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Synthestration - AR Orch 1st Violins Demo Project

Jdiggity1

Senior Member
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LATEST UPDATE (March 2024): The project file for "A Skip Down The Road (To The Pub)" for Abbey Road Orchestra 1st Violins has now been released! (post #201)

Additionally, https://synthestration.com/product/secrets-of-the-forest/ (<b>Secrets of The Forest</b>) has been updated to use the major "2.0" updates of ProjectSAM's Orchestral Essentials 1 & 2 (Cubase & Logic).
Symphonic Explorations has been updated to the latest OPUS version of EastWest's Symphonic Orchestra (Cubase & Logic).

======== ORIGINAL POST FROM JULY 2020 =============

Hi all,

Earlier in the week I "re-launched" a website that I've had sitting in my lap for a little while now - Synthestration.com
The premise is simple: Project files complete with MIDI, audio stems, mixing and routing, that you can download, explore, and study at your own pace, to see exactly how a 'professional' mock-up can be produced, and on a budget.

The first product is the complete Cubase project for Beyond The Storm - a cinematic orchestral mock-up using only Eastwest's Hollywood Orchestra Gold, Hollywood Choirs, and Hollywood Harp (all available through Composer Cloud), and stock (or free) plugins. It also includes a full orchestral PDF score, with parts. (I know, I know, that's pretty nerdy. But I personally love listening and following along with the score!)

I'll save the proper sales pitch for another day, but here's the track/project you can get:




I first launched Synthestration.com in 2016, after some members here and elsewhere asked me to help them with making mock-ups. I made a few attempts to help over email, but it was clear that there are some concepts and techniques that you simply need to see in action, with the ability to click around and compare results. So, I created an original piece of music with the most common library at the time, to specifically demonstrate various techniques in virtual orchestration and production that even a beginner could use and understand. The project used only one sample library - Eastwest's Symphonic Orchestra Gold - and only used stock plugins that came with their DAW. I made it available for both Cubase and Logic.
I realised once I had made it, that this is exactly the sort of thing I would have killed for when I was getting started.

The ability to take a completed project and dive in, turning over every rock, muting and soloing different tracks, bypassing plugins to hear the difference they make in realtime.... has always felt more satisfying to me than watching a series of videos that I forget by the next day.
So, I made it available to purchase online.

ANYWAY, to make a long story slightly shorter... the website was only online for about a year before I took it down and became busy with other things.

Well, it's now been revamped and re-launched, with a new product added and the intention to expand!


My goal with this is to offer more of a "hands on" approach to learning the ins and outs of virtual orchestration, but also to show beginners (and maybe even not-so-beginners), that spending oodles of cash is not a pre-requisite to making music.

This is my first public announcement about it, and I'm interested to hear the VI Control community's thoughts. I do intend on adding more project files that cover other sample libraries and DAWs in the future, as well as other helpful resources, but I've also set up a little suggestion box on the homepage for if you have any specific requests or feedback.

Now stay safe, stay healthy, and let's see if we can get this thread moved to the Drama Zone.

=============

Project files currently available:
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OMG! What a horrible person you are to take all this time to make these things to share with us!!! I am not thankful at all!!! (Add rude words here)

Hmm. Maybe I should have added some caps lock or something. Doesn't quite look dramatic enough. Thank for doing this. I will definitely take advantage of your kind sharing. :)
 
Love it!! Congrats! Any chance to add Logic project for the Beyond The Storm as well in the future?
Thank you!
A Logic version is possible, but honestly unlikely.
I did originally plan to provide a logic version, however my Mac died during the process of making the cubase version, and now I no longer have a Mac.
The project also ended up making use of cubase-specific features and plugins.

After saying all that, I am in the process of sourcing a Mac so that I can provide more for logic in the future. So I'll see if a translation is doable for Beyond The Storm too.
Thank you for your interest!
 
What a brilliant concept! You’ve definitely got to do the Logic versions of your projects :)

btw there’s a problem with the PayPal checkout. I was trying to buy your Symphonic Explorations and it won’t let me :(
 
Great idea. I presume even if you had NONE of the EAST West products, it could still be downloaded and routed to similar libraries ? (albeit the Midi CC information may mean it sounds different to what was conceived )
 
Thank you!
A Logic version is possible, but honestly unlikely.
I did originally plan to provide a logic version, however my Mac died during the process of making the cubase version, and now I no longer have a Mac.
The project also ended up making use of cubase-specific features and plugins.

After saying all that, I am in the process of sourcing a Mac so that I can provide more for logic in the future. So I'll see if a translation is doable for Beyond The Storm too.
Thank you for your interest!

Unfortunately it seems to be not working - when you try to pay, it says their is a problem , in Paypal.
 
This is perfect, I have the composer cloud so will definitely be taking advantage of this!
 
Great idea. I presume even if you had NONE of the EAST West products, it could still be downloaded and routed to similar libraries ? (albeit the Midi CC information may mean it sounds different to what was conceived )

There is also a "light" version of the project file with disabled instrument/midi tracks, and everything rendered out as audio stems. That way you can still at the very least follow along with the midi and score while playing the session back. You just won't be able to edit it without the instruments obviously :)
 
No brainer IMO! Would have gone nuts over something like this when I was first starting out. Hell, I could still use it now :grin:

What really sets this above for me is that the writing & orchestration are fantastic too.

Completely agree! Gonna buy this just so I can study the arrangement and programming a bit more in detail.
 
Thank you!
A Logic version is possible, but honestly unlikely.
I did originally plan to provide a logic version, however my Mac died during the process of making the cubase version, and now I no longer have a Mac.
The project also ended up making use of cubase-specific features and plugins.

After saying all that, I am in the process of sourcing a Mac so that I can provide more for logic in the future. So I'll see if a translation is doable for Beyond The Storm too.
Thank you for your interest!

How about a MIDI file with HO in VE Pro?
 
What a brilliant concept! You’ve definitely got to do the Logic versions of your projects :)

btw there’s a problem with the PayPal checkout. I was trying to buy your Symphonic Explorations and it won’t let me :(
Unfortunately it seems to be not working - when you try to pay, it says their is a problem , in Paypal.
Same here...

Well that's embarrassing!
Thanks a ton for bringing this to my attention.
The PayPal gremlin has now been scared off, and everything is back to working order as far as I can tell.
Feel free to send me a message or use the contact form if you have any more issues.
And thank you!
 
Great idea. I presume even if you had NONE of the EAST West products, it could still be downloaded and routed to similar libraries ? (albeit the Midi CC information may mean it sounds different to what was conceived )
As @StevenMcDonald alluded to above, every product used is also rendered as an audio stem in the project. That way, if you only own some (or none!) of the products used, you can still hear the project and mute sections just as if you did own them.

For example, if you have Hollywood Orchestra, but NOT Hollywood Choirs, you can simply unmute the Choirs audio stem and still follow along with the project and hear it in full.

As for replacing the tracks with your own sample libraries... you can do that, but the results will likely be very different to using the libraries the MIDI was programmed for.
But the Audio STEMS will always be there, so you could even compare your version to my version and see which one you like better! (and I'd love to hear the results)
 
Bought it, and there is a lot of things for me to learn, but why Play 1 and not Play 2 :sad: And why Play 2 was used only for Bassoon part while the rest are in Play 1
 
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