Thanks for your answers!
I guess I'll stick with my DAW.
If I had the skills I'd code a VSL, rules based notation program.
Something similar to Notion but using VSL samples and an open archecture so we could use other VI's as well. It would include MIDI-orchestration rules based on instruments and their idiosyncratic features and, rules based on MIDI performance techniques...basically all the things we have to think about while making mock-ups or composing.
Rules we have come to use and do manually to make the phrases sound like real humans but take hours to achieve.
Many of us are fast composers but making the music SOUND good with samples and computers takes twice as long as composing the music in the first place. The software is the bottleneck.
I'm always looking for ways of speeding up this process but there doesn't seem to be an elegant solution for it (yet).
In notation programs the music looks great but there are performance limitations.
In a DAW the music looks like crap but can playback more realistically yet it takes hours of tweaking per 1 minute of orchestral music.
I think we are all frustrated with this.
Its a damper on creativity to compose and at the sametime have to think about so many MIDI performance processes to make the music sound good. Keyswitches, modwheel, pitchwheel, two foot controllers, breath controller, ribbon controller, V-Span, H-Span, A/B switch, X-Cell Fade, X-Velocity Fade, Expression, Patches, Matricies, Presets, ADSR,...thats a lot of stuff to think about.
I'm not complaining about VSL, I love VSL and I thank the universe everyday for hatching them. They solved many of my problems. This is just one of the last lingering challenges that needs to be conquered.
If I was part of VSL product development team such a notation program would be first on the list of new products. Why? Because it would make using their samples a breeze and there would be even less competition, plus the users would be able to make better music quicker resulting in happier customers who'll buy more VSL products because they'll get paid sooner since their projects get finished faster.
Less time + faster rendering = more $$ in all of our pockets
Whats up VSL?
You guys are in a position where you can take over the world of orchestral sampling with this type of notation product yet we are on the brink of seeing more complex and difficult to use products...MIR, Choirs (which I can't wait for and am bitting at the bit).
But a notation product of this sort would make you the undisputed champion of the sampling industry and make all of our lives easier.
Thats it I'm done, time go back to my little cell and wait for a keyswitch :-)
DM
