KVR Audio

Garritan · Post by **Garritan** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 4:29 am

DPDan did an A/B comparison of a sample mockup and a recording of a real orchestra playing the First movement of the Dvorak New World Symphony (Symphony No. 9 in E minor).

Here is Dan's version of Dvorak's New Work Symphony alternating between both real orchestra and samples:

http://www.garritan.com/mp3/Dvorakcompa ... 92kbps.MP3

See if you can tell where the samples are playing and where the real orchestra is playing.

If you can hear the differences, list the spots where you think the real orchestra is playing and where it is samples.

This is something fun and I encourage others to do what Dan did and to emulate the masters. Many students in the colleges and universities often take an orchestral piece and do mock-ups of the classics. This is a great way to get into the mind of a composer/conductor. Also going from MIDI-mlockup to real orchestra, as we did in the GPO Competition, is also helpful in learning a great deal about orchestration.

If you can figure out which segments are the real orchestra and which are samples, let us know.

Thanks Dan for showing us what is possible. As with learning real instruments, there is a great deal of skill and expertise that your have acquired.

Comments and suggestions are welcome as to how to improve the orchestral rendition.

Gary Garritan

envoy · Post by **envoy** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 4:54 am

Garritan wrote:See if you can tell where the samples are playing and where the real orchestra is playing.

If you can hear the differences, list the spots where you think the real orchestra is playing and where it is samples.

OK, I'll just take a short stab:

- (0:00) Opening is sampled
- (0:29) Woodwind paraphrase of the opening is orch playing
- (0:49) Next section (including timpani) is again samples.

How's my batting average?

Cheers,
Envoy

geoslake · Post by **geoslake** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:21 am

lol
to me it sounds all samples

envoy · Post by **envoy** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:32 am

easymode wrote:to me it sounds all samples

Even with only picking 3 sections, I'm not entirely convinced the middle one is real. I'll wait until I hear from Garritan before I make any more comments (I mean, I *know* the other stuff is sampled...)

E

kovacs · Post by **kovacs** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:42 am

Gary, any chance for a walk-through tutorial or something? I have the GPO and find that I mostly use the Steinway piano...

(Which sounds great).

It would be nice to learn some cool techniques through a video or something. I have the manual but it is not the best teacher.

Just an idea...

SleepyP · Post by **SleepyP** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 7:09 am

well, i'm pleased with the sound of the mp3, enough that on my crappy PC speakers i'm a little hesitant to guess. that makes me happy, because it means we're getting close to perfect with the technology. i just have to learn a LOT before i'm able to use it effectively at all

Garritan · Post by **Garritan** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 6:50 pm

envoy wrote:How's my batting average?

About 333. Better than most ballplayers

Garritan · Post by **Garritan** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 6:55 pm

kovacs wrote:Gary, any chance for a walk-through tutorial or something? I have the GPO and find that I mostly use the Steinway piano... (Which sounds great).

It would be nice to learn some cool techniques through a video or something. I have the manual but it is not the best teacher.

Just an idea...

kovacs,

Great idea. I can ask the person who did the demo if he has time for another tutorial. Dan already wrote a tutorial on Audio Mixing (which is very important in producing this kin of demo) - http://www.garritan.com/tutorial/AudioMixing.htm which you may find useful. We have about 70 other tutorials covering orchestration, using sequencers, notation, techiques, etc. - http://www.garritan.com/tips_tutorials.html that may be useful.

Gary Garritan

dystonia_ek · Post by **dystonia_ek** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 7:24 pm

It all sounds sampled to me.

envoy · Post by **envoy** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 7:39 pm

Garritan wrote:
envoy wrote:How's my batting average?
About 333. Better than most ballplayers

Hmmm. That would mean at least one of the things I thought was sampled was real, and in that case it is some of the stiffest playing I've heard in a while!

I'll stay out of this for a while, but I hope you are going to give a breakdown at some point for illumination of all this...

Cheers,
Envoy

realmarco · Post by **realmarco** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:57 pm

all fake

Garritan · Post by **Garritan** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 9:02 pm

realmarco wrote:all fake

Wrong.

realmarco wrote:how's about MACing it(get it? Wink
...could you make a Mac version please?

The sample portions were done on a Mac (sequenced with Digital Peformer)

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 9:43 pm

Well, I just listened once trough it and I'd say in the latter part of the file most is samples, especially the ending sounds very much like samples to me. I'll take a more careful listen tomorrow on the genelecs. What might give it away more than the samples themselves is the ambience/reverb used and the slight feeling of "wrong microphone technique".

However, this is highly impressive! Good work Dan and Garritan for excellent samples!

Cheers!
bManic

Götterfunke · Post by **Götterfunke** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:32 pm

My questions is why do I want to mock up classical music with samples? It really seems a waste of time. How will a great conductor make a difference on the performance in a computer. Any sample arrangement can never convey the experience of being there. This particular recording seems to be badly engineered to begin with. The reverb especially in the end sounds very artificial. The strings are a bit annoying sounding throughout and the timpani in the beginning is a joke or something....? I am a collector of perfomances of different conductors and orchestras in this case I just couldn't care less if it's sampled or not. I am not sure what this is supposed to proove?

AaronL · Post by **AaronL** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 8:53 pm

Just the flute or piccollo in the beggining sounded sampled to me. The strings sound kind of real, as they don't have the over-quantised feel about them which some sample libraries have.

Comparison of Samples to Real Orchestra - Which is Which?