sounds that were not Garritan. I know when I am listening to Garritan sounds, but most people who are not as intimately familiar with Garritan sounds don't know that what they are hearing is a 4 thousand dollar library. It is therefore very dishonest and very misleading to post music with those other libraries. Heck, it is an injustice for Garritan and the other developers products.

Now, hear me out...
I do believe someone like Silh can and should feel free to post his music in the listening room with two main requirements, one, that he desires responses from the folks he knows here in "OUR" listening room, and second,... and more importantly,... that if the sounds are not Garritan, the exact names of all NON-Garritan instruments should be listed and made mention of in the very first sentence of the post. Doing so, proves to the listeners and forum moderators that he or she is interested only in the musical content, harmonies, arranging, style etc., and NOT the sound of the midi and audio editing/mixing.

[Followup question/comment... have considered posting music of mixed sample sources in General Discussion just because it didn't match Listening Room Garritan content requirements (at least not in my mind)... and was wondering perhaps if that might be the reason some people have been posting music in there instead?]

To me, really, the "other" section of Northern Sounds pertains mainly to other sample developer's customers,... not Garritan's customers.
For the most part, the people "over there" don't hang out in the Garritan section and vice-versa.

Here again, I'm just thinking outloud... Euew! that's dangerous
Politics politics politics
Dan

[rbowser-]

Nice! This is excellent that all you guys have been discussing this. Thank you, Raymond, Dan, Michael "sanarem", Michael "UK," Alan, and Matt, for joining in on this.

Just a quick response now as I'm ready to turn the computer off for the night:

--I realize that I actually don't know how we go about this, other than just to start posting, and encouraging others to. Guess there's no organizing to be done beyond that. EXCEPT for continuing to discuss the things that have come up on this thread - use of Garritan instruments, Dan's suggestion to allow more non-Garritan oriented pieces as long as all sound sources are listed in the post - things to talk about for sure.

Meanwhile, Jim Snyder "jdsnyderii" has already jumped in on this idea! In case you haven't noticed, go take a look at The Listening Room - He's taken the lead and put two posts up--Great!

More anon.

Randy

[SysExJohn]

Well, somewhat nervously, given the quality of other submissions, I've made a start!

From a commission to create rehearsal tracks for soloists for a concert given last Easter.
The request came at the end of January and it took more than a little while just to realise the MIDI tracks from scores taken from the IMSLP.

Not polished works, a local orchestra gave the performance, so these were to help the Soprano and Alto.

All were done solely using GPO.

SXJohn.