Miroslav Philharmonik on offer - is it worth getting?

[ChrisW]

I see this is on offer until 14th March (just over £40) and wondered how it compared with the built in Notion sounds (which I'm fairly happy with). Is it worth going for at this price, but am I correct in thinking that it is still a 32 bit application?

Any advice/opinions welcome

[Surfwhammy]

At present (Monday March 11, 2013), all the IK Multimedia virtual instruments are 32-bit, and you cannot use them with 64-bit NOTION 4 unless you have "bridging" software like jBridge (J's Stuff) or Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 (Vienna Symphonic Library). if you are running Windows, then there are many reports of jBridge working very nicely with NOTION 4 (64-bit), and there is a Mac version of jBridge in beta testing, also with good working reports, and Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 has good reports but perhaps with the caveat that it works best when you have a second computer, although one interpretation of the user guide suggests that you can run it on the same computer you are using for NOTION 4, your DAW application, and so forth . . .

jBridge (J's Stuff)

Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 (Vienna Symphonic Library)

[NOTE: There is more information at this Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) link . . . ]

Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 Website (Vienna Symphonic Library)

THOUGHTS

For reference, I love IK Multimedia products for computer-based digital music production, and I have all their products, but I am not using the IK Multimedia virtual instruments at present unless there is a virtually overwhelming and compelling need, which has not happened so far, in part because I also have MachFive 3 (MOTU), Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments), Reason 6.5 (Propellerhead Software) with a cornucopia of Rack Extensions, Logic Pro 9 (Apple) which also has a festival of instruments and loops, and so forth and so on . . .

Instead of messing with bridging software, I am focusing on making sense of MachFive 3, Kontakt 5, and Reason 6.5, as well as at least a few of the Rack Extensions (which are fascinating but often completely and totally advanced and specialized to such an extreme that actually making sense of what they do borders on rocket science, but most of them have stellar graphic designs and cost less than $25(US), so I purchase them when I am bored and have nothing better to do, which is one of the basic rules for software marketing, since when people are bored they will spend up to $25 (US) for just about anything that (a) is entertaining in some way, (b) looks good, (c) sounds good, and (d) appears to do something which might be useful sometime in the future . . .

On the other hand, all the IK Multimedia effects plug-ins and signal processors have 64-bit versions, and they are my "go to" primary set of effects and signal processors, where this maps to AmpliTube 3 (including the Custom Shop [CS] version), T-RackS 3 Deluxe, T-RackS CS Grand, CSR Classik Studio Reverb, and the ARC System 2 (which is an advanced studio monitor system calibration product and personal favorite for calibrating studio monitors, as explained in my ongoing treatise on the only logical and affordable way to have a calibrated full-range studio monitor system at the dawn of the early-21st century, where "full-range" refers to a flat equal loudness curve from 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz at 85 dB SPL, which no currently available commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) studio monitor system sold anywhere on the planet will do, which according to me makes all of the COTS studio monitor systems nothing more than dangerously deceptive pieces of junk sold by egregious sneaky weasels and tricksters extraordinaire, because you cannot mix and master without being to hear everything reproduced accurately through the studio monitor system, where "everything" runs from 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz . . .

The Fabulous Affordable Studio Monitor System Project (IK Multimedia FORUM)

I augment the IK Multimedia effects plug-ins and signal processors with Pro-C (for "ducking"), Saturn (for vacuum tube and magnetic tape saturation), Timeless 2 (the best echo unit in the known universe), and Volcano effects and signal processors by FabFilter Software Instruments and TrackPlug 5 and MultiDynamics 5 by Wave Arts, with the caveat that there is a bug in TrackPlug 5 on the Mac which causes problems when there is more than one instance, so I use MultiDynamics 5 instead, which is sufficiently similar with respect to functioning as a brickwall equalizer and noise gate, although in a somewhat non-standard usage, but it works, which is what is important to me here in the sound isolation studio . . .

[NOTE: In particular, Pro-C is the best "ducking" signal processor in the known universe; Timeless 2 is the best echo unit in the known universe; and Saturn actually works and does what it is supposed to do. Combined with CSR Classik Studio Reverb, a few of the advanced individual signal processors from T-RackS, and the Melodyne Editor (Celemony), it is possible to produce good vocals, which is vastly important if your songs have singing, regardless of your singing skills, since once you understand the rules for vocal producing, (a) you can make a bad singer sound pretty good and (b) you can make a good singer sound great . . . ]

If you are doing everything in 32-bit mode or have a "bridging" component, then the sale price for Miroslav Philharmonik is attractive, but even if you do not plan to use it based on doing everything only with native 64-bit virtual instruments, it might make sense to make the purchase, because being a registered owner of Miroslav Philharmonik most likely will qualify you at some time in the future for discounted upgrade pricing and other types of discount promotions, where it is useful to know that IK Multimedia has nearly absurd discount promotions every so often, where by studying the various discount promotion rules you can get a lot of IK Multimedia stuff at a discount of 75 percent or thereabout. There are no guarantees that IK Multimedia will have one of their absurd discount promotion extravaganzas again, but they have done this consistently at least once or twice each year for the past few years, and it works very nicely for IK Multimedia as a marketing strategy, since it consistently increases and expands their customer base, as is the case for nearly every digital music production software provider, with an example being what now is looking to be the "Annual Five-Day Thanksgiving 50 Percent Discount Sale" that Native Instruments does for Kontakt 5, which they now have done two years in a row (2011 and 2012), which is the way I got Kontakt 5 for $200 (US) in 2011, really . . .

Really!

FabFilter Software Instruments has at least one discount promotion each year, and they provide discounts when you own one product and decide to get more products, as is the case with XLN Audio (Addictive Drums and Addictive Keys), and so forth and so on . . .

Notion Music has a 30 percent discount promotion for the NOTION 4 Expansion Sounds that currently runs until March 31, 2013 . . .

The reality for digital music production is that it is expensive, so it makes sense to plan purchases and to be patient when you have a limited budget, and since it takes a while to make sense of any single virtual instrument, effects plug-in, or signal processor, the "being patient" aspect is not an inconvenience, because there is plenty of stuff to keep you productively making progress learning new skills while you wait for discount promotions . . .

Another useful bit of information is that IK Multimedia is working on 64-bit versions for all its virtual instruments, which is reported by some of the IK Multimedia folks in the IK Multimedia FORUM to include updated higher resolution sampled sound libraries, and the general advice at present is "sometime in 2013", which is fine with me, since I am having a lot of FUN making sense of MachFive 3, Kontakt 5, and Reason 6.5, where the only annoying aspect is that I know the various sounds of the IK Multimedia virtual instruments intimately, which saves time in finding a specific sound, whereas in contrast I am learning and memorizing all the sounds for MachFive 3, Kontakt 5, and Reason 6.5, hence finding a particular sound takes a bit longer, but so what . . .

So what!

Summarizing, it all depends on your current needs, your plan for the future, and your goals . . .

If you plan to focus on doing professional mixing, producing, and mastering sometime in the not so distant future, and if you do not have CSR Classik Studio Reverb, T-RackS, and ARC System 2, then it makes sense to get Miroslav Philharmonik at the discount promotion price, since owning it will qualify you for discounts on the other IK Multimedia products, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

[ChrisW]

Thanks for the very detailed reply, there are a lot of things to check out there!

I'm actually fairly hopeful that a 64 bit versions of the software instruments will appear, as I bought CSR Classik Studio Reverb many years ago, and was pleasantly surprised that 64 bit versions were included in the recent (free) T-RackS CS update. I'm mostly into orchestral compositions at the moment, so Miroslav could be a good addition it its current price, and as you say it would qualify me for future discounts. I'll look at the bridging options, but could probably manage with 32 bits at the moment as I've only got 4 GB of memory on my iMac.

Interesting that NI have just announced Komplete 9 - I'm on K7 at the moment which just has Kontakt 4, so I'll see what extras you get in the library. But I'll look at the Notion sale as well, it would be good to have more articulations.

Lots to play with

[Surfwhammy]

Thanks for the very detailed reply, there are a lot of things to check out there!

I'm actually fairly hopeful that a 64 bit versions of the software instruments will appear, as I bought CSR Classik Studio Reverb many years ago, and was pleasantly surprised that 64 bit versions were included in the recent (free) T-RackS CS update. I'm mostly into orchestral compositions at the moment, so Miroslav could be a good addition it its current price, and as you say it would qualify me for future discounts. I'll look at the bridging options, but could probably manage with 32 bits at the moment as I've only got 4 GB of memory on my iMac.

Interesting that NI have just announced Komplete 9 - I'm on K7 at the moment which just has Kontakt 4, so I'll see what extras you get in the library. But I'll look at the Notion sale as well, it would be good to have more articulations.

Lots to play with

Glad to help!

CSR Classik Studio Reverb is my favorite reverb, for sure . . .

For sure!

And since you are running 32-bit NOTION, it makes sense to get Miroslav Philharmonik while it is on sale, which is just another few days, since the discount promotion ends on Friday March 15, 2013 . . .

I like it, because it has a lot of French Horns (well over 150 flavors and articulations in various combinations of solo and ensembles) and other stuff. It is recorded at a lower volume level, but I "pump it" with some of the T-RackS advanced signal processors (White 2A Leveling Amplifier, for example), which works nicely for DISCO and Pop songs and maps to the way George Martin produced the string section for "Eleanor Rigby" (Beatles), where he had the microphones placed very close to the instruments, which was a new technique at the time and apparently annoyed the string players who had to make an effort not to hit the microphones when they were playing . . .

[NOTE: I was curious about the French Horns in Miroslav Philharmonik, so I counted the various flavors and articulations for about an hour and got to 150, but there were more, so I stopped counting, since it was a bit odd at that point to continue counting. The advantage is that each sample is recorded with the musician actually playing the instrument in the specific articulation, so nothing is computed or emulated when you select the correct articulation sample to match the articulation you specify in the music notation . . . ]

"Eleanor Rigby" (Beatles) -- YouTube music video

Lots of FUN!

[elerouxx]

I see this is on offer until 14th March (just over £40) and wondered how it compared with the built in Notion sounds (which I'm fairly happy with). Is it worth going for at this price, but am I correct in thinking that it is still a 32 bit application?

Any advice/opinions welcome

It's definitely worth! I just saw your post and ran to the store to check if the offer is still valid (and it's the full edition and not the Classik edition, a limited version not really supported by Notion).

To my surprise, the full Philharmonik is only $59.99 while the Classik edition is $79.99!

In my opinion, Miroslav is a very good general-purpose library. I like many Notion instruments more, but Miro has lots of options, a better piano, a working choir, and some percussion intruments that make it very useful. Bowed strings aren't that great in my opinion, but can work better than Notion's in some passages. Plus, you can control Miroslav using custom rules, but you can't do this with Notion's samples as far as I know.

Also, besides the instruments defined in Notion's support for Miroslav, you can find lots of unlisted samples in Miroslav's interface.

As a personal experience: I got Garritan Personal Orchestra first, Miroslav later. I bought GPO4 before because, in theory, it seemed to me more complete, with better samples, dry sounds (not recorded with reverb ), and better organized than Miroslav, which is rather an oldie nowadays. Still, in practice I've used Miroslav a lot more than GPO. Garritan is very clean and good product, but somehow Miroslav feels more natural and proved more useful, at least to me.

[Surfwhammy]

The best way to understand the IK Multimedia virtual instruments is in terms of a playback engine (SampleTank) and a set of sampled sound libraries, where there are (a) 5 primary sets of sampled sound libraries (Miroslav Philharmonik, SampleTank 2.5 XL, Sonic Synth 2, SampleMoog, and SampleTron), (b) 15 sets of multisampled instrument collections, and (c) 15 sets of loops . . .

Explained another way using an example, Miroslav Philharmonik basically is a set of sampled orchestral sounds that comes with a standalone user interface which is tailored for orchestral instruments but behind the scenes actually is the SampleTank engine, hence instead of conceptualizing it as a player and sampled sound library, conceptualize it as a sampled sound library designed specifically for use with the SampleTank playback engine . . .

There are separate customized standalone user interfaces for each of the 5 primary sets of sampled sound libraries, and they are tailored to their respective sampled sound libraries, but the underlying playback engine is SampleTank, and you can run all 5 of the primary sets of sampled sound libraries with the SampleTank engine, which incidentally is available for free, where it is SampleTank FREE and is the full SampleTank engine with no restrictions on functionality and so forth, and the free version includes approximately 500MB of selected sampled sounds from the various primary sets of sampled sounds . . .

[NOTE: The information on SampleTank FREE is found at the following link . . . ]

SampleTank 2 (IK Multimedia)

This is the official information from IK Multimedia at present regarding the various sets of sampled sound libraries and SampleTank 3, which will be the 64-bit version of SampleTank:

SampleTank 3 will be released in 2013 but not just around the corner. This is a good time to get the VI libraries that will work in it for very good prices but it won't be out right after this sale is over for sure.

[SOURCE: Peter_IK, one of the IK Multimedia FORUM moderators in the US ]

The multisampled instrument collections are very useful, and they are focused on various instruments, where for example there is a collection of basses that has Hofner Beatle Bass samples that I like, and I like the world instruments collection . . .

For a while, IK Multimedia focused primarily on computer products and hardware controllers for electric guitars, which included AmpliTube and various MIDI pedals, but when it became obvious that the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad were going to be virtual goldmines, IK Multimedia expanded its focus to include mobile computing products, as did Notion Music . . .

The focus on computer products and hardware controllers continues, but the mobile platform has been very productive for IK Multimedia, and they recently built a new manufacturing facility in Italy where they manufacture various mobile hardware devices, which is fine with me, since some of the revenue most likely is used to fund continuing work on the computer products and hardware controllers, which is the case because IK Multimedia recently released T-RackS CS Grand, which is the new version of T-RackS and includes new signal processors as well as being 64-bit, where "CS" is an abbreviation of "Custom Shop" and is the concept IK Multimedia created for AmpliTube, where there is a Custom Shop that sells specific emulations of various types of amplifiers, loudspeaker cabinets, and effects which are separate from the various AmpliTube packages or collections of amplifiers, loudspeakers, and effects. And this is the concept used in T-RackS CS Grand, where there are individual signal processors sold as custom units in addition to the packages or collections . . .

My best guess is that SampleTank 3 will use the same "Custom Shop" model, where the will be new sampled sounds, but as indicated in the aforementioned quote from one of the IK Multimedia FORUM moderators, SampleTank 3 will support the existing SampleTank 2 sampled sound libraries . . .

Regarding pricing, it always is a good strategy to examine the entire IK Multimedia product line and every discount promotion currently available, because it often is the case that by understanding everything you will find an attractive way to get the most stuff at the lowest price . . .

For example, the Total Workstation XL Instruments bundle has all 5 primary sets of sampled sounds and all 15 of the multisampled instrument collections, and it costs $300 (US), where if you do the arithmetic this maps to $60 (US) per primary sampled sound library, except that you get the bonus of all 15 of the multisampled instrument collections . . .

However, for another $100 (US), you can get the Total Studio 3 bundle instead, which adds AmpliTube 3, T-RackS 3 Deluxe, and CSR Classik Studio Reverb to everything that comes in the Total Workstation XL Instruments bundle, which makes it the most cost effective if you do not have any of the IK Multimedia computer products, and for reference AmpliTube 3, T-RackS 3 Deluxe, and CSR Classik Studio Reverb are 64-bits, where the upgrade to 64-bits for CSR Classik Studio Reverb is done via the free version of T-Rack CS, and there is an upgrade from the free verson of T-RackS CS to T-RackS CS Grand if you have T-RackS 3 Deluxe, which basically is the most affordable way to get the five new signal processors that are added to T-RackS CS . . .

It takes a while to make sense of bundles and discount promotions, but it always is a smart strategy to take the time to understand everything, because IK Multimedia tends to have nearly absurd discount promotions and if you make sense of the various rules, requirements, and so forth, you can get a lot of stuff at an overall discount of 75 percent, where so far the most absurd and vastly complex discount promotion was the 15th Anniversary Group Buy extravaganza last year, which took me approximately a week to understand, with the result that by purchasing selected products in a specific sequence someone who had no IK Multimedia products could get everything IK Multimedia makes for computers, including the hardware pedals and other hardware devices, for approximately $750 (US) as contrasted to the MSRP of $3,500 to $5,000 (US), where the key was understanding that physical hardware products did not count as free or bonus products, so the strategy was to buy the hardware products and then after registering them to use them to qualify for downloadable free products of equal value, which in some respects is like clipping grocery store coupons, but it works . . .

And it depends to a certain degree on the types and genres of music you are doing, where the IK Multimedia products are especially useful for popular music (DISCO, Pop, Rock, Heavy Metal, Country Western, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Hip Hop, Electronic, and so forth), but for a bit of contrast if you listen Classical, Orchestral, Symphonic, and other genres on FM radio, then the music probably is run through the one of the physical units that is emulated in T-RackS, so there are good reasons to get some of the IK Multimedia products even when you are doing more orchestra based music, since what happened is that due to various Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and its European counterpart rules regarding broadcast radio, overall signal levels, and so forth various companies created signal processors which primarily ensured that broadcast radio signals always were within FCC and other specifications, but some of these signal processors happened to do some extra stuff that makes recorded, mixed, and mastered music sound better in melodic ways, and record producers and audio engineers discovered this and then started using the signal processors as special effects on songs, which is the case with the T-RackS 3 Deluxe Vintage Program Equalizer EQP-1A which is a very accurate emulation of the vacuum-tube based Pultec Program Equalizer EQP-1A and is used in music production for its unique melodic equalization characteristics, and I use it specifically to reveal and to enhance the deep bass tone of electric basses, including string bass and cello, so it is not just a Rock and Roll thing or whatever . . .

Lots of FUN!

[ChrisW]

Thanks again for the feedback - I decided to go for Miroslav Philharmonic, as I managed to get the CE version several years ago as a No Brainer deal for less that $10 and have always really liked the sounds. I'll take another look at the sale to see if there's anything else worth getting.

Now the fun of getting it all to work!

[Surfwhammy]

As noted, IK Multimedia has nearly absurd discount promotions every so often, hence it is good to do a bit of planning, and starting today (Friday March 15, 2013) and continuing until Monday April 15, 2013 they are selling the Total Workstation XL Bundle and Total Studio 3 Bundle for half price, which is a truly absurd discount, and if you do not have AmpliTube 3, T-RackS 3 Deluxe, and CSR Classik Studio Reverb, then the smart purchase is to get the Total Studio 3 Bundle for $199 (US) . . .

And since there is no practical way to predict what IK Multimedia will do next in the discount promotion arena, if you purchased Miroslav Philharmonik when it was on sale for $60 (US), I would not be concerned about learning after the fact that by waiting a bit, you could get the Total Workstation XL Bundle or Total Studio 3 Bundle at half price . . .

I look at it in terms of averaging, where you might pay a bit more for some stuff, but then you get other stuff at an absurd discount, hence it averages to low prices over the long run, and for reference when I did the T-RackS 3 Deluxe upgrade from the previous version of T-RackS several years ago, the upgrade cost more than the current full price of the Total Studio 3 Bundle, which makes the Total Studio 3 Bundle at a 50 percent discount all the more absurd, where for reference I am using "absurd" in the sense of almost giving it away compared to what the MSRPs were a few years ago . . .

The reason I recommend the Total Studio 3 Bundle is that it includes AmpliTube 3 and a few of the major guitar rig libraries, and it includes T-RackS 3 Deluxe and CSR Classik Studio Reverb, where all three of these are 64-bit , but the virtual instruments are 32-bit, so the important aspect of the 32-bit virtual instruments is getting the respective sets of sampled sound libraries, as well as all 15 of the multi-sampled instrument collections, which can be used with the 64-bit version of SampleTank when it is released sometime later this year . . .

Total Bundle Series Discount Promotion (IK Multimedia)

T-RackS 3 Deluxe and CSR Classik Studio Reverb are excellent for mixing and mastering, and they are 64-bit, although you need to get the free version of T-RackS Custom Shop (CS) since it updates CSR Classik Studio Reverb to 64-bit when you have CSR Classik Studio Reverb installed and registered at the time you install T-RackS CS FREE. The upgrade from T-RackS 3 Deluxe to T-RackS CS Grand is a paid upgrade ($99 [US]), but you get five new effects plug-ins, including the British mixing console tone controls (which are very nice), and you have dual versions of most of the effects plug-ins and signal processors since there is a T-RackS CS version for each of the T-RackS 3 Deluxe components, which is handy on the Mac, because some but not all of the new Audio Unit (AU) versions for the Mac have a bug, so you use the 64-bit T-RackS 3 Deluxe version when this happens, and my current guess is that this is associated with the new application signing that happens in Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) but regardless, one of the versions (T-RackS CS vs. T-RackS 3 Deluxe) will work, so I try the T-RackS CS Grand version first, since the T-RackS CS version is newer, and if it does not launch, then I use the corresponding 64-bit T-RackS 3 Deluxe version, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

[ChrisW]

Thanks again, Surfwhammy. I agree about winning some and losing some, but overall I think I'm ahead over the years! I'll probably pass on this offer as I already have CSR Classik Studio reverb (which I can now run as 64-bit) and am happy to wait for the 64-bit versions of the VSTs.

I'm very happy with Miroslav Philharmonik, and find that it goes well with the Notion sounds, the two solo trumpets for example sound really good together.

[Surfwhammy]

Thanks again, Surfwhammy. I agree about winning some and losing some, but overall I think I'm ahead over the years! I'll probably pass on this offer as I already have CSR Classik Studio reverb (which I can now run as 64-bit) and am happy to wait for the 64-bit versions of the VSTs.

I'm very happy with Miroslav Philharmonik, and find that it goes well with the Notion sounds, the two solo trumpets for example sound really good together.

Great!

Several years ago, I paid more for what now is the classic or standard version of T-RackS than the Total Studio 3 Bundle costs when it is discounted by 50 percent, but this is fine with me, since by making sense of T-RackS I began to discover why my mixes sounded terrible, and several years later my mixes are starting to sound pretty good, which is one of the reasons that I love IK Multimedia computer-based products so much, as is the case with NOTION 3 and more recently NOTION 4 . . .

My theory is that proficient composers, musicians, and singers tend to be vastly deluded by the belief that since they do one musical thing proficiently, they can do everything proficiently, which seldom is the case, since arranging, producing, recording, mixing, and mastering are skills that require at least as much work as playing and singing . . .

At the time, I thought that I understood or could guess how to do arranging, producing, recording, mixing, and mastering--and I could do some of it--but overall I knew considerably less about these activities than I imagined at the time, so over the past few years I have been focusing on arranging, producing, recording, mixing, and mastering toward the goal of discovering what George Martin and the audio engineers at Abbey Road Studios did for the Beatles, which basically was to make the Beatles sound good, as is painfully obvious when you listen to the audition tapes the Beatles did for Decca before Ringo Starr became the drummer and before George Martin became their producer . . .

The Beatles were and are quite talented, but in some respects there is a limit to what talent and hard work can do when folks have little actual knowledge of music theory, which is where George Martin comes into play . . .

I am guessing on some of this, but I think that one of the first things George Martin did was to have the Beatles tune their instruments to Concert A (440-Hz), and he also instructed them on some of the finer aspects of playing and singing but in a gracious and respectful way, where as I understand it, his strategy was to provide several options based on music theory and then to let the Beatles select the option which made the most sense for what they wanted to do, which is an excellent strategy . . .

In other words, the Beatles would have an idea for something and would play or sing it for George Martin, and then George Martin would offer his opinion on what they actually were doing in terms of music theory, along with some advice on how to do it the best way possible . . .

Learning how to do this has been my focus for the past few years, and it is coming along nicely, where I can switch hats and become Pretend George Martin, at which point I am the choirmaster advising myself (a.k.a., "the choir") on stuff, which is a bit strange, but it works, and one of the first things I did in my role as Pretend George Martin was to inform myself that starting sometime around the age of 12 years or thereabout I changed from being a soprano to being a baritone or tenor, which was a bit of surprise here in the sound isolation studio and certainly explained why it was difficult for me to sing soprano melodies, really . . .

[NOTE: I get stuck on really stupid stuff every so often, which was the case when I was teaching myself how to play lead guitar, where the key epiphany occurred when I realized that nearly every lead guitar part played since at least the mid-1950s was played by a lead guitar player who had at most four fingers and a thumb on each hand, with the sole exception of legendary Blues guitarist "Hound Dog" Taylor, who had an extra finger on his left hand. In other words, all I needed to know is that for me playing lead guitar was just a matter of doing the work and powering through all the hurdles and nonsense that tends to discourage many folks, where if you expect to be able to play 3-1-1-4 -1-4 very rapidly with an upward bend on the 3 and last 4, then you need to practice it perhaps 10,000 to 100,000 times to make build the necessary upper body, arm, hand, and finger strength and dexterity, as well as the required neural pathways in your brain, which for the most part is what learning how to play lead guitar involves, at least initially, although later you need to reprogram the Frontal Eye Fields (FEF) region of your brain, which is bounded by Brodmann areas 4, 6, and 8, since this region of the brain is what makes it possible to play notes as rapidly as every 25 milliseconds, since the FEF region is faster than the auditory cortex, where the key is to create a new set of neural pathways between the FEF region, auditory cortex, and all the finger stuf, wherever that happens in the brain, which essentially is the key to getting in touch with your [i]inner idiot savant, which in the case of grand piano makes it possible to compose and to play grand piano as demonstrated in the following instrumental song in real-time on the fly even though (a) using your conscious mind it would be difficult to play "Mary Had A Little Lamb" even if you had the sheet music and were allowed to practice for a few hours and (b) for the most part you only played an actual grand piano for a few hours a year over the past two decades, which was part of a truly strange experiment designed to determine whether it is possible to teach yourself how to play grand piano simply by thinking about it, where in some respect the strategy is to play grand piano as if it were a drumkit, which works especially well for me when I am composing and playing in the Twelve-Tone genre made popular by Arnold Schoenberg in the early-20th century . . . [/i]]

"Starlight" (The Surf Whammys) -- Kick Drum, Bass Guitar, Grand Piano, Fog Synthesizer, Cascading Echo Units -- MP3

"She's Gone" ("Hound Dog" Taylor and the HouseRockers) -- YouTube music video

Really!