Hey All,
I am posting an orchestration of mine here, intended mostly to initate a conversation about NPPE, which is the new software element of NotePerfomer that Arne Wallander introduced this summer with the free NP4 update.
Basically NPPE is an extension program of NP that allows you to plug-in certain high-end third-party libraries without ever leaving your notation program, automatically programmed to follow the score the same way NP itself does. Moreover, you can mix and match different libraries quite easily, depending on taste/budget/computer capacity.
I've been playing with it a lot this summer (and specifically this orchestration of the Beethoven F# Piano Sonata, op. 78). While I still find some tweaking necessary for the best possible results, I am able to do 95% of that in Dorico and/or refining the notation.
To me, this is a wonderful development! You may recall previous converstaions on this forum where I was trying to do something similar on my own, with mixed success...
Knowing this crowd is mostly notation software folks, I thought you should all be aware of the option if you're looking for higher quality mockups. Happy to answer questions and share my tips and tricks too, if there is interest.
This audio is a Dorico export of Cinematic Studio Samples Strings/Winds/Brass, with NP timpani. I did export individual instrument stems and add reverb/some EQ in Cubase as final steps. Feedback on any of it is much appreciated.
https://soundcloud.com/driscollmusick/beethoven
A Therese (Beethoven) - JDriscoll.pdf
Replies
you copycat! That's exactly the same combination I use (as you may know from the Dorico forum)! For a few works, I also use a BBC Core based template. In both variants, there are one of two instruments from the other library in the mix -- we're still waiting for CS percussion among other things.
New forum, who dis?!
I only recently purchased CSW and CSB--before that I was using NP's winds and brass, which I still think are quite strong, especially with better strings.
I use CinePerc and sometimes other Hollywood for percussion, depending on the sound I'm going for. Perc libraries are definitely the easiest to blend!
I can only comment from a layman's perscepctive, but I thought this sounded fantastic! I was enraptured the whole way.
What a great choice to orchestrate! I do think orchestrally (much of the time) when playing Beethoven's sonatas - . But some passages would be problematic for orchestration - which are the more pianisitically suited. On this, I followed along in the piano score and noticed certain brilliant solutions - like in bars 18 and 19, with the violins. Other places as well. I really heard it as if Beethoven orchestrated it himself. What a delight!
Thanks, Greg! I uploaded the score here too, if anyone is interested.
Wow. This is an amazing orchestration of this sonata! I'm not familiar with this particular sonata, but I found the piano version on youtube to compare it with, and was very impressed at how effectively you translated the pianisms into an orchestral idiom, not following the original verbatim but accurately capturing its spirit in the orchestration. Amazing transcription!
As for the audio quality itself, I found the strings somewhat subdued in places, perhaps a little on the soft side. I'd have expected a live performance to have a slightly stronger sound for the string section. But then again I'm no expert so maybe I'm just biased.
Thanks so much, Teoh! I hope you appreciated the fugato counterpoint I tried to introduce in the development section...
And thanks in particular for the feedback about the strings... I have strated doing a trick where I overlay 3 solo strings from each section of the same library family to the full section sound to give it more definition. I was thinking maybe I didn't need it here, but your comment prompted me to do it. I think it works pretty well and I updated the SoundCloud file accordingly.
incidentally, on the sonata itself, although I'd much rather hear original work on this forum, I really enjoyed the orchestration of this, making the original somewhat more cheeky and freshly unbuttoned than the original and CS sounds decent here (as I'd expect!)
Thanks, David. I promise to post something original next! :D
Regarding the original work, what is your opinion on NPPE when it comes to solo piano compositions? I'm still considering buying the software, but I'm unsure if it's useful for piano-only pieces.
which supported NPPE piano library were you thinking of? I'm not aware of any -- NPPE is primarily designed to be used with orchestral libraries (although I find it's also generally effective with CS solo strings). And I wouldn't buy NP native for piano as there are far better ones around.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next