Real Orchestra vs Synth Mockup – Part 4/6

Posted on December 13, 2014 by lost track

This is the fourth part in a small series of blog posts I’ll make about the real-world differences between orchestral mockups (or synth orchestras) versus real orchestras. As a composer who is fortunate to work regularly with live orchestras, I’ll try to help show the difference from a decent demo recording, to a mixed and mastered finished recording. For this example, I’ve chosen an exciting track from my album “Resonance Theory” called “Speed”. The sixteen-strong cello & bass section hated me after this, and you’ll see why!

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Real Orchestra vs Synth Mockup – Part 3/6

Posted on December 8, 2014 by lost track

Hi again, This is the third part in a small series of blog posts I’ll make about the real-world differences between orchestral mockups (or synth orchestras) versus real orchestras. As a composer who is fortunate to work regularly with live orchestras, I’ll try to help show the difference from a decent demo recording, to a mixed and mastered finished recording. For this example, I’ve chosen another Christmas advert I worked on – Morrisons 2013 campaign. Featuring a re-recording/arrangement of Alan Menken’s “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Here is the instrumental version only.

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Real Orchestra vs Synth Mockup Part 2/6

Posted on December 1, 2014 by lost track

Hi again. This is the second part in a small series of blog posts I’ll make about the real-world differences between orchestral mockups (or synth orchestras) versus real orchestras. As a composer who is fortunate to work regularly with live orchestras, I’ll try to help show the difference from a decent demo recording, to a mixed and mastered finished recording.

For this example, I’ve chosen a piece that was recorded at Abbey Road studio 2, with the English Session Orchestra, and was used for the 2013 TK Maxx Christmas campaign. It was an arrangement of the 80’s synth pop hit, “Only You” by Yazoo. A simple piece which relies on expressive playing and fluid, agile string movement is always going to be tricky for samples. Here’s the before and after.

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Real Orchestra vs Synth Mockup – Part 1/6

Posted on November 27, 2014 by lost track

Hi there, Tom Player here – it’s been a while since my last post! This is the first part in a small series of blog posts I’ll make about the real-world differences between orchestral mockups (or synth orchestras) versus real orchestras. As a composer who is fortunate to work regularly with live orchestras, I’ll try to help show the difference from a decent demo recording, to a mixed and mastered finished recording.

For me, undoubtedly the ‘highlight of the job’ is getting to work with live players. There’s nothing like the moment at the beginning of a session you hear the first note, and suddenly your work is brought to life by an ensemble of talented players. You can breathe! And then the rest of the hard work starts. :)

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AVGM: Rheology

Posted on August 25, 2014 by John CS Keston

Here’s another movement from my composition Vocalise Sintetica that I performed at Echofluxx in Prague and later during Northern Spark 2014. I named the movement Rheology after the study of the flow of matter in the liquid state. The audiovisual content was created with a Max patch I developed called AVGM (AV Grain Machine). The instruments that I used to create the accompaniment include: DSI Tempest, Bass Station II, Korg Volca Keys, and Memory Man Delay.