I just completed my first real work with VSL (and the reason I bought VSL): About 60 minutes of music for an adventure film for kids "Oskar & Josefine". It will hit the cinemas here in little Denmark in february.
What did I learn?
Orchestral music takes TIME. I knew that off course, but making one hour of music sort of exagerates that fact [[[:|]]] [:D]
And along the way I learned about VSL,- what instrument that always sound great, and which you dont want to solo too much.
In brief the highlights:
For action I found the staccato strings and the new chamber spiccato perf. to be superb for rapid 16ths. Often I used them for rythmic ostinatos in lower ranges. Very powerful [[:D]]
And horns. If you say adventure film, you know you will need horns, so I got the Epics also. They all rock, right down to the solo horn (perf. [[:D]] ).
Flute, clarinet and fagotto perfs were also used extensively, as well as the whole perc group which works like a charm.
As I was getting nearer to the finish, I found that the first pieces did not sound quite as good as the latest. So I had certainly improved my knowledge of VSL along the way. So I guess what I am saying is that to some extent, the VSL is an instrument that one has to learn to master.
Unfortunately I did not really have time to go back and redo much, but it is hopefully stuff that only nerds like us will notice. In fact I did not even have time to make separate 1st Vl, 2nd Vl, Vla and Vlc tracks when they where playing chordal stuff. I had planned to do so, but the music worked without it, and there where always more important things to do. I actually used a non-VSL stringpad quite a bit, because it was such a fast way to get a lush string sound (with some beautyful VSL woodwind on top to take the focus).
That stringpad and choirs from VOTA (with VOTA remember to filter out the CRT tones at around 15KHz, - such a bummer [[[:|]]] ) are the only non-VSL samples in the score, so I will upload some of the cues after New Year for VSL demo purposes.
And a Merry Christmas....
What did I learn?
Orchestral music takes TIME. I knew that off course, but making one hour of music sort of exagerates that fact [[[:|]]] [:D]
And along the way I learned about VSL,- what instrument that always sound great, and which you dont want to solo too much.
In brief the highlights:
For action I found the staccato strings and the new chamber spiccato perf. to be superb for rapid 16ths. Often I used them for rythmic ostinatos in lower ranges. Very powerful [[:D]]
And horns. If you say adventure film, you know you will need horns, so I got the Epics also. They all rock, right down to the solo horn (perf. [[:D]] ).
Flute, clarinet and fagotto perfs were also used extensively, as well as the whole perc group which works like a charm.
As I was getting nearer to the finish, I found that the first pieces did not sound quite as good as the latest. So I had certainly improved my knowledge of VSL along the way. So I guess what I am saying is that to some extent, the VSL is an instrument that one has to learn to master.
Unfortunately I did not really have time to go back and redo much, but it is hopefully stuff that only nerds like us will notice. In fact I did not even have time to make separate 1st Vl, 2nd Vl, Vla and Vlc tracks when they where playing chordal stuff. I had planned to do so, but the music worked without it, and there where always more important things to do. I actually used a non-VSL stringpad quite a bit, because it was such a fast way to get a lush string sound (with some beautyful VSL woodwind on top to take the focus).
That stringpad and choirs from VOTA (with VOTA remember to filter out the CRT tones at around 15KHz, - such a bummer [[[:|]]] ) are the only non-VSL samples in the score, so I will upload some of the cues after New Year for VSL demo purposes.
And a Merry Christmas....