MOTM

Below is a brandnew (just hours old) short 1 minute demo showing for 
the first time since the analog modular has been invented just how 
realistic and massive it (and subtractive synthesis in general) can 
sound when impersonating an orchestra.  It's 100% Arturia Moog 
Modular V, but should be of interest to many here, since this kind of 
thing is possible to do on an MOTM or other modular.  In fact, it's 
been possible for the past 45 years, but nobody has been able to pull 
these kinds of sound out of one, so I'm burdened with that task.  
I've been offline not answering mail for about 2 months, going 
through sleep deprivation, lack of food, and headaches, on a synth 
programming marathon to finally accomplish this (and other stuff I'll 
be creating more demos of over the next couple of weeks).  Note that 
MMV is a bug ridden piece of crap where about 2/3 of the modules have 
bugs or don't work correctly making this even more difficult.

Should be played loud, hopefully the bass doesn't distort your system.

http://home.att.net/~synth6/Arturia_MMV_Symphony7_Beethoven.mp3

-Elhardt

elhardt4320 wrote:

> just how realistic and massive it (and subtractive synthesis in
> general) can sound when impersonating an orchestra.

See, now this is something I have trouble keeping my mouth shut on. 
While some of your instrument programming has been amazing (why you 
didn't post your amazing piano patch here that you did on AH is a 
mystery). I still haven't heard a mix of yours that gives me the 
"symphony" feel.

For example, Synful sounds great if programmed right as a solo 
instrument. But nothing like the real in a mix:

http://www.synful.com/User%20Demos.htm

Perhaps more focus should be put on "synthesizing" the placement of 
instruments in a room...

It sounds great! I can tell there was a ton of effort put into it, and
the sum of all your fussiness sounds very realistic. As a professional
orchestral musician, it doesn't exactly make me fear for my job, but
it's still an excellent version.

There's been quite a lot of hoop-de-doo in the orchestral musicians
mailing lists over the claims that virtual orchestras and samplers are
going to replace live musicians. Personally, I think it's balderdash.
I've listened to a few of the sampled orchestral renditions of
symphonic works, and they generally stink. Your effort is actually a
lot more realistic sounding than most of them! So keep up the good
work!


On 9/20/06, elhardt4320 <elhardt@...> wrote:
>
>
> Below is a brandnew (just hours old) short 1 minute demo showing for
>  the first time since the analog modular has been invented just how
>  realistic and massive it (and subtractive synthesis in general) can
>  sound when impersonating an orchestra. It's 100% Arturia Moog
>  Modular V, but should be of interest to many here, since this kind of
>  thing is possible to do on an MOTM or other modular. In fact, it's
>  been possible for the past 45 years, but nobody has been able to pull
>  these kinds of sound out of one, so I'm burdened with that task.
>  I've been offline not answering mail for about 2 months, going
>  through sleep deprivation, lack of food, and headaches, on a synth
>  programming marathon to finally accomplish this (and other stuff I'll
>  be creating more demos of over the next couple of weeks). Note that
>  MMV is a bug ridden piece of crap where about 2/3 of the modules have
>  bugs or don't work correctly making this even more difficult.
>
>  Should be played loud, hopefully the bass doesn't distort your system.
>
>  http://home.att.net/~synth6/Arturia_MMV_Symphony7_Beethoven.mp3
>
>  -Elhardt
>

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Drake
sduck409@...
makeme1witheverything@...

Stephen Drake writes:
>>It sounds great! I can tell there was a ton of effort put into it, and the
sum of all your fussiness sounds very realistic.  I've listened to a few of
the sampled orchestral renditions of symphonic works, and they generally
stink.<<

Thanks for the compliments.  With the newer and better sounding sampled
libraries, it's usually the person using them that isn't putting in the
effort to make them sound good.  I hear stuff that isn't played with
enthusiasm, the crescendos don't sound big and full, and so on.

Jay writes:
>>See, now this is something I have trouble keeping my mouth shut on.
While some of your instrument programming has been amazing (why you
didn't post your amazing piano patch here that you did on AH is a
mystery). I still haven't heard a mix of yours that gives me the
"symphony" feel.  Perhaps more focus should be put on "synthesizing"
the placement of instruments in a room...<<

This is really only the second mix where I've put a symphony of instruments
together. These instruments I'm still modifying and refining.   However,
this is a Beethoven Symphony, meaning a smaller orchestra.  It's not a huge
100 piece Tchaikovsky type of orch.  There's no brass section really.  No
trombones, tubas.  Only a trumpet note mirroring the timpany, and a couple
of french horns.  This recording is a bit muddy, so the woodwinds got
covered up with rather heavy strings which aren't very clear.  So those
things need to be taken into account as this is a test to hear the sounds
together.  Maybe it's not a "symphony" feel but an orchestra feel.  Strings
are a problem when it comes to placement as the MMV chorus sucks and using
mono sounds also sucks.  Eventually I'll use external gear for better stereo
sounds and maybe overdub many times to place strings near and far and spread
them out.  I've made a point to post this demo to the Northern Sounds forum
which is the main sample forum on the net where all the sampled orchestra
people and companies hang out.  Those sample guys were sure impressed and
didn't think a synth could pull this off.  Even had one guy who's heavily
into brass libraries think I mixed in real brass samples, so that's what I
want to hear.

The point however, is nobody has taken subtractive synthesis seriously
enough to even attempt this.  Nobody can seem to handle it for doing this
kind of stuff.  Carlos is the only other person who tried to mimic all the
instruments of an orchestra, but avoided subtractive synthesis going with
additive, and only the percussion sounds real.  The strings, brass, and
winds all sounded very fake.  More a problem with the synth than Carlos
probably.

I didn't post the piano here yet because I wanted to get more demos done
first and post them elsewhere and just be able to direct people there.  But
here's the link below for it.  A while back on the Nord Mod list people were
attempting to synthesize a piano and all failing to do so.  Same with the
Tassman synth.  There's never been one done to date.  I only did the piano
to show once and for all that it could be done on a synth.

http://home.att.net/~synth6/Arturia_MMV_Piano.mp3

I had to brighten up the piano for the recording below a bit sacrificing
some realism, but it's only there as a place holder to try some other
orchestral sounds and passages.  Again, it's 100% MMV.

http://home.att.net/~synth5/Arturia_MMV_Orchestra_Grieg.mp3

An Arturia section has just been added to the electro-music.com page and I
have quite a few more MMV demos there.  So you can go to the link below to
hear more.  It's mostly more acoustic emulation except for the last piece
which has a random mix of stuff acoustic mimicry and synth only type sounds.

http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13880


-Elhardt