# "Requiem" featuring Requiem



## RiffWraith (Jun 6, 2010)

Greets.  

First off - great job, and a tip of the hat to Tonehammer for this library. As yet, I have composed just one demo with Req, but already I feel it was worth every penny. Definitely met my expectations. More on that in a bit. Every lib has it's strengths, and every lib has it's weaknesses, and Req is no different, but so far, it appears that the weakness to strength ratio is small. Excellent sound quality - having worked as an audio engineer for many years, and knowing what sounds good and what doesn't, and having done many recordings (some very good, some not so good), I can confidently say that this was recorded extremely well, and that excellent recording techniques (mics/mic placement/etc.) were used. Applause there.

Secondly - what I did here is something that I have never done before - write for samples that I did not have in my posession, and base my compositional work on what I was expecting the samples to sound like - which in this case, was based on what the Req demos sounded like. Here is where Req met expectations. Based on those demos, I expected Req to sound a certain way, and I expected to be able to do certain things with the lib. And I was. I simply sat down and composed for the orchestra, envisioning what the Req choirs would sound like - what I _wanted_ them to sound like - and just went with it. I was tempted to use EWQLSC as a base, so that I could get a ballpark guesstimate of what Req might sound like - but opted not to. I wanted to go off of what I heard in my head only. Now again, I did that based not on what I thought I might be able to get out of a real choir, but what I thought I might be able to get out of Req - based on the demos. Very, very happy with the result here. Also, kinda proud of myself, if I may say so. Save for the length of the beginning (string pad), nothing about this peice changed once the choir was dropped in. I spent several hours with Req, going over patches, playing, etc., (reading the manual, Troels!!!  ) - then went right to the track I had already composed. Orchestrally, I left everything as is, so it seems that I did a decent job of "hearing" the choir while building the rest of the orchestra. And I guess this speaks as to how well Req can translate into real world compositions.

All in all, I am extremely pleased with this purchase, and do not regret it one bit. Now everyone go out and buy a copy - this way THammer can easily afford to go back, and record Req2. And if you guys do dev Req2, you are guaranteed at least one customer 

*Requiem*

I am not going to post the choir part naked, but what I figured I'd do is here is post the same peice with the choirs a lot louder (well, the orchestra lower, technically) so you can hear exactly what is going on, and get a better idea of what the lib is capable of.

*Requiem - xtra choirs*

Comments, suggestions, etc. all welcome. Enjoy!


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## sadatayy (Jun 6, 2010)

still listening to it damn very good piece..everyone should listen to this. by the way what mic positions and patches etc did you use do you mind going a bit more in detail


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## Pzy-Clone (Jun 6, 2010)

Ok ...a MUCH better demo than the other sound snippets that have been posted with Requiem yet.

Based on the few tracks I have heard you post in this forum, you have a quite recognisable sound in some respects, and I like that approach.
You stick with a fixed sound palette, some key elements that seems to work out well are repeated etc. 

SO I do like your sound, (I think i mentioned this previously as well), but alas I also know exactly what it’s going to sound like before actually hearing it, which might be a good OR bad thing depending on you point of view I guess.

The one thing i feel is lacking, is that you do not take full advantage of the full melodic potential in this piece. 

The choirs move over a strong rhythmical, but in essence very simple base foundation ...but never seems to break out into any significantly melodically interesting direction as i see it...so it feels as if all the featured components are all there to support a main theme that never appears. 

Anyway the main point i wanted to convey here, is that in contrast to a lot of other posts regarding new libs, i could not care less what a library sounds like when presented without any contextual relevance.

I think you do a very good job in presenting these choirs in a professional, good sounding and well produced environment, it does no-one any justice to offer a 20 second semi conceived idea that is carelessly played out for the sake of hearing how "it sounds out of the box".

So good job, It makes me realize that the library is not "difficult" or whatnot, like the first reactions seemed to imply, and also i breathe a sigh of relief...that the right tools in the right hands still seems to be a required component, which you clearly possess imo.


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## José Herring (Jun 6, 2010)

Some very good moments in this.

Sometimes I feel that the short articulations come across as distinct utterances instead of connected to a melodic idea. I think riding some expression to give the short articulations direction over the longer phrase rather than just relying on the rhythmic intensity might help.

Also as a smaller note the reverse fx on the windchime thing could be a reverse bass drum hit with some distortion to lead it harder into the upcoming choir forte section.

best,

Jose


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## snowleopard (Jun 6, 2010)

Excellent! Very informative.


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## RiffWraith (Jun 7, 2010)

Thanks for the listens, gents.  



tomgahagan @ Sun Jun 06 said:


> For the most part, however, the enunciation in the choral parts is, well, it comes and goes. Sometimes difficult to understand what they are singing as far as the text is concerned. Not sure the text is from any part of the Requiem is it?



Some of the text is, some isn't. Basically, you are forced to mix and match certain things to get the choir to sound as realistic as possible - and when you do that, certain things don't make sense. Same with EWQLSC - just the way it is when trying to write for the human voice.



sadatayy @ Sun Jun 06 said:


> are the drums TH epic Dhol and all that as well or something else?



Most of the drums are Evolve, with a little bit of SD2 mixed in.



snowleopard @ Mon Jun 07 said:


> Excellent! Very informative.



Thank you!



josejherring @ Sun Jun 06 said:


> Sometimes I feel that the short articulations come across as distinct utterances instead of connected to a melodic idea. I think riding some expression to give the short articulations direction over the longer phrase rather than just relying on the rhythmic intensity might help.



Yes - as I alluded to earlier, that's just the way it is. I tried to make a melody out of it best I could, but there are certain words/syllables that just do not connect well at certain tempos, so you are forced to make sacrifices. If anyone thinks that they can take any word/syllable/phrase, and properly interconenct it with any other at any tempo - they are sadly mistaken. and this goes for any choir lib.

As for the expression bit - there is some room to manuever on the mod wheel, but riding the mod wheel for short artics doesn't really work for me here.


Pzy - points well taken, and thank you.



Pzy-Clone @ Sun Jun 06 said:


> ...It makes me realize that the library is not "difficult" or whatnot.....



well....

Thanks again!

Cheers.


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## jpjoe (Jun 16, 2010)

sweet track !!! really driving !
i prefer the first version
way to go ! :wink:


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## synthetic (Jun 16, 2010)

Great sound man, very powerful trailery stuff.


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## hbuus (Jun 17, 2010)

I like this very much! Cool sound.

Best,
Henrik


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## Ed (Jun 17, 2010)

tomgahagan @ Sun Jun 06 said:


> . Sometimes difficult to understand what they are singing as far as the text is concerned. Not sure the text is from any part of the Requiem is it?



eh? You aren't meant to understand anything, you build stuff up to SOUND like its singing, thats the point.

Sure if you use some of the patches and just hold a note it will sing a word but most of the time thats not how you're meant to use it. It works well, so long as you dont want it to sing something coherent which I certainly do not care about


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## RiffWraith (Jun 17, 2010)

Thank you hbuus and synth.  

Ed actually has a point here - when you write for a choir in the world of VIs, you can not always make the choir sing something coherent. At times you can, but sometimes you put two words or syllables together, and at that particular tempo in that particular key, it just doesnt work. So, you change one or both to something that does work - that does in fact flow. This is true of the 3 libs I have: VOTY, EWQLSC, and Req. As good as these libs are, it's just the way it is.

Which, btw, is kinda-sorta what Tom said as well! 

Cheers.


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## muzicphiles (Jun 17, 2010)

hey riff really nice piece..! 
enjoyed listening to your work .. 
cheers


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## RiffWraith (Jun 18, 2010)

TY MP!


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