07-22-2019, 03:19 AM
(07-21-2019, 09:30 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote:(07-20-2019, 04:07 PM)Terry93D Wrote: the core, musical assessment is two tests: the Haydn test, which is the rendering of the first and last movements of Haydn's Symphony Nr. 80, as a test of how it performs in a realistic, classical situation (realism of balance and performance); and an "epic test," utilizing an original composition (yet to be written).
First off: I think this project is a wonderful idea, and I wish you the best of luck with it. If I can help in any way, let me know. I have a problem with the above statement though, and I'm pointing this out as a friendly heads-up before you get too far. So I'm not saying "boo, you're wrong!" Just a word of caution.
The thing is, rendering the same midi with different samples is an excercise in futility that will tell you absolutely NOTHING about the actual capabilities of the libraries in question. It will show their differences, yes, but it will also give people the wrong idea. "Wow, that sounded like crap. I'm not buying that one!". Basically this method ignores the fact that ALL orchestral libraries are different, with different strengths and weaknesses, a different sound, not to mention different functions and features. No two libraries have the exact same levels, or note attacks, or velocity layer mapping, or modwheel XF mapping, or keyswitches, and... well, you get the idea. Hell, some of them don't even come with all the instruments! The only way to truthfully showcase what a library can or can't do is to recreate the composition (Haydn in this case) from scratch with it, doing your darndest to work around its potential limitations. Maybe that's the way you were planning on doing it, but judging from the amount of libraries on your list I doubt it. That would take... years, probably.
So, bottom line: just piping the same midi through different libs is an unfair and misleading way of comparing orchestral libraries. There's simply soooo much more to a convincing and pleasant-sounding virtual orchestration.
Alternate approach? I don't know honestly. Personally I would much prefer just hearing short isolated snippets of some instruments included. A few notes on the violins, trumpets, percussion, and so on.
You're absolutely right that every orchestral library is completely different and that putting the same MIDI through each library would be totally unfair and dishonest. I have no plans to do so for all the reasons you mentioned. :
As you say, however, it would be very time-consuming to completely recreate from scratch the movements - even if, being Haydn symphonies, they are not the twenty-minute-plus epics of later composers. (The last movement is less then five minutes!) I would hope not years, though I suppose that'll depend on how good I am by the time of actually managing this...The best scenario I can think of right now - and right now I'm rather tired, we lost power yesterday and I got a very poor night's sleep as a result (we got it back earlier today, but even so) - is to create a MIDI lacking any articulation or dynamic data, and then feed that into each library and modify from there to best fit the library's sound, though I'll fully admit that this may be more trouble then it's worth.
