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'Midi' performances

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cjvinthechair
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« on: October 20, 2017, 03:24:06 pm »

Sorry - don't know where to put this !

In a recent YT thread, this work has been uploaded:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWhicizZrBs

Please note, what follows is not in any way a 'dig' at the post in question.

I've been, in the past, a bit of a 'puritan' about midi versions. When I started, 10 years or so back, taking a serious interest in what was out there, my feelings about midis were pretty clearcut - the attempts were not a patch on the real thing, and I let myself get almost insulted that anyone could think a person with 'some' knowledge of music might be prepared to put up with these as an alternative...yes, I know, pathetically over-sensitive !
However, of course, the midi has evolved. There are performances out there which I (as a definite non-expert !) have to listen to for half a minute before I'm sure that they're computer-generated...and even so, an offering like this work, over which clearly time and trouble has been taken, is infinitely preferable to some of what we are treated to in shopping malls etc. ! It really is quite pleasing !
Are we anywhere near a time when, say, 'mainstream' composers will write specifically for the computer, in the knowledge that it can reproduce literally anything ?
Will orchestras be phased out as too expensive & time-consuming, when a CD can be knocked up by machine that will sound 80/90% as good, and cost a whole lot less to make or to buy.

You get the drift - any thoughts ?
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Neil McGowan
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« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2017, 10:56:54 pm »

Are we anywhere near a time when, say, 'mainstream' composers will write specifically for the computer, in the knowledge that it can reproduce literally anything ?


So far, however, the results are too patchy to be worth our time. My mouse is poised to click 'stop' the second I hear the woeful dirge of midi anywhere.
  • the brass instruments are just abysmal
  • can't simulate string bowing, just comes out like a stream of glue
  • and most crictically, cannot ever replace a human voice

That's in addition to playing everything at a uniform mezzo-forte, and an inability to include rubato  :-)

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when a CD can be knocked up by machine that will sound 80/90% as good

I doubt it can even sound 15% as good - and that's the ceiling.  More usually it's nearer to 6% as good.
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shamus
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« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2017, 07:52:45 pm »

I can only rarely listen to them, occasionally something is good enough to wish it could be performed live, like the piano concertos by Bachianer on YouTube, but especially the amateur efforts with not only the noodling repetition almost make me angry. I wonder how with all the technology they have they can't make a violin sound like a violin? How much of a modern day movie score is real orchestra and how much technology? Some of them can sound quite exciting, even if they slip into banality at times, and I don't mind them, but if these soundtracks are pure technology, I wouldn't mind if that technology could be used to at least introduce orchestral works, would be much more listenable, but I suppose it is down to the true ruler of all things human--money (lack of).
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Gauk
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« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2017, 07:36:47 pm »

This is an interesting question. Basically, I will thole an electronic reconstruction if the work is something I really want to hear badly. So if I had a special interest in Eduard Artemiev, I'd be grateful for this link - and I have heard worse.

But it brings me to a related topic, which is music for computer games. This is big business now, and getting to be comparable to film music. You may recall the hoo-hah about the "Hiroshima Symphony" - the guy who apparently DID compose the work was listed as being a games music composer by profession. Long gone are the days when computer games were put together by some teenager in his bedroom, with a beepy tune for soundtrack. Today's games have big budgets, and there are some clever people writing the music for them.

Often a big-name game will have a full orchestral score with one or two hours of music in total, and if one scrutinises the credits one can see that, yes, an orchestra (and often a choir) were the performers. But I have also heard it said that sometimes there is no orchestra, and the music is performed on a synthesiser using samples. If so, it suggests that with a big enough budget, one can get a much more realistic sound than comes out of, say, a play-through in Sibelius. I should see if I can find an example.
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cjvinthechair
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« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2017, 07:58:44 pm »


Often a big-name game will have a full orchestral score with one or two hours of music in total, and if one scrutinises the credits one can see that, yes, an orchestra (and often a choir) were the performers. But I have also heard it said that sometimes there is no orchestra, and the music is performed on a synthesiser using samples. If so, it suggests that with a big enough budget, one can get a much more realistic sound than comes out of, say, a play-through in Sibelius.

Yes, I get the feeling that 'midi' will be, if it isn't already, a little more acceptable than some of our colleagues might give it credit for - never the same, of course, but passable..?
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Clive
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« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2017, 11:53:14 pm »

Well, digging around, I found this -

http://www.bigfishaudio.com/Complete-Orchestral-Collection
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cjvinthechair
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« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2017, 12:15:55 pm »


Ah...that's fascinating; and...as I listen to a couple of samples now, far from unpleasant (to an 'amateur' ear....which I suspect is what most future listeners will possess !).
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Clive

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