Topic: Journey to Authenticity - Virtual Orchestral Writing

Greetings All~

It has been awhile since I've shared a cue with others, so what better time to share one when...you actually have one to share haha. I've been chipping away at different ways to make instruments and recording locations sound as authentic as possible given the numerous manipulative functions these virtual workstations provide now a days. Tried some different panning techniques and placement of instruments this time around, so feel free to give it a listen and tell me what ya think, or just enjoy an upbeat cue! Later all~

https://soundcloud.com/kwisatzhaderach2286/pluck-itwav

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Unclear on whether you created this yourself or tweaked an existing composition or recording.

Favorite part was the first movement 0-48 sec.

This sounded very much like a film score for an action or adventure movie. Well done.

Originally Posted by CJM Sandman

Greetings All~

It has been awhile since I've shared a cue with others, so what better time to share one when...you actually have one to share haha. I've been chipping away at different ways to make instruments and recording locations sound as authentic as possible given the numerous manipulative functions these virtual workstations provide now a days. Tried some different panning techniques and placement of instruments this time around, so feel free to give it a listen and tell me what ya think, or just enjoy an upbeat cue! Later all~

https://soundcloud.com/kwisatzhaderach2286/pluck-itwav

Muchas gracias!

I did record and compose this myself, used a cache of virtual instruments and a decent midi controller. I've been playing around with ways to make, I guess what would be considered a close representation of an orchestra, something that sounds sonic-ally accurate. The hope down the road would be fooling an audience into thinking it's a live recording. I know theres a ton of virtual instruments used in film scores now a days, but an entire ensemble with the scope of a major film score done this way would be interesting. Thanks for the feedback, it helps greatly~

First let me say you did a great job as a composer, a player and a sound engineer.
I don't use midi but record with a Kurzweil PC361 keyboard. It only uses one instrument at a time. Using different instrument sounds I need to lay down one track at a time on my Zoom R16 8 track recorder. When I first got the keyboard about six years ago I corresponded with one of the Kurzweil engineers by email to get answers to some questions I had. On one of his emails he told me that he was on the Amtrack from Boston to New York because there was a problem with one of a bunch of Kurzweil keyboards being used in the orchestra pit of a Broadway show. From what I could tell, there were no live instruments, just the Kurzweils. So I would say your goal has already been accomplished on Broadway at least six years ago.

Thanks again, it's tedious and time consuming but satisfying when it turns out okay. And that is quite interesting! I recall my college having a bunch of Kurzweil keyboards in some sound production classes, they had some great sounding samples loaded into them. Never fully got a chance to explore their capabilities, but they turned me on using controllers to record with instead of using some sort of midi sequencer or something.

It's nice to know that as well, especially for a Broadway show where the standards are probably very high for a performance. I'm still astonished that digitally sampled instruments can sound so good given some obvious limitations. It's also a good selling point to producers and directors, the ability to provide a dense complicated mix without having to hire an entire orchestra to do so. Do you also compose for film/video projects? Or mostly just for personal?