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  • Users: Ben E
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  1. Ben E

    I'm stuck at Kontakt 6.8.0?

    Ok, I see. For some reason I thought I could just UPDATE through the NI Native Access. But this is a purchase -- an UPGRADE. Looks like it's just $49.50. Thanks for steering me back on track.
  2. Ben E

    I'm stuck at Kontakt 6.8.0?

    I'm sorry if this isn't the right forum for this question, but I'm really confused. I recently downloaded a Spitfire library and when I tried to load it I got the Kontakt error message that my version of Kontakt is too old to run the library. So I used the NI app to get Kontakt 7 -- but when I...
  3. Ben E

    A Silly Orchestral Short

    Thank you!
  4. Ben E

    A Silly Orchestral Short

    Think of a mustachioed retired military captain in a pith helmet recounting his adventures in the study, waving his sabre around. Baron von Something Something.
  5. Ben E

    Omnisphere Mellotron Flute patch question

    Thank you for this! Worked like a charm. And thank you for the screen shot!
  6. Ben E

    Omnisphere Mellotron Flute patch question

    On the basic Mellotron Flute patch in Omnisphere I can't play two notes simultaneously unless they are three half-steps apart or greater. Same is true of all the Mellotron presets, actually. Am I missing something? Is there some button I can push or slider I can move so's I can play, say, the...
  7. Ben E

    Christmas Eve -- an orchestral short...

    Thank you, and Merry Christmas to you too!
  8. Ben E

    Share your Christmas tracks

    Thank you, Ole. Everything is Spitfire except the strings which are CSS and the woodwinds which are Orchestral Tools.
  9. Ben E

    Christmas Eve -- an orchestral short...

    I just finished this.. ON Christmas Eve! I removed the harp from the Midi otherwise you wouldn't be able to see much. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!
  10. Ben E

    Share your Christmas tracks

    Christmas Eve -- an orchestral short I've removed the harp from the piano roll so's you can see what's going on.
  11. Ben E

    A Christmas Morning -- short orchestral piece, mostly Spitfire.

    Thank you. I don't own any of the Abbey Road stuff. The strings were Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra.
  12. Ben E

    A Christmas Morning -- short orchestral piece, mostly Spitfire.

    Thank you!. It's a saw, not a theremin. But yeah, it's a cool sound.
  13. Ben E

    Synthy Soundtrack to Astronomy Images

    I think it was a Firefox plugin 5 years ago. Don't know if it's still available. At the least you can play the video on full screen and do a screen record. The video I downloaded was obviously a compilation that someone made doing the same. I haven't been able to find the original video since.
  14. Ben E

    Synthy Soundtrack to Astronomy Images

    Oh man! Thank you for letting me know. I think it's fixed now.
  15. Ben E

    Synthy Soundtrack to Astronomy Images

    I made this a few years back using mostly Omnisphere but with a few Spitfire sounds as well. I just downloaded someone else's video from YouTube, threw it in Logic and went for it. https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/261029837
  16. Ben E

    Oddly relaxing TimeWarp video...

    Thank you, Saxer!
  17. Ben E

    Oddly relaxing TimeWarp video...

    Here's a composition I did, put to GoPro's "TimeWarp" footage of me driving around where I live. The music is slow and gentle in contrast to the fast-motion video, but the effect is nice. [Edit: Be sure to watch in 4K.]
  18. Ben E

    Empowering Composers with ChatGPT

    Less of this, please.
  19. Ben E

    Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writer's strike shows you how to fight back

    The point of all my posts up to now has been to make a thought-experiment prediction: Several generations after AI has replaced human composers (in the market sense of ‘replace’) there will be a future Nick Batzdorf telling his peers that it’s ludicrous to think that human composition was...
  20. Ben E

    Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writer's strike shows you how to fight back

    Almost. The real reason you find the analogy ludicrous is because you are — like any well-acclimated 21st century industrialized resident — out-of-touch with the artistic, human expression of obsolete crafts. To you, hand-weaving (your example, not mine) is an old-timey thing that you’ve seen...
  21. Ben E

    Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writer's strike shows you how to fight back

    I wouldn’t call it disingenuous, per se. There are more sympathetic ways to describe a person who thinks that, after thousands of years of machines replacing a million different crafts, the one that *really matters* -- the one that is "different from everything that’s come before” is the one...
  22. Ben E

    Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writer's strike shows you how to fight back

    Meaning, music is the soul of humanity? Just to be clear. If you have to repeat yourself I'm sorry.
  23. Ben E

    Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writer's strike shows you how to fight back

    So do I -- about music. Right now. Sure. But what about all of the artistic trades (?) that have already been replaced by rote machines? Answer honestly (aka, not smart-aleckly): do you fret about mechanical type? Baskets made by machines? Lumber sawed by machines? Teacups molded by machines...
  24. Ben E

    Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writer's strike shows you how to fight back

    Maybe you folded what I said into something others have said. Is there someone on this forum who disagrees with this sentence? Let me be clear: when computers make [art, music, paintings...] it's not art. Like the text symbols you're viewing right now: not art. But the question is, who cares...
  25. Ben E

    Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writer's strike shows you how to fight back

    Did mechanical printers “replace” calligraphers and copyists? Answer No — A mechanical printer can’t do what a calligrapher can do. There is no creativity in a mechanical printer. Printers will never “replace” calligraphers. Answer Yes — There used to be many, many calligraphers and copyists...
  26. Ben E

    Your boss wants AI to replace you. The writer's strike shows you how to fight back

    Do you really want to live in a world where the artistry of calligraphy is replaced by mechanical printers? Those machines have no “soul.” Every instance of the letter “A” is identical to the last! Gone will be the nuances and deviations brought to the page by human creativity! All the machine...
  27. Ben E

    Another short orchestral impressionist piece with midi showing.

    Thanks, Goat. There is no sheet music for this. Just the midi.
  28. Ben E

    Another short orchestral impressionist piece with midi showing.

    Oli, that's a great thing to hear. Thank you for that.
  29. Ben E

    AI Mimicking Human, Or Human Mimicking AI?

    This is an older piece that I recently reworked after a suggestion from @NoamL (which he probably doesn’t even remember.) This is an experiment using midi to make samples do what they aren’t “supposed” to do. I’m trying to tread the line between an authentic-sounding acoustic recording of an...
  30. Ben E

    Another short orchestral impressionist piece with midi showing.

    I think I have an idea how I might pull this off. I'll seriously look into it.
  31. Ben E

    Another short orchestral impressionist piece with midi showing.

    I really have to get around to making a walkthrough video sometime -- just because I think it would be fun to make. But my writing process (which happens while programming) is so unorganized and made-up-as-I-go, with numerous dead ends... I think it would be kinda all over the place.
  32. Ben E

    Another short orchestral impressionist piece with midi showing.

    At least I think this is impressionism. Maybe I'm using the word wrong. Think under the ocean...
  33. Ben E

    Orchestral Impressionist piece showing midi

    I wrote this a while back but have been getting into showing my midi. Here's a piece written for an astronomy-related montage. Think night-time videography of observatory stuff. (The crossfades are because the Logic session corrupted twice so I had to continue in new sessions.)
  34. Ben E

    Something wet with the Bernard Herrmann library

    Thank you! Bernard Herrmann: Chords Minor, Chords Other and TWO tracks of Chords Major. The reason for two tracks: the chord patches in BHCT swell. If you don’t want them to swell you must use expression automation to reduce the volume inversely to the volume of the recorded swell. If you have...
  35. Ben E

    Something wet with the Bernard Herrmann library

    Someone "liked" this old thread today but audio link from my OP was broken so I have provided a new one in case anyone wanted to hear the music.
  36. Ben E

    ASCAP is requesting an Ad-code. Could someone please help?

    Did you ever make any progress on this? I'm in the same spot.
  37. Ben E

    Any experience scoring national TV commercials...?

    Thank you for this. This is exactly what I was looking for. Cheers!
  38. Ben E

    Any experience scoring national TV commercials...?

    I'm sorry if this has been asked before. Can anyone tell me about national TV commercial backend? Songwriter share only. Is there usually a cue sheet? Is the music registered by the production company? Have any of you received royalties for such a projecrt? Any info would be helpful.
  39. Ben E

    Spitfire Audio - Albion Colossus

    As someone who got into VIs very late in the game (2013) I am happy that Spitfire released everything I'd ever need for excellent-sounding orchestral mockups before they switched to their own player.
  40. Ben E

    Are people born with talent? This child is a ridiculously talented pianist!

    I just got back from a three-week trip to the year 2210. Can you believe that there’s still a Wikipedia? Weird, right? But the entry for “talent” reads: “Talent referred to an intangible, weightless, odorless, colorless miasma-like substance/property that was believed to have explanatory power...
  41. Ben E

    Music Licensing Library

    From the site: If you are a really talented composer with determination and drive... ...and are on board with our 'free for all' philosophy... ...and agree that PROs are a thing of the past... ...and are not one those grumpy guys that demands a demo fee even when his tracks don't make...
  42. Ben E

    Music Licensing Library

    This is still the best music library on the internet. https://qualityfreemusic.wixsite.com/qualityfreemusic
  43. Ben E

    Short orchestral piece using Chris Hein instruments

    I used only Chris Hein strings, brass and woodwinds. The harp and percussion are Spitfire and the piano is Orchestral Tools.
  44. Ben E

    I got interviewed on Inside the Recording Studio

    Really good interview! Thanks for this.
  45. Ben E

    Lassie's Not-Dangerous Day midi video

    I wrote this piece a few years ago but never posted the midi because it was a corrupted Logic file that I had to stitch together in three pieces. So you’ll see the video crossfade at the points where the Logic session just kept crashing during the original composition sessions. When this...
  46. Ben E

    SWAM saxophones crash now on M1 Mac...

    Man, thanks for this. I never really understood what was going on there, and you cleared a lot up for me.
  47. Ben E

    SWAM saxophones crash now on M1 Mac...

    I'm able to launch Logic using Rosetta. It's an option in the applications info panel. But you're saying that even if I don't launch it that way then Logic does something using Rosetta in the background to facilitate the SWAM software?
  48. Ben E

    SWAM saxophones crash now on M1 Mac...

    You were right! The instrument has been "discontinued" it says, but there were several version upgrades since my purchase. I was allowed to upgrade to the latest version (2.9.2) and it works natively with the M1. Thanks!
  49. Ben E

    SWAM saxophones crash now on M1 Mac...

    When I select the SWAM "component" for any of the saxophones and "get info" it says v 1.0.0 Does that seem right? I purchased in 2017.
  50. Ben E

    SWAM saxophones crash now on M1 Mac...

    Has anyone else had this problem? New M1 Ultra running Logic. Everything works fine EXCEPT my SWAM instruments. The four saxophones. If I run Logic native I get the error message, "An Audio Unit plug-in reported a problem....Please quit and restart Logic pro." If I launch Logic using Rosetta...
  51. Ben E

    A new, short orchestral thingy

    If anyone is interested, this piece was developed from a simpler version that appeared in my 2020 stop animation short Adventures in the Time of COVID. I posted a link to the short a year or so ago but I'll post it again here because of context. And because I scored it and I'm proud of it!! ;)
  52. Ben E

    A new, short orchestral thingy

    This is a really interesting question, because I asked it to myself when it came down to it but I thought it was a question only I would ask. I really like the main tune -- expressed in the first 15 seconds or so. It's a nice opening sentence. So should I write the next sentence and then the...
  53. Ben E

    A new, short orchestral thingy

    Thank you! I love old school animation. What a nice thing to say! You cannot purchase this but it'll be up on my Soundcloud (Ben Eshbach) and that's free!
  54. Ben E

    A new, short orchestral thingy

    I haven't posted here for a while. Here's something I found on my hard drive half done, and so I finished it today. Well, as finished as anything ever really is, right?
  55. Ben E

    What Are the Best Film Scores of the Past 5 Years?

    I thought Daniel Lopatin's score for Uncut Gems (2019) was pretty amazing.
  56. Ben E

    What model car are you driving ? For How long ? Any Stories about your current car ?

    2008 Nissan 350Z. 361,000 highway miles. Gone through one set of brakes, seven sets of tires.
  57. Ben E

    What is your monitor set up?

    New Mac Studio hooked up to two Samsung 32" 4K monitors. But the right monitor is flashing. The left monitor is connected via the HDMI port. Right montor uses an HDMI-to-Thunderbolt adapter. Anyone know why the right monitor is flashing?
  58. Ben E

    Mac Studio (New Hardware Mac Computer)!!!!

    But what if all my sample libraries -- including Spitfire -- are already on an external hard drive? Surely I won't need to re-download them again. All I'd need to do is plug the drive into the new computer. Am I right about this or am I missing something?
  59. Ben E

    Mac Studio (New Hardware Mac Computer)!!!!

    I've never done this before... My Mac Studio has arrived (more than 4 weeks earlier than estimated!) and I’m ready to transfer everything over to it. I know this is a total noob question but, am I going to run into any roadblocks? I've never had to transfer stuff to a new machine. So far...
  60. Ben E

    CHESS : The Ultimate Creative Flow State Enhancer

    In June of this year, an Indian billionaire named Nikhil Kamath beat 5 time World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand at an online charity tournament organized to help Indian Red Cross’ COVID-19 relief. How did the 34-year-old Kamath do it? He cheated. (There were several conclusive ways to detect...
  61. Ben E

    Has anyone attempted to distribute their music from their own website?

    I don't try to sell music through my own website.
  62. Ben E

    Has anyone attempted to distribute their music from their own website?

    I use Bandcamp. I think the Bandcamp middleman actually reduces complexity -- for me anyway. And on certain Fridays Bandcamp waives their revenue share so you get 100% of the customer's money (minus a few cents for a transaction fee?) https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-fridays-update...
  63. Ben E

    What time signature is this Pink Floyd song?

    Wikipedia has a self-referential entry titled “Lamest Edit Wars” which lists all of the dumbest editorial battles that Wikipedia editors have had with each other. One of the “lamest” edit wars was over the time signature for the Pink Floyd song “Money.” The entry reads: “Sure, it's a song with...
  64. Ben E

    Small library looking for a composer

    My favorite bit: "Composers submitting tracks will be subject to a small admin fee."
  65. Ben E

    Small library looking for a composer

    Now you're talkin'! https://qualityfreemusic.wixsite.com/qualityfreemusic/work-4-us
  66. Ben E

    Small library looking for a composer

    There's no backend. This means you're claiming the writer's share of performance royalties?
  67. Ben E

    CHESS : The Ultimate Creative Flow State Enhancer

    I'll have to find that documentary. I love stories like that. A great chess AI book is Behind Deep Blue (Hsu, 2002) about the computer that beat Gary Kasparov. But my all time favorite is One Jump Ahead (Schaeffer, 1997) about the computer that solved checkers (draughts.) The book introduces you...
  68. Ben E

    CHESS : The Ultimate Creative Flow State Enhancer

    I've been a chess player since I was a kid. Tournament player in the 80s. e4 player as white, e5 against e4 as black, e6 against d4 as black. Online I only play 3 minute games -- which doesn't help my creativity as a composer. In fact I usually find myself cursing, at myself. I follow chess the...
  69. Ben E

    Chord in progression is in the wrong key but...

    It doesn't sound weird to me. It sounds almost expected. The change from E7 to A maj is essentially the same as the change from F#7 to B maj, no?
  70. Ben E

    Recommendations for string library/VST with small footprint

    Almost always with X-fade. Here's a video showing just the strings in Kontakt. Also, notice dynamics are pretty low. I think the CH strings sound best at low dynamics. https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/305858663
  71. Ben E

    Recommendations for string library/VST with small footprint

    I made this using Chris Hein strings. I think it sounds pretty good.
  72. Ben E

    Debussy -- but on guitar

    Some of it is tapping, but what might sound like tapping to your ear is more probably just the discrete notes. There are only a few passages where I'm really "playing" the guitar. So you won't hear the scraping (string noise) between notes as my fingers move across the fretboard. So even though...
  73. Ben E

    Debussy -- but on guitar

    Okay, so this isn't a midi recording. This is me playing guitar. That's what I did before I discovered midi in 2013. During 2011-2013 I did a whole album of Debussy piano pieces played on electric guitar. Not guitar transcriptions, but note-for-note faithful to the piano sheet music. This...
  74. Ben E

    I used to be a Senior Member..

    Oh man, thanks! Maybe after the holidays I can finish one of the several pieces that I've never gotten around to finishing!
  75. Ben E

    I used to be a Senior Member..

    One day my status changed from "Senior Member" to "Active Member." Does anyone know why? I kind of liked being a senior!
  76. Ben E

    Share your Christmas tracks

    Here's a straightforward orchestral version of this song. My favorite part about making this was deciding the arrangement, getting to add little things here and there to give it some character.
  77. Ben E

    Native Instruments....What do you actually use?

    Replika Replika XT Kontakt Factory Library
  78. Ben E

    Sample Libraries and the mod wheel/CC 1

    Oh man! I didn't see this until just today, searching thru some of my old posts. Without the "@" before my name I was never alerted. Assuming that three-years-late is till okay, I'll say a few things about tempo. I use tempo to taste. Like you, I start with a tempo that feels right for the...
  79. Ben E

    Chanson by Simon Park

    Thank you for this. The sounds are mostly patches from Omnisphere. The mellotron for instance. The violinish sound you hear is indeed a saw. It's from a Spitfire library called DC Noisemaker. There's a legato saw in that library. You have to use the quote marks when you do the YouTube search...
  80. Ben E

    Chanson by Simon Park

    Chanson (1987), by Simon Park. This is my Tomita-inspired arrangement of this beautiful song. The graphics are images from Park's handwritten score which he generously sent to me to work from. The music is featured in Sid Meiers' Civilization V. The song is presented with permission from De...
  81. Ben E

    What Powered Studio Monitors are you running?

    Dynaudio BM5A
  82. Ben E

    Disregarding Music Theory. Is it just me? Change my mind or provide your insights.

    I strongly suspect that the theory/no-theory divide gets the attention it does because it’s easy to sort the participants into the two groups: simply ask, “Do you know theory?” and you sort the sheep from the goats. But something that may be even more correlative to compositional style than...
  83. Ben E

    Disregarding Music Theory. Is it just me? Change my mind or provide your insights.

    I’m self-taught and I can’t read music. I’ve been writing songs since I was a child. By the time I was in my 20s I’d taught myself difficult-to-play jazz chord progressions on guitar — chords to which I knew none of the names. Never learned anything “about” music. But I knew how to write songs...
  84. Ben E

    Spitfire Joby Burgess Percussion Update

    Where can one find this kind of list -- where the actual content of a Spitfire library update is spelled out like this? I have four "updates" sitting in my account but can't for the life of me find what they actually entail.
  85. Ben E

    Reasons to not make music you don't like

    I always decline offers to make music that I (a) don't really understand and (b) I respect the people who do understand it. Jazz, for instance. I could probably fool my mom but not someone who really likes jazz, and I would be embarrassed for them to hear it.
  86. Ben E

    How to get a Staccato Articulation in Spitfire Symph. Strings

    Just out of curiosity -- wondering if you've already tried this: if you load SSS Short 0'5 patch, then click on the little wrench in the Spitfire GUI (not the Kontakt wrench) and then click on the dropdown triangle next to "Timed short arctic RTs" and select "Timed short arctic RTs" from the...
  87. Ben E

    Finn's Lullaby -- Cinematic Studio Strings

    Yeah, I struggle with that a lot. I even use reverb to create a better tail if the samples lack a sufficient release. Sometimes I get ear-blind to some of the non-realistic elements because my composing process is so slow (everything's drawn with the mouse.) After hearing the same passage a...
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