On Sep 27, 2006, at 9:15 AM, John T Sylvanis wrote:
Finale is claiming that through Kontakt 2 the rendition of what is
written onto its staves is very "realistic". In other words,
a trumpet will sound like a trumpet, a violin like a violin and a
soprano
or baritone voice like a real soprano or baritone.
IS THIS THE CASE?
I don't have a straightforward answer for you. Yes and no.
Any kind of sample playback will have the same relationship to a real
instrument that a cardboard cutout of an actor has to the real actor.
Even if you can move him around the stage and make his jaw waggle when
there is dialogue, he still will look stiff, though more "realistic"
than the non-moving cutout.
Finale's playback is like this. It is more realistic than previously,
but not completely realistic, and it takes serious time and effort to
make it even close to realistic, if you succeed at all.
I have always maintained that this is a slippery slope. If you CAN make
a demo more realistic, then you end up being obliged to do so by
various pressures that are on you from clients and prospective concert
presenters. You are expected to come up with better-sounding demos than
ever before, and with no extra payoff for doing so. As far as being a
compositional tool goes, if you already know what the correct balance,
phrasing, timbre, and articulation is for a passage, you don't need the
playback. If you don't know how it is to be played, Finale will give
you a skewed version of it, which is more than unhelpful; it can
actually be harmful.
I often get scores to orchestrate from composers who have brass,
strings and percussion in full roar, and a solo flute obbligato in the
first octave. On their MIDI setup at home, they turn up the volume on
the flute patch, not realising that this is impractical in an orchestra
setting, and then they complain to me when the flute solo that they
insisted on sounds light, even when turned up.
My usual approach is to say ahead of time, "You aren't going to like
this" rather than something to the effect of "this is too soft" or
"this is impractical." Appealing to their sense of esthetics seems to
be more successful than any kind of technical or theoretical appeal. Of
course, nothing I say after the damage is done has any effect
whatsoever, as he blames me regardless.
Christopher
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