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English Language : Music Technology : Blog 
Monday 8 December 2008 : How to feel like a conductor who hires 70 musicians in an afternoon, or otherwise, 5 full hours to explore all of the sounds of the Special Edition of Vienna Symphonic Library |
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About music software This just had to be done. It's another story to listen and read about bowings, fingerings and articulation types of spiccato, arco, legato, sforzando etc., and another to see how the program responds when you actually try to follow these different ways of execution. In this way you can also understand the logic of people who built this library. Thus, each instrument has a different set of basic modes of performance and some additional sets. Thus, in the case of oboe, one has legato and staccato ways in different "quantities", but there are also eg. trills in tones and semitones, repeated notes in certain speeds, and, in general, performance modes not able to be simulated in a persuading way by just using the rest of the samples available. For example, one cannot play staccato passages using the legato samples, the result - even if he "plays" with the existing parameters of the synthesizer - will be mediocre. Continuing with our brief presentation, most, therefore, of the modes of execution belong to the strings and the brass instruments. The woodwinds are probably the most frugal. In the area of strings there are different ways of performance that can be read in books and are string-only (con legno, pizzicato, etc.). In the brass we can find extra sounds using sordine. All instruments are provided with varieties concerning solo instruments and two of the kind together (eg. 2 oboes, or 16 violins together, or 4 horns together). There is also a quite appropriate percussion section. You will not miss either the saxophones (except for the soprano that is not especially used in classical music) or various keyboard instruments (piano, harpsichord, organ etc.) in a mediocre, however, quality. Moreover, you have got classical guitar and some other instruments that are not what we might call "essential" to the symphony orchestra (Wagner tuba, oboe d'amore, etc.).  In summary, every instrument or combination of many of them together has its basic set of performance capabilities along with several special - for its particularities - sets. For each instrument, there is also a way of use - ideal for start using the software - which is trying to understand what are you doing in a specific musical phrase and finds a suitable sample to match: this mechanism works quite well, despite the difficulty of its mission. If, therefore, one thinks that the basic instruments are over 30, if not more than 40 (not counting instruments as eg. the triangle, or the musical saw, etc.) and the performance ways usually more than 10 (in strings - solo and ensembles - many more) then he understands why it took me 5 full hours to finish a simple quick "reference check" at all these sounds. We are talking about several thousands of samples! Of course, it was a necessary basic action for starting to exploit this - chaotic - material in a musical way. The subject is inexhaustible. There are more articles to come on this. There are problems of computer performance concerning large orchestrations, musical problems of using all this huge orchestral material, problems in the ranges, in the operation of the software, etc. etc. Just chaos! Chaos, which, however, may result to something good! ;-) |
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