I still don't compare the two mediums William. Will samples ever hit me in my gut the way a room of great players does? I tend to think not. Would a top notch sample performance be preferable to a very badly performed recording of the same piece? Probably so.
I think I would always prefer a real orchestra (but it would have to be good enough to really pull off the music) to samples. However, I thank God for samples and love them ultimately because I can hear my (and other's) orchestral music daily.
It's this simple to me in the end: If I had to choose between hearing a great sample based performance of a piece and a great performance of it by a top notch orchestra I would prefer the latter. I just worked on a film where my mockups sounded very good. Then I heard the cues with 95 pieces at Todd AO. No comparison.
In your case Bill, I think you are on the right track and one of the few composers that conveys your artistic aims wonderfully with samples. You don't have hundereds of thousands of dollars to shell out for an orchestra so you're doing the only possible alternative and in an uncompromising manner at that. Keep going!
I think I would always prefer a real orchestra (but it would have to be good enough to really pull off the music) to samples. However, I thank God for samples and love them ultimately because I can hear my (and other's) orchestral music daily.
It's this simple to me in the end: If I had to choose between hearing a great sample based performance of a piece and a great performance of it by a top notch orchestra I would prefer the latter. I just worked on a film where my mockups sounded very good. Then I heard the cues with 95 pieces at Todd AO. No comparison.
In your case Bill, I think you are on the right track and one of the few composers that conveys your artistic aims wonderfully with samples. You don't have hundereds of thousands of dollars to shell out for an orchestra so you're doing the only possible alternative and in an uncompromising manner at that. Keep going!