Fannish Fifty #40: Blessed Maiden AU Snippets for Ficwip's Word Game Wednesday
Sep. 18th, 2025 01:28 pm
Sep. 18th, 2025 01:28 pm
the new game that's held my attention best all year ...
Sep. 18th, 2025 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taichara... is a Fire Emblem fangame called Eliwood's Outrealm Adventures.
Yes, it's essentially what it says on the tin. With a slew of bodies from across the franchise. And a kickoff that, for a for-funsies fangame, was honestly a clip in the mouth and I'm actually really, really enjoying this.
Alas I will probably not trigger more than one gaiden chapter.
Alas it's only fourteen maps sans gaiden chapters.
There's probably a greater (~deeper~) observation or lesson or something in this fact somewhere, but I don't have the energy to be arsed to find it right now.
Yes, it's essentially what it says on the tin. With a slew of bodies from across the franchise. And a kickoff that, for a for-funsies fangame, was honestly a clip in the mouth and I'm actually really, really enjoying this.
Alas I will probably not trigger more than one gaiden chapter.
Alas it's only fourteen maps sans gaiden chapters.
There's probably a greater (~deeper~) observation or lesson or something in this fact somewhere, but I don't have the energy to be arsed to find it right now.
[9-18-25] Novelupdates Dredge
Sep. 18th, 2025 11:20 amsaintofcrownsSo I was asked why the Western names in cnovels (if the cnovel has Western names) are so strange, and if these names are transliterated or from actual Chinese words. This was an interesting question because I'd never thought about it in depth. It's the most common in sci-fi mecha or European-inspired settings to have Western-style names, and they're all pretty odd. It's never what you'd see real European people named like. They sort of give off these vibes:
My first reaction was to say the character's names are all transliteration, even if the name is a real word. You wouldn't see a character whose LAST NAME is 'Hydra' being named '九头蛇' in the original Chinese, for example, although if it were the name of a faction then that could be the case. I think this is because if you read it in Chinese, your instinct would be to read a real word as a title rather than a name. Conversely, if a word is the name of a faction or the descriptor of a character, the original text is almost certainly the real Chinese word.
( Transliteration examples )
But we can take a look at a random cnovel I pulled off the first page of NovelUpdates as an example and see if my instinct is correct. From a Duke’s Son to Emperor of the Empire is the first one I found with 'English' names:
'Lynn, Flick Solbright, the kingdom of Rafablanca, Crain Kingdom, Silver Eagle Castle, Blackpine Forest' - if I am correct, then all the names of the characters and the kingdom should be transliteration, while the names of the castle and forest are real Chinese words with that associated meaning. Let me take a look.
( Translated/Original Names from 从公爵之子到帝国皇帝 )
All in all, it makes sense: this is why you'll get cnovel names that are [firstname] [compoundword] but never anything truly foreign. I think this is why Western names in cnovels sound so odd, as well. The first names will be true 'Western' names, but the last names must transliterated. So you're never going to see a Dvořáková or Waldschmidt or Kwiatkowski because that's impossible to transliterate and also, not very sexy.
I don't know if these unspoken transliteration/real word rules hold true in Korean/Japanese webnovels as well, but I believe it's probably the same. I would have to ask one of my friends who are actually Korean about this. Knovels are sort of notorious for having more Westernized names than cnovels.
Edit: Yes, okay, shortlist of Korean translation names to ask about: Cesare Traon Karl Erzet, Leonardo Blaine of the Raina Logia Empire, Duke Kaiston Crunel, Solnia Heston and Luette Trovill...
...What the hell is going on in this one?
My first reaction was to say the character's names are all transliteration, even if the name is a real word. You wouldn't see a character whose LAST NAME is 'Hydra' being named '九头蛇' in the original Chinese, for example, although if it were the name of a faction then that could be the case. I think this is because if you read it in Chinese, your instinct would be to read a real word as a title rather than a name. Conversely, if a word is the name of a faction or the descriptor of a character, the original text is almost certainly the real Chinese word.
( Transliteration examples )
But we can take a look at a random cnovel I pulled off the first page of NovelUpdates as an example and see if my instinct is correct. From a Duke’s Son to Emperor of the Empire is the first one I found with 'English' names:
'Lynn, Flick Solbright, the kingdom of Rafablanca, Crain Kingdom, Silver Eagle Castle, Blackpine Forest' - if I am correct, then all the names of the characters and the kingdom should be transliteration, while the names of the castle and forest are real Chinese words with that associated meaning. Let me take a look.
( Translated/Original Names from 从公爵之子到帝国皇帝 )
All in all, it makes sense: this is why you'll get cnovel names that are [firstname] [compoundword] but never anything truly foreign. I think this is why Western names in cnovels sound so odd, as well. The first names will be true 'Western' names, but the last names must transliterated. So you're never going to see a Dvořáková or Waldschmidt or Kwiatkowski because that's impossible to transliterate and also, not very sexy.
I don't know if these unspoken transliteration/real word rules hold true in Korean/Japanese webnovels as well, but I believe it's probably the same. I would have to ask one of my friends who are actually Korean about this. Knovels are sort of notorious for having more Westernized names than cnovels.
Edit: Yes, okay, shortlist of Korean translation names to ask about: Cesare Traon Karl Erzet, Leonardo Blaine of the Raina Logia Empire, Duke Kaiston Crunel, Solnia Heston and Luette Trovill...
...What the hell is going on in this one?
Murderbot Humble Bundle
Sep. 18th, 2025 10:55 pmfred_mouseFor some days, I've seen people mention the Martha Wells Humble Bundle offer and gone 'nah, I don't need it, I've got most of the Murderbot stuff, I DON'T NEED IT'.
And then someone posted that it has the short stories, and I nearly caved. And then someone shared it on Tumblr, and I don't remember what was said, and I was like 'it won't hurt to look, right'?
I will tell you that I did not cave because it has a Murderbot book I have either not read or have entirely forgotten reading (and may not, in fact, own). I did not cave because of short stories, for I noticed not the presence of said short stories. I caved because nearly the first thing I saw was The Emilie Adventures, which I know not if I will love, but has been in my wish list many many years (best guess: 2018, which is the copyright date of what I think is the first Murderbot book I read, which was at the time the most recent. The two Emilie stories are copyright 2013 and 2014, but by the time I tried to acquire them, no legal avenues worked).
So now I have 14 ebooks, some of which I have read and some of which are short stories, and I do not have the oomph to put them in the acquired books list (which has a gaping hole in it in which I either bought no books, or did not record them), along with the three that turned up ... yesterday (and one I really wanted is not sodding available and my money has been refunded. I hate this 'warehousing glitch' or whatever the excuse is, it happens so sodding often).
Wednesday Wobbling like Worm 🪱✨
Sep. 17th, 2025 09:09 pmhaunted_cherriesReferencing this post, but the ship manifesto I was talking about is actually coming along ok? I'm chipping away at it in between work stuff (since some of the work projects I'm on are keeping me busy as of late), but I even made a little graphic for it and everything (a smaller version of it at the bottom of my Pillowfort sidebar for the curious), and it's oddly hyping me up to work on it! Hoping I get to work on it again soon, we shall see!
Happy Wednesday, and hope everyone is hanging in there ok! ❤️ Thankfully the week is almost over as I'm looking forward to using the upcoming weekend to rest and reset. xD
Happy Wednesday, and hope everyone is hanging in there ok! ❤️ Thankfully the week is almost over as I'm looking forward to using the upcoming weekend to rest and reset. xD
[9-17-25] Novelupdates Dredge
Sep. 17th, 2025 08:21 amsaintofcrownsImperial Marshal Li Jingfeng returned triumphantly from his spaceship, only to be stopped by a trembling little thing.
“Um… would you let me be your little mermaid?” The young man was afraid of being rejected, so he handed over a shiny scale. “I’m really easy to take care of!”
Today's cnovel slop of the day, graciously provided by NovelUpdates, is Marshal’s Pregnant Little Mermaid. I could not tell you at gunpoint how or why fish is associated so much with reincarnation BL mpreg slop in cnovels, but now you know. It is one of those tropes you inevitably run into if you scroll for any length of time here, and also one of those things that has to be seen to be believed.
^I read (skimmed) The Disabled Tyrant’s Pet Palm Fish before it was even cool; it was NOT GOOD. I was as surprised as anyone when it hit the mainstream and got an official English translation. Anyway, this is the cover of Marshal’s Pregnant Little Mermaid. Let's get into it.
( This one had an unusually long summary for a cnovel. )
Lastly, the ratings and reviews for this are fairly neutral to good. It is sitting completed at 123 main chapters + 11 extra chapters, which is short for a cnovel. Surely it markets itself as a short fluffy read.
The review confirms what I suspect. It's a very typical example of the mermaid BL transmigration genre. If you looked at the recommended/associated cnovels in this genre, you'll find different dynamics with different protagonists: mean mob boss, cold beauty space admiral with a tragic past, scum villain who killed the protagonist in his previous life... You will get thrown for a loop, sometimes, but the gist of these remains the same.
I am not joking when I say there are a lot. I don't know if I want to return to these and do another post tomorrow compiling and comparing these summaries. In any case, here are the links to some for reference.
Marshal’s Pregnant Little Mermaid
He’s Pregnant with the Major General’s Fish Cub
The Villainous Marshal’s Little Mermaid is Reborn
Transmigrated Into the Violent Boss’ Little Mermaid
The Ancient Mermaid Transmigrated to the Interstellar
After Marrying the Villain, the Mermaid No Longer Wants to Work Hard
I, the Mermaid, am the Siren Tribe’s Beloved
[9-16-25] Novelupdates Dredge
Sep. 16th, 2025 11:44 amsaintofcrownsOne of my favourite enrichment activities is going on NovelUpdates and scrolling through the most recently updated translations. I can't recommend it enough for the combined feelings of 'I will never come up with a concept this creative' and 'there's been 300 chapters of this garbage? I'm the best writer in the world'. In any case, I keep trying to describe some of these to my friends and then I can't FIND them again, so I'm posting these for posterity. Some of them are hetslop; some of them are bl; most of them contain such self-referential tropes that it's impossible to grasp without reading a couple hundred of these summaries.
Today's hetslop cnovel of the day is The Whole Family Stole My Military Merit, the Reborn Legitimate Daughter Slaughtered the Entire Family.
Unlike the days of old, this novel cover is most certainly AI.
( Summary )
Let's look at the tags and rating next. Oh! That's not good.
Ah, so it's a rewrite/fanfiction of another 'stolen military merit' novel. This explains the somewhat nonsensical rebirth plotline (again, very common trope, just not paired with that replacement setup).
Rebirth of a Star General is a very popular wuxia cnovel. Not the type I like to read, but 460 votes and 4.5 stars is very impressive for a translation. It looks like it's by the same author as one of the most famous female protag rebirth/revenge novels, The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage.
If The Whole Family Stole My Military Merit, the Reborn Legitimate Daughter Slaughtered the Entire Family is inspired by both of these, then it has likely failed on the strength of its political intrigue AND dogblood character tropes. I did go into this expecting more hetslop (often the case with this type of revenge fantasy) but the prince who I assume is the love interest did not feature much in the summary. With 410 chapters and ongoing, I can only assume he is more prominently featured later on.
Today's hetslop cnovel of the day is The Whole Family Stole My Military Merit, the Reborn Legitimate Daughter Slaughtered the Entire Family.
Unlike the days of old, this novel cover is most certainly AI.
( Summary )
Let's look at the tags and rating next. Oh! That's not good.
Ah, so it's a rewrite/fanfiction of another 'stolen military merit' novel. This explains the somewhat nonsensical rebirth plotline (again, very common trope, just not paired with that replacement setup).
Rebirth of a Star General is a very popular wuxia cnovel. Not the type I like to read, but 460 votes and 4.5 stars is very impressive for a translation. It looks like it's by the same author as one of the most famous female protag rebirth/revenge novels, The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage.
If The Whole Family Stole My Military Merit, the Reborn Legitimate Daughter Slaughtered the Entire Family is inspired by both of these, then it has likely failed on the strength of its political intrigue AND dogblood character tropes. I did go into this expecting more hetslop (often the case with this type of revenge fantasy) but the prince who I assume is the love interest did not feature much in the summary. With 410 chapters and ongoing, I can only assume he is more prominently featured later on.
[Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans] Pieces
Sep. 16th, 2025 07:35 amtaicharaTitle: Pieces
Fandom: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Characters: Gaelio Bauduin, Rustal Elion, Ein Dalton
Warnings: CNTW
Summary: Sometimes the pound of flesh being sacrificed is literal, plural, and repeated.
Comments: This could have been aeons longer and also is exactly as long as it needs to be; more to the point it's a long time coming, I suppose?
( Agony. )
Fandom: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Characters: Gaelio Bauduin, Rustal Elion, Ein Dalton
Warnings: CNTW
Summary: Sometimes the pound of flesh being sacrificed is literal, plural, and repeated.
Comments: This could have been aeons longer and also is exactly as long as it needs to be; more to the point it's a long time coming, I suppose?
( Agony. )
lolnope
Sep. 16th, 2025 04:02 amyhlee
A particularly hilarious example of low-effort spammer/scammer.
Seriously considering how much spam I could effortlessly screen out if I set up my email to automatically delete ANYTHING with the word "Amazon" in it that isn't on a very small (like, a half-dozen people small) whitelist of family and close friends.
yhlee(cross-posted: ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
communal_creators)
earlier:
- part 0: preliminaries
- part 1: brief demo: engraving software (Dorico)
Brief walkthrough of the start of a fake piano sketch in Cubase Pro that I'll build into a hybrid orchestral piece using MIDI and VSTs. I don't claim this is good music, just something for demonstration purposes and to talk through some of the technical details. This is musically unexciting but covering DAW basics will make the later hybrid orchestra bits easier to understand, hypothetically.
(Sorry, the audio recorded in mono; I will look at my audio interface settings again.)
For those curious about my usual style(s) of music, my music reel.
communal_creators)earlier:
- part 0: preliminaries
- part 1: brief demo: engraving software (Dorico)
Brief walkthrough of the start of a fake piano sketch in Cubase Pro that I'll build into a hybrid orchestral piece using MIDI and VSTs. I don't claim this is good music, just something for demonstration purposes and to talk through some of the technical details. This is musically unexciting but covering DAW basics will make the later hybrid orchestra bits easier to understand, hypothetically.
(Sorry, the audio recorded in mono; I will look at my audio interface settings again.)
For those curious about my usual style(s) of music, my music reel.
Gender and Cookie Run
Sep. 15th, 2025 03:35 pmbedesI think it's interesting that the Beasts are conform to traditional gender roles, especially when compared to the Ancient Heroes. The warriors are men, and the women are in more nurturing positions. While Shadow Milk is far from traditionally masculine now, while he was still a Virtue, he was an academic – a position often seen as strictly for men. (And I feel it goes without saying that he almost certainly wasn't a shapeshifter until after his fall, given that his shifting is an extension of and aid for Shadow Milk's Deceit. That means no fluidity between masculine and feminine forms.)
Compare this to the Ancient Heroes. Pure Vanilla is an effeminate male healer (often voiced by women in different languages), and there are two strong warrior women. Dark Cacao and White Lily are the closest to being gender-conforming, but they still fall short, so to say. Dark Cacao is a strong king with a noted soft side, and White Lily is a delicate woman with a thirst for knowledge. (Remember: academia and knowledge are traditionally seen as men's territory.)
Furthermore, the Beasts have a majority of men, and the Ancient have a majority of women.
I like to imagine this is has to do with the fact that the Beasts were made for their roles, while the Ancient Heroes grew up as normal people before being gifted their sacred status. When the Virtues were hand-crafted, they were imagined up as 'suited' for their designated roles in every way. But, once these attempted manifestations of perfect ideals failed, it fell to normal people. And normal people are much more variant, much more diverse. But one can argue that it is also through the Ancient Heroes' upbringing as normal people that they are able to thrive where the Virtues once fell.
Fandom Gift Basket, Writing, Knives Out & Lego
Sep. 14th, 2025 06:16 pmscintilla10♥ fandomgiftbasket is open for fills until Oct 12, and has a spreadsheet of all requests for ease of browsing and filling.
♥ My basket is here!
♥ I've been doing some writing! \o/ I've been writing some little fills for Fandom Gift Basket, and I'm also already making good progress on myficinabox assignment. (I just got my swaps! I'm even more excited by what I'm creating!) It's so nice and affirming to be feeling some good writing energy after experiencing burnout for so much of the year.
♥ There's a new Knives Out movie coming out this fall! Delighted to see more Benoit Blanc solving mysteries. The cast looks fun, too! Here's the trailer.
♥ I'm enamoured with this Sherlock Holmes book nook lego set! Lego Sherlock and Watson are so cute! There's a murder board! And I just love how Baker Street folds up into a book nook with the classic Holmes silhouette on the side. Incredibly charming!!
fandomgiftbasket is open for fills until Oct 12, and has a spreadsheet of all requests for ease of browsing and filling.♥ My basket is here!
♥ I've been doing some writing! \o/ I've been writing some little fills for Fandom Gift Basket, and I'm also already making good progress on my
ficinabox assignment. (I just got my swaps! I'm even more excited by what I'm creating!) It's so nice and affirming to be feeling some good writing energy after experiencing burnout for so much of the year.♥ There's a new Knives Out movie coming out this fall! Delighted to see more Benoit Blanc solving mysteries. The cast looks fun, too! Here's the trailer.
♥ I'm enamoured with this Sherlock Holmes book nook lego set! Lego Sherlock and Watson are so cute! There's a murder board! And I just love how Baker Street folds up into a book nook with the classic Holmes silhouette on the side. Incredibly charming!!
New Macdonald Hall fic!
Sep. 14th, 2025 05:52 pmscintilla10When I saw a Macdonald Hall pinch hit for raremaleslashex, I couldn't resist snapping it up! Here's what I wrote, now that authors have been revealed.
want the world to know (AO3 | DW)
Macdonald Hall series - Gordon Korman
Bruno/Boots, Cathy, Diane, Miss Scrimmage | rated T | 2700 words | no archive warnings apply
Tags: Hijinks & Shenanigans, hiding in a closet, Forced Proximity, First Kiss
raremaleslashex, I couldn't resist snapping it up! Here's what I wrote, now that authors have been revealed.want the world to know (AO3 | DW)
Macdonald Hall series - Gordon Korman
Bruno/Boots, Cathy, Diane, Miss Scrimmage | rated T | 2700 words | no archive warnings apply
Tags: Hijinks & Shenanigans, hiding in a closet, Forced Proximity, First Kiss
Three-quarters of the way up the drainpipe on the east side of Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School for Young Ladies, Melvin "Boots" O'Neal felt something give under his foot. He scrambled frantically for the window ledge, and clung to it in desperation as the section of drainpipe that had, until very recently, been his foothold, broke off from the wall and went crashing into the shrubbery below.
(no subject)
Sep. 14th, 2025 06:15 pmharpers_childQuick ethics question.
I'm looking into getting some wax seals for ttrpg reasons.
It's very evident that everyone is getting the same set of seals from somewhere. The majority of shops are carrying the exact same seals.
Do I pay etsy boutique prices or is this a circumstance buying off aliexpress or amazon or temu is cool? Some folks on etsy are asking for $40 for just the brass part without the handle and the exact same stamp with the exact same pictures are going for $8 on other listings.
(I am aware of an ongoing amazon boycott. I order things off amazon once every few months and they are usually things I can't find in person.)
edit: I guess the question is: At what point of a thing being stolen can I absolve myself of trying to find the original creator and buy what's best for my pocketbook?
I'm looking into getting some wax seals for ttrpg reasons.
It's very evident that everyone is getting the same set of seals from somewhere. The majority of shops are carrying the exact same seals.
Do I pay etsy boutique prices or is this a circumstance buying off aliexpress or amazon or temu is cool? Some folks on etsy are asking for $40 for just the brass part without the handle and the exact same stamp with the exact same pictures are going for $8 on other listings.
(I am aware of an ongoing amazon boycott. I order things off amazon once every few months and they are usually things I can't find in person.)
edit: I guess the question is: At what point of a thing being stolen can I absolve myself of trying to find the original creator and buy what's best for my pocketbook?
And Next
Sep. 13th, 2025 10:31 pmkallowayOne of my original plans for Saturday fell through; it wasn't anything I was particularly looking forward to though. (Just adulting.) So the day was lunch with M and some planning for the future.
I found info for a scale modelers club down in the City, but they meet Weds evenings. I have a lot of vacation time to blow, so taking a day off isn't a problem to feel them out, but I can't do this month because there's just way too much going on. So maybe next month? They also have an annual model show with tables available and I know M has kits to sell (I don't, but we're in this together); it's in April so there's time to figure this all out.
Started working on a HG Nu Gundam, which I probably picked up more than a decade ago. I mean, also working on my other Project, but there are physical limits to how much of that I can work on. (i.e. I need more sticks with roach-clips on the ends!)
I found info for a scale modelers club down in the City, but they meet Weds evenings. I have a lot of vacation time to blow, so taking a day off isn't a problem to feel them out, but I can't do this month because there's just way too much going on. So maybe next month? They also have an annual model show with tables available and I know M has kits to sell (I don't, but we're in this together); it's in April so there's time to figure this all out.
Started working on a HG Nu Gundam, which I probably picked up more than a decade ago. I mean, also working on my other Project, but there are physical limits to how much of that I can work on. (i.e. I need more sticks with roach-clips on the ends!)
yhlee(cross-posted to communal_creators)
Earlier:
- part 0: preliminaries (includes partial glossary of terms)
I know there are a lot of people who haaaaaate being forced to sit through video but since audio playback is inherent to the enterprise...This is under a minute, promise.
This is a brief demonstration of the opening of one of my compositions partially engraved (~sheet music typesetting) in Dorico. The two industry-standard engraving apps in media composition scoring are Dorico and Sibelius; Finale used to be a third but was sunsetted to much consternation.
If you come from classical music (especially classical orchestral music), you may be ??? about the score formatting. This is because scores for session orchestra and concert/classical orchestra have different formatting! (See part 0: preliminaries for more detail as to why). Differences for session orchestra you see here include:
- Score is in C (NOT a transposing score for the conductor - nota bene, transposing is "allowed" for octaves), but we won't have e.g. horn in F or trumpet in Bb. ( Read more... )
As for playback:
- Guess what, Dorico and Sibelius at the level of orchestral scores are spendy. :]
- I'm using NotePerformer, which is the standard higher-quality playback engine, especially if you don't have time to mock it up in the DAW (or you're an art/concert composer for whom a mockup is not part of your workflow). But that's also money (~$130 USD).
NotePerformer is pretty credible with a lot of orchestral instruments. You still have to massage its output. For example, in Sibelius [not shown] you can set playback to molto espressivo (LOTS OF FEELING) vs. senza espressivo (NO FEELINGS EVER!!!) (etc). My experience is that particular instruments can be less "real"-sounding and the "vocalists" (both SATB choir and associated "solo" voices) are absolutely terrible, as in "my vacuum cleaner sings more credibly than this" terrible.
Aside: There are some good vocal VST libraries for specific use cases. I hate that I am often able to straight-up identify "Oh yeah, XYZ floating ethereal ~Celtic Twilight vibes soprano 'ahhh' ululation in this trailer/score/whatever was $SPECIFIC_VST_LIBRARY" because, apparently, I have no life; but this is not unusual in this field.
I know at least one full-time composer/orchestrator/musician who straight-up bounces NotePerformer output and then processes that in the DAW (reverb etc) and, you know, this person makes a living doing this. So that's one route one can take.
Why, you ask, can't we just export this score-stuff into a DAW with all the fancy (...spendy) VST instruments and "paste in" nicer/more individualized instruments? Dorico (and Sibelius) do in fact export to MIDI and MusicXML. [1] This is a very reasonable question that will be the topic of the next walkthrough (part 2), mainly because it's a surprisingly (annoying) complicated topic as to why this is rarely straightforward. (Let me tell you all about negative track delay...)
[1] Missed these glossary items earlier! ( brief explanations of MIDI and MusicXML )
Happy to answer questions, although I have no idea if anyone else finds this interesting. :p
communal_creators)Earlier:
- part 0: preliminaries (includes partial glossary of terms)
I know there are a lot of people who haaaaaate being forced to sit through video but since audio playback is inherent to the enterprise...This is under a minute, promise.
This is a brief demonstration of the opening of one of my compositions partially engraved (~sheet music typesetting) in Dorico. The two industry-standard engraving apps in media composition scoring are Dorico and Sibelius; Finale used to be a third but was sunsetted to much consternation.
If you come from classical music (especially classical orchestral music), you may be ??? about the score formatting. This is because scores for session orchestra and concert/classical orchestra have different formatting! (See part 0: preliminaries for more detail as to why). Differences for session orchestra you see here include:
- Score is in C (NOT a transposing score for the conductor - nota bene, transposing is "allowed" for octaves), but we won't have e.g. horn in F or trumpet in Bb. ( Read more... )
As for playback:
- Guess what, Dorico and Sibelius at the level of orchestral scores are spendy. :]
- I'm using NotePerformer, which is the standard higher-quality playback engine, especially if you don't have time to mock it up in the DAW (or you're an art/concert composer for whom a mockup is not part of your workflow). But that's also money (~$130 USD).
NotePerformer is pretty credible with a lot of orchestral instruments. You still have to massage its output. For example, in Sibelius [not shown] you can set playback to molto espressivo (LOTS OF FEELING) vs. senza espressivo (NO FEELINGS EVER!!!) (etc). My experience is that particular instruments can be less "real"-sounding and the "vocalists" (both SATB choir and associated "solo" voices) are absolutely terrible, as in "my vacuum cleaner sings more credibly than this" terrible.
Aside: There are some good vocal VST libraries for specific use cases. I hate that I am often able to straight-up identify "Oh yeah, XYZ floating ethereal ~Celtic Twilight vibes soprano 'ahhh' ululation in this trailer/score/whatever was $SPECIFIC_VST_LIBRARY" because, apparently, I have no life; but this is not unusual in this field.
I know at least one full-time composer/orchestrator/musician who straight-up bounces NotePerformer output and then processes that in the DAW (reverb etc) and, you know, this person makes a living doing this. So that's one route one can take.
Why, you ask, can't we just export this score-stuff into a DAW with all the fancy (...spendy) VST instruments and "paste in" nicer/more individualized instruments? Dorico (and Sibelius) do in fact export to MIDI and MusicXML. [1] This is a very reasonable question that will be the topic of the next walkthrough (part 2), mainly because it's a surprisingly (annoying) complicated topic as to why this is rarely straightforward. (Let me tell you all about negative track delay...)
[1] Missed these glossary items earlier! ( brief explanations of MIDI and MusicXML )
Happy to answer questions, although I have no idea if anyone else finds this interesting. :p