In my previous post (August? Gadzooks!), I was halting between two opinions: Colossus and MUSE. Since then EastWest/Quantum Leap (EWQL) have discontinued all of their KONTAKT-based products and replaced most of them with their new PLAY-engine models. I was hoping to find a copy of the discontinued EWQL Complete Composer’s Collection on the Web, but I was not successful.

Now, EWQL launches, then extends (until 31 Dec 2008), another 2-for-1 special. I can’t pass that up, right? So, today, I place my order for four products: Goliath (successor to Colossus) , SD2, Symphonic Orchestra Gold Complete, and Pianos - and get them all for the price of two! Rock (or classical, or new age, or techno, or …) on! Once I get them, load them up, and start to explore them, I’ll update both of you with my opinions.

Since my wife bought me a MacBook for my birthday (hey, I’m not complaining) instead of Spectrasonics Atmosphere, I went surfing to the Spectrasonics website to see if they were offering any deals on said “Dream Synth.” When I get to the website, I see that they’re working on this really cool successor to Atmosphere: Omnisphere. Can you hear my drool dripping onto the floor? Man, these timbres even sound great in the videos using cheap headphones! I can only imagine hearing them in my project studio.

Speaking of videos, the current episode (5) on the website announces a contest, providing loops from the forthcoming virtual instrument. “Way cool,” I thought; then I learned that you have to be a registered Spectrasonics user to participate in the contest. So, do I buy Atmosphere so that I can compete in the contest, hoping to win a license for Ominshpere that will make said Atmosphere purchase obsolete? Hmmm.

Although I received it almost 1 month ago, I thought I should tell you about my recent computer purchase (Re: Computer Shopping)…

I am now the owner of a PC tweaked for pro audio from ADK Pro Audio Systems. Why ADK? The price and quality seemed comparable to offerings from Sonica. In fact ADK owner/founder Scott Chichelli told me that if I didn’t buy from him that I should buy from Sonica. Indeed, all of my email exchange with Scott was very personable. He was very helpful in working out the final configuration. Furthermore, the ADK folks have a great sense of humor (Check out their About Us page.)

(Some of) The Specs:

The new machine is powered by an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU (under a large but very quiet CPU cooler with a cool blue glow), overclocked to 3.0 GHz. Since its running Windows XP Home, I only went with 2 GB of RAM (Win XP Home cannot use more than 2 GB of RAM for applications). The OS and handful of apps (SONAR PE, SpeedSoft VSampler 3, and a bunch of other VSTs and VSTis) are on an 80 gig drive, while I record audio to a 500 GB drive, and store my samples and SoundFonts on another 320 GB drive). For buring CDs and DVDs, I went with the less expensive LightScribe drive, as I’m tired of using gallons (a slight exageration) of printer ink to print decent looking disc labels. Since it takes just as long to burn a LightScribe label as it does to print a high-quality label in my ink jet printer - might as go for the LASER-etched labels that look more like commercial CDs than the paper labels.

The custom-built machine is housed in a sturdy 4-unit rack-mount case that’s about 20 inches deep. Much deeper than I expected, ruling it out for the typical 16″ deep rack case. Man, that case is big; But I love the black and blue motif (like you couldn’t tell that from this site). Even the front panel LEDs are blue. Cool.

Performance? I’ve run the diagnostics, and the machine smokes (figuratively)! In actual use, I haven’t done anything too tasking with it yet, but I can now play my VSTi’s in real time. Before with my 2.4 GHz P4, the latency was so severe, that I used an external sound module while playing, and later rendered the tracks with VSTi sounds. Now I don’t have to do that.

OK, I might as well throw in my nickel’s worth of opinion concering Audio Impressions’ DVZtechnology. After viewing the video demo on their home page, I pretty much have to say, “Wow!”

For weeks, I ‘ve been telling myself that I am going to write a CAL routine to take a string track in SONAR, and split it into multiple tracks, based on note durations. The resulting tracks, of course would be assigned to samples of various string articulations (staccato, spiccato, marcato, legato, etc) - all in an attempt to speed the process of approximating more realistic string parts. Even doing this manually, the transitions tend to sound, well, just like what they are: quick switching between samples. Granted, it can be smoothed with judicious use of reverb, but it would be way so cool to be able to just play a line and have it sound realistic from the get-go - without having to do so much manipulation afterward.

Obviously, I’ve not been alone in this desire, as Chris Stone (who’s been scoring about as long as I’ve been alive) and the team at Audio Impressions seem to have made the dream come true. Now the question is, do I have to sell a few limbs and and a kidney to afford it?

Having finally upgraded to SONAR 6.0 (ProTools is just a status symbol) last month, I was really pleased to learn of this anouncement made at Winter NAMM:

Cakewalk® Releases Free SONAR 6.2 Update

Looks like some some really cool improvements for a “point” release. What really caught my eye was

New ACT Presets: SONAR 6.2 adds dedicated ACT support for popular hardware controllers including Alesis Photon 25, E-MU Xboard25, Edirol PCR 300/500/800 Series (further enhanced, see below), Korg KONTROL49, M-Audio Axiom 49, Phat.Boy

I’m very curious to see what the Axiom 49 presets will do for my Axiom 61 (same controller with one more octave of keys) setup. The price is definitely right.

No, I’m not giving a concert, but there does appear to be an interesting one happening at UCLA on my birthday: an evening of film music performed by The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra. How cool is that? Check out the details at Music for the Movies and at the orchestra’s website.

Well, eyes are healing. They are still pretty tired by the end of the day, but steadily improving. LASIK is surgery, after all. There is a period of healing. I am receiving my healing! I see the light! Anyway, my eyes were well enough last Wednesday (11 January) to go a (then) advanced screening of Glory Road. It was a really good film.

While the score was effective, I don’t think that it was Trevor Rabin’s (National Treasure, Enemy of the State, The 6th Day) best work. While Rabin has demonstrated excellent use of recurring motifs and themes in previous films, Glory Road seemed to lack some musical continuity to me; perhpas the fair amount of source music in the film tended to cut into the continuity that I was wanting to hear. All that said, it was still a good score and a wonderful film.

As with previous reviews, I have to highlight the scene that I thought exhibited the most effective blend of visuals and score. For me, that moment in Glory Road is when Coach Haskins steps out on to the basketball court in an empty arena that is to become the battleground of several conflicts in the approaching tournament game. As he steps on to the polished wooden floor, with the US flag hanging in the background, the swell of strings and the voice of Alicia Keys build into a moment that feels simultaneously breathtaking, sobering, and exhilarating.

Just in case you might be wondering if I’ve dropped off of the edge of the world, I’m taking a few moments to let you know what I should be blogging about…

I had LASIK done on Monday, Jan 2. Due to my typical restless sleeping, I disloged my protective goggles during the night and managed to displace the corneal flap of my right eye. Consequently, on Tuesday, my right corneal flap was “refloated” and a protective contact lens placed over the repositioned flap. I’ve never worn contact lenses, so to go from never wearing contact lenses to wearing one 24 hours a day (until Friday afternoon when it will be removed!) is quite an adjustment. It feels like there is something in my eye. Wait! There is something in my eye: A big lens that might as well be made out of sandpaper. Okay - I exagerate a bit. All this to say after working all day in front of a computer - my eyes are pretty well spent at the end of the workday. Blogging isn’t high on my list of priorities right now. Well, that explains the lack of activity this week.

I still owe all y’all a score review of “Narnia”. I must confess that I found myself enjoying the story to the exclusion of analyzing the score. I may have to go see it again to form a proper review.

I’ll blog again later with more post-LASIK news, the Narnia score, and some career updates. Until then, my eyes (especially the right) say “Good Night”.