retnev wrote:Is there any known other "Orchestra" with instruments similar to Miroslav, available that is at least better than the instruments in Notion but runs more efficient with resources than Miroslav?
QUESTION: Are you running Windows XP in (a) 32-bit mode or in (b) 64-bit mode, which includes compatibility for running 32-bit applications?
QUESTION: Is anything else running on your computer (for example an SQL database engine or website engine)?
QUESTION: Do you have Windows XP configured to give maximum available resources and running privileges to applications, which is different from the way a Windows Server typically is configured?
QUESTION: Is it possible for you to get Windows 7 (latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit) and to install it on a new internal hard drive that you can use for digital music production?
The reason for asking the last question about Windows 7 is that VIenna Symphonic Library (VSL) has an interesting product called Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 which runs as a streaming audio server in Windows 7 and can be used to send audio to NOTION 3 or NOTION 4; and Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 includes a nice symphonic orchestra (Epic Orchestra), as you can hear by listening to the audio samples at their website . . .
Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 (Vienna Symphonic Library)Epic Orchestra (Vienna Symphonic Library)Regarding the NOTION 3 virtual instruments, they are high-quality recordings done at Abbey Road Studios and are played by the London Symphonic Orchestra . . .
Based on my experience, they are recorded with a generous amount of headroom, which makes sense, but unless you know how to work with professionally recorded sampled sounds that have a generous amount of headroom, it can be a bit difficult to reveal the recorded sounds in what one might call a "more easily heard" way . . .
Using the aforementioned Epic Orchestra audio demo songs (
see above), they sound excellent here in the sound isolation studio played through the calibrated full-range studio monitor system, and when one studies the levels on various meters, what one discovers is that the audio demo songs are "pumped", albeit in a graceful way, which is what most but not all sampled sound library vendors do for their audio demo songs, and this strategy is based on the somewhat goofy idea that "louder" maps to "better" in the minds of listeners who essentially are clueless with respect to producing, recording, digitizing, mixing, and mastering, where making it all the more gimmicky is the fact that nearly nobody who purchases these types of sampled sound libraries actually has a calibrated full-range studio monitor system, hence there is a bit of additional "tailoring" done to make the sampled sounds appear to be better when heard through piece of junk studio monitors . . .
The strategy I use for sampled sound libraries that are not digitized "hot" is based primarily a few of the IK Multimedia T-RackS CS Grand signal processors but typically on just four of them:
[
NOTE: The White 2A Leveling Amplifier is my current "goto" signal processor for nearly everything, but I usually use it in a very graceful setting, except for Latin percussion instruments which nearly always need a good bit of "pumping" to be heard in DISCO and Pop songs . . . ]
White 2A Leveling Amplifier[
NOTE: I use the Vintage Tube Program Equalizer EQP-1A primarily to enhance the low frequencies of bass instruments, where the "FATT-1A" preset works nicely . . . ]
Vintage Tube Program Equalizer EQP-1AVintage Tube Compressor/Limiter model 670Black 76 Limiting AmplifierIf you listen to orchestral and symphonic music on FM radio, then it is very likely that you are hearing it after it is processed by one or more of these signal processors, except that radio stations use the real physical units, where the primary use is twofold:
[
NOTE: The IK Multimedia software versions of these industry standard signal processors are highly accurate emulations based on very precise detailed measurements of the various characteristics and behaviors of the real physical signal processors . . . ]
(1) They ensure that radio and television broadcast signals meet the stringent requirements imposed by federal broadcasting regulatory agencies . . .
(2) They accomplish the first activity in a way that is melodic and actually enhances the recorded music, where this second functionality is the reason these signal processors are used in recording studios, even though some of them originally were designed solely for radio and television broadcasting use . . .
The primary requirements for sampled sounds are (a) that they are professionally recorded performances by skilled musicians and (b) that they are professionally digitized, which certainly is true of the NOTION 3 and NOTION 4 virtual instruments and Miroslav Philharmonik, but what works best for your needs depends on what you want to do and how you plan to do it . . .
There are lots of different types of violins, and there are lots of different ways to record violins, so the particular set of violin sampled sounds that works best for a specific song depends on the sound you need, which includes tonal textures and lots of other stuff . . .
EXPERIMENTSince you posted a video of a sample score that had perhaps 20 virtual instruments, a few of which were NOTION 3 virtual instruments but most of which were Miroslav Philharmonik VSTi virtual instruments, it will be helpful to make a copy of that score and then to reduce the total number of instruments to 10, followed by playing it and determining whether the problem occurs . . .
Another experiment involves creating a new NOTION 3 score and populating it with 10 instances of the VSTi virtual instrument version of Miroslav Philharmonik (
not the NOTION 3 mapped version of Miroslav Philharmonik), where in this experiment you will assign only one part or instrument per instance of Miroslav Philharmonik . . .
These experiments are not difficult to do; they do not take very long to do; and they will provide some useful clues . . .
THOUGHTSRegarding other types of orchestral and symphonic sampled sound libraries, there are quite a few of them, but all of them will have the same problem, since the problem is caused by the limitations of the 32-bit application workspace, and most of the one I have and use actually have a heavier "footprint" than Miroslav Philharmonik, where for example switching to Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments) is not going to solve the problem . . .
However, because Vienna Pro Ensemble 5 can stream audio to NOTION 3 and NOTION 4, this might provide a solution, but it comes at the cost of getting Windows 7; an internal hard drive; installing your digital music production software onto Windows 7; purchasing Vienna Pro Ensemble 5; and making sense of how all of it works interactively . . .
If you must do the work in Windows XP, then it might help to upgrade to NOTION 4, which you can run in 32-bit mode, but the 32-bit version of NOTION 4 has the same 32-bit application workspace restrictions as NOTION 3 . . .
Hence, if you are on a budget and need to work with what you already have, then my advice is to do the second experiment (
see above), where you are using the VSTi virtual instrument version of Miroslav Philharmonik and you specify only the parts, instruments, or articulations that actually are used in the score, which will minimize the memory footprints of the Miroslav Philharmonik VSTI virtual instruments, noting that you can use one instance of Miroslav Philharmonik to provide the sampled sounds for several instrument staves, so long as the total number of articulations, parts, instruments, and so forth is no greater than 16, since the maxium number per instance is 16, and this technique is shown in use in the YouTube video I posted with the female choir sampled sounds . . .
When I was doing everything with NOTION 3, the rule I used was 20 to 25 VSTi virtual instruments per score, but most of the time I only assigned one sampled sound to each of the VSTi virtual instruments, since for
DISCO and
Pop songs having a virtual festival of articulations, dynamics, and so forth really makes no sense, in part because I can control some or all of that stuff via effects plug-ins in the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application when I switch to producing and mixing . . .
I use a few articulations and dynamics, but for the most part I avoid it, because it requires more work and with a few exceptions makes no difference in
DISCO and
Pop songs where everything is "pumped" and there are a lot of echoes and reverberation . . .
Summarizing, answer the questions; do the experiments; and let me know what happens, because there is not enough information at present for me to do anything other than guess . . .
I think there is a practical solution, but determining what it might be will require more information and doing a few simple experiments . . .
Lots of FUN!