Discuss Notion Music Composition Software here.
9 posts
Page 1 of 1
Hi

I need to upgrade the sounds for use with Notion 6

I'm trying to decide how easy it is to move to either a) Miroslav Philharmonic (IK Multimedia) or (b) Garrritan Personal Orchestra

Does anyone have any experience with switching to either - what are the pros and cons for either?

I'm not 100% tech savvy so easy terms please

I basically need to be able to generate more realistic samples of my work :)

Thanks
User avatar
by thomasbaxter on Sat Oct 31, 2020 12:18 pm
Garritan offers several different libraries and is very affordable.
User avatar
by Surf.Whammy on Sat Oct 31, 2020 11:45 pm
There are several excellent options for high-quality sampled sounds and playback engines . . . :)

THOUGHTS

Jump to the P. S. for my recommendation, which I discovered after writing all this stuff and is the way it works here in the sound isolation studio, where if I write enough stuff, eventually something useful happens . . .

Perhaps the most important consideration is the types of music you like . . .

This ranges from a handful of genres, all very similar, to a vast range of genres . . .

It also depends on your budget, of course, since it's easily possible to spend thousands of dollars on sampled sound libraries . . .

Here in the sound isolation studio, I tend to like a lot of genres but at present my favorite genre is the one I created a few months ago, specifically the Stupid musical genre, where the goal is to embrace every aspect of musical and lyrical stupidity possible toward the goal of creating ear worms that make truly absurd (and vastly stupid) observations . . .

For instruments, this maps to putting every possible instrument on the table at arranging and instrumenting time . . .

On the other hand, perhaps you are focused on Symphonic, Orchestral, Classical, and similar genres where what you need is a set of traditional orchestra instruments . . .

The selection also depends on how intimately you use articulations, playing styles, dynamics, and all that stuff--basically all the various markings one can add to music notation (staccato, pizzicato, vibrato, tremolo, pianissimo, forte, and so forth) . . .

Here in the sound isolation studio, I avoid all that stuff for two primary reasons, (a) it's what I consider to be "busy work" and (b) a lot of it requires computing sounds rather than playing raw sounds . . .

This aspect is complex, but the high-level version is that what I call "raw sounds" are the ones where notes played by a trained musician are recorded and then digitized to create a set of sampled sounds . . .

If the trained violinist is playing vibrato at a mezzo-forte dynamic, then this is what is recorded and digitized to create the sampled sound library for this playing style and dynamic . . .

But consider that you want it to be pianissimo rather the mezzo-forte . . .

Depending on several factors, there might be some computing where the volume level is lowered to emulate playing at a softer volume level . . .

It's the vibrato, mezzo-forte sampled notes, but the computer is instructed by the music notation to pretend it's vibrato, pianissimo, and this requires computing, which modifies what the violinist actually played, and now it's artificial rather than real . . .

Another thing to consider is whether a sampled sound library is sampled "diatonically", which maps to only every other note being sampled or chromatically, which maps to every note being sampled . . .

[NOTE: I use the term "diatonically" to indicate that only about half of the notes actually are recorded and digitized. As you know, diatonic scales have a mix of half-steps and whole-steps, and there are no "in-between" notes in the middle of half-steps, but so what. It's a conceptual thing, and "diatonically" works better than some of the other terms, which is why I use it . . . ]

When there is no sampled note, the computer uses either a lower or a higher sampled note to create the "in-between" note, and the "in-between" note is entirely artificial, which can be acceptable unless there is a motion effect or playing style, in which case it's not so good . . .

Consider that "Middle C" (C5 in scientific pitch notation) is played by a real musician, recorded, and then digitized, as is the D above "Middle C", which in scientific pitch notation is D5, but C#5 or D♭5 is not played, recorded, and digitized . . .

When a C#5 or D♭5 is requested, the computer has to emulate it, which it does by logarithmic extrapolation or interpolation, which is a mathematical strategy for determining a value--pitch in this instance--using a base value and then doing a bit of arithmetic--noting this is a simple explanation of something which is a bit more complex, but so what . . .

In this scenario, "Middle C" is a real note played by a trained musician, recorded, and then digitized, as is D5, but the real musician did not play the C#5 or D♭5 note, hence it's artificial and was created by the computer . . .

For example, consider the playing style is vibrato and the vibrato depth and rate are the same for each of the sampled notes . . .

If the basis for an "in-between" note is a half-step lower, then the computed note will be the lower note but played faster to get the right pitch, which works for getting the pitch but also increases the vibrato rate, hence is not so good . . .

If the basis is the next higher real note, then it's computed to be slower to lower the pitch, and in turn this slows the vibrato rate . . .

The affects on motion-based articulations, playing styles, and so forth is less obvious for higher pitch notes, but in the lower pitch ranges, just a few cycles per second differentiate on note from another, so it's more obvious for lower register notes . . .

This does not occur with chromatically sampled sound libraries, because every note is played, recorded, and digitized, which is excellent, except that chromatically sampled sound libraries cost more, since instead of sampling 44 notes, all 88 notes are sampled, which maps to twice as much stuff, hence more work and a higher price . . .

If you want the most realism, then you want a chromatically sampled sound library that has instrument sets in the exact playing styles, dynamics, and so forth that you want to use, because this way you minimize the computing, hence avoid artificially constructed and modified sounds for notes . . .

VST INSTRUMENTS

There are pre-mapped third party sampled sound libraries that have custom rules and for the most part behave the same as the NOTION native sounds with respect to articulations, playing style, dynamics, and so forth. These appear as VST Presets in NOTION Score Setup . . .

Everything in computing changes over time, and the pre-mapped aspects do not always keep up with new versions of sampled sound libraries and their corresponding playback engines . . .

And there are folks who create their own custom mappings rules, and so forth, which they tend to enjoy . . .

All that is too complex for me, so I don't go there . . .

Instead, I use the VST Instrument strategy, where you select one and then you get a single staff (which can be a grand staff or any other type of staff) . . .

Nothing is preselected, and it's up to you to select the instrument and its playing style, articulation, dynamics, and so forth . . .

To put this into perspective, it's useful to know that I like French Horns and that being a bit bored several years ago, i decided to count all the different articulations, playing styles, dynamics, and so forth for the French Horns in the first version of Miroslav Philharmonik, which I did very diligently for about an hour and at that point had counted 150 different variations and sets, hence stopped counting and decided (a) that there are a lot of French Horns in Miroslav Philharmonik and (b) that at the time I didn't know how most of them differed . . .

I know what "legato" means if I think about it a few seconds, but why do I need to know that as one of the most important things to remember always and at all times?

There is a virtual festival of thing like legato, which is fine with me, and while I should know all the names, mostly I select one of the sets and then listen to a few notes. If I like the way the notes sound, then I use that specific set, which according to me is "good", where the goal in the "by ear" strategy that I use is that you keep tinkering with stuff until it sounds "good" . . .

That is a productive goal, because if all the notes sound "good", then none of them sound "bad" . . .

Curiously, there are electric guitar phrases where notes that sound "bad" actually are "good", but so what . . .

The classic example of "bad" being "good" is the lead guitar solo for "The Locomotion" (Grand Funk) . . .

phpBB [video]


Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley's lead guitar player in the early years) did stuff like that, which I call "playing textures", and start of the second lead guitar solo in "Hound Dog" is a stellar example . . .

I can play it, but it took me weeks to discover how to do it, where one of the keys is to just do it rather than trying to make it logical . . .

[NOTE: It starts a few milliseconds after 1:20 in the timeline. Also, listen carefully and you will hear Elvis doing uvular trills on the "h" of "hound dog" throughout the song, but more clearly at the end of the song, which is mind-boggling. How did Elvis know about uvular trills? Perhaps one of the university trained producers told him about it? I have no idea, but I listened to "Hound Dog" for over half a century before I noticed the uvular trills, and I consider myself to be highly trained listener . . . ]

phpBB [video]


MUSICAL GENRES

As a general rule, if you like a variety of musical genres but focus primarily on what one might call "popular music", then that's my bailiwick . . .

Before I shifted focus to VSTi virtual instruments and music notation, I played electric bass, electric guitar, drums, and a bit of grand piano or keyboards; and these are things about which I have a high level of knowledge . . .

Let's say you want to do a song with a 1960s James Brown basic rhythm section but with a John Lennon rhythm guitar and a Paul McCartney Höfner bass . . .

[NOTE: This the definitive basic rhythm section: drums, bass, rhythm guitar, Hammond B-3 organ played through Leslie cabinet. As with all music videos I post, it's best to listen to them with studio-quality headphones like SONY MDR-7506 headphones, which are sonically neutral but have nice subsonic deep bass . . . ]

phpBB [video]


phpBB [video]


You can do this with SampleTank (IK Multimedia) and the AC30 guitar amplifier effects plug-in from PreSonus that comes with Studio One Professional 4 (a personal favorite guitar effects plug-in) . . .

These are some of the instruments I used in my new Stupid song, "Magic People", where this is the current version and is becoming increasingly Stupid with each new version . . .

[NOTE: It usually takes about 25 versions to add everything, so this version is about hallway there. This is a carefully designed ear worm, so if you listen to it, then you can't unhear it. . . . :P ]

phpBB [video]


Projedt: "Magic People" ~ PreSonus NOTION Forum

Sometimes I like to use a virtual festival of instruments, some of which are what most folks call "normal" or "traditional" . . .

phpBB [video]


Project: "Sweet Hour Of Prayer" ~ PreSonus NOTION Forum

It's all music, and the instruments and sounds are the colors one uses to paint the song . . .

With this in mind, I have the first version of Miroslav Philharmonik (IK Multimedia), and I use it as a legacy instrument in SampleTank 3 (IK Multimedia) . . .

I plan to get Garritan Personal Orchestra next week, but I have the version that came with 2012 Finale, and I like the flute . . .

Mostly, I use SampleTank, ComposerCloud X (EW), MachFive 3 (MOTU), Addictive Drums (XLN Audio), Kontakt (Native Instruments), and a few others . . .

I like Classical music, but I run it through a compressor-limiter so that everything is at the same loudness, which I do because one of the rules here in the sound isolation studio is that if you can't hear it, then it's noise and doesn't need to be there . . .

SUGGESTION

You might try ComposerCloud X (EW) for a month to get a sense of what it provides . . .

It's a subscription thing, and one month at a time costs $30 . . .

This is what I did, but after a few weeks I switched to the yearly subscription but still month by month, which costs $20 a month . . .

ComposerCloud X (EW)

As you might be able to see in the video (above), "Magic People" has several instruments from ComposerCloud X, and they are the ones where the instrument engine is "Play" . . .

There also are several ComposerCloud X instruments in another of my recent Stupid songs . . .

[NOTE: James Brown liked to put the emphasis on what he called "the one", which is the first beat of a measure. So I took the idea and changed it to "the one and the two". The Clavioline heard at the start of the song and in a few other measures is from ComposeCloudX and its Beatles sample-sound library. The Clavioline was used in "Runaway" (Del Shannon) and "Baby Your'e A Rich Man" (Beatles), among other songs. The horn sections also are from ComposerCloud X . . . ]

phpBB [video]


Project: "The Ballad of Dare L. Dupree" ~ PreSonus NOTION Forum

phpBB [video]


EW also sells their various sampled sound libraries outright, and they have discount sales . . .

In this strategy, you do a one-month subscription and study the various sampled-sound libraries.

If you find a few that you like, you can check the price for purchasing them outright rather than doing a subscription . . .

Among other things, they have a lot of orchestra instruments and ensembles, Gypsy sounds (popular in France in the 1930s and later), a virtual festival of Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern instruments, lots of Heavy Metal instruments, horn sections (a personal favorite) and so forth . . .

Once I have Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO), I will post a follow-up about it . . .

[NOTE: The primary reasons I am getting GPO are (a) I like the flute and (b) I need to verify that the new playback engine handles MULTIs correctly--actually more (b), since I am helping someone in this forum with what might be a problem but has a solution. If the new Airia Player works correctly, this will be great, because the one I had from 2012 has a problem remembering stuff . . . ]

SUMMARY

There are so many third-party, high-quality, super-realistic sampled sound libraries and playback engines that it's a bit mind-boggling . . .

As noted, if you want a 1960s James Brown basic rhythm section with some or all of the early-1960s Beatles, then "I'm that guy" . . .

If you want Symphonic, Orchestral, Classical, and similar genres, then I think michaelmyers1 is "that guy", and perhaps he will provide some expert advice for those types of instruments . . .

And for reference, it's not a handful of options . . .

It's 50 to 100 different products, if not more, and each one has unique characteristics and sounds . . .

Miroslav Philharmonik is good, as is GPO, but there are other products in similar price ranges that you might like better . . .

Remember the strategy of doing a one-month subscription to ComposerCloud X to get a sense of what's available, which you can do because it has 40,000+ instruments in more individually focused sampled sound libraries than I can count in a reasonable amount of time, although the high-level is that it provides a bunch of Orchestra stuff, Gypsy stuff, Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern stuff, plus horn sections, singers, and Heavy Metal stuff . . .

It probably has more stuff, but so what . . .

If you can't find it there, then try Bolder Sounds, which has lots of unique and typically rare instruments, including Hand Bells, Crystal Glasses, and a set of the sounds of someone banging on washing machines with a sledge hammer . . .

Bolder Sounds

THANKSGIVING

Kontakt (Native Instruments) is a good product to have, and Native Instruments has had a 50-percent discount sale on Kontakt each of the past few years, and probably will do it this year . . .

Instead of $400 (US), it's $200 if they have the annual Thanksgiving Holiday one-week sale . . .

Kontakt 6 (Native Instruments)

Kontakt is very important here in the sound isolation studio, because my Bolder Sounds instruments require it, and most importantly Realivox Blue (RealiTone) requires Kontakt . . .

The reason provides a clue to the Stupid musical genre I created a few months ago . . .

As a child, I was in a liturgical boys choir, and this is where I learned to sight-sing soprano liturgical music . . .

The choirmaster told me I was a soprano, and he was an honest fellow and an excellent vocal coach . . .

After that, nobody told me I was something else, so for the next 50 years I continued to think I was a soprano, even though hitting the higher notes became increasingly difficult, even when I switched to falsetto . . .

Several years ago, I created my Pretend George Martin persona, and as choirmaster the first thing I did was determine my vocal range, which much to my amazement is baritone . . . :P

I have an extraordinarily high I. Q., but it doesn't always map to being able to determine what for other folks is obvious . . .

For example, when I decided to teach myself lead guitar, I made no progress for the first year until I realized that every lead guitar solo recorded in the 20th century was played by a person who had from 2 to 5 fingers and a thumb on the fretboard hand; hence since I have four fingers and a thumb, this means I can play lead guitar if I work at it, which I did . . .

In the epiphany department, that's pretty stupid; but for me it said (a) it's possible and (b) if I work at it, then I can do it . . .

Explained another way, the epiphany is that the only difference from well-known lead guitar players and me is that they did the hard work--memorizing phrases, building neural pathways in the brain, arms, fingers, and generally playing the same phrases over and over, thousands of times until it's completely natural, intuitive, and easy . . .

For example, I practiced three-note phrases over and over for 5 to 10 hours a day until I could do it in my sleep, which I suppose for most folks would a combination of boring and stupid, but it's the way it works for folks who are not Mozart and can do fantastic things but only after a lot of work . . .

It might appear to be easy, but they're triplets and the song is in 4/4 time, so it's not so easy as it appears . . .

[NOTE: This was done when I was doing everything with real instruments, nearly always in real-time on the fly on the first take--except for the rhythm guitar chords, which is all I need to know what to do . . . ]

phpBB [video]


[NOTE: This lead guitar solo was composed and played in real-time on the fly, which I can do because I already knew the rhythm guitar chords. It sounds like a "Wall of Guitars", because it's a custom-modded Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster that has two separate output signals, which I run tthrough two sets of stereo effects pedals, including cascading echo units, wah-wah pedals, and Digitech Whammy pedals for octave jumps; but it's just one set of notes composed and played in real-time on the fly on the first take. Ditto for the electric bass . . . ]

Image
The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster ft. The Really Big Knob

phpBB [video]


[NOTE: Ferliss Nuberton is another of my pretend personas . . . ]

phpBB [video]


To the point, Realivox Blue is my virtual soprano, and she runs in the full version of Kontakt . . .

Image

Realivox Blue (RealiTone)

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. IK Multimedia has vastly absurd discount sales every time they need to build a new manufacturing or research facility, so get on their mailing list (email) and be patient . . .

The best discount sales are the ones where you buy one product and then get a similar product for free, which often expands to buy one and get several free, which is fabulous . . .

For example, they have a super discount of Total Studio 2 Max for $249 (US) which ends on Monday November 2, 2020 at midnight, so now through all day Monday until midnight . . .

The discount sale is called "Total Studio Spectacular II" . . .

The product is Total Studio Max 2 . . .

It includes Miroslav Philharmonik 2, SampleTank 3 and 4SE, and a lot of other very useful stuff, much of which I use for producing and audio engineering (T-RackS 5) . . .

Total Studio Spectacular II (IK Multimedia)

Total Studio Max 2 (IK Multimedia)

This is my recommendation, and the price is heavily discounted, so it's a true bargain--approximately $1,000 (US) of high-quality digital music production software for $250 (US) . . .

And for reference, I do not work for any of these companies; none of them give me free stuff; and if I use it, then I bought it with my own money, which keeps me objective and unbiased . . .

I write technical books and am working on a book about digital music production, and I probably could get a lot of free stuff, but then I couldn't be independent, so I don't do it . . .

Fabulous! :)

Surf.Whammy's YouTube Channel

The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
User avatar
by rachaelpickering on Mon Nov 02, 2020 7:51 am
Hi

Wow - that was a lot of information! Thanks so much!

I mainly write classical pieces, most of the time I don't need an audio rendition when I submit scores for ensembles but sometimes it's nice for them to have an idea of how it works.

I did notice the biiiiiiiiig sale on the Total Studio Max - very tempted by that offer!

My only issue is I've heard Notion can be glitchy with the orchestral package when it's run through windows 10

Is it relatively straight forward to set up?


Surf.Whammy wroteThere are several excellent options for high-quality sampled sounds and playback engines . . . :)

THOUGHTS

Jump to the P. S. for my recommendation, which I discovered after writing all this stuff and is the way it works here in the sound isolation studio, where if I write enough stuff, eventually something useful happens . . .

Perhaps the most important consideration is the types of music you like . . .

This ranges from a handful of genres, all very similar, to a vast range of genres . . .

It also depends on your budget, of course, since it's easily possible to spend thousands of dollars on sampled sound libraries . . .

Here in the sound isolation studio, I tend to like a lot of genres but at present my favorite genre is the one I created a few months ago, specifically the Stupid musical genre, where the goal is to embrace every aspect of musical and lyrical stupidity possible toward the goal of creating ear worms that make truly absurd (and vastly stupid) observations . . .

For instruments, this maps to putting every possible instrument on the table at arranging and instrumenting time . . .

On the other hand, perhaps you are focused on Symphonic, Orchestral, Classical, and similar genres where what you need is a set of traditional orchestra instruments . . .

The selection also depends on how intimately you use articulations, playing styles, dynamics, and all that stuff--basically all the various markings one can add to music notation (staccato, pizzicato, vibrato, tremolo, pianissimo, forte, and so forth) . . .

Here in the sound isolation studio, I avoid all that stuff for two primary reasons, (a) it's what I consider to be "busy work" and (b) a lot of it requires computing sounds rather than playing raw sounds . . .

This aspect is complex, but the high-level version is that what I call "raw sounds" are the ones where notes played by a trained musician are recorded and then digitized to create a set of sampled sounds . . .

If the trained violinist is playing vibrato at a mezzo-forte dynamic, then this is what is recorded and digitized to create the sampled sound library for this playing style and dynamic . . .

But consider that you want it to be pianissimo rather the mezzo-forte . . .

Depending on several factors, there might be some computing where the volume level is lowered to emulate playing at a softer volume level . . .

It's the vibrato, mezzo-forte sampled notes, but the computer is instructed by the music notation to pretend it's vibrato, pianissimo, and this requires computing, which modifies what the violinist actually played, and now it's artificial rather than real . . .

Another thing to consider is whether a sampled sound library is sampled "diatonically", which maps to only every other note being sampled or chromatically, which maps to every note being sampled . . .

[NOTE: I use the term "diatonically" to indicate that only about half of the notes actually are recorded and digitized. As you know, diatonic scales have a mix of half-steps and whole-steps, and there are no "in-between" notes in the middle of half-steps, but so what. It's a conceptual thing, and "diatonically" works better than some of the other terms, which is why I use it . . . ]

When there is no sampled note, the computer uses either a lower or a higher sampled note to create the "in-between" note, and the "in-between" note is entirely artificial, which can be acceptable unless there is a motion effect or playing style, in which case it's not so good . . .

Consider that "Middle C" (C5 in scientific pitch notation) is played by a real musician, recorded, and then digitized, as is the D above "Middle C", which in scientific pitch notation is D5, but C#5 or D♭5 is not played, recorded, and digitized . . .

When a C#5 or D♭5 is requested, the computer has to emulate it, which it does by logarithmic extrapolation or interpolation, which is a mathematical strategy for determining a value--pitch in this instance--using a base value and then doing a bit of arithmetic--noting this is a simple explanation of something which is a bit more complex, but so what . . .

In this scenario, "Middle C" is a real note played by a trained musician, recorded, and then digitized, as is D5, but the real musician did not play the C#5 or D♭5 note, hence it's artificial and was created by the computer . . .

For example, consider the playing style is vibrato and the vibrato depth and rate are the same for each of the sampled notes . . .

If the basis for an "in-between" note is a half-step lower, then the computed note will be the lower note but played faster to get the right pitch, which works for getting the pitch but also increases the vibrato rate, hence is not so good . . .

If the basis is the next higher real note, then it's computed to be slower to lower the pitch, and in turn this slows the vibrato rate . . .

The affects on motion-based articulations, playing styles, and so forth is less obvious for higher pitch notes, but in the lower pitch ranges, just a few cycles per second differentiate on note from another, so it's more obvious for lower register notes . . .

This does not occur with chromatically sampled sound libraries, because every note is played, recorded, and digitized, which is excellent, except that chromatically sampled sound libraries cost more, since instead of sampling 44 notes, all 88 notes are sampled, which maps to twice as much stuff, hence more work and a higher price . . .

If you want the most realism, then you want a chromatically sampled sound library that has instrument sets in the exact playing styles, dynamics, and so forth that you want to use, because this way you minimize the computing, hence avoid artificially constructed and modified sounds for notes . . .

VST INSTRUMENTS

There are pre-mapped third party sampled sound libraries that have custom rules and for the most part behave the same as the NOTION native sounds with respect to articulations, playing style, dynamics, and so forth. These appear as VST Presets in NOTION Score Setup . . .

Everything in computing changes over time, and the pre-mapped aspects do not always keep up with new versions of sampled sound libraries and their corresponding playback engines . . .

And there are folks who create their own custom mappings rules, and so forth, which they tend to enjoy . . .

All that is too complex for me, so I don't go there . . .

Instead, I use the VST Instrument strategy, where you select one and then you get a single staff (which can be a grand staff or any other type of staff) . . .

Nothing is preselected, and it's up to you to select the instrument and its playing style, articulation, dynamics, and so forth . . .

To put this into perspective, it's useful to know that I like French Horns and that being a bit bored several years ago, i decided to count all the different articulations, playing styles, dynamics, and so forth for the French Horns in the first version of Miroslav Philharmonik, which I did very diligently for about an hour and at that point had counted 150 different variations and sets, hence stopped counting and decided (a) that there are a lot of French Horns in Miroslav Philharmonik and (b) that at the time I didn't know how most of them differed . . .

I know what "legato" means if I think about it a few seconds, but why do I need to know that as one of the most important things to remember always and at all times?

There is a virtual festival of thing like legato, which is fine with me, and while I should know all the names, mostly I select one of the sets and then listen to a few notes. If I like the way the notes sound, then I use that specific set, which according to me is "good", where the goal in the "by ear" strategy that I use is that you keep tinkering with stuff until it sounds "good" . . .

That is a productive goal, because if all the notes sound "good", then none of them sound "bad" . . .

Curiously, there are electric guitar phrases where notes that sound "bad" actually are "good", but so what . . .

The classic example of "bad" being "good" is the lead guitar solo for "The Locomotion" (Grand Funk) . . .

phpBB [video]


Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley's lead guitar player in the early years) did stuff like that, which I call "playing textures", and start of the second lead guitar solo in "Hound Dog" is a stellar example . . .

I can play it, but it took me weeks to discover how to do it, where one of the keys is to just do it rather than trying to make it logical . . .

[NOTE: It starts a few milliseconds after 1:20 in the timeline. Also, listen carefully and you will hear Elvis doing uvular trills on the "h" of "hound dog" throughout the song, but more clearly at the end of the song, which is mind-boggling. How did Elvis know about uvular trills? Perhaps one of the university trained producers told him about it? I have no idea, but I listened to "Hound Dog" for over half a century before I noticed the uvular trills, and I consider myself to be highly trained listener . . . ]

phpBB [video]


MUSICAL GENRES

As a general rule, if you like a variety of musical genres but focus primarily on what one might call "popular music", then that's my bailiwick . . .

Before I shifted focus to VSTi virtual instruments and music notation, I played electric bass, electric guitar, drums, and a bit of grand piano or keyboards; and these are things about which I have a high level of knowledge . . .

Let's say you want to do a song with a 1960s James Brown basic rhythm section but with a John Lennon rhythm guitar and a Paul McCartney Höfner bass . . .

[NOTE: This the definitive basic rhythm section: drums, bass, rhythm guitar, Hammond B-3 organ played through Leslie cabinet. As with all music videos I post, it's best to listen to them with studio-quality headphones like SONY MDR-7506 headphones, which are sonically neutral but have nice subsonic deep bass . . . ]

phpBB [video]


phpBB [video]


You can do this with SampleTank (IK Multimedia) and the AC30 guitar amplifier effects plug-in from PreSonus that comes with Studio One Professional 4 (a personal favorite guitar effects plug-in) . . .

These are some of the instruments I used in my new Stupid song, "Magic People", where this is the current version and is becoming increasingly Stupid with each new version . . .

[NOTE: It usually takes about 25 versions to add everything, so this version is about hallway there. This is a carefully designed ear worm, so if you listen to it, then you can't unhear it. . . . :P ]

phpBB [video]


Projedt: "Magic People" ~ PreSonus NOTION Forum

Sometimes I like to use a virtual festival of instruments, some of which are what most folks call "normal" or "traditional" . . .

phpBB [video]


Project: "Sweet Hour Of Prayer" ~ PreSonus NOTION Forum

It's all music, and the instruments and sounds are the colors one uses to paint the song . . .

With this in mind, I have the first version of Miroslav Philharmonik (IK Multimedia), and I use it as a legacy instrument in SampleTank 3 (IK Multimedia) . . .

I plan to get Garritan Personal Orchestra next week, but I have the version that came with 2012 Finale, and I like the flute . . .

Mostly, I use SampleTank, ComposerCloud X (EW), MachFive 3 (MOTU), Addictive Drums (XLN Audio), Kontakt (Native Instruments), and a few others . . .

I like Classical music, but I run it through a compressor-limiter so that everything is at the same loudness, which I do because one of the rules here in the sound isolation studio is that if you can't hear it, then it's noise and doesn't need to be there . . .

SUGGESTION

You might try ComposerCloud X (EW) for a month to get a sense of what it provides . . .

It's a subscription thing, and one month at a time costs $30 . . .

This is what I did, but after a few weeks I switched to the yearly subscription but still month by month, which costs $20 a month . . .

ComposerCloud X (EW)

As you might be able to see in the video (above), "Magic People" has several instruments from ComposerCloud X, and they are the ones where the instrument engine is "Play" . . .

There also are several ComposerCloud X instruments in another of my recent Stupid songs . . .

[NOTE: James Brown liked to put the emphasis on what he called "the one", which is the first beat of a measure. So I took the idea and changed it to "the one and the two". The Clavioline heard at the start of the song and in a few other measures is from ComposeCloudX and its Beatles sample-sound library. The Clavioline was used in "Runaway" (Del Shannon) and "Baby Your'e A Rich Man" (Beatles), among other songs. The horn sections also are from ComposerCloud X . . . ]

phpBB [video]


Project: "The Ballad of Dare L. Dupree" ~ PreSonus NOTION Forum

phpBB [video]


EW also sells their various sampled sound libraries outright, and they have discount sales . . .

In this strategy, you do a one-month subscription and study the various sampled-sound libraries.

If you find a few that you like, you can check the price for purchasing them outright rather than doing a subscription . . .

Among other things, they have a lot of orchestra instruments and ensembles, Gypsy sounds (popular in France in the 1930s and later), a virtual festival of Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern instruments, lots of Heavy Metal instruments, horn sections (a personal favorite) and so forth . . .

Once I have Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO), I will post a follow-up about it . . .

[NOTE: The primary reasons I am getting GPO are (a) I like the flute and (b) I need to verify that the new playback engine handles MULTIs correctly--actually more (b), since I am helping someone in this forum with what might be a problem but has a solution. If the new Airia Player works correctly, this will be great, because the one I had from 2012 has a problem remembering stuff . . . ]

SUMMARY

There are so many third-party, high-quality, super-realistic sampled sound libraries and playback engines that it's a bit mind-boggling . . .

As noted, if you want a 1960s James Brown basic rhythm section with some or all of the early-1960s Beatles, then "I'm that guy" . . .

If you want Symphonic, Orchestral, Classical, and similar genres, then I think michaelmyers1 is "that guy", and perhaps he will provide some expert advice for those types of instruments . . .

And for reference, it's not a handful of options . . .

It's 50 to 100 different products, if not more, and each one has unique characteristics and sounds . . .

Miroslav Philharmonik is good, as is GPO, but there are other products in similar price ranges that you might like better . . .

Remember the strategy of doing a one-month subscription to ComposerCloud X to get a sense of what's available, which you can do because it has 40,000+ instruments in more individually focused sampled sound libraries than I can count in a reasonable amount of time, although the high-level is that it provides a bunch of Orchestra stuff, Gypsy stuff, Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern stuff, plus horn sections, singers, and Heavy Metal stuff . . .

It probably has more stuff, but so what . . .

If you can't find it there, then try Bolder Sounds, which has lots of unique and typically rare instruments, including Hand Bells, Crystal Glasses, and a set of the sounds of someone banging on washing machines with a sledge hammer . . .

Bolder Sounds

THANKSGIVING

Kontakt (Native Instruments) is a good product to have, and Native Instruments has had a 50-percent discount sale on Kontakt each of the past few years, and probably will do it this year . . .

Instead of $400 (US), it's $200 if they have the annual Thanksgiving Holiday one-week sale . . .

Kontakt 6 (Native Instruments)

Kontakt is very important here in the sound isolation studio, because my Bolder Sounds instruments require it, and most importantly Realivox Blue (RealiTone) requires Kontakt . . .

The reason provides a clue to the Stupid musical genre I created a few months ago . . .

As a child, I was in a liturgical boys choir, and this is where I learned to sight-sing soprano liturgical music . . .

The choirmaster told me I was a soprano, and he was an honest fellow and an excellent vocal coach . . .

After that, nobody told me I was something else, so for the next 50 years I continued to think I was a soprano, even though hitting the higher notes became increasingly difficult, even when I switched to falsetto . . .

Several years ago, I created my Pretend George Martin persona, and as choirmaster the first thing I did was determine my vocal range, which much to my amazement is baritone . . . :P

I have an extraordinarily high I. Q., but it doesn't always map to being able to determine what for other folks is obvious . . .

For example, when I decided to teach myself lead guitar, I made no progress for the first year until I realized that every lead guitar solo recorded in the 20th century was played by a person who had from 2 to 5 fingers and a thumb on the fretboard hand; hence since I have four fingers and a thumb, this means I can play lead guitar if I work at it, which I did . . .

In the epiphany department, that's pretty stupid; but for me it said (a) it's possible and (b) if I work at it, then I can do it . . .

Explained another way, the epiphany is that the only difference from well-known lead guitar players and me is that they did the hard work--memorizing phrases, building neural pathways in the brain, arms, fingers, and generally playing the same phrases over and over, thousands of times until it's completely natural, intuitive, and easy . . .

For example, I practiced three-note phrases over and over for 5 to 10 hours a day until I could do it in my sleep, which I suppose for most folks would a combination of boring and stupid, but it's the way it works for folks who are not Mozart and can do fantastic things but only after a lot of work . . .

It might appear to be easy, but they're triplets and the song is in 4/4 time, so it's not so easy as it appears . . .

[NOTE: This was done when I was doing everything with real instruments, nearly always in real-time on the fly on the first take--except for the rhythm guitar chords, which is all I need to know what to do . . . ]

phpBB [video]


[NOTE: This lead guitar solo was composed and played in real-time on the fly, which I can do because I already knew the rhythm guitar chords. It sounds like a "Wall of Guitars", because it's a custom-modded Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster that has two separate output signals, which I run tthrough two sets of stereo effects pedals, including cascading echo units, wah-wah pedals, and Digitech Whammy pedals for octave jumps; but it's just one set of notes composed and played in real-time on the fly on the first take. Ditto for the electric bass . . . ]

Image
The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster ft. The Really Big Knob

phpBB [video]


[NOTE: Ferliss Nuberton is another of my pretend personas . . . ]

phpBB [video]


To the point, Realivox Blue is my virtual soprano, and she runs in the full version of Kontakt . . .

Image

Realivox Blue (RealiTone)

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. IK Multimedia has vastly absurd discount sales every time they need to build a new manufacturing or research facility, so get on their mailing list (email) and be patient . . .

The best discount sales are the ones where you buy one product and then get a similar product for free, which often expands to buy one and get several free, which is fabulous . . .

For example, they have a super discount of Total Studio 2 Max for $249 (US) which ends on Monday November 2, 2020 at midnight, so now through all day Monday until midnight . . .

The discount sale is called "Total Studio Spectacular II" . . .

The product is Total Studio Max 2 . . .

It includes Miroslav Philharmonik 2, SampleTank 3 and 4SE, and a lot of other very useful stuff, much of which I use for producing and audio engineering (T-RackS 5) . . .

Total Studio Spectacular II (IK Multimedia)

Total Studio Max 2 (IK Multimedia)

This is my recommendation, and the price is heavily discounted, so it's a true bargain--approximately $1,000 (US) of high-quality digital music production software for $250 (US) . . .

And for reference, I do not work for any of these companies; none of them give me free stuff; and if I use it, then I bought it with my own money, which keeps me objective and unbiased . . .

I write technical books and am working on a book about digital music production, and I probably could get a lot of free stuff, but then I couldn't be independent, so I don't do it . . .

Fabulous! :)
User avatar
by Seanp on Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:41 pm
Garritan is no more than a half step improvement from Notion's built in sounds in my experience.

I would give a strong recommendation for Sonic Scores Amadeus Orchestral Library it is cheaper than Garritan and significantly better.
User avatar
by Surf.Whammy on Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:49 pm
rachaelpickering wroteHi

Wow - that was a lot of information! Thanks so much!

I mainly write classical pieces, most of the time I don't need an audio rendition when I submit scores for ensembles but sometimes it's nice for them to have an idea of how it works.

I did notice the biiiiiiiiig sale on the Total Studio Max - very tempted by that offer!

My only issue is I've heard Notion can be glitchy with the orchestral package when it's run through windows 10

Is it relatively straight forward to set up?



Glad to help . . . :)

THOUGHTS

It's relatively easy to setup, but there are a lot of samples, so it takes a while to download everything, which is the case with all such products, hence nothing unusual or unexpected there. . .

I do everything on the Mac, but I think what you are hearing about Miroslav Philharmonik 2 (IK Multimedia) is referring to there not being a VST Preset for it, and perhaps something about keyswitches arriving "late" when using custom rules . . .

The key difference in Miroslav Philharmonik 1 vs. Miroslav Philharmonik 2 is that the former is 32-bits and had NOTION had a preset for it, while the latter is 64-bits and NOTION has no VST Preset for it . . .

The "bits" aspect depends on whether one is focused on (a) the playback engine or (b) the actual samples, and for the latter NOTION does 16-bits audio at 44.1-kHz sample rate, which is standard CD audio quality, but it also does 16-bits at 48-kHz sample rate for standard video audio quality . . .

Both sample rates are completely sufficient for the highest quality audio, which for the technical folks is a matter of the Nyquist Theorem, which states that the sample rate needs to be at least twice the frequency of the highest pitch note, hence 44,100 divided by 2 is 22,050, which is higher than humans can hear . . .

The range of normal human hearing is 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz, but for practical purposed few humans over the age of 5 years-old can hear much of anything higher than perhaps 15,000-Hz, and this applies to folks 5 years-old and younger if their parents took them to a KISS concert . . .

The general rule is that every time you attend a KISS concert, you lose about 1,000-Hz, at least if you sit in the front row . . .

You start off at 20,000-Hz on the top end, but after 10 KISS concerts, your hearing range is 20-Hz to 10,000-Hz . . .

This alone is sufficient reason to wear OSHA-approved hearing protection when attending Heavy Metal concerts . . .

[NOTE: I'm 71 years-old and my top range is around 13-kHz, which is better than most folks half my age . . . :+1 ]

I did a quick check, and as expected Miroslav Philharmonik does not work with NOTION 6, since it's not a 64-bit engine (a.k.a., "application") . . .

However, I have SampleTank 3, and it makes it possible to import "legacy" IK Multimedia applications and corresponding sampled sounds, which is the way I use Miroslav Philharmonik 1 here in the sound isolation studio . . .

EXPERIMENT

IK Multimedia has free, unrestricted versions of a few or their major software applications, including SampleTank 4, Syntronik, and T-RackS Custom Shop . . .

You can download and install these and then see how the work with NOTION 6 . . .

You need to create an IK Multimedia account, which is easy to do and ensures you get email notices for super discount sales (but in a gracious way, not constantly bombarding you with advertising) . . .

Free Software ~ IK Multimedia

The free version of SampleTank 4 is sufficient for the experiment, and once you download and install it, as well as enable it in the NOTION Plug-in Manager, you can use it as a VST Instrument to create a few staves, one staff per instance and instrument . . .

[NOTE: This is how it looks on the Mac, but it will be similar on a Windows machine . . . ]

Image

Image

[IMPORTANT: On a Windows machine, you need an ASIO compatible sound card . . , ]

This is one possibility, and IK Multimedia states that it works nicely in Windows 10 . . .

If the free version of SampleTank 4 works nicely, then Miroslave Philharmink 2 which comes with Total Studio Max will work nicely, since they use the same engine . . .

TIMELINESS

On the one hand, the superb 75-percent discount ends today, but the Thanksgiving holiday is just a few weeks from now, and IK Multimedia will have more discount sales or perhaps will extend the current Total Studio Max discount . . .

All things considered, I see no reason to rush and do something today, although it is a very attractive discount and get you more stuff that can be very useful, should you decide to have a YouTube Channel and put songs on it . . .

For this purpose, I use several T-RackS (IK Multimedia) effects plug-ins, including the Brickwall compressor-limiter, White 2A compressor-limiter, Black 76 limiting amplifier, Space Echo, and EQP-1A Vintage Tube Program Equalizer (my favorite effects plug-in for deep bass) . . .

[NOTE: No matter what the genre, when there is bass, everything else rides atop the bass, which is the reason deep bass is so important. Deep bass is the magic carpet upon which melody travels. In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s recording studios had calibrated, full-range monitor systems with response from 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz with a flat equal loudness curve at 85 dB SPL. Jukeboxes always had deep bass loudspeakers. This is a topic for another discussion, but the high-level information is that you need this type of studio monitor system to be able to produce and mix songs. Deep bass is vastly important, but today it requires a bit of work and money to get deep bass, which basically maps (a) to a pair of deep bass subwoofers and (b) to using several bass instruments to create a full bass texture (Höfner Beatle Bass from SampleTank 2 XL, bowed contrabass, electric guitar doubling the bass notes, and a deep bass synthesizer, as well as other stuff when needed). The laws of physics define the rule, which is that deep bass loudspeakers are big and heavy, because they need to push a lot of air. The following photos show the portable units for the Altec "Voice of the Theater", which got their name from one or two of them being behind the screen in movie theaters. The physics on this is the same as the physics for the calibrated, full-range studio monitor system here in the sound isolation studio . . . ]

Image

Image

[NOTE: One of the reasons I like this song is that the "and" lead in to verses actually is a lead guitar blended with Mary Weiss' voice, done with a bit of magnetic tape splicing by Shadow Morton, who produced the recording. I think this is correct, and it sounds that way to me. I think the first "and" at 0:16 is Mary Weiss by herself, but it was such a great sound that Shadow Morton combined it with a lead guitar starting at 0:54 and continuing from that time forward. Producers and audio engineers in those days were skilled in magnetic tape splicing and overdubbing to enhance songs. Now, it's easier to do this in the digital music production universe, and I do it in Studio One Professional, which you can see in the YouTube music video for "The Ballad of Dare L. Dupree", where the "Yeah" phrases are copies of one "Yeah" phrase, pasted at various locations along the timeline of the song . . . ]

phpBB [video]


phpBB [video]


For practical purpose all these effects plug-ins are highly accurate emulations of real external signal processors that were developed for radio broadcasting over half a century ago . . .

They have melodic characteristics and soon found their ways into recording studios where they are used to make everything sound better . . .

Everything you hear on AM and FM radio is run through these types of signal processors, primarily because they ensure the broadcast signals comply with FCC requirements . . .

The melodic aspects are a bit of a bonus and are due to the electrical engineer designers having skills for making things melodic and generally pleasing for music listeners . . .

So the SampleTank 3 (full version), SampleTank 4 SE, Syntronik, and T-RackS parts of Total Studio Max are a bonus and are something you might not use unless you decide to have a YouTube Channel and put your own songs on it . . .

I do this, and my strategy is to provide versions of songs but never the final version (which I try to sell) . . .

Currently I am focused on Stupid genre songs and ear worms, so even though I make zero money from my YouTube Channel, so what . . .

My perspective is that the world needs more Stupid songs . . .

ASIO

I think NOTION and most, if not all, VSTi virtual instruments require ASIO on Windows machines, although perhaps not . . .

The IK Multimedia products require ASIO, so determining whether your Windows !0 machine does ASIO is important . . .

This link to Sweeetwater provides instructions for downloading and installing ASIO4ALL, which is the most popular ASIO driver for Windows folks . . .

How to install ASIO4ALL (Sweetwater_

VST PRESETS ~ VST INSTRUMENTS[ ~ ECHOES

VST Presets are special mappings of a few VSTi virtual instruments that provide specific rules and other behaviors so that you can select instruments and use most articulations, playing styles, and dynamics easier than with VST Instruments . . .

VST Presents probably are nice, but they tend to work with earlier versions of VSTi virtual instruments, and from my perspective serve no useful purpose . . .

NOTION also allows creating your own user-defined custom rules, which some folks like to do, but again here in the sound isolation studio this serves no useful purpose . . .

The primary reason it serves no useful purpose here in the sound isolation studio is that I avoid using articulations, playing styles, dynamics, and all that stuff, (a) because I consider it to be "busy work", (b) because I do the same types of things with effects plug-ins in Studio One Professional, which is vastly more precise and easier (at least for me), and (c) if songs are played through loudspeakers or heard streaming from the web through either loudspeakers or headphones, then nobody can hear all that "busy work" stuff . . .

Consider the lead guitar solo in "Starllight", which as explained in my previous post was composed and played in real-time on the fly on the first take when I was doing everything with real instruments, and the lead guitar was played through two sets of advanced effects pedals, including a pair of wah-wah pedals and a pair of DigiTech Whammy pedals for octave jumps . . .

I mention this, because it's an excellent example of using effects plug-ins rather than user-defined custom rules, playing styles, articulations, dynamics, and all that stuff . . .

In particular, I had an excellent epiphany a few days ago after listening to the "Starllight" lead guitar solo, and it involves cascading tape echoes, which have been a personal favorite from the time I first heard "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis) over 65 years ago . . .

phpBB [video]


I use echo units in all my songs, and I consider myself to be expert in the use of echo units, including tuning echoes to songs for tempo, repeats, and so forth . . .

When echoes occur in the range of 5 to 25 milliseconds, it's called the Hass Effect, and it makes rapidly repeating sounds appear to be one sound which is twice as loud as each individual sound . . .

My favorite hypothesis to explain the Hass Effect is that it is a Darwinian favored survival skill, where thousands of years ago it made hearing the rapidly running footprints of tigers louder, thereby giving folks a tiny bit more time to do something to avoid approaching tigers . . .

It's a corollary of the rule that maps to Wales having no navy, which is due to the Welsh language version of "Help, I've fallen off the ship and I can't swim" being over 30 syllables that have a series of meanings going from "I have a washing machine" to "My dog likes to chase cats" and eventually to the "Help" part, which unfortunately takes too long for anyone to understand in a useful and practical way . . .

Slapback echoes like in "Great Balls of Fire" are in the range of 50 to 125 milliseconds, more or less . . .

The Beatles doubled or tripled all their vocals and a good number of George Harrison's lead guitar solos; and they did it for a combination of clarity and smoothing . . .

The epiphany involves the way echoes are considered with respect to time . . .

Most folks consider echoes to be things that occurred in the past, which is true, except that echoes actually are heard in the future . . .

Image

I have known this for decades, and I enjoy doing what I call "playing into echoes", which is the way I describe the technique in a way that makes sense to me . . .

It's similar to learning how to work a whammy bar on a Fender Stratocaster with a two-point tremolo (a.k.a. "whammy") . . .

Not so many guitarists do a lot of whammying, and the reason is that it takes about a year to make sense of it, where the key information is that you have to start a whammy early and time it is occur when there is what I call an "open space", since otherwise it's not heard . . .

[NOTE: This is combination of whammying, reverberation, volume pedal, and echoes, and it's the original lead guitar player . . . ]

phpBB [video]


More specifically, the epiphany is that the future aspect is the key to making sense of "playing into echoes" . . .

What happens is that you play something which makes sense now, but since you played into cascading echo units, you also are playing something that will not be heard until sometime in the future, which is determined by the delay settings of the cascaded echo units . . .

Once you get the cascading echo units loaded with lead guitar notes (or singing), you then can jump backward and forward in time, as well as continue to play in real-time; and you can play harmonies with the echoes that arrive in the future . . .

In other words, cascading echo units are time and harmony machines . . .

I have known this for over half a century, but the future aspect is a recent epiphany, mostly because I presumed it intuitively but never actually considered it consciously . . .

It makes sense when you think about it, and in this regard it's a type of déjà vu . . .

[NOTE: This is best enjoyed and understood when listening with studio-quality headphones like SONY MDDR-7506 headphones (a personal favorite, since the are sonically neutral but have good deep bass response). It's also important to understand that this is one lead guitar solo with zero overdubbing. It sounds like a "Wall of Guitars" due to the two sets of effects pedals and cascading echo units, The "tuning" aspect involves setting the delays but also setting the volume levels for the echoes, and in this song the volume levels for the echoes is about the same as the volume level for the lead guitar notes being played in real-time. When you listen with studio-quality headphones, the dominant echoes are at far-right, while the real-time lead guitar notes are at top-center on what I call the "Rainbow Panning Arc". . . ]

Image

phpBB [video]


IK Multimedia has some excellent echo units, which is useful to know . . .

Echoes are more of a guitar and vocal thing, but echoes can be used in Symphonic, Orchestral, Classical and more traditional genres, although usually not so much other than "rounds" and counterpoint, which was the way Mozart and composers centuries ago did it, since there were no analog or digital echo units in those days . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. I enjoy writing and for me it's something I do every day, similar to playing guitar every day, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :)
Last edited by Surf.Whammy on Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:39 pm, edited 9 times in total.

Surf.Whammy's YouTube Channel

The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
User avatar
by Surf.Whammy on Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:02 pm
Seanp wroteGarritan is no more than a half step improvement from Notion's built in sounds in my experience.

I would give a strong recommendation for Sonic Scores Amadeus Orchestral Library it is cheaper than Garritan and significantly better.


I like this . . . :+1

Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra (Sonic Scores)

THOUGHTS

it requires Kontakt (Native Instruments), but it's licensed to use the free Kontakt Player, so you do not need to have the full version of Kontakt to use it . . .

I listened to the video, and I can hear everything, which is good for orchestra instruments; the French Horn is nice; and I like crispness and textures of the strings . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

Surf.Whammy's YouTube Channel

The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
User avatar
by Surf.Whammy on Wed Nov 04, 2020 3:50 pm
I purchased Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 (GPO5) this morning, mostly to verify that the current version of the Aria Player is working correctly on the Mac, which it is . . . :)

THOUGHTS

I purchased it from Sweetwater at a nice discount ($119 [US] vs. MSRP $149 [US]), plus sales tax . . .

It's a download product; so after you make the purchase, they send links and instructions to download and install the software . . .

At some point, I probably will purchase a new iMac Pro, and then I can be totally current on everything, but at present I do digital music production here in the sound isolation studio on a Mac Pro (Early 2008) with an Apple 30" Cinema HD Monitor, which I found on eBay for $250 (US) plus $50 (US) shipping, which is excellent for a 30" Apple Display and works very nicely . . .

In total, the computer and display cost about $1,250 (US) with maxed system memory and 4TB internal hard drives (7,200 RPM), which is fine with me; and I have a second system for backup, meaning that it's easy to freeze everything the way it is . . .

Some of the software cannot be upgraded due to the Mac Pro (Early 2008) being 12 years-old and running macOS El Capitan (10.11.6), which also cannot be upgraded, but so what . . .

I have upgrades for all the software I use, but most of it doesn't run on the Mac Pro (Early 2008), hence the plan to get a new iMac Pro--probably, but mostly because I am writing a book on digital music production, hence should verify that everything is spanky on the newest Apple professional computer . . .

I already verified everything works on a 2019 MacBook Pro, so it's more of a luxury thing to get a new iMac Pro . . .

Do I need a new 27" iMac Pro?

Not really, but why not . . . :+1

FREE KOMPLETE (NATIVE INSTRUMENTS)

Native Instruments has a free version of Komplete, and it's nice . .

Komplete Free (Native Instruments)

Lots of FUN! :)

Surf.Whammy's YouTube Channel

The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
User avatar
by Surf.Whammy on Fri Nov 06, 2020 9:26 pm
As expected, IK Multimedia extended the Total Workstation Spectacular II discount sale until November 30, 2020 . . . :)

Surf.Whammy's YouTube Channel

The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!

9 posts
Page 1 of 1

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests