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Symphonic
Orchestra Samples
The following product review was published
in February 2000 by ProRec.com.
Reprinted by permission.
The
Miroslav Vitous Symphonic Orchestra Samples
by Bruce Richardson
Contributing Editor, Prorec.com
I've got to admit, there's a couple of things that made this
particular review meaningful to me.
One was testing these samples in a real-world situation, rather
than just casually playing through them. Most reviews, frankly,
are written as a result of a couple days' tinkering on the workbench.
That's just the way it is. If I have an article due on 12/20, and
I get the material on 12/6 - and between that time I must write
and the webmeisters must edit and publish... well, you can imagine
how much time there is to actually explore possibilities. It makes
a huge difference when you're actually on the front line, rather
than just imagining how this or that sample MIGHT work out. When
you've got to end up with a world class product, there's no gray
area. Things either work or they don't.
Anyone who has even dabbled in orchestral samples knows about the
Miroslav Vitous collection (available here).
From Hollywood to New York, and everywhere in between, composers
have relied upon these samples to deliver up full-blown orchestra
scores in high style.
The Libraries
I had heard plenty of music produced from the samples, but had never
actually heard them raw. So when Miroslav sent me a small collection
of the larger set to evaluate (the Ensemble Strings and Brass/Woodwind
ensembles were intermingled on my evaluation disc), I loaded them
up in my GigaSampler rig and opened up a preset performance--Bassoon
/ Oboe / Flute.
Nothing could have prepared me for the sound I heard as I began
to play. It felt for all the world as if my fingers were being led
from one key to the next as I played. The sounds were vibrant and
living, airy and reedy. One word that comes to my mind immediately
is thick. Not in a negative sense, though. It reminded me of the
first time I ever heard a really great flute player live. Suddenly
the flute wasn't the thin airy instrument I'd heard all my life.
It was this huge forceful sound, vibrant and, well...thick.
That's the same way the Miroslav Vitous samples compare to, say,
your average keyboard preset orchestral sounds. Most synthesizer
presets are constructed by very good musicians, but the overriding
concern is to make a very generic and pretty soundset that plays
well in the music store.
The Miroslav Vitous samples are far funkier than the glossy, sweet
sounds you'll find in most synth and sampler presets. Nothing has
been sanitized. The flutes have air, presence, and body. The oboes
have distinction of attack and a wonderful tendency to lead from
one note to the next. The bassoons are dark and lovely, and there
are many variations of sound from legato to a very aggressive marcato.
The pizzicato violins and basses were thick and full of body - not
just bright and plucky. The legato bowed string sounds were full
of rosin and realistic vibrancy.
Matter of fact, vibrancy is one word that applies over and over
again. There are no dull or lifeless sounds in this collection.
Every note is going somewhere, leading you towards the next.
There are various ways in which the GigaSampler editions of this
library are unique. First, be aware that these are not newly recorded
samples. They are the same samples used to make up the Akai and
other versions. Not to worry. They are extremely well recorded with
top-shelf gear.
What makes this a truly new product is the way the samples have
been remapped and combined to take advantage of GigaSampler's unique
capabilities.
With an Akai or other hardware unit, you'd need a minimum of twenty
to thirty-thousand dollars worth of samplers and a good chunk of
your day to load up the same ensemble you can call up in GigaSampler
in around a minute flat. And even with a mountain of hardware samplers,
you wouldn't have the ability to key-switch between different articulations,
or roll in a bit more attack with your expression pedal without
hours of brain-numbing programming. You wouldn't be able to attach
acoustic hall resonance to your key releases. And your sequences
would be spread out over dozens and dozens of MIDI channels. In
plain English: Pain in the ass + pain in the pocketbook = no thanks.
Even beyond the sheer capability that GigaSampler brings to the
table, what you're purchasing with the Miroslav Vitous collection
is Miroslav Vitous himself.
This is no small issue. The real, musically limiting problems with
any sample set are not basic recording issues. They are ultimately
musical problems. I have discovered in my own sampling that it's
not enough just to get the notes. It takes extraordinary musical
skill on both sides of the glass to record a useful, expressive
sample. When you get a single pitch's samples, then the task becomes
matching the intention in the various levels of each and every note
that's being recorded. Otherwise, you'll have a different sounding
set on every key.
The musical demands are mind-boggling. The producer must then understand
how to map the captured performances to the keyboard in a way that
allows them to be played easily and logically by the end user. A
commanding level of expertise and clarity of purpose is required
for each production step. Just as in actual musical performance,
each sampled note must be performed with musical intention. The
real trick then becomes making it accessible in the end product.
There's musical intention aplenty in this collection. One difficulty
I had is that the samples I evaluated really WANTED to go somewhere.
It was hard to make a line sit still, and even harder with a few
voices to get any sort of decrescendo at the keyboard.
"That's something we freely share," says Peter Vitous,
president of Marcati Distribution (no, it's not a coincidence--Peter
is Miroslav's son). "Miroslav initially recorded all these
sessions as tools for his own personal use, and they reflect his
own musicianship and aesthetic. That's why it is so important to
learn each sample set of each instrument. Working with samples is
an art unto itself."
So, my challenge in some cases was to un-romanticize some lines
that wanted a more static reading. In some cases, switching samples
solved the problems. In others, it became a mixdown issue. Ultimately,
I made them work for me. And there are many samples that didn't
get converted until after my deadline, that I suspect there are
even more ways to get what you want with the full kahuna.
Making it Work
The 23 Violins series, for instance, gives a number of options as
to vibrato depth, etc. These are probably the patches to use for
straighter readings of a line, since there are more players. The
11 Violins series, that I did have in the evaluation, gives you
a very intense little section with a very discernible separation
of individual players.
The thing that pleasantly surprised me was how little work I ended
up doing in mixdown to make the MIDI performances inherently musical.
That's where the extra attention to musical intention pays off.
Anyone who has done orchestral work with keyboards knows that you've
got to really tweak out the sequences to get a decent sound, and
then you must do even more in mixdown. Once I'd converted all my
MIDI tracks to individual audio tracks and got the ensemble balanced
up, there was very little tweaking to do.
Indeed, that was consistently the silver lining of the strong musical
imprint Miroslav placed on the collection. Maybe these samples weren't
saying exactly what I had in mind at a given time, but they were
saying SOMETHING that I could shape into a phrase. Music was being
made, not just notes being played. And when it came time to mix
those parts into a cohesive musical statement, this was always a
help.
ProRec Interview: Miroslav Vitous
One great thing about doing this review was spending a little time
with Miroslav Vitous himself. I've respected Miroslav as a musical
force for years, and I really never expected to fast-forward to
a time where I'd be having conversations about music and musicianship
with him. When I came up, Miroslav and his colleagues were some
of my biggest musical heroes. I wore those records out, trying to
learn each little nuance of what they were doing. It was a gas to
finally meet him.
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You can't help getting a little excited
when you're talking with Miroslav Vitous. He talks in fast-motion,
and speaks eloquently about music and musicianship. When
I was coming up, Weather Report was like a class for me.
Miroslav was everywhere, and his playing was always a treat
to hear - expressive, smart, and full of the juxtapositions
and musical depth that the fusion movement really focused
on capturing.
Miroslav Vitous
The Miroslav Vitous Symphonic Orchestra Samples originally
appeared in AKAI format, and are widely recognized as THE
sample set for serious composers. We talked to Miroslav
just as he was burning the final masters for the new GigaSampler
versions of the collection, after eight long months in development.
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The
first thing I noticed in these samples is that they never
sit still. They're always in motion. I find my hand being
led across the keys by what I'm hearing...
Yes, this is an important element of the collection. When
I recorded the orchestra, I described musical moments: Play
this like Mahler, or Dvorak or Wagner. I wanted every note
to express some musical idea.
I think one can safely
say this is the defining element of the collection.
Yes. What we also wanted to accomplish was a means of allowing
the composer to realistically manipulate all the articulations
in realtime. We do this with key-switching, but in a couple
of other unique ways. For instance when you add the mod wheel,
you'll get tremolo in the strings, or portamento and fortissimo
in the wind samples. It will always be an intensification
of some sort. Similarly, the expression pedal is mapped to
add staccato samples to the mix. If you needed more attack
in a mostly sustained section, rolling in a little of this
can give you the clarity or punch you need to realize the
line.
Also, you've provided some
performance settings that are real time-savers.
Standard groupings like horn/clarinet/flute or bassoon/oboe
are provided in a series of performance settings that the
user simply adds to his performance folder. These are layered
according to standard ranges, and give the user an instrumental
choir that can be played in realtime to good effect.
That's really where it's
at--getting the button pushing out of the way, so that one
can be creative.
The GigaSampler is the best sampler in the world today. There
is nothing that can come close to it. Until the GigaSampler
was developed, using a library like the Symphonic Orchestra
Samples required banks of expensive hardware that took hours
to load and program. Now, the composer has all the expression
at his fingertips. He can forget button pushing and concentrate
on ideas.
The collection is not cheap...
The full collection is a professional composer's tool. What
may appear expensive to the casual observer is actually quite
a value compared to a single day's studio fees for an orchestra.
We're talking about the capability of realizing a complex
orchestral score with world-class players, in a way that's
not affordable for most composers by traditional means.
And there's big news for folks who are not ready to make that
investment just yet
We are releasing a compact collection of these samples, twenty-five
or so instruments and ensembles in about thirty-five banks,
that is designed to put these world-class sounds into the
hands of musicians that may not be able to afford the full
collection. The list price is $349, which is lower than many
"bargain" products, yet it features the same expressive
playing as our more detailed set.
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The Question
of Value
Let's not avoid the obvious. The other thing that makes the Miroslav
Vitous collections stand out is price. They are pricey, for sure.
The full set will cost you about as much as a decent used car.
There are other collections that cover essentially the same ground
for less. Are the Miroslav Vitous collections really worth the higher
price? Is there value attached that justifies the price?
I'd have to say yes, although I've got to admit I'd like to see
them set the price point just a little lower. I'd like to see the
playing field leveled a bit.
But I also respect the fact that Miroslav has poured years of his
life into these samples, and that aspect of the equation certainly
commands a premium price. You know he is a musician you can trust,
and that he's put forth extraordinary effort. Your investment should
be weighed against your potential to leverage the product's strengths
into dollars. You can produce world-class orchestral material with
these samples. You can achieve realism that's difficult if not impossible
to discern from the real McCoy in many cases. And if you price many
of the highest-tier single instrument samples, then compare to what
you get here in terms of raw orchestration power, you will find
that the pricing structure is still competitive.
Another question that I certainly entertained: Is the "Miroslav
factor" that big a deal after all? Anyone with a decent musical
and technical head can produce this stuff, right?
Again, no simple answer is available. There was no market for this
kind of material when Miroslav produced it. He was producing a library
for his own use as a composer's tool. Knowing what kind of music
he was planning to write, he made session player choices based on
that idea. In the sessions, he asked them to imagine themselves
playing particular composers, pieces, or lines, so that he didn't
end up with a collection of, "dead notes," as he so aptly
describes. He knew that if he did not get the instrument sound AND
the musical intention he needed, that his later work would be more
difficult.
So, he invested heavily in the sessions, and walked away with his
(then largely unusable) treasure-trove of samples. As time went
by, well-heeled composers began buying huge banks of hardware samplers
and experimenting with them. Eventually he made a product from his
samples for these users, and the library was born. Still, not all
of the material could be utilized, and only the best-appointed composing
suites had enough hardware to make the collection's use as a virtual
orchestra practical.
Enter GigaSampler, and everything changed. With no practical limits
on mapping or sample length, sounds that were difficult to reproduce
(read: any nonpercussive sustained instrument), became practical
via complex dimensioning. And Miroslav had captured shelves full
of this very kind of material for his own use. In very plain terms,
the reason this collection continues to be valid is because it was
well-planned and ahead of its time. The technology has just now
caught up to the captured session material, where the various sections
can truly be manipulated all at once in realtime by someone who
does NOT have half a million dollars to spend on hardware.
So that is, in my estimation, the Miroslav factor. It was conceived,
recorded, and initially produced as a personal tool, not a product,
and that purity of purpose is evident. It manifests itself in a
kind of musical mojo that might never have been considered for a
more commercially oriented product.
You can identify and quantify it musically. Since it will enhance
your earning potential, it must also be assessed when you address
price and value.
The Missing
Element
However, the larger factor in the equation is you. Are you able
to utilize the tool? The sounds are all there. It's up to you to
make the music, though. If you don't have a good foundation in orchestration,
then you won't be instantly amazing, no more than if you scratched
out a score and hired the players. Orchestration is an art in itself
that is completely separate from your raw musicianship. Some composers
are brilliant with melody and form, and that carries their music.
Others are amazing orchestrators, who can take relatively average
melody and paint it all the colors of the rainbow.
When you work with the Miroslav Vitous samples, or any of the orchestral
samples for that matter, you must take on the role of orchestrator.
Actually, you must be sort of an orchestrator-meets-conductor. Since
the performance style is built into the samples, you must interact
with them as a part of the process. Sometimes the sample itself
will inform what you write...or perhaps it will force you to reconsider
a passage, like the musician who just "doesn't get it."
Sometimes you change things, even with flesh-and-blood players,
so that everyone can just go home and you can stop the studio clock
before your profits fly away.
This is especially true of this particular library. It is a fair
assessment to label it as a highly emotive soundset. This is its
strength compared to most collections that are musically a bit more
static. But just as is the case with everything, that strength presents
an equal and opposite weakness--if you DON'T want to be emotive
with a particular line, you may find some of the samples leading
you off-track.
So, don't pull up that MIDI file of Beethoven's Fifth that you downloaded,
assign the instruments, hit play, and expect to be amazed. More
likely you'll be appalled. It just doesn't work that way with these
kinds of sounds--the variations are simply too vast to be easily
predictable. You must learn the samples like the back of your hand,
and know exactly which one is appropriate for what kind of phrase.
That is where the responsibility again rests with the purchaser.
Consider this sample set an instrument, give it all the effort that
you would dedicate towards any instrument's mastery, and you'll
reap its rewards. Less dedication on the user's part won't work
with something that contains this much highly directional material.
Find a less "imprinted" sample set to work with, and live
happily ever after. But just like the manic-depressive that won't
take his lithium because it evens everything out, don't be surprised
if that option leaves you somewhat cold. Music is not static, and
chances are, your music will be blessed by the musicianship funneled
into each sample in this collection.
Be aware that this is a lifetime investment when you compute value.
These samples will always sound great, no matter what the future
may bring. They'll simply be there for you. There is no loss of
value attached to time when you are talking about pure sounds based
on an ongoing orchestral tradition. This is not Dr. Funky's Booty
Beats, Volume 12, that will be out of style with your next change
of underwear. One person's use of this collection will be unrecognizable
from the next. You will not "use it up," or outgrow it.
That is how it has held value since its first introduction, and
why it will continue to hold its value when you are ready to invest.
Ultimately, I found myself reaching for the Miroslav Vitous samples
first on most occasions during our test project, especially the
strings. Take that for what it's worth. No matter how I imagined
working with them before they were actually under my fingers, I
really was clueless as to how I might benefit from their use until
I went about the task of actually making music with them.
If you are either very serious about honing and demo-ing your own
orchestral writing, if you are a working composer using these kinds
of sound to make a living, or if you're hoping to establish yourself
as a power producer, then this collection is worth the price you'll
pay to own it. You'll very likely never find yourself looking to
replace it, only to augment it. In a time where technology has become
disposable, this is a very comforting thing to say.
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