Not that it makes a difference at this point, but after finally listening to it, I found it to be, and I hope I'm communicating my meaning properly here, a little too synthetic? Like, there were elements I almost found chip-tune-y in there, and I just didn't think that properly fit an opera.
I imagine it would sound less synthetic if you used real instruments to record it. I think this uses placeholder sounds and is intended to convey what the piece is supposed to sound like. I don't figure it'll ever be properly recorded though, unless someone's got an orchestra lying around.
or i could be completely wrong
yeah, basically that. I've got a limited MIDI library, and using that is a heck of a lot cheaper than hiring a real orchestra. that's part of why the actual submission is the score, not the recording.
for what it's worth, my roommate offered to help me run it through their MIDI library at some point, and they claim to have some decent MIDI voices which I'll believe when I hear but should fix a lot of that because most of the problem to me is in the voices. MIDI voices are
really hard, and here I didn't want to use instruments because I didn't want to make it so I couldn't use those instruments for real, so I had to use synthesizers. except for death because holy **** MIDI voices sound even worse low. also CKY wanted some of the voices to be automatons which means they'd sound more synthetic anyway, and apparently Solphos has magical synthesizers. dunno.
but yeah I agree with you. there are parts of the sound of this that I hate. but I'm ok with it because this isn't supposed to be a literal recording of a performance of Planetaria on Solphos, it's just supposed to illustrate the sound of the score to people who can't read music. and it doesn't even do that perfectly! the dynamics in the score are much broader than they are in the recording because the program I used makes it a little tricky to work dynamics, and while I could've done it, I didn't really bother unless it was really important.