YoungProdigy

At the end of the day; what are you guys expecting from samples from a 2005 library? I will take timeaus222's tips and try to adjust the reverb; but it still won't sound like a real orchestra. I'll also try layering. There are some things I can do to improve the piece production wise. But the samples themselves lack the velocity layers and round-robins to sound convincing. Real instruments have a different timbre depending on if a note is played soft or loud. Libraries like EWQL simulate this by using multiple velocity layers. The Sampletank 3 samples from Miroslav Philharmonik 1 don't have velocity layers or round-robins. I'll eventually upgrade to Hollywood Orchestra; which will allow me to get a much more realistic sound. But until then, I'm stuck with these samples.

That's Miroslav 2. The samples that come from Sampletank 3 are from Miroslav 1. The Miroslav 2 samples do indeed have velocity layers and round robins. The Sampletank 3 Miroslav samples are from the original 2005 library; not the newer one that just came out. The original 2005 Miroslav samples have no velocity layers or round-robins. I might try adjusting the low cut and high cut. I may also try adjusting the room size. As far as layering goes; would it be a good idea to layer the section patches with the solo patches?

Yes, I can control note volumes in the DAW. But it doesn't actually change the sample such as in more advanced libraries. With the Miroslav samples in Sampletank 3, whether you play a note soft or hard it's the same sample. As for the reverb; I don't think there's anything less dry than the "Large Hall" reverb. Yes, it's true you can't just slap on notes with EWQLSO. But with larger samples, more velocity layers and round robins; you can get a much more convincing sound. When you said the French Horn sounds like a solo section; that's because it only has 19.24mb of samples. You can't really fit the detail of a real French Horn section in 20mb.

The thing is, is that there's already reverb. I'm using the FL Studio "Large Reverb" preset. I've also already edited the attacks of the notes. Unfortunately nothing can be done about the samples not sounding good right now. They're dated and sound robotic because of the lack of velocity layers. I'm going to update to East West Hollywood Orchestra eventually; but for now I can only use the dated Miroslav samples in Sampletank 3. The samples are section patches; but like I said, they're from a 2005 library which is why they don't sound that great. There's really nothing I can do about that right now.

Hey, YoungProdigy here. Just finished the "The Heroic Journey". You can listen to it here: As always feedback is welcome.

Hmm, that might actually work. Instead of using the built-in reverb in Sampletank 3, I might try using FL Studio's reverb.

In FL Studio; if I load up 16 instances of "Full Strings" in Sampletank 3, the CPU usage will be high. I'm pretty sure this is related to the "ConvoRoom" reverb. When the CPU usage is high; it will spike to around 90% if I try to move things around in the piano roll. Regardless of if audio is playing or not. This is on an i5 3570k CPU by the way. When I try to use a patch that does not use "ConvoRoom"; I don't experience this high CPU usage or the CPU spikes in the piano roll. "ConvoRoom" is mostly used on orchestral patches from the Miroslav library. If you use Sampletank 3 in FL Studio; load 16 instances of the "Full Strings" patch and tell me if you get the same high CPU usage. This is with the Resampling set to the lowest and the ASIO buffer set to the highest. The only solution seems to be to remove the "ConvoRoom" reverb from all instruments. This problem occurs whether I use FL Studio 11 or the latest version. Do you guys think this is a Sampletank 3 issue or an FL Studio issue? If it is an ST3 issue; could you guys recommend me an orchestral sample library that has good CPU performance?

Hey, YoungProdigy here. Lately, I've been working a lot on improving my midi orchestration skills. I think so far I've gotten pretty decent at writing orchestral pieces. However, the samples I use are from Sampletank 3. They're basically the same used in Miroslav Philharmonik, which came out in 2005. So they're pretty dated. Here's an example of one my songs: Do you guys think my samples are holding back my orchestrations? Would it benefit me to buy a more recent library like Hollywood Orchestra?

Hey guys, I just finished a new track called "Departure". You can listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/youngprodigymusic/young-prodigy-departure As always feedback is welcome.

So if I feel something sounds similar I should just change the melody? I might actually try that. I agree with most of what you said. When someone writes music they do put their personality, dedication and life into it. As you said, most of our musical ideas do come from music that we've previously heard. What worries me is the legal part of it all. If I ever do become a professional composer; I don't want to get sued because something sounds too similar to something else. Konami decided to pull the Metal Gear Solid theme; because it shared some similarities with a song by a Russian composer. Even if it wasn't one-for-one plagiarism. Overall, I just want to be able to avoid being accused of plagiarism.

Sometimes an idea will pop in my head that sounds good. But I sometimes; I can't tell right off the bat if the idea is from another song. I want to eventually become a professional composer; so plagiarism, even accidental is a no-no. So how do you guys avoid accidentally ripping off another song?

Nice song. I love the smooth jazz vibe. The guitar playing is pretty good as well. Keep up the good work!

Hey, YoungProdigy here. I just finished "The Galactic Journey" "The Galactic Journey" was inspired by some of the music in Super Mario Galaxy. You can listen to it here: Critique is welcome as always.

Thanks for the reply. The staccato strings sounding unnatural is more of a limitation of the library. The patch doesn't use round-robin samples which is why they sound unnatural. I think the flute thing is more of just an opinion. It sounds fine to me. But I do agree it ends kind of abruptly.

Hey, YoungProdigy here. I just completed a new orchestra piece called "A Magical Journey". You can listen to it here: As always, critique is welcome.

The piece starts up pretty good and I like the samples. However, the biggest problem with the piece is the repetitive chord progression. Throughout the entire piece; the chord progression does not change. You should change the chord progression at some point. Another thing I noticed was the lack of a real main melody. There are melodies at 1:16 and 1:41, but they aren't that strong. If I were you, I would add a French Horn melody at 0:19. That melody should work as your main melody. If you listen to all the great film and video game themes; you'll notice they all have a main theme. So in conclusion, the biggest problems are the repetitive chord progressions and the lack of a strong main melody.

Hey, YoungProdigy here. I recently completed a new orchestra composition called "Welcome to the New World".. You can listen to it below:

If you're looking for jazz video game music; you'll find a lot of that in old arranged albums. There's an arranged album for Mega Man X; that mostly contains smooth jazz remixes of the music. F-Zero also has an arranged jazz soundtrack. Phoenix Wright also has a jazz album called "Gyakuten Saiban Meets Jazz Soul" or something like that. Those albums will probably be difficult to find outside of Japan though. But it shouldn't be too hard to find MP3s. Simcity 3000 also has a soundtrack that consists mostly of jazz.

Thanks for the comment. I created this song using FL Studio and Sampletank 3. I think most of the orchestral samples in Sampletank 3 are from Miroslav Philharmonik.

Hey, YoungProdigy here. I've recently been working "The Battle Goes On", an orchestral battle theme. You can check it out here: Critique is welcome as always.

Yes, but if it's a latency issue, how come I don't notice any noticeable CPU spikes in other DAWs like Cubase? I really want FL Studio to work for me; but the popping [with a max Asio4All buffer and low CPU usage], CPU spikes and crashing are too much for me. I mean; if it wasn't for the random popping I could tolerate the lag. But I can't tolerate that annoying popping noise, which only happens in FL Studio for me. This random popping occurs whether it's a big or small project or whether the CPU usage is high or low.

Hey guys. I just finished a piano composition called "Tranquility". It's a solo, slow-paced piano piece. You can listen it to here: I would appreciate it if you guys could critique the piece. That will help my skills improve.

Perhaps it's not a problem with FL Studio. But I've turned the Asio4All buffer to the max, resampling to the lowest setting, multithreading options on and still get lag when adjusting the piano roll. Besides that, I get random pops even with zero underruns and low CPU usage. Anyway, I've made my decision; I'm switching to Cubase. I'm running Sampletank 3 on Cubase and have not yet had one stutter, pop, crackle or slowdown with a huge 3GB project. What matters to me is what works for me. FL works for you guys; but not for me. However, Cubase works perfectly for me. Now I just need to save up $99 to buy Cubase Elements.

I tried out Cubase and I think I'll be switching to that eventually. It doesn't give me the same GUI lag as FL Studio, when I'm moving stuff around in the piano roll. This lag isn't with a huge project either; I could have a few instruments and low cpu usages but the piano roll is still laggy. Cubase has a similar feel; but doesn't give me the same problems.

Anyway guys; I did some research and narrowed it down to DPC latency. Whenever the CPU spikes; the latency goes up. So I just have to fix or delete whatever program is causing excessive latency. Strangely; if I restart my computer, the 100% CPU Spikes seem to go away and FL Studio becomes bearable to use again.