<< What has the sweetest string sounds >>

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Greg

Seriously though, after the real thing the best string sounds by far that I have heard are on orchestral CD-ROM sample collections.

JFYI, The best orchestral MIDI work currently being done is in the film industry. On a large or medium budget film where a full orchestral score is being employed the whole thing will often be created first using MIDI and samples. This MIDI recording is used to "sell" the musical ideas to the director. Once everyone is happy then the live orchestra will be brought in to record it. To use all those high quality samples though needs masses of memory and outputs from the sampler. I've witnessed one of these MIDI orchestral recordings being made. They used a bank of 18 fully loaded Emu XT4's!!

Greg

Wow! interesting.

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Greg,

re: pitching string ideas to suits...

That's cool, I've seen the same thing happen for pop/r&b songs. Unfortunately, it's not a nearly common enuf occurence, as execs are likely to be satisfied with the midi strings rather than commit another $50,000 to the budget. I suppose with film budgets what they are today, you guys spend that much when you sit down for lunch! hehe

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Angelo Quaglia
AQ Productions

<< execs are likely to be satisfied with the midi strings rather than commit another $50,000 to the budget. >>

For film the budget is set before the composer puts pen to paper (or mouse to screen). Before MIDI the composer would try to give the director an idea by playing the music on a piano. Sometimes the music would have to be re-recorded to reflect changes required by the director once he had heard the real thing. I know of instances in the past where famous names have had their finished masters binned and been instructed to start again, $100,000 worth of work down the pan. MIDI gives the director a much closer initial idea of what the finished master will sound like, so overall the project is often cheaper.

Greg

Thanks Greg for being with us!

It's these little bits of info that really perks my interest and helps me learn more about the "business" as a whole.

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David L. Black
Owner/ Engineer / Producer
Old House Recording Studio - Gastonia, NC