# Requiem Spitfire - Rough WIP



## stevenson-again (Jun 11, 2010)

this is the end section of a piece i have been working on over the last couple of weeks. it is a concert work so i have not gone to much trouble over the mock-up - it was a chance to get to grips with both spitfire and requiem though. WARNING it is very rough and not intended to finish its life as a mock-up, so i did not write to the strengths or weaknesses of the samples.

the sound qualities of both these libraries shine, despite my misgivings about the usability of both of them. i have had to do a lot of editing in kontakt and complex routing in logic in order to shoehorn them into a way of creating a proper score that makes sense to read, and that don't require numerous tracks with tricky automation. 

the biggest success for me was editing the polys in requiem to take just the last syllable, since it was looped and had a release. the notes in requiem are completely randomized. if i want to settle on a sequence of syllables, i copy the top line out, randomize it between the ranges, feed that into the main track and turn off the randomizer.

anyway here it is:

http://idisk.mac.com/rohan.stevenson/Public/stuff/OvertureEndWIP.mp3 (Overture WIP)

spitfire sounds great, and you don't really get to hear all i have used - but i think this ought to show up how brilliant the timpani and the BD are.


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## Mike Connelly (Jun 11, 2010)

Great writing. There are some spots here and there where the choir syllables don't quite seem to fit together, but overall the choir sounds fantastic. Very impressive, especially considering how new the library is, hopefully it will get tweaked even more to make it more flexible and smooth things out.


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## stevenson-again (Jun 11, 2010)

yep and it should be stressed that i am just smashing the choir in - not really working with it to get it 'just right'. so with plenty of love it could be heaps better even with my ham-fisted attempts at editing the samples.


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## Mike Connelly (Jun 11, 2010)

Yeah, the things I'm hearing that don't line up are VERY minor and I assume they could be ironed out. Generally an extremely realistic sound from the choir.


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## jlb (Jun 11, 2010)

I really like what you are doing with this piece. I am still trying to work out how to use Requiem in a more traditional way, without all this chanting etc, because the samples are so great. I am after the multi layered 'Enya' sound.

jlb


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## Synesthesia (Jun 11, 2010)

Lovely stuff Rohan - do you have a performance organised for this or is it a spec piece?

Cheers,

Paul


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## synthetic (Jun 11, 2010)

Sounds very nice. Some notes of the choral piece pop out more than others, maybe you need to finesse the velocity a bit.

Great writing!


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## stevenson-again (Jun 12, 2010)

> Lovely stuff Rohan - do you have a performance organised for this or is it a spec piece?



cheers mate. yes this is a commission. concert band (blech) choir and organ. not wild about concert bands having spent most of my formative years playing in one. i could have gone with orchestra but i was told the orchestral strings were not so strong and rashly thought a concert band might be a nice challenge.

i can't wait to get back to my lovely LASS setup again!

your percussion samples really are pretty damn good i think.


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## stevenson-again (Jun 12, 2010)

> I am after the multi layered 'Enya' sound.



not sure requiem would be ideal for that. there are the soft ooh and oh samples which are really really nice that would get you close. but the enya sound to me is fairly smooth lush and 'produced'. what requiem has done is try to capture the 'liveness' of the group for want of a better expression. they purposefully left in slightly inaccurate starts to the notes, the cut off of the notes, the different vibrato speeds and different timbres of the singers. they try NOT to blend the choir so you get the choral texture cutting through. as a consequence, the samples are a little uneven, but not so badly that with good programming (from tonehammer) or producing you can't get it smooth, but that unevenness is what gives it life, vitality and realism. 

honestly, there other bits from this piece where i have the choir alone and when my randomized syllables line up well it sounds exactly like a choir singing.


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## jlb (Jun 16, 2010)

Thanks for that Rohan, I can't deny the quality of the samples are fantastic and you have already got some great results from it. I think I can do something a bit different with it, hopefully. I just cant get on with all this chanting and shouting business, it's not my cup of tea.

Best Wishes

jlb


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## JBacal (Jun 16, 2010)

Very dramatic writing. I hope you can post the recording of the live perfomance.

Best,
Jay


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## stevenson-again (Jun 17, 2010)

> I just cant get on with all this chanting and shouting business, it's not my cup of tea.



LOL! nothing wrong with a bit of chanting and shouting now and then, provided you can hear it over the vevuzelas. 

jay, i'll have to see how it goes....


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## Ed (Jun 17, 2010)

jlb @ Fri Jun 11 said:


> I really like what you are doing with this piece. I am still trying to work out how to use Requiem in a more traditional way, without all this chanting etc, because the samples are so great. I am after the multi layered 'Enya' sound.
> 
> jlb



you picked the wrong library then imo


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