Smackdown: Virtual Orchestras

[morosco]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 3:17pm

From Broadway theaters to opera houses and Hollywood production studios, digital orchestras are providing controversial alternatives to real-life musicians. The most recent example concerns the Broadway revival of West Side Story, which will soon lose half of its string section for a synthesizer.

Today: a Soundcheck Smackdown debate on digital orchestras. Joining us are Paul Woodiel, a violinist who plays in the pit orchestra for West Side Story, and Paul Henry Smith, the creator of the Fauxharmonic, a computer program that uses digital versions of musical notes to replicate conventional instruments.

Also joining us is mezzo-soprano Tynan Davis, who performs a selection from Handel's opera Xerxes with the Fauxharmonic in the Soundcheck studio.
Smackdown: Virtual Orchestras

[newintown]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 3:30pm

I can only say from the point of view of a frequently-playing amateur musician - synthesized music is still a shadow of real instruments.

However, on Broadway, where we rarely actually hear the real instruments (versus an electronic amplification of them), the question doesn't seem to matter much.

But on those rare occasions when I can hear a musical performed acoustically, it gives me a thrill.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 3:47pm

Are they talking about pre-recorded synthesizer music or someone actually in the pit playing a keyboard live? I'm confused about that.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 4:17pm

I just saw the national tour of "South Pacific" last night and it was so nice to hear a full orchestra in the pit. There is a difference in sound. Most opening night at the theater I go to, the music is overpowering and you lose a lot of lyrics. I am convinced that having actual instruments cuts down on that as we heard every word clearly last night and the music sounded so lush. It was wonderful.

[TechEverlasting]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 4:28pm

I heard some of the broadcast. From what I could tell the "Faux Harmonic" is a computer running the "Vienna Symphonic" sample library with some real-time tempo control. The sound was very impressive, but the sustained legato string passages they chose didn't reflect much of the challenges of a score like West Side Story.

Unfortunately this broadcast did little to clarify the situation with electronic music and live theater. The term "Virtual Orchestra" is commonly used to refer to any sequencer/sampler combination that can reproduce orchestral scores, regardless of whether it can be manipulated in real time. The "Virtual Orchestras" that are seen in some touring shows are designed to change tempo and hop around as needed in a live performance.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 5:26pm

Around here (Utah), most community theaters use a pre-recorded track. Some are entirely synthesized, others are made using a real orchestra and digitally manipulating the recording. For the production of 110 in the Shade that Audra McDonald and Will Swenson just did, they developed a new piece of technology that used a pre-recorded orchestra with tracking markers that could then be conducted in real time using a Wii controller. It was pretty cool. I glanced up to the tech booth to watch it in action a few times.