Monday, April 30, 2007

Have you heard these Orchestral Sound Samples?



Recently, I finally picked up several of the sound collections from the Vienna Symphonic Library. Each collection of sounds comes with an installation set-up that easily allows that particular collection to be used within the Vienna Virtual Instrument itself. The instrument interface is pretty nifty looking and great to use, and it can be used as stand-alone, or within a VST host music software program. In my case, I run the Vienna instrument within my Nuendo music software on my desktop PC.

These are some of the best and most "real" symphonic sound samples that I have ever used in the recording of my compositions. The varied harp collection sounds extremely "stringy" and "plucky", and most of the harps have a very pleasant tone to them-aggressive, without being too in your face. No plastic or toy-like sounding plucks here! Also, I found that the Orchestral Strings Vol. 1-Violins and Violas, especially in their section forms, are amazingly natural and intuitive sounding. Furthermore, the wind sections and solo winds from the Woodwinds 1 collection, especially the flutes and clarinets, have great articulations and "realistic" stuff happening between each note right out of the box-like someone is actually playing these instruments and slurring them together via the nuances of embouchure.
In fact, each of the three collections I bought have particular instrument "noises" and "peculiarities" that make the performances that much more real sounding, and they often happen between the notes. Sometimes I have found that many of these "realistic" sounds, such as the clicking of the keys on an oboe, can make things tricky in the mixing and/or mastering. So, be careful how you E.Q. your instruments and how much verb, or what kind of verb you bathe them in. Note that those factors can amplify the peculiar sounds in an unpleasant way.

Each collection from the Vienna Symphonic Cube can be bought separately, or as part of the whole cube. My advice, when buying individual collections, is to spring a little extra dough and get the FULL Library, which comes with the complete set of articulations and single note instances for each instrument in the collection. VSL sounds can be heard and bought from Ilio at:
www.ilio.com. The VSL company site is here : www.vsl.co.at.


Sunday, April 29, 2007

Who or what inspires you to create???

Whether you're creating computer
graphics and illustrations, painting on canvas, writing via novels or comics or screenplays, composing music, taking photographs, developing video games,
devising mathematical formulas, drawing a comic book, directing films, dancing, acting, cooking, playing, thinking, emoting, devising spreadsheets, writing computer code, joking, philosophising, psychoanalysing, celebrating, playing a musical instrument, crying, bumming, or just simply communicating and expressing who you are......WHO OR WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO CREATE??? I'd love if you'd let me know.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Some of my current reads......



In between composing music, teaching piano and working on other creative stuff, I like to read novels and comic books. Hanging out in a favorite place and reading is a great way to spend time. Right now my reading list includes:
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone (J.K. Rowling-Book 1)
2. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
3. The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid (Bill Bryson-Memoir)
4. The Inhumans (Graphic Novel from Marvel Comics-Written by Paul Jenkins and illustrated by Jae Lee)
5. A whole stack full of other monthly comic books!


(Lamps #1 and #2-3D renderings by the talented artist Feby Delimarta. Contact her for image usages or freelance CG interior renderings at: Feby_delimarta@yahoo.com. Both images (c) 2007 by F.D. All Rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, lending or posting prohibited without the consent of the artist).
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Friday, April 27, 2007

Check out the paintings of Yumiko Kayukawa.....

'Unconditional'



'Green Tea Ice Cream'




'The Entomologist'



If you don't know about her yet, you probably will in the near future. I am speaking of the brilliant painter from Japan named Yumiko Kayukawa. Mixing up pop-candy sensibilities with a dose of American Flashiness and Japanese Tradition is what this artist is great at! I feel that her work is very unique and bound for great heights. Check out her stunning work at: http://www.sweetyumiko.com/artwork.php Hope you enjoy her paintings as much as I do....HK.

Music Scoring News and Pop Culture Thoughts from Composer Hans Karl at Liquid Years Music: http://wwwhanskarlmusiccom.blogspot.com/