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