Here is my latest composition, The Thunderbird Suite. (The storm section at 3:48 gets pretty crazy. 
) I’m excited to share the video in 2-3 weeks. I’ve seen some of the artist’s slides, and she’s really doing a beautiful job, as you can see by the picture I snagged for the SoundCloud title.
11 Likes
Konrad (or should I call you William?), your music is beautiful, and gives me a role model of how my own music should sound. Your gift of melody is apparent throughout the piece, not to mention the rich harmonies and creative orchestration. Thank you for sharing your talent with us once again.
Mike
1 Like
@MikeInBoston , Your are far too kind, sir! Thank you for the encouragement!
Your friend, --Konrad
Konrad,
Was this done using only Noteperformer, or did you use other libraries as well?
1 Like
Hi! I used NotePerformer Perfomance Engine (NPPE) with a mix of BBCSO and VSL Synchron Special Editions (but mostly BBCSO). I actually think generic NotePerformer sounds fine except for the strings, and even the strings sound good to me in sone pieces. For the money, NP is great.
2 Likes
Wow, inspiring! Very nicely done sir!!
1 Like
The writing and orchestration is very nice, but if you’re planning to release this as a VST version, I would suggest redoing and mixing all the hand percussion (tambourine, frame drum, triangle, shaker…) in a DAW. Play stuff in if you can (keyboard, pad controller or whatever), don’t hard quantize, and most importantly mix it way quieter / more “in the back” (less direct sound, more diffuse room sound from the perspective of the actual perc section in the orchestra situated in the back).
In particular when the triangle enters, the effect is almost like sitting in a concert hall seat and having the perc player play the triangle next to your ear. The tambourine sample also suffers (and by extension, takes a lot of attention and incorporates all the bad qualities to the rest of the mockup) from too few round robins and machine gun like tremolos.
@trumpetjazz , Thanks, Terry!
@ViliRobert, Thanks for your compliments on the writing and orchestration; and I appreciate your willingness to help on the recording aspects. I’ve made 100s of records on a DAW; and one orchestral piece on my website, “The Troublesome Elf,” was done in a DAW and then scored later. Currently, however, I am doing a new symphonic piece every month and don’t have time to create two versions. Even though tweaking in a DAW can produce very polished results, my Dorico mockups are mostly for proposals to conductors.
Funny thing about studio work: for years I listened to producers complain because drums weren’t tight. Then we got drum machines and computers, and they complained that they were too tight. 
Round robin samples calmed them down a little, but what they really wanted was a flawless human. During the last Fort Worth Symphony rehearsal of the season, the conductor told the violins they weren’t together. I’m OCD and I thought they sounded fine. What’re ya gonna do?
Regarding dynamics, NotePerformer is supposed to provide an accurate balance, but I still marked percussion down one or two letters.
All the best, --Konrad
Hi Konrad,
Sounds great!! Lovely themes and great arrangements.
Would be interesting to hear a recording with an orchestra, of one of these pieces. You plan to release any of these as albums?
Right? We all hear different things, I guess. I am autistic, and in some areas a nervous perfectionist (sometimes related to pitch, or certain “unwanted” noises I suddenly hear and then cannot unhear), while in other areas I can be a bit careless, and absolutely not wanting perfectionism (quantised drums being one of the things I despise - unless it’s supposed to sound like a drum machine on purpose). Glad to be working alone most of the time. 
1 Like
Hey, @eirik_myhr. Thanks for your kind words! Much appreciated!
I have made some updates to the version on SoundCloud, and the artist should have all the slides for the projections and YouTube video finished in a few days. 
1 Like