@Mobius said:
Hi Jay,
I very rarely post on this board. But I couldn't ignore what I just heard without leaving a comment.
Despite the huge leap forward that VSL provides, with all the MIDI mock-ups I have heard so far I have always felt that the realism is frustratingly lacking. They always get close, but not close enough to make me forget what I'm hearing is just a bunch of samples (albeit cleverly combined). If I hear a MIDI mock-up of a famous piece from the classical repertoire that is substantially inferior to the real thing then in my opinion, from a listener's perspective, the whole thing is pointless. Obviously I'm always going to reach for my recording of Beethoven performed by the LSO, or other respected orchestra, if it moves me more than a sampled rendition. If it doesn't make me want to listen again, then it has ultimately failed in its purpose. And I'm talking about making music for the love of it, rather than when writing for media where the practicalities of time and money severely limit the pursuit of realism and listening pleasure, which play second fiddle to the needs of the project at hand.
Well I have to tell you that your performance - and I use that word deservingly - has finally overcome those limitations. I can honestly say that vast stretches of your rendition of The Rite of Spring were frighteningly vivid and authentic. With a sampled orchestra there will always be near misses, where you can hear that a transition, or a repeated phrase, or the intensity of a note is not quite right. But these problems have been hammered down into the tiniest of instances by a truly mighty baton of programming excellence.
I'm sure your efforts will inspire many VSL devotees to try and emulate such a magnificent achievement in their own work.
Pure genius!
-Darren
I can't agree with this statement and is not very fair I find. There have been other very realistic mock ups as well, over the past year by various people. Without looking too far listen to Symphony K385 by Mozart and Beethoven 3rd symphony programmed by Yoshitan, which I must say is extremely impressive and realistic. If you tune in more often the recently added page you might be surprised. Vienna Symphonic Library