# Just to introduce myself...



## FirmamentFX (Oct 3, 2005)

Hi everyone,

As this is an INTRODUCE Yourself forum, I thought I would do just that 

My main work is as a Musical Director for music theatre - most recently the Blood Brothers UK Tour (piano/MD) and Les Mis?rables in Concert (purely wagged).

My sideline is sampling and programming - which I mainly fell into while I was dong amateur and pro-am work before I became professional. I used to get really wound up when I was working on a show and the pads arrived from the licensing company, and the players would then haul out their ?200 GM keyboards and make the show sound cr*p. I started programming Kurzweils and then promoted myself to Giga/Kontakt and soft synths

My main long term project now is to create a Giga/Soft Synth/Brainspawn Forte live performance rig to use in pits, which will allow a much better orchestral enhancement system than is currently available (even in the world of the "Sinfonia" and other virtual orchestras. I also do some orchestral track realisation for theatrical productions (pre recorded stuff).

As well as conducting and programming, I do a bit of TV and film arranging (mainly hand in hand with the programming).

Anyway - I stumbled across these forums through a link on another forum. Wish I'd discovered them years ago!!!

Hope to gain a lot from this!

Martin


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## dimitris (Oct 3, 2005)

Welcome Martin 
There's a lot to gain in here and, from what I see in your introductory text, there's a lot that you can give too :wink: 
Enjoy your stay....


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## FirmamentFX (Oct 3, 2005)

Thank you!

I hope to help in any way I can - it's one of the things I love about this industry. You don't get a lot of forums where lawyers (for example) worldwide help and support each other (ok, well perhaps you do - I have to admit I've never checked . But who wants to be a lawyer anyway!?)

I'm a bit of a Giga virgin, but slowly getting into it. My main expertise is in Kurzweils and FM programming. I'm in the process of converting all my old AKAI libraries and merging them with my newer Giga libraries to create my "perfect" (or aspire to create it) sample library. Basically, a generic orchestra I can call up whenever I need to and just augment it with project-specific sounds. I'm on strings at the moment (see different post) and have my "perfect" legato strings - a combination of 6 layers from various libraries.

Just bought GPO and am using it as a scratch pad for arrangement - very impressed.

Anyways, onwards and upwards!


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## Sid_Barnhoorn (Oct 3, 2005)

Ey Martin, welcome to V.I.!

Cheers,


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## FirmamentFX (Oct 4, 2005)

Thank you!


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## xylophonetic (Oct 4, 2005)

Hey Martin!

I got the exact same feeling when I discovered this and I'm shure a lot of people over here did too when joining. "I just wish I discovered this years ago" :D
Hope to hear more from that Giga/Soft Synth/Brainspawn Forte live performance rig in the future. Sounds great!


talk to you later!

Thomas


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## FirmamentFX (Oct 4, 2005)

thomastorfs said:


> Hope to hear more from that Giga/Soft Synth/Brainspawn Forte live performance rig in the future. Sounds great!



I'm going to be test driving it this Christmas for pantomime (oh joy...!). My problem is that I've heard Giga does not play well with other toys, and I want to use B4 and Minimoog in the same rig....

Will keep you posted.


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## Craig Sharmat (Oct 4, 2005)

hi Martin,

Welcome,

I see you have a controversal rig you are setting up. this is not meant to make controversy but I know those machines set up for theartre here in the states have come under a lot of flack. this forum will neither advocate them or condem them. you are free to say what you wish here.

btw, my british lingo is not up to what it should be

what does wagged mean?


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## Ed (Oct 4, 2005)

Craig Sharmat said:


> btw, my british lingo is not up to what it should be
> 
> what does wagged mean?



Im British, and I have no idea what it means either. :D


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## FirmamentFX (Oct 4, 2005)

Thank you for the welcome. I already spend far more time than is healthy on these boards :D



> I see you have a controversal rig you are setting up. this is not meant to make controversy but I know those machines set up for theartre here in the states have come under a lot of flack



And equally over here in the UK. I know a couple of the Broadway programmers and am aware of the flack they have come under. Over here RMS's Sinfonia has been pretty much condemned (it's actually ringfenced on 2 shows only by the union at the moment). I have to say IMO it sounds terrible.

The system I'm developing is NOT a "tap tempo" system (like Sinfonia) - it is intended to be a keyboard based played orchestral AUGMENTATION system - NOT a replacement.

I'm torn - as an MD/supervisor, I want Miss Saigon sized 31 piece orchestras in every pit. Looking at it rationally, theatre is not what it used to be, and pressures of budgets mean that producers will go for the technology. I think these systems are inevitible (the MAPPER has been used in the USA and UK since the 80s!). My view is that it is better to have *some* musicians employed than none because a producer can't afford to put on a show. 

<unintended controversy>
Add that to the fact that the MU over here is a toothless tiger - producers can and do ignore them. If the union threaten a producer, the producer turns round and says "fine I'll employ non union members".

To be fair to producers, the UK MU seems to go around deliberately pi**ing off as many people as possible. IMO, the best course is to ignore them. As a musician, I will always make sure any musicians under my baton are looked after...
</unintended controversy>

I'm not trying to provoke a debate - that's just how I feel. It's not totally unbiased, but that's not for this thread 

Cheers!

Martin


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## FirmamentFX (Oct 4, 2005)

Oh yeah sorry- wagged means conducted, not piano MDing :D


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