Thank you. I take yer point that there are no 'actor' plug-ins for Microsoft Word. If there were, I'm sure we'd all be hearing these dreadful Ian McKellen phrases everywhere. YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

I appreciate the suggestion. I do think you understand what I'm saying but just disagree with my basic ideas. Sadly, that's exactly the kind of 'translator' program that shouldn't need to exist if all the players would simply work together. Same goes with my UI gripes for disabled people. Like most companies, VSL puts 100% of it's effort into the best sounding products. For most users, my issues are way down the priority list. I suppose the market decides.

I dsagree with something you wrote about 'construction sets'. I'm noticing more and more guys I run into who -have- the training to write cues reach for the construction set instead out of sheer convenience; not lack of ability. -That's- the soul killer. There's just no incentive to put in the time to do really creative orchestrations. No one has a budget for real players and doing a MIDI orchestration that really -kills- takes a LOT longer to do than generating a score and booking players. I don't have a figure, but I guess it takes -several- times as long to do a good mock up as it would to write the same cue and have it played. And if it's an unfamiliar orchestration, where you're experimenting? It might take even longer to work it out. No wonder guys reach for the construction set. Or record the same boring stuff over and over. It's the smart play.

My point is that, I think it's in every company's interest with a stake in 'MIDI orchestration',  to make the workflow faster. A -lot- faster. The whole focus now is on better sound quality, which seems to me somewhat short-sighted.

YMMV,

---JC

@Suntower said:

My point is that, I think it's in every company's interest with a stake in 'MIDI orchestration',  to make the workflow faster. A -lot- faster. The whole focus now is on better sound quality, which seems to me somewhat short-sighted.

I do agree with you, but I'm afraid that ti will never happen, because each company has a different idea of what the ideal should be. At least with VSL you can choose your own keyswitches and controllers, whereas with most other companies you have to put up with what you get given.

I can tell you now, that whatever standard was arrived at, it wouldn't suit me, so I have a vested interest in all of this. For example, Cubase VST Expression is very good, but too basic for my needs. If all developers were locked into that, I would have to go down the road of recording my own sample libraries, and these wouldn't obey the "standard". Straight away I would have people wanting to buy my libraries because they would be more flexible, and we would be back to square one.

However, as VST Expression exists there is nothing to stop sample developers adopting it up to a point, but then you would have to persuade the sequencer developers to do the same. We all know what the answer from Apple would be. [;)]

DG

 The reason none of this is really a problem is that you can set up a template which works exactly how you want, and then stop thinking about it.  

No point in saying the same stuff over and over. You know how much I respect your work, sir, but in this case you are incorrect.... at least about the issues I raised.

Regards,

---JC

Well, to put it seriously, no, there is not an instant MIDI performance button. never mind.