MIKE PAYNE: We are going to pick up something we started on the last episode, number 28, when we did an orchestral synth sample listening test.

DAN AGOSTO: A little shootout.

MIKE PAYNE: A little shootout. We listened to a bunch of some lovely, lovely church music that Mr. Dan Agosto himself wrote, and we tried to figure out which was which and -- well, we actually didn't but --

DAN AGOSTO: Well yeah. This was basically very vanilla test just to see which people liked the best and --

MIKE PAYNE: As opposed to a very kinky test.

DAN AGOSTO: And -- yeah.

[PANELISTS LAUGHING]

MIKE PAYNE: Okay. Gotcha.

DAN AGOSTO: But anyway, we had some response. We had about 11 people get on the forums and vote for which one they wanted the best, and you know --

MIKE PAYNE: So wait, all 11 of our viewers the most?

[PANELISTS LAUGHING]

DAN AGOSTO: No. We have hundreds of people who watch the show. It's just a lot of people don't want to get involved for one reason or another. But definitely, if you do get a chance, go to our forums, go to the Crosstalk section, it's pretty close to the bottom...,

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: And we'll have one up for this brass one as well, and that will -- hopefully, we'll get a better response to that one.

MIKE PAYNE: Nice, nice.

DAN AGOSTO: It was pretty good though.

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: A lot of people looked at it.

MIKE PAYNE: Mmm hmm.

DAN AGOSTO: A lot of people looked at it, and a lot of people I think downloaded the samples and actually listened but just didn't take the time to vote. But we did have, most of the people voted for three, which what you liked...

MIKE PAYNE: Right.

DAN AGOSTO: ...and what Drew liked as well.

MIKE PAYNE: Right.

DAN AGOSTO: A few people voted for two and a few people voted for four.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay.

DAN AGOSTO: Which is kind of interesting. So, let's listen back and I'll tell you guys which ones are which.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYS BACK SAMPLE ONE]

DAN AGOSTO: Okay, so we don't need --

MIKE PAYNE: Was that number three?

DAN AGOSTO: That was number one.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay

DAN AGOSTO: That was actually the Roland XV-5050.

MIKE PAYNE: Hmm.

DREW KRAG: Hmm. Not bad.

DAN AGOSTO: Pretty surprising. Not bad for a ROMpler synth from the '90s. Okay, and here's the second one.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYS BACK SAMPLE TWO]

DAN AGOSTO: And that was actually the EWSQL Silver Edition.

MIKE PAYNE: Huh.

DAN AGOSTO: A lot of people actually noticed that because they knew that the EWSQL actually has panning built into it.

MIKE PAYNE: Right. Right.

DREW KRAG: Yeah. I was going to mention that.

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah. I own that one, and I wasn't even able to tell. I guessed it was going to be number two or number three but I couldn't discern.

DAN AGOSTO: A few people were able to guess that on -- well, one person guessed that on our forum and another person guessed that on a different forum.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay. Nice.

DREW KRAG: You can definitely hear like the spread of the strings.

DAN AGOSTO: And the next one is the one that pretty much everyone liked the best.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYS BACK SAMPLE THREE]

DAN AGOSTO: That one actually had, you know, the best sort of I think low-end punch, which what people liked the most.

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah. The warmth really stood out on that one.

DAN AGOSTO: That was the VSL.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay.

DAN AGOSTO: So, you guys liked that one the best.

MIKE PAYNE: That's pretty grand.

DAN AGOSTO: But of course, you know, it's a smaller library. This is just the one that comes with Komplete 3 I believe.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay.

DAN AGOSTO: So it's not anywhere near the full VSL library but...

MIKE PAYNE: Right.

DAN AGOSTO: It's a nice sample.

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

DAN AGOSTO: Okay. Let's do the next one.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYS BACK SAMPLE FOUR]

DAN AGOSTO: That was the MU-100R.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay.

DREW KRAG: Wow.

DAN AGOSTO: The oldest of the ROMplers.

DREW KRAG: It's really not that bad for what it is.

MIKE PAYNE: It's not bad.

DAN AGOSTO: What I noticed is it's not actually a true stereo sample, which was interesting but they actually did this some sort of chorusing effect going on.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay.

DAN AGOSTO: So it's what kind of gives it that little cheaper older feel.

DREW KRAG: You can hear it really in the lower registers of notes, you know.

DAN AGOSTO: Definitely. All right, number five.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYS BACK SAMPLE FIVE]

DAN AGOSTO: I'm not sure about you but that was my least favorite.

MIKE PAYNE: Okay.

DAN AGOSTO: That was the Motif.

MIKE PAYNE: Wow.

DREW KRAG: Almost sounds like there was some oohs and aahs mixed in there or something.

DAN AGOSTO: Yeah. It sounded very synthetic, and you know I've actually read on certain places where they would review synths that pretty much everything about Motif everyone loves except for the pads.

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: And I think this is sort of an illustration of that.

MIKE PAYNE: Nice.

DAN AGOSTO: All right, and then number six I would probably by process of elimination know what this is.

[DAN AGOSTO PLAYS BACK SAMPLE SIX]

DAN AGOSTO: MUSE. SONiVOX MUSE.

MIKE PAYNE: Yup.

DAN AGOSTO: I didn't like the attack on that one.

MIKE PAYNE: See, I didn't like the attack on the fourth one.

DAN AGOSTO: The MU-100R

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: The thing about the SONiVOX MUSE is that, see I was feeding the exact same MIDI through all of these, and it's not exactly scientific but, you know, with some sort of extra, you know, MIDI, extra time spent, you can probably make that sound pretty good. It's just right out of the patch, you know, just the blank patch, vanilla patch, it didn't really have the type of attack for that sort of section.

MIKE PAYNE: Gotcha.

DAN AGOSTO: But maybe for a different type of, you know, piece.

MIKE PAYNE: Right. Right.

DAN AGOSTO: Mini piece.

DREW KRAG: It's got kind of a gritty, kind of a low-mid to it I was noticing.

DAN AGOSTO: It does. It's definitely not my favorite for that. Of course, SONiVOX is sort of a do-it-all --

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: Or the MUSE is the sort of a do-it-all sample set.

MIKE PAYNE: Yeah.

DAN AGOSTO: They have, you know, they have other orchestral sample sets that would be used for that but, you know, MUSE at least has that.

MIKE PAYNE: Right. Right. I also want to commend you on your composition. I think that you can definitely get a job writing music for Japanese role-playing games.

DAN AGOSTO: [LAUGHING]

MIKE PAYNE: I think that's perfect a perfect fit.

DREW KRAG: That's where you're going with it. I like it. [LAUGHING]

DAN AGOSTO: All right. So we'll just take a few seconds to --

MIKE PAYNE: I'll make some calls and see what I can work out for you.

DREW KRAG: [LAUGHING]

DAN AGOSTO: Well, last time you guys were saying, the last time I did something like that, or actually the first time I did something like that, you said I could get a job in Bollywood.

[PANELISTS LAUGHING]

DAN AGOSTO: Then the second time it was that video game piece.

MIKE PAYNE: Right. Right. I like that.