Texture building in Synfire..

I would recommend to enter this into a notation editor and then import it into Synfire as a MIDI file.

..and how it will be interpretated by Synfire. (good i hope)

Yes, the interpretation of chromatic stuff like this could be a challenge for Synfire. You should expect that it will not sound exactly the same as the original.

Yes, the interpretation of chromatic stuff like this could be a challenge for Synfire.

Chromatic stuff is the result of chords and scales moving chromatically (sometimes very fast) and the figure hitting those scale steps at the right time. 

With a simple "song book" style progression, this can not be forced by editing the figure.

Problem is how to get easy the score examples in Synfire as texture

Listen to the original music and build something similar with Synfire. You will never get a 100% match. In reality, your final result will be far off from where you started. And that's a good thing, because it became your own original music, rather than a cheap copy.

So the music example : mysterious mood is not possible to get ?

I don't think that it is impossible but Synfire will probably need a little help at the interpretation of this score.

You have the description of this "Mysterious mood" score, look at what he writes: "After the violins establish our first harmony in bar 1, we simply lower that entire chord by a whole step to create our next harmony".

I assume that Synfire will not understand this idea behind these two chords. When Synfire interprets imported scores it looks for progressions within a key or for modulations between keys. But in this case this is not a normal progression and it's also not a modulation. It's just a chord jump. The same is happening between bar 4 and 5. 

To avoid that Synfire is confronted with these chord jumps at the interpretation, I would import this score in three parts: The first part to import would be bar 1 and 2, then bar 3 and 4 and finally bar 5 and 6. Then I would put these parts together in the arrangement window. 

Yes, trying to "paint" this score directly into the phrase editor is probably not that easy. To do this you would first need to define the underlaying scales at the harmony parameter. These scales are different at bar 1-2 and 3-4. The scale at bar 5-6 is obviously the same as at bar 1-2. After defining these scales you could start "painting" the phrases. 

Or you could consider the whole score as been written in C major and paint the phrases with the appropriate accidentals. But then re-using this phrases in different harmonic contexts would probably not give good results. 

So I would advise against trying to enter something like that directly into the phrase editor. The only reasonable way I see is to enter it into a notation editor and importing it as MIDI. But even then you have to think how to do it exactly, to get reasonable results.

Now I have listened to your audioexample. So I thought it would be. To me it sounds not too mysterical. Synfire obviously has problems at the chord/scale jumps at bar 3 and bar 5. The result sounds more like a simple Tonic-Dominant-Tonic-connection. One simply has to know where the limits of the programs are. 

Well, I would probably not get better results than you easily. Only with much fiddling.

As I said, I would not recommend to enter it directly with chromatic symbols. But you can try it. You get accidentals when you select a symbol and enter 1 or -1 at the "Chromatic" input field of the parameter inspector (see enclosed Gif).

Did you already try importing as all static symbols (there's a switch for that in the import dialogue now) and doing a reharmonization and manual "take hinting" before the final figure recognition?

For proper figure recognition it's essential that there's a matching progression. Better manually rework it before recognizing the figures. Synfire loves to choose less than optimal chords in certain situations when auto-reharmonizing. As this is not a show-stopper I did not yet bother Andre with it.

I made a second example 

Yes, sounds more mysterious now. But probably still not exacly like the original. Btw: Have you tried to bypass interpretation, or at least set it to "Weak"? If Interpretation is bypassed or weak, Synfire probably will follow the chord jumps more directly. 

i will concentrate now on making of the classical examples into midi files 

If you have many scores that you want to convert into MIDI files then I would recommend to use a Score-to-MIDI converter software, such as SmartScore. Or capella-scan, that I use: 

http://www.capella.de/us/index.cfm/products/capella-scan/info-capella-scan/

hopefully do they get the right quality with Halion Symphonic Vst ?

The Halion Orchestra is not bad. Despite it's small size (only one DVD) it has a pretty lively sound. And most importantly, it sounds timeless. Especially in comparison to the EWQL orchestra, which sounds quite outdated meanwhile. But if you are interested: Right now you can get the silver edition of the EWQL orchestra for 75 Euro:

http://www.soundsonline-europe.com/Symphonic-Orchestra

the EWQL orchestra, which sounds quite outdated

Oh no, what do you mean?  I've just ordered this but it hasn't arrived yet.  I've read nothing but outstanding reviews for this software until this, now I'm worried!

Oh no, what do you mean?  I've just ordered this but it hasn't arrived yet.  I've read nothing but outstanding reviews for this software until this, now I'm worried!

Oh sorry! I didn't want to worry you. Of course, the EWQL Orchestra is not bad. But it is now several years on the market (since 2005). It was state of the art in its time but the progress continues. There are now a series of new and simply better libraries. VSL, LASS, 8DIO, Cinesamples, Orchestral Tools, Symphobia, also from EWQL the Hollywood series.

The problem that I have with the EWQL Orchestra is that it has a very unique sound that is easily recognizable. If you work for a certain time with this library, you'll probably easily recognize it in pieces of others. And to my ears it sounds just somewhat dusty. But that's of course just my 2ct.

But as I have understood you, you do not intend to compose a classical symphony or produce professional film score with it anyway, right? If you just need some decent background strings or brass for a pop production it is still absolutely ok, of course.

Thanks Juergen,

Yes I'm just a hobbyist and don't intend to produce anything professional.

However, I've ordered the EWQL Hollywood (gold) series.  What's the difference between that and the EWQL Orchestra?

However, I've ordered the EWQL Hollywood (gold) series.  What's the difference between that and the EWQL Orchestra?

The Hollywood series can be seen as the successor of the standard EWQL Orchestra that I was talking about. It consists of three separate libraries: Hollywood Strings, Hollywood Brass and Hollywood Woodwinds. I have only Hollywood Strings (gold).

What is the difference to the strings of the standard EWQL orchestra? Well, better sound of course. They have probably driven more effort in the recording and editing of the samples. There are also more articulations and you have more flexibilitiy. For instance, there are patches that are recorded with more violin players than at the standard orchestra, what gives the typical dense sound that is used at movie scores. Also the legato patches sound more convincing. You can also choose that a particular note should be played on a specific string of the violins. So you can, for example, have a high note playing on the G string of the violin, what gives a different sound as if it would be played normally. All that can ultimately lead to a much more realistic result.

Thanks very much for the explanation Juergen!  And Jan, I apologise for hijacking your thread!