Just registered and I start with a question right away. Hope this is the right place (noob question)
I use Reaper For Linux and both native linux vst's and windows via Wine/LinVST. My question:
I load a sfz file from SSO Library (Brass - Bass Trombone) in Linuxsampler, not a single sound on the four soundsfonts (TB Solo, TB Solo KS, TB Solo (looped) and TB Solo (looped, decay)
I load exactly the same file in SForzando - they all work
I load exactly the same file in SFZero (linux) some works, but not all of them
Why is it like that? I tried several sf in Linuxsampler, some work and some don't. The same sf in SForzando they always work. I know that Linuxsampler ain't the newest one and no updates what I know of. I run it through Fantasia, don't know if that's the case here. Somehow it ain't "reading" the file as good as SForzando. I don't know how many Reaper For Linux users is here, but maybe someone know and recognize this problem.
I got someone saying they can't install a VST on Logic Pro X. Does Logic even use VSTs? For a long time they were AU only. I thought they had gone VST, but I saw recent discussions from folks saying VSTs didn't work in the DAW. Very confused.
So I recently stumbled into a pretty cool opportunity to have one of my compositions premiered by a real live orchestra. That was something that I figured was a pipe dream that would maybe happen in 50 years, or more likely never. But here I am. I kind of assumed that when the director of a professional orchestra hears a piece that he likes enough to premier, the orchestra would pay the composer of said work. But I was just told
Quote:if an orchestra is going to premier a work, the honor of having them play premier it is the compensation
I'm new to this side of things, but that doesn't sound right to me. Can anyone help me out? Is my assumption wrong? Or is that really the way things work?
I have arranged Piano Sonata K 545 for a string quartet. It only took me 2 hours to arrange the entire first movement. The last time I have made an arrangement this quick was when I arranged The Four Seasons for a flute and piano duet. All my other arrangements have taken days to months to complete.
I only have the first movement of K 545 finished so far but if it took 2 hours to arrange the first movement(which is by far the most complex movement of the sonata), then it shouldn't take all that much longer to arrange the second and third movements.
I would like some feedback on my arrangement for string quartet. Here is the link:
So what do you think of my arrangement of K 545 for a string quartet?
Now you may be asking:
Quote:Why are you asking for feedback on an arrangement of a well known Mozart sonata?
And my answer to that would be that, while still being honest to Mozart's original melody and bass line, I also am adding my own harmonies to it because I can do that as an arranger. I have made sure that my own harmonies are consonant with what Mozart wrote. Also I looked on IMSLP to see if this sonata had already been arranged for string quartet and I did not see any string quartet arrangements, which I thought was kind of weird since I see string quartet arrangements of Mozart all the time. Also, I only recently found an arrangement on youtube and it is only of the first movement.
That kind of makes sense since out of all the movements, the first movement is very well known whereas the other 2 movements are not so well known. Also the arrangement I found uses a lot of pizzicato and I was told that arco is more appropriate for a Mozart arrangement. I was also told that in Mozart's era, the staccatos would be left unmarked and the string players would understand to use light, bouncy bowing, what modern composers would mark as staccato. I don't know if Mozart ever used pizzicato. If he did, it was certainly rare for him to do so.
I figured that just via context alone, any good string quartet will know to play some of the passages staccato but I marked all the staccatos, just to be on the safe side. I am currently working on arranging the second movement. And yes, I know you are going to complain that there are no slurs here. I haven't figured out where to put the slurs yet, I'm still looking to see which slurs would best fit the melodic shape. Once I know that, I will put in the slurs.
Other than the lack of slurs, do you see anything else that could be improved about my string quartet arrangement?
Here is the arrangement I found in case you want to listen to it:
I've done some research on SSDs and come up with some ideas based on my own specific setup, but I could use some input before I start spending money and rearranging plugs. Keep in mind I use Kontakt, which makes heavy use of disk streaming rather than loading everything into RAM.
The time is coming for my upgrade to Windows 10. My PC is from 2013 and it does this music stuff rather swimmingly, so I'm loath to go making big changes. But since I'll have to reinstall things and migrate data when I change the operating system anyway, I figured a hard drive upgrade might be in order as well. Below are a couple of hypothetical plans I'm bouncing around.
Scenario 1: Replace HDD with SSD
I could replace the main HDD with a quality SATA 1TB SSD. My current system uses a 2TB 7200RPM Barracuda for a main drive and a Sandisk 32GB SSD for caching. Currently I'm not looking at using separate drives for samples and OS respectively. I know that's not "best practice," but I've never actually had a problem in the past. I suppose the current HDD could become extra storage. The Sandisk caching SSD would just go in a drawer somewhere. The idea here is, of course, to take advantage of what the SSD can do in all applications and move away from HDDs entirely. It's a pretty straightforward setup, too.
Scenario 2: Install the OS on the SSD and the samples on the HDD
I could just use said SSD solely for the OS and the applications. The HDD and its caching drive would still be for samples and storage (essentially doing what it already does, sans the OS). On that note, is it even possible to use the caching drive in this configuration? I don't think it is, based on what I've read. Cons also include probably not making a difference in task performance speed when working on music (disk streaming and whatnot). Would it really be worth it over just installing Windows 10 and not bothering with a new hard drive at all?
Topped 5 million file downloads and will probably run out of bandwidth in a month or two, but hey its been a fun run. Thanks for eating tons of bandwidth with your great instruments Sam and Mattias!
Since I have finally managed to get VSCO2 Pro working properly, here's my first tentative steps. Expect many updates to follow as I proceed to explore the library and set up a template.
Quote:Very unbalanced and unidiomatic orchestration. There's a lot to go through here, but let's start with the first chord. The woodwind writing is horrible. The flute is in it's lower mid-register and will not be heard over the massive forte of the other instruments. The oboe is way to low in it's register to succesfully play the C in piano. It is very unclear how many of each instrument you have so that has to be clearly written out (my concern is primarily the clarinets and horns). The chord is voiced very badly with very thick harmony at the bottom and rather sparse higher up. Try to write tutti chords according to the harmonic series.
I don't understand at all why you want to double the melody line with the flute. And you don't use the piccolo as it's own instrument but rather as an extension of the flutes register. I also don't understand the need for bass clarinet, contrabassoon and alto trombone. You can do just fine without them.
Bar 11 you write the eighth note tremolo from the original score and write super fast double-tounge in the contrabassoon. This is super unidiomatic as well as tiring and on the border of unplayability for a longer period of time.
These are just a few things to think about. Balance is important too, remember that. I'm also working on orchestrating the Pathetique right now (not on musescore), as well as all the other Beethoven sonatas. It's a very big project and it takes time but it is definitely worth it!
Here are my thoughts on the response as I was reading it(response in quotes, my thoughts in bold text):
Quote:Very unbalanced and unidiomatic orchestration.
What else would you expect? I am taking the piano score and orchestrating it. Of course its going to be unidiomatic for orchestra. The Liszt transcription of Beethoven's 5th is unidiomatic for piano but that doesn't make it a bad score. It is far from being a bad score. In fact, it is possibly better than the original orchestral score that Beethoven wrote.
Quote:There's a lot to go through here, but let's start with the first chord. The woodwind writing is horrible. The flute is in it's lower mid-register and will not be heard over the massive forte of the other instruments.
At least I'm not putting a forte dynamic in the first octave of the flute. That would be impossible, even for an advanced flutist. And you don't often hear the flute as a separate entity in tutti chords anyway, just listen to Beethoven's Eroica symphony. Do you hear the flute as a flute sound in the beginning tutti chords of the first movement? Probably not. But it would sound different if the flute wasn't there. All the woodwinds add color to the predominant strings and brass but aren't really heard over the massive forte of the other instruments. Are you saying that my flute part is worse than Beethoven's because the flute won't be heard over the massive forte? Because Beethoven's flute part isn't heard over the massive forte either in his Eroica symphony.
Quote:The oboe is way to low in it's register to succesfully play the C in piano. It is very unclear how many of each instrument you have so that has to be clearly written out (my concern is primarily the clarinets and horns).
At least I am not going lower than piano in dynamics here. Pianissimo is hard on the oboe. About the same amount of pressure is used to play pianissimo on the oboe as is used to play fortissimo on the clarinet, mainly because of the double reed vs single reed difference. And are you suggesting that I raise the entire oboe part up an octave in the Grave? As for the number of each instrument, that is indeterminate at this point. I have no idea if I will be premiering this with a smaller, less experienced orchestra like a high school orchestra or if I will be premiering this with a professional but still local orchestra like the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. And what if I wrote it for 6 horns but I only have 4 horns in the actual orchestra? Who would take the 5th and 6th horn parts? 2nd and 3rd clarinet? 2 trombones?
Quote:The chord is voiced very badly with very thick harmony at the bottom and rather sparse higher up. Try to write tutti chords according to the harmonic series.
Without using horns and trumpets in the first 4 bars of this there is nothing I can really do to improve it without simply not having the bass woodwinds which I would rather not do or using the piccolo which I was told was unfit for the Grave. And writing this C minor chord according to the harmonic series in all the instruments playing it is simply impractical. The flute would be like what, 2 octaves up from where it is now? Given that it is in the second octave already, that would mean that I essentially would be writing the flute part in the piccolo staff. Also, you can see writing according to the harmonic series in the C minor chord if you look at the cellos and double basses. The cellos being an octave up from the lowest double basses in terms of pitch and the double basses themselves being divisi.
Quote:I don't understand at all why you want to double the melody line with the flute. And you don't use the piccolo as it's own instrument but rather as an extension of the flutes register.
Are you talking about the first violins being doubled with the flute? That makes sense if you consider the fact that the first violins are in general the highest strings at any given moment and the flute is the highest of the woodwinds that doesn't transpose up or down an octave. As for the piccolo not being used as its own instrument, look again at the apotheosis. The piccolo while it may be doubling the flute, is an octave above the flute. That is enough for me to consider the piccolo to be doing its own role. As for the registral extension of the flute with the piccolo, it all has to do with which notes are difficult and which ones are impossible on the C concert flute. If the notes are just difficult, I consider lowering the flute by an octave. If that leads to the lower notes being impossible, then I resort to putting the difficult and/or impossible notes in the piccolo and then when it goes into the easier range, I have the flute playing again. And besides, this also gives the flutist a well needed break to take a deep breath before it starts playing again.
Quote:I also don't understand the need for bass clarinet, contrabassoon and alto trombone. You can do just fine without them.
If I am writing for orchestra, a contrabassoon part will be expected unless it is for an orchestra that doesn't have a contrabassoon. The bass clarinet has a more predominant role in the second Grave section where it plays the bass notes while the bassoonist gets a break after playing the very lowest note possible on bassoon. It also makes it possible to play a 4 note chord in the bass woodwinds if there are only 3 bassoonists in the orchestra. Alto trombone extends the range of the trombones to higher notes that are typically trumpet pitches. So I could use the alto trombone in call and response with the trumpet if I ever decide to do that. Also, it helps in the case of the trombones and tuba chorale that I have starting at bar 5. It prevents there from being difficult notes for tenor trombone(which just shows up as trombone in Musescore)
Quote:Bar 11 you write the eighth note tremolo from the original score and write super fast double-tounge in the contrabassoon. This is super unidiomatic as well as tiring and on the border of unplayability for a longer period of time.
I honestly didn't think about that when having the contrabassoon double the double basses. Perhaps I should have the bassoon play this an octave above the double basses. Or maybe keep the contrabassoon part and just have it pulse on the beat instead of on the half beat, so having a quarter note pulse in the contrabassoon against an eighth note tremolo in the double basses. And the eighth note tremolo is way easier for the orchestra to time right than my initial idea of alternating the octaves between the instruments because there aren't eighth rests all over the place.
I really need to finish any number of things, but I got the urge to take another crack at my old time radio encyclopedia that I already did the 'A's of... Part of the reason I stopped before was I really hated the Baby Snooks show. So I decided furged aboud it and just cranked this out. Any thoughts?
Baby Snooks Daddy: Mommy told me what you’ve done. It wasn’t bad enough you cut off the baby’s hair, you had to go and open up the Christmas presents too. However, could you think of two such abominable things? Baby: It was easy, Daddy. I had the scissors and when I got through opening the packages Robespierre (her little brother) happened to come along…
There are some shows that simply rub me the wrong way. I try to be unbiased and generally quite enjoy listening to the variety of shows that wander across the pages of this little encyclopedia, but something about Baby Snooks…well it creeps me out. Fanny Brice was a star long before she became the voice of Baby Snooks, but somehow Baby Snooks eclipsed Fanny herself and she became a grown and aging woman dressed up like a little girl, who seemed to think she was a little girl, while sometimes pretending to be spanked by her ‘Daddy’. Since I have no problem with characters ranging from Edgar Bergan’s Charlie McCarthy to Molly McGee’s Tiny which are also youngsters portrayed by adult actors, I can’t explain this crawling of the skin.
There are a number of versions of how and when Fanny Brice became Baby Snooks. Brice claimed that she first portrayed the character on stage in 1912 as a spoof of Baby Peggy Montgomery a silent screen star. Since the first Baby Peggy film wasn’t made until 1921 this seems unlikely. The more probable first appearance of Snooks was in 1930 revue Sweet and Low produced by Brice’s husband Billy Rose. At any rate by 1934, the 43 year old Brice was appearing in baby clothes on stage at the Follies. Two years later the naughty little girl appeared on the Ziegfeld Follies of the Air.
Fanny dipped her toes in radio for a couple years before MGM’s radio show The Good News of 1938 came calling with a solid paycheck for only a few minutes of airtime every week. The other half of the Baby Snooks team was discovered on this show as radio bit player Hanley Stafford became Daddy. The Good News of 1938 became The Good News of 1939 and then, wait for it, The Good News of 1940. Fortunately for the preceding sentence, The Good News of 1940 morphed into Maxwell House Coffee Time, in 1941, which was split between Baby Snooks and the tall tales of Frank Morgan. This program lasted until June 15, 1944.
Toasties Time later called The Baby Snooks Show debuted on October 1, 1944 sponsored by Post Toasties. The program continued through the 1947-48 season before being cancelled. TUMS brought her back November 8, 1949 and Baby Snooks continued until March 20, 1951. Sadly Fanny Brice passed away after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage on May 29, 1951. She was 59 years old.
Who was Fanny Brice?
It is unfair to hide gutsy Broadway Star, singer and comic Fanny Brice behind Baby Snooks, especially when the sap writing the Baby Snook entry can’t stand the show. Long before Snooks took over her life, Fanny Brice was an accomplished and acclaimed entertainer.
Fania Borach was born on October 29, 1891. Sometime later she grew up a bit and tried her hand or rather her voice on stage winning an amateur singing contest. She was 13 and decided that show biz was the life for her. There are various rumors about the teenaged girl bouncing around through odd entertainment jobs including dancing in the chorus of the Burlesque revue The Girls from Happy Land or possibly Talk of New York. Legend has it that she really couldn’t dance and was fired, maybe by George M Cohen. When truth and legend conflict, Print the Legend!
Fortunately, she could sing and did in various burlesque house around New York. Florenz Ziegfeld, who was always looking for a girl singer, had her headlining the Follies in 1910. Brice appeared in the Follies and acted, sang and comedied in Broadway shows for years. The venerable New York Times reported that in 1916 she did her first version of a dying Swan Ballet and she also lampooned Theda Bera, did a take-of on Camille with W.C. Fields as her maid and performed a travesty on fan dancers and modern dance.
Her big break came in the 1921 Follies with the torch song My Man. Her fame spread to Hollywood and she appeared in her first film in 1928 called My Man. It was an odd film that sort of bridged the gap between silent films and talkies and was a sort of semi-talkie. The 1936 film The Great Ziegfeld was her best known Hollywood appearance. Tinsel town wasn’t done with Fanny, 1939’s Rose of Washington Square was so close to her life it resulted in a lawsuit and Barbara Streisand played Fanny in the 1968 quasi-bio pic Funny Girl and again in the 1975 Funny Lady.
Sadly, Fanny Brice had enough of a life story for two films and probably more. Nicky Arnstein and Fanny Brice were joined in Holy Wedlock in 1918. Nicky got his nickname from riding a nickel plated bike in bicycle races that were all the rage. Nicky soon learned there was more money in throwing the races than winning them. One thing led to another which led to Sing-Sing in 1916. Fanny visited him so often that his wife sued for alienation of affection. With this basis for a marriage what could go wrong?
Half a decade later, five million dollars worth of securities vanished and the police fingered Nicky. Fanny spent a lot of money trying to defend her man and stood by him during his three years in prison. Nicky seemed to think of Fanny as a cash machine as much as he thought of her as a wife and they divorced in 1927.
A couple years later no less a figure than the Mayor of New York hitched Fanny and Broadway imperioso James Walker. That lasted until 1937 when Jimmy divorced her for a swimming champion. Having had enough of marriage, in 1938 Fanny moved into a lovely LA home which she could afford with her Baby Snooks paychecks. Though there are questions about how deeply she embraced the role of Baby Snooks, she seems to have led a peaceful life in her post-husband radio years.
Her radio co-stars seemed to have sincere affection for Fanny Brice. On the May 29, 1951 broadcast of The Baby Snooks Show broadcast immediately after her death, Hanley Stafford said "We have lost a very real, a very warm, a very wonderful woman." Her legacy includes two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for radio and another for motion pictures.
