That''s a good question. Samples are getting pretty sophisticated nowadays, but they still don''t come anywhere close to a live orchestra. Orchestral performers have the ability to play a note a lot of different ways, with all different types of expressions, where a sample is always going to sound "the way it was recorded", and never any differently. I like to look at the live orchestra as more of a living organism, with a "life" in it that isn''t present in a sampled "mockup."

Some people (even musicians) argue the point that live orchestra is a waste of time in the commercial music industry, and that sampling is more efficient and cheaper. It is efficient in some ways, as it makes an "orchestra" available to composers who don''t have the opportunity to work with a real one. In that aspect, I think sampling is great. But I don''t think that it should ever replace the real, human thing, because artistic expression, human expression, can never be utilized freely in the sampled realm.

This is and will continue to be a huge controversy I''m sure. I''m also sure that as sampling continues to improve, it will threaten the legitimacy of live orchestral work (in commercial music anyways.) Who knows. But SpaceOpera surely is going to keep that tradition alive . . . that''s what we''re all about. Not just music for commercial sake, but music as art. =)

Long winded, sorry about that. =)

____________
SoNiCThReAdZ

Composer
SpaceOpera Studios
www.spaceoperastudios.com

When I get to the site, I skip the intro, and there''s just a small image there with your sites name on it.

"Music for gamers. By Gamers." - I''d be careful with that. I -think- Interplay ("By Gamers, for Gamers") once stopped another company from having a similar motto\phrase.

some of you may be interested in learning more about synthedit.. www.synthedit.com..

..as you may know, se is a modular synthesis proggie that can export vst and vsti creations.. course you know.. the net is filled with hundreds of se creations of varying quality..

what you may now know is that in the last few months, the code has made some dramatic transformations.. cpu down to about 40% of what it was last year.. the inclusion of in-circuit feedback and several other new modules that have made a higher level of synthesis possible.

e-phonic and ikaldor released a freeware physical modeling bowed string vsti a few days ago (i did too, but mine''s got a rather complex interface and i haven''t bothered to distribute anything but the source file yet) the tone is in many ways equal to the korg z1 physical modeling synth..

..now programming a realistic part with a physical modeling synth can be a pain in the ass, since it''s more realistic with a lot of automation.. but imho the sound is miles ahead of romplers.

anyway.. keep your eyes open as more of this stuff is distributed.. i''m sure the se code will be optimised to a higher degree in the future.. at present.. i estimate (doing more patching than playing) i can run a dozen polyphonic instances on my 1.2g machine at once..

..and nice.. you can "run the bow" down to the "end of the strings" and get that awful squealy sound, and so forth.

quote: Original post by SA-Magic
I''m just curious - but how better is a live orchestra to a digital one (The sound fonts that reproduce them)?

I agree with what scott said. There''s nothing like a living breathing orchestra. Saying you can emulate a real orchestra is like saying you can get a perfect choir by layering voices (which just isn''t possible). Sure, it can sound great, but the authentic tone and nature of the sound isn''t there. The singers have to hear eachother and harmonize improvisationally, all having slightly different acoustic relationships to the recording environment.

Don''t get me wrong, I love an emulated orchestral sound if done by the right person with the know how. The fun thing about that is you can afford to experiment with sounds more into the electronic realm and that makes for an interesting listen. Anytime in music that you can replace something fake with human touch do it, you''d be a fool not to. It''s the same reason performance sounds better than step sequences. That''s all assumed you know what you''re doing.

-Aaron