Synclaviers don't exactly form a glut in the second-hand market -
especially here in the UK. What is a reasonable price for a machine and
what does it need to be truly useful in a film-composition context?

 Reply by email appreciated.

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Paul Ward
'An Eagle for an Emperor... A Kestrel for a Knave.'
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Hi there!

Well first you should visit my Synclavier classifieds.  It
gives a rough idea of prices and the general "build".

Generally a used 32 voice, 32 meg, w/keyboard system starts at $11,000
with another $4000 for 8 tracks of Direct to Disk.  Then it goes up from
there depending on what you stack on it.

As to what you need to write for film....

Well, that really depends on what you know (or what you would soon know)
about the Synclavier.  It is a really powerful system.  The better the
composer you are and the more Synclavier knowledge you have really ads
to the quality of your work.

32 sampling voices, 32 synthesis voices, 32 meg of Ram and 8 tracks can
really keep you busy if you are savvy.

A big piece of the equation is the sound library.  You could have 768
meg of RAM, 16 tracks of DtoD, DSP, PowerPC, etc. but with no sounds (or
horrible sounds) it won't make that much of a difference.

There is a technique to programming a Synclavier to getting the best
fidelity.  MIDI just sounds big, warm and fuzzy out of the box.  You
hold one key and you get 16 samples all bouncing around.  If you strip
it down, the samples themselves don't sound so hot.

On a Synclavier, you write it piece by piece like an Orchestrator.  Sure
you can play parts in just like a keyboard.  But if you want REALISTIC
instrumentation, you record each part individually and delve deep within
the system architecture to add subtle nuances.  This is the biggest key.

Hocketing, pitch rows and taking advantage of the Synclavier's 1ms
performance accuracy takes time to get used to.  It also sports it's own
music programming language.

If you are serious, there are some good machines to be had.  Although
you should give yourself quite a lot of time to become proficient.

I hope this helps.

Brandon Amison
Yaking Cat Music Studios
and Synclavier Information
http://www.yakingcat.com/yaking/

THE source of Synclavier information