Frequently Asked Questions

• Go to Synchestra.ai and select the work you want to play: whether it is an opera aria, a movement of a concerto or a complete concerto, you can get the conductor and instrument scores and music of all the individual instruments, and the full orchestral ensemble.
• Open the work you bought in the Synchestra-app. Set your own tempo and tempo changes, or make the orchestra follow your tempo and tempo changes, change the pitch and transposition to accommodate your own instrument or voice capabilities.
• Start playing with the orchestra & enjoy!

The complete catalog has been curated carefully and submitted for review to professional score writers, orchestrators and a jury so that only high-quality works are on offer. This effort is bigger for a long concerto than for a small opera aria. Therefore, based on actual effort a different price is tagged to each work.

Becoming a Patron is the best way to directly contribute towards the creation of a new work. Depending whether you are interested in becoming a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum Patron, the contribution and reward vary.

Check out our Patron page

Synchestra has a clear mission: We want to make benefits, but only to make our company sustainable and long-lived. As we grow, those benefits are re-invested into the company (and not distributed to the shareholders), to improve the app, and to expand the portfolio. This means you’ll not only gain access to an ever-expanding repertoire but also enjoy an increasingly enriched experience.

The wealth of our company is not the amount on the bottom line of the yearly accounts, but the total amount of happiness of our musicians who enjoy playing beautiful music with our app.

Please make sure that you visit our page for all the available works from Prima Donna to Bronze supporter.

Yes, Synchestra is an excellent tool for music educators. Teachers can use it for individual or group practice, offering students a virtual orchestral experience.

Yes, you are welcome to share recordings of your performances using Synchestra. Please credit Synchestra in your posts, and tag us to help spread the word!

We welcome suggestions! If there’s a piece you’d like to see in our repertoire, contact us at info@synchestra.ai.

Yes! Follow us on social media, subscribe to our newsletter, and join our forums to connect with other musicians and share your experiences.

We input every paper score into the computer with clever OMR (Optical Music Recognition) software. But sometimes, if there is no other way, we write note by note manually. This OMR software does not work perfectly, by the way; it always requires manual work.

This way, we get a digital version of the score.

Then we orchestrate, instrument by instrument. Here we are actually doing what the conductor does during orchestral rehearsals.

A monk's work, in other words.

To give you an idea: Three years ago, it took us three months to digitise Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto, starting from the 1892 edition and the 1876 manuscript. And orchestrating is also a long patient process.

Crazy work.

Yet we do it.

Because we are passionate about music. We are inspired and enthousiastic. And perhaps also a little crazy, yes.

And because we have a dream.

We dream of having as many musical works as possible in our app, so that musicians from all over the world can play the works of their choice with a real orchestra.

We are working hard to speed up the scoring and orchestration processes: for example, today that Tchaikovsky score would take a month instead of three.

We dream of a Community of passionate music lovers, of freaks like us who love to digitise paper scores. And who enjoy spending days orchestrating them. Purely out of love for music.

We dream of a Community of musicians - students, professional musicians, music teachers, choir members, conductors, ... - who are willing to pay a democratic price for a piece of music from our app. So that we can continue this work and pay out a small sum to those fanatics who spend months lonely in their attic room digitising and orchestrating scores.

Synchestra wants to bring the orchestra to you. That's why we focus on works written for solo and orchestra:

compositions for one or more soloists and orchestra: concertos, double concertos, triple concertos, concertos for four soloists and orchestra
forms related to concertos: rhapsody, concertante rondo, concertante fantasia, capriccio, sinfonia, etc.
arias from opera, operetta, oratorio, requiem, mass, cantata, symphony
songs for voice(es) and orchestra

In short: we are aiming for works that require at least 5 musicians.

What we do not include in our repertoire, for example:

chamber music for limited ensemble: duos, trios, quartets;

songs for voice and piano, or voice and basso continuo.

We concentrate on music in the public domain.

That is music of which the composer has been dead for at least 70 years (in Canada it is 50 years, in the United States 100 years).

Because after that period, no royalties are owed to the composer or his heirs. Not that we don't want to pay royalties. But negotiations with composers or their rights holders are often complicated and time-consuming. In the start-up phase of Synchestra we prefer to put our time and energy in other things.

Don't we want to bring contemporary music?

Yes, we do.

If a composer would like to make his or her work(s) available through Synchestra and would like to become a member of our Community, this is possible. We are very happy to do so!

Do you know how to write a digital orchestral score with tools like Dorico, Finale, Sibelius, MuseScore, Notion, ...?

Then you are a valuable asset to the Community.

What we expect from you:

You can demonstrate some relevant experience with the more serious orchestral work for classical music. For example, a composition for a dozen instruments, or more. Having written the score for a piano sonata or a choral work is really not enough, we're afraid.

You can demonstrate this experience by sending us some conductor scores in PDF and XML format, or by providing a link where we can admire your work.

We expect you to be particularly meticulous and to faithfully copy, in addition to the correct notes of course, all of the composer's original indications (musical arcs, forte/piano indications, tempo changes, performance techniques, etc.), excluding anything the composer has never have written.

Therefore, we always start from an "Urtext" edition, if possible. We will help and advise you in choosing the best reference editions when you start working on a specific composition.

Come and join us!

Can you convert the MIDI output of classical music orchestra scores into music project files, for example using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with sequencer software such as Steinberg Cubase, Apple Logic, Ableton Live, Presonus Studio One, Cockos Reaper, Studios Reason, Steinberg Dorico, etc.?

Then we would love to have you as a community member!

What we expect from you:

You can demonstrate some relevant experience with classical music compositions using advanced virtual instruments.

You know how to introduce humanisation effects into classical music renderings.

You can demonstrate this experience by sending us some audio files (MP3 at 192 kbps or better, or any other high quality audio format, if possible lossless), or by providing a link where we can admire your work.

We expect you to aim to make orchestrations of such quality that an experienced musician either cannot distinguish your work from a real studio live recording, or at least hesitates seriously about it.

Sign up here!

We make sure we are respecting the intellectual rights of all our contributors:

• We focus on compositions that are in the public domain.
• For recent compositions, we make sure we have the authorisation of the composer or his rightsholders.
• The composers (if applicable), scorewriters, proofreaders and orchestrators receive author rights payments for their work.

Should someone think their copyrights are being infringed, we ask to contact copyright@synchestra.ai, to resolve the matter.

In 2003, engineer and music enthusiast Robrecht Paternoster planned to perform Saint-Saëns' Symphony for Orchestra and Organ with the Brussels Youth and Music Orchestra, but the concert was cancelled due to the score's complexity. Determined, he created a “Music Minus Organ” version in 2004, adapting it for organ pitch variations. His dream was realized on April 12, 2004, when he performed the symphony with the new Grenzing Organ and a digital orchestra at Brussels Cathedral.

Robrecht envisioned making orchestral performance accessible to all musicians, not just tech-savvy individuals. This led to the creation of Synchestra, an app that enables musicians to play with a digital orchestra, tailored to their specific needs. Over time, technological advances enhanced this vision, and in 2019, Robrecht successfully demonstrated the app’s proof of concept to the Piano Department Head of the Brussels Conservatory, who offered enthusiastic support.

Founded in October 2021, Synchestra quickly grew with the support of the Start it @KBC incubator and Flemish Government R&D funding. Driven by a core team of four and over 30 global contributors, the app is developed by passionate musicians aiming to transform classical music practice. Synchestra brings the joy of playing with an orchestra to musicians everywhere.

Tax deduction possibilities depend on the backer's country of tax residence. Belgian residents may be eligible for a tax deduction if their pledge supports professional activities (such as using the app for work or enhancing their professional reputation). Synchestra offers backers the option to appear on a dedicated “Hall of Fame” page with customized text and logo. An invoice can be provided, though fiscal deductibility cannot be guaranteed by Synchestra.

The "Hall of Fame" is a special part of Synchestra’s website where we honour and celebrate our Patrons. It’s our way of showing appreciation for those who support our mission, giving them a lasting place of recognition for their contribution to bringing music to life.

Yes.

You can either use the music works, or the access pass yourself, but you can also pass them to someone else: your kid, another family member, a friend. Please note that the perk can only be used by one physical person.

Make sure you click on 'details' in the perk or add-on to get more info, such as a list of works attached to that perk or add-on.

Yes, we can create an invoice. Please contact us at info@synchestra.ai, because we will need your full name, address and tax registration number.

The music works will be available in two functional modes:

• a basic version, with a very affordable price
• a full version = basic version + a lot of extra functionalities; this comes with a price premium of about 50%.

The price for a specific work depends essentially on the length and its complexity (it is less manual effort to produce an aria of 5 minutes with a chamber orchestra, than a 30 minutes concerto with a symphonic orchestra).

When you buy or pledge for a specific work, you receive a product activation code, which will be used to validate the licence (authorisation) to use that specific work.

This code can be used by you, or any other person you choose (your child, a friend, a colleague, ...). However, the code can only be used by a single person.

When a person activates the code, he/she becomes the only musician who can use that particular licence code.

When you activate a product activation code for a specific work, you can start using and enjoy that work for the rest of your life.

You can use the corresponding licence on three different devices (e.g. desktop pc, tablet, smartphone). You can transfer the license from an outdated to a new device.

Please note: the license is granted to you personally. You cannot share the license with a family member, a friend or a colleague.

Yes. When you choose a perk with a specific composition, a product validation code will be granted to you when the work is ready. As long as the product validation code has not been activated, you will be able to exchange it for another product validation code for a composition of the same price as the original composition.

No!

You can play our works with any instrument of the orchestra.

Example 1. We have a concerto for violin and orchestra. There is a violino principale, and there are also the Violin sections I and II, possibly each divided in divisi a and divisi b. You can chose to play each of the these different parts, in this example 5: the Principale, Ia, Ib, IIa, IIb.You can study, rehearse and play them separately.

Example 2: If there are 4 horns in the orchestra, you choose Horn I, II, III and IV apart.

Yes. In that case, you will let the violin solo play all the way, and you will chose to play oboe I, oboe II, the oboe d'amore, or the English horn. You can mute each part independently, and you have the score parts of each separate instrument. And the conductor score of course!

If we don't meet our crowdfunding goal, Synchestra will still strive to deliver on its mission. Backers will be kept informed about the project's next steps.

Absolutely! You can back the project with a general donation, which helps us grow and expand our repertoire.