Best Wishes for 2019

Dear OrchPlay Users,
On the behalf of all of us at OrchPlayMusic we wish you a happy new year!
Though we’ve been quiet during the last year, much work has happened behind-the-scenes. We wish to share with you here a little of what’s forthcoming for OrchPlay in 2019.
Ever since the initial launch of OrchPlay in July 2016 we’ve been amassing users feedback and testing the software effectiveness in different environments. It has been an incredible learning experience for our team and we would very much like to thank you for your patience and support.
We still have a way to go before we achieve our ambitions, but the next version of OrchPlay will in all certainty take us closer to our goal.

ORCHPLAY VERSION 2 & BEYOND
We’ve spent the last year redesigning the user interface from the ground up to be more flexible and intuitive. OrchPlay 2 will support a fullscreen mode and windows will be detachable. We can’t wait until spring 2019 to share with you more details on many new features we are working on. If some of these features do not make it in time for the initial release of OrchPlay 2 (summer 2019) they have been planned for the coming year as incremental updates to version 2.

MUSIC LIBRARY
We’ve been adding a number of features which help you integrate with ease your own music files in the the Music Library. A new List view will now optionally display your music files amongst the OrchPlay Music Library multichannel pieces. A new Portrait view will let you find your music in the Library by simply clicking on a composer/artist picture. You will be able to add OrchPlay-specific meta-data to your own stereo-files (ex: instrumentation, musical form, period). A Quickload menu is available to change music files while keeping your current view selected (score, orchestra, etc.).

PLAYBACK
You will be able to loop or play only once a Locators selection; you may also type in the measure range directly for Locators. Fast-forward and rewind buttons have been removed and fine-control has been added to the playback cursor.

SCORES FOR ALL
Synchronize all your scores or parts with your entire Music Library. Drag and drop a score in the Score view and easily place page-turns or other synchronization points. Start the playback directly by clicking on the score page.

INTERACTIVE ORCHPLAY SCORES
This has been our foremost priority since the beginning of our journey!
OrchPlay will automatically follow and play the selected music and instruments on the score page for multichannel OrchPlay files. Color, filter and save your selections as bookmarks. Display the score in concert or transposed pitch and with combined or separated staves (ex: 2 flutes combined on a single staff or on separated staves). Show or hide selected staves.

REDESIGNED ORCHESTRA VIEW
The Orchestra view is now rendered on a realistic stage backdrop in 8k resolution (zoomable).
We are planning a function which will let you create your own multichannel OrchPlay files along with instrument and microphone icons that can be moved on the stage. This is one of the most challenging feature and may come out later down the road.

NEW MIXER
A new mixer design will comes with OrchPlay 2: Larger text, faders and icons. It will display only the instruments playing in the selected piece and support audio Plugins (AU and VST).
You will be able to bounce bookmarks as stereo audio files.

EMBEDDED DOCUMENTS
Embedded documents will now open in OrchPlay (provided that the format is supported) and the current pages of opened documents will be saved with the bookmarks. A useful tool for presentations or research!

COURSES
We are planning a Course view exclusively for teachers and students. This feature will keep being developed in the future as we plan to offer integrated orchestration courses around the same time as we release of OrchPlay version 3.

MORE ON THE FUTURE OF ORCHPLAY
There is still much more on our radar, including: Offering the option to record yourself, integrated parts for the OrchPlay material, an iPad version, new incredibly realistic OrchPlay files and a companion application that is being programmed independently right now in the context of the ACTOR project focused on orchestration analysis.

We will be releasing 3 new OrchPlay files in early January for pro users and teachers followed by the full prelude of Wagner’s Tristan opera. More news on this soon!

Best wishes,
Your OrchPlay Team