Why we built Synchestra
In 2003 a youth orchestra found it could not play Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony, and the performance was cancelled. On 12 April 2004 Robrecht H. Paternoster played it anyway, in Brussels Cathedral, with a digital orchestra he had built himself. That concert is where Synchestra comes from.
The gap we saw
Concertos, arias and auditions all have an orchestra behind the soloist, but almost nobody gets to rehearse with one. In Belgium about 700 musicians graduate each year, and fewer than one in a hundred will ever play as a soloist with a professional orchestra. The country's professional orchestras offer students and recent graduates three to eight soloist spots a year. Most students practise their concerto alone, or with a piano reduction.
Our mission, as we wrote it on our About page: "Synchestra wants every musician to experience the immense joy of playing a piece of music with an orchestra."
What we built
Synchestra is a free app for Windows and Mac. You choose a work, mute your own part, and play it with the rest of the orchestra while the score and your part move with the music. You can slow it down and the pitch stays the same, loop a passage at its own tempo, change the volume of any section, and choose where you hear the orchestra from: the soloist's place, the podium or the audience.
Each instrument is built on its own, so any part can be turned off cleanly. That is what makes it possible to take the second violin out of the Bach Double, or one harpsichord out of four.
How a work is made
Each work starts from a scholarly edition of the score, entered and corrected by hand. Music editors set the conductor score and every part in Dorico, and professionals review them. Orchestrators then build the orchestra instrument by instrument, shaping each phrase the way a conductor would in rehearsal. It is slow work, and it is why the catalogue grows one work at a time.
What we don't claim
In Robrecht's words: "We do not replace the live orchestra. We are the best available option after it." A concert with a live orchestra is still the goal. Synchestra is for the weeks before it, and for every musician who would otherwise never play the work with an orchestra at all.
We are a small team in Belgium, and our profits go back into the company, the app and the catalogue.
Questions
Is the orchestra recorded?
No. Each work is built from the score, instrument by instrument, which is why you can mute or slow down any part.
Which works can I play today?
The works on sale are in the catalogue, starting with Bach's Double Violin Concerto, his Concerto for Four Harpsichords and Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.
Does the orchestra follow my tempo?
Today you set the tempo yourself, overall or per section. Tempo following is in development.
