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Alan Silvestri interview by NI

I noticed a similar track-naming convention in Powell’s screen capture of his template - any chance that these two composers are using a template setup by someone else?
 
Indeed. I’m almost embarrassed to admit most of my orchestral works, especially concert works, have been composed on a MacBook Air using Dorico and Sibelius with NP. And my keyboard is a Korg Microkey 49.
A lot my "on ivories" time is spent on an NI M32 nowadays. A lot more comfortable than doing gymnastics over 88 hammers all the time.
 
A lot my "on ivories" time is spent on an NI M32 nowadays. A lot more comfortable than doing gymnastics over 88 hammers all the time.
Exactly. Composing is like architecture- it takes a lot of tweaking and moving things around. It’s methodical. I still enjoy playing my Kurzweil for ideas but once they take hold it’s less about the keyboard and more about manipulating the notes in the daw or notation program.
 
I'm assuming that given it was for NI, he was going to showcase the NI / Kontakt instruments. You can get some sneak peaks at some of the other stuff he has though. Plus, since he's writing for the Avengers, probably can use those Damage drums!

Here's a screenshot of his track archive presets for example - lot of EWHO in there (do you think he's preordered Opus :dancer:):
Screen Shot 2021-04-13 at 2.53.56 PM.png
Ahah !
Nerd alert..

I also spotted "abbey road orchestral samples" in his kontakt folder architecture... ;) and this is not spitfire obviously as abbey road uses a private player.
 
Having watched the video again, what strikes me is the ergonomics of the rig. Alan is sat quite high at the desk and everything is in easy reach, with the piano and manuscript a quick chair turn away. I think I might try this setup.
<Takes notes>
 
Having watched the video again, what strikes me is the ergonomics of the rig. Alan is sat quite high at the desk and everything is in easy reach, with the piano and manuscript a quick chair turn away. I think I might try this setup.
<Takes notes>
Also was surprised to see him using an iMac. The second monitor for the slave was a Mac also, so it must be a Mac Pro, either a new or old one. But that's a setup I've never seen before.
 
With the exception of piano work, the 61-key controller with some wheels/faders seems to be more easily manageable for libraries with heavy key switching than an 88. A drawback is having to create presets that put the ranges in the same octave to avoid flipping around with the controller's +/- octave keys -- always have been happy with it.

Side note, I cannot wait until I have 50 years (wow!) worth of experience making music with DAWs... I'm on 5 so far 🤪💩.
 
With the exception of piano work, the 61-key controller with some wheels/faders seems to be more easily manageable for libraries with heavy key switching than an 88. A drawback is having to create presets that put the ranges in the same octave to avoid flipping around with the controller's +/- octave keys -- always have been happy with it.

Side note, I cannot wait until I have 50 years (wow!) worth of experience making music with DAWs... I'm on 5 so far 🤪💩.
I have a little Korg Nano Key that's used exclusively for switching. Every track/patch is setup so the available switches automatically map to it on midi ch2 via Logic art maps. I tried iPads etc, but sometimes less options is more helpful..
 
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Since orchestral composing is largely about independent lines, if you are putting things together in an old-school manner, most instruments do not have an 88 note range. Unless one needs real-time KS or is keyboard composing, 4 or 5 octaves is usually enough. Liszt used a 3 octave keyboard to compose... dude had no issues with his orchestral writing.. I''m seriously thinking of just moving down to a Arturia Keylab 49 or 61Mk2 when my Kurzweil dies.. and buy a Nord Grand just for composing on the old-fashioned way.
That's exactly how I felt and did. I am using an Arturia Keylab 49 mk2. Everything's within reach of my hands. And I am a classically-trained pianist ;)
 
I have a little Korg Nano Key that's used exclusively for switching.
Btw, this honestly makes a lot of sense. My system probably is convoluted as hell in most eyes, but my key switches are arranged based off the old VSL VI player, where the up/down of the matrix was navigated by black keys and white keys moved the cursor left and right. I basically memorized common intervals (minor 6th, 5ths, etc) to land on certain articulations. In the Synchron Player, because of the tree structure, it is often hitting chords. A Dmaj7/F# triggers autospeed Detaches. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Does Silvestri share any mockups like John Powell does anywhere? A glance at how detailed he is before recording with live players would be welcome.
 
Does anyone know what keyboard is on the left side? It looks very thin and could be something I am looking for.

I am not talking about the Nektar one on the right side.
 
One of the reasons I had to go back to Cubase for now. Hopefully Studio One can address that soon.


Track archives are XML files (not CPR files), but you are on the right track that they save things like routing and instruments (which would then allow him to connect / spin up the appropriate VEP instance). One thing that track archives currently don't save for whatever reason is expression maps.
In Cubase 12 when you import tracks archives the expression maps are imported too, even on brand new empty projects. Not sure about previous version, I'm just considering starting using track archives now as my template has become very huge lately which makes it a bit annoying to navigate into the project.

What I don't understand is: from the video it seems like he set VE Pro with one instance per saved track archive. And also it seems that when he imports the track archive the corresponding instance is created inside VE Pro. Am I wrong? If I'm right, how can he do that? Cubase doesn't seem to save as track archive information about the rack instrument the MIDI tracks are connected to, even if you select the output tracks before saving them as track archives.
 
What I don't understand is: from the video it seems like he set VE Pro with one instance per saved track archive. And also it seems that when he imports the track archive the corresponding instance is created inside VE Pro. Am I wrong? If I'm right, how can he do that? Cubase doesn't seem to save as track archive information about the rack instrument the MIDI tracks are connected to, even if you select the output tracks before saving them as track archives.
Cubase 11 also imports Expression maps with Track Archives.
Also, he uses VEP as Track Instrument, not Rack instrument. That works with Track Archives well.
 
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Yeah, I figured it out earlier this morning after some tests lol
Although VSL recommends to use VE Pro as a rack instrument as far as I recall
 
What I don't understand is: from the video it seems like he set VE Pro with one instance per saved track archive. And also it seems that when he imports the track archive the corresponding instance is created inside VE Pro. Am I wrong? If I'm right, how can he do that? Cubase doesn't seem to save as track archive information about the rack instrument the MIDI tracks are connected to, even if you select the output tracks before saving them as track archives.
I am in the process of setting up this exact thing. The key is that VEPro is not being used in the traditional 'decoupled' way, so the contents of the VEPro instance are saved with the track archive.

Steps I am using for this:
  1. Start VEPro server and create a new, empty instance
  2. Name the instance and fill it with whatever multis you like - e.g. 'Damage' (like in the demo)
  3. In Cubase, create an instrument track with VEPro VST plugin
  4. Connect to the VEPro server, and choose 'Preserve' but leave 'Decouple' off
  5. Create MIDI tracks as needed
  6. Export all tracks as a track archive
When you recall the track archive into a new project, ensure that the VEPro server is empty and it will create a new instance and fill it with your instruments from step 2 above.

The cool thing about this approach is it allows you to build a unique palette per project, rather than be stuck with a fixed template. And, once you've built your palette, you could conceivably switch over to decoupled at a later time. Pretty cool.
 
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