Horn quartet comparison

I made a comparison of 5 brass products. It is based on the first measures of "Cantabile", a work for piano from the French composer Widor. I don't know if this is my own arrangement here, maybe not. 

Although short, it can give a first impression of how these libraries/products are doing their job in an intimate setting.  

Instrument X
 

JoelBerg (a Phaseplant product)
 

Sonivox (Orchestral Woodwinds)
 

VSL Synchron Brass
 

VSL VI Pro
 

Unexpectedly Puccini

OMG, what have I done? You might as well lay my head on the chopping block. I’ve broken every rule in the VI world. One of the most beautiful arias in the entire operatic repertoire, rendered in a virtual version. But what a lovely morning I’ve had! I took a singer from Dreamtonic SynthV for a little test drive.

The orchestra is largely VSL, with the violins once again supplemented by an InstrumentX duo. If this should be my last post here, I hope you’ll appreciate it, taking it all with a generous pinch of salt.

Lotus Land

Lotus Land, Op. 47, No. 1 is a famous piano piece by the English composer Cyril Scott, originally written in 1905 and dedicated to American composer Henry Hadley. 

The violin and piano transcription by legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler is one of its most popular arrangements. 

This rendering is made with the violin from Instrument X, the piano from Pianoteq - Blüthner.

MP3 demos Instrument X

Vittorio Monti, Czardas
So far it was really impossible to make a bit convincing mockup of this lovely piece. Way too many quirks and artifacts in whatever library or modeled ones. It needs everything you can do on a violin piece in this virtuoso, romantic idiom, so why not give it a try with this InstrumentX violin?

It was really fun (for the first time) to get into this piece with so many rewarding moments. I know, it is a moment recording. The next version would be different in many ways, musically, mockup etc., just like when performing this piece live. But the main goal was to offer what I could make out of a midi file that was collecting dust. It took about 90 minutes, based on a midi file I already had.

The result of this input is what I would like to share here with you. So, the violin is InstrumentX, the piano is from Pianoteq 8 (Blüthner).

Espressivo intro - 2:00 here starts the up tempo fun - 2:47 slower part with double stops - 3:18 a nice pp harmonics passage - 4:05 direction finale, accelerando!
 

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Camille Saint-Saëns, Le cygne
I never have been able to get this result with at least 10 cello libraries/modeled ones during the last 20 years, so I feel quite with this one!
The piano is the Garritan Steinway, one of my favorites.

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Camille Saint-Saëns, Introduction et Rondo capriccioso
Only the solo violin is Instrument X, the orchestra mainly VSL
  
Last bars of the Rondo capriccioso...
 

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W.A.Mozart, Ouverture La nozze di Figaro
All instruments are from Instrument X, except of course the timpani: VSL.     

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The Overture of 'Jungle Book' by George Bruns (not the full version)
All woodwinds are Instrument X, except for the bass flute: VWinds, which does it fantastic here (what an iconic solo is this btw). The bass clarinet also from VWinds.
All brass: Instrument X.
Strings: VSL Elite + Chamber sordino (mixed). Added for vl1 and vl2 four desk players from Instrument X.
Harp: VSL.
Guitar: Authentic Guitar 'Evocación'.
All percussion VSL Synchron.  

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Jean-Marie Leclair, Overture, Op.8
A very small fragment from the Overture. Instruments flute, violin, cello, theorbe (Rinascimento) and  cembalo (Pianoteq)
   

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John Williams, theme from Schindlers List 
I couldn't resist this one, the most dangerous piece to mockup, I know. But why not give it a try? Orchestra Strings: Duality (not much attention from me here) - English horn: Westgate, one of the best imo. 
 

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Gabriel Fauré, Sicilienne
This lovely piece, here for cello and piano
 

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J.S.Bach, Goldberg variation (No.25)
in a string trio setting (vl-vla-vlc)
  

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Paul Dukas, Fanfare from La Péri
The original music to La Péri was written in 1911 by Paul Dukas as a Poème dansé en un tableau ("dance poem in one scene"), his last published work. 
Rendered with MIR (Sage Hall), some saturation, mid range detail improved with Ozone.
 

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Piece for brass quintet
Sorry, I don't know the composer anymore, but it's such a fun piece.
 

 

 

 

Dreamtonics - tips for your workflow

At first glance Instrument X may seem a bit cumbersome to work with, You ll notice a different workflow than the one you usually have in your main DAW. This Instrument X plugin is in fact a DAW within your own DAW!. So here some tips, tricks etc..

TIPS

• Make sure your midi file (if you use any) is up to the job, so avoid e.g. overlapping notes.
• Too short notes in the midi files won't be recognonized properly, They sound silly
• Experiment with note lenghts, im some cases Instrument X delivers a fine result in minutes with an imported decent midi file.
• Have a look at the shortcuts in Instrument X, they can be a great benefit when adjusted to your own workflow:I have 7 for legato (instead of Shift-S), 2 for Notes, 5 for Pitch, 8 for revious track (really a time-saver) and 9 for next track.
• Split your tracks into groups, saves hours of rendering time huge projects. Only the active fragment will be rendered. Later on you can merge them back.
• In demo mode: splitting tracks overrule the 150 notes limitation: every group starts as a new one. But time limitation remains of course. 
• You can restore slur connection after a manual change of note durations. Make the notes you want to be connected overlapping, use the 'remove short silences' script (strange name actually), select them again and assign them slurred in the articulation menu. 
• Before further rendering: listen at the track without any added FX (verb, EQ etc.) to concentrate on the musical result of your input.
• [1] Split a track before loading an instrument and certainly before adding ensemble players

CAUTION

• Avoid making ensembles (up to 16) when not ready with your project yet, saves hours of rendering time. It should be the last step imo.
• Avoid tempo changes later on in the DAW when working on your project with the ARA plugin on a separate audio activated, saves hours waiting. Each tempo change will be rendered, this can take up to minutes, if not more.
  If you really need to make tempo changes I would suggest to disable the plugin itself during this part of your work. 
• If you use Stereo Tracks (instead of Master track), avoid duplicating tracks later in the project: it will ruin the settings in your DAW if you have given names to the tracks before (or worse when also linked to MIR). There is no possibiliy to link the output to a defined channel (yet).
  A solution is to drag the duplicated track fully downwards, as last one in the row, later you can put this one in your DAW next to the source track

I hope this will save you a lot of time. But, as always: your imported midi-file needs all musical intention in advance. Note connection, tempo, rubato etc.. That is not different from working with any other product to get a musically decent result.

This page will be updated regularly.

[1 - added 2026-10-05]