There are other flutes on Upper Banks of the SD2 that are not so airy sounding, as well.

Likely evaluating the sound of only the GM bank here, not realizing that.

However, being an avid owner/user of SD2 for quite some time now, I would have to say that its sounds are geared more towards more modern music genres than the standard modern classical or orchestral sound.

The "right" instrument sound from *any* MIDI synth or sampler, hardware or software, is a very subjective thing, as it turns out. NONE are correct, actually, as none can be, due to technical limitations within the MIDI standard.

Looking back on more than twenty years of working with MIDI devices of all kinds in the studio, there are two issues that I've noticed:

*Any MIDI synth solution can start to sound better to us over time and use. This is because of the marvelous filter tha exists between the ears, I think. It is also a factor to guard against somewhat, if you are involved in making product - We must remember that other ears are not likely to have familiarized with the sound of the chosen patch.

*NONE of them can sound like the actual instrument really sounds. I like to keep in mind that the use of MIDI can only create an *approximation* of the real instrument and that we, as MIDIOTS, must strive to create the *ILLUSION* of live players when using MIDI.

Those are my two basic ground rules and time and experience have shown me that attem;pts to break them can only yield frustration. So instead of trying to force these tools to do it all, or continuing the search for the nonexistant "perfect" sounding MIDI solution(s), which are not very likely to happen given the lack of parameters in the MIDI standard, my goal is to work with what the thing *CAN* do that is as close to being acceptable as possible.

If you absolutely must have your production sound like real live trained musicians are playing - you must still hire real live trained musicians.

That said, the advent of pgmusic RealTracks and RealDrums can go a long way towards helping you create illusions. When these tools were first introduced, during the first beta test of the Real instruments, many of us commented on how well the addition of even one RealInstrument somehow made the sound of the MIDI patches sound more believable. That's a plus.


--Mac

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