New Demos from Simon and Kevin

[Iwan Roth]

I did order today, so of course I am very interested in listening to the new demos, which I did:

Simon, I heard your stuff before, you are a virtuoso in using this sampled orchestras and your music is absolutely perfectly suited for this medium. The composition and the technical realisation is 100 % convincing.

Stravinsky. Hmm, this is of course a heavy one....To my ears it does sound quite different from what I heard in concerts and also on my recordings. Everything is so super present, precise and clear, that it is difficult to believe as real. But, Stravinsky would - this is of course pure speculation -may have like it. He was always complaining about imprecision and romantic interpretation of his works. We will never know. But anyway great job Kevin!

Thanks to both of you!

Igor

[Simon Ravn]

Thanks IGOR. The love theme part of the piece is clearly inspired by John Williams' "Across the Stars", I won't deny that, but I think VSL pulls it off pretty well.

[Kevin Kliesch]

Thanks, Igor. My aim in doing the demo was to showcase mostly the legato mode; I didn't focus too much on getting the right balance of reverb to put the instruments far back in the hall, although on second thought this may have helped. Also, please keep in mind that the strings are not in mutes. Igor (Stravinsky) asked for all of the strings to be in mutes for this piece, which changes the sound immensely.The brass are also not in mutes, although they are in the "real" piece. The clarinet is not a D piccolo (which obviously would change the sound), and my celeste sample is not the best (I've been searching for a good one for a long time).

I listened to Michael Tilson Thomas' version of the piece for comparison, and feel I came "pretty close", but again, my main aim was to show the incredible wind legatos.

[Iwan Roth]

Kevin,

I did not mean to make a negative statement on your demo! NOT AT ALL! I just wanted to express that IMHO it still a very delicate task to produce well known masterpieces of the symphonic repertoire with samples. For the knowing listener it is difficult to be objective and one always listening as it has to be the same as the “real thing”. I think that in some ways your Stravinsky is even better than the “real thing”, but I also do think that it is different. If I may compare, I would mention Glenn Gould’s recording of the Goldberg Variations on the Piano. I like it better than on harpsichord, but it is definitely different.

Anyway great job, as I already mentioned. You must be a great keyboard player, if you played this in real time and in tempo!

Igor

[Galleddrim]

@Simon Ravn said:

Thanks IGOR. The love theme part of the piece is clearly inspired by John Williams' "Across the Stars", I won't deny that, but I think VSL pulls it off pretty well.

[:D] Hehe. I immediately recognized the similarities. Though I wasn't certain whether it was the theme or just the orchestration that was inspired by John Williams. But if I may say so myself, I think you pulled it off nicely.

~Chris

[Kevin Kliesch]

Igor -

I didn't take your comments as an insult at all! I appreciate the fact that you found the same discrepancies between the real and the fake that I did!

And although I did play the parts live, I personally think my keyboard playing is atrocious. [:O]ops:

[Maarten Spruijt]

You did a great job Kevin!

I had fun creating my own original demos with VSL, but I wouldn't even want to start what you've accomplished!

I hope you had a good score to help you out? [:)]

Maarten

[Kevin Kliesch]

Thanks Maarten! I used the Dover 1st edition.

Funny how we each have our own opinions about our work - I thought your pieces blew my attempt away! [[;)]]

[Maarten Spruijt]

Hehe well it's something different when you write new stuff with the samples, partly keeping the samples in mind, or being forced to get a certain passage done, wether it's at all possible with samples or not. [:)]

Maarten