A tool to practice concertos with a digital orchestra - Concerto Companion

[concertocompanion]

Hello everyone!

I’d love to introduce you to Concerto Companion, a platform we’ve created exclusively for classical musicians looking to enhance their concerto practice.

It offers beautifully virtual orchestral accompaniments for a growing number of concertos, allowing you to practice with orchestra anytime, anywhere. Whether you’re preparing for a performance, or just want to experience the joy of playing with an ensemble, Concerto Companion brings the orchestra to your practice room.

You can easily create a free account, explore our catalog, and even try out selected movements completely for free.
 www.concerto-companion.com

We’re constantly adding new repertoire, and we’d love to hear your thoughts or repertoire wishes!

 Here’s a short video that shows how it works:

Let us know what you think — and feel free to share it with others who might find it helpful!

Warm wishes,
Georgiana Pletea & Maria Ionel
Concerto Companion Team
 www.concerto-companion.com

[essence]

Looks interesting. Is this really the first time something like this has been done?

How is the orchestral music done? Is it a real orchestra with a conductor? Or synthesised?

I haven;t tried it, but timing is surely an issue? Like in the opening of the Grieg. Or Rach 2.

Maybe in the future there will be an AI implementation which can emulate a conductor and listen to the piano?

[perfect_pitch]

As fas as I know, there's 4 of these sorts of things now.

G-Phil
Music minus one
Smart Soloist
...and now this one.

Difference is this one seems to be rather inferior with its synthesised orchestra sounds. I was listening to the Beethoven and there's a rather odd beating sound with the repeated instruments that I haven't heard in others, and it's very synthetic unfortunately.

[dizzyfingers]

As fas as I know, there's 4 of these sorts of things now.

G-Phil
Music minus one
Smart Soloist
...and now this one.

Difference is this one seems to be rather inferior with its synthesised orchestra sounds. I was listening to the Beethoven and there's a rather odd beating sound with the repeated instruments that I haven't heard in others, and it's very synthetic unfortunately.

What do you think of G-Phil?  From what I've picked up, it seems to be very high quality sound.  I've never used it though.  Here's the website:
https://docs.g-phil.app/get-started/intro/

[perfect_pitch]

Problem is, it's too much work. You would need to literally get all the orchestral bits, get your local sound program, create a click track, line up the orchestral bits with that so you know exactly when your solos are meant to finish and the orchestra comes in.

Very fiddly. Tried doing it with the Beethoven Concerto No. 1 at one stage, but it was a lot of kerfuffling about.

Great quality audio I'll admit, so I was impressed with the sound and he does the recordings with varying tempi as well which greatly helps.

I've been toying with Smart Soloist, however the program looks like it was coded back when Windows 95 was new and might in the realms of software... and doesn't seem to have had a facelift ever since.

Apparently it still supports Windows XP... which should go to show you how old it is.

[essence]

I think some kind of AI solution which listens to the soloist would be good, but the effort probably not worth the potential revenue? Karaoke is much easier, there is a fixed beat and the singer fits into the recording, there is no dialogue.

[thorn]

The trouble is every tool has the same selection. I get it, the pieces provided sell, but it's frustrating if you want to learn something different.

[concertocompanion]

Looks interesting. Is this really the first time something like this has been done?

How is the orchestral music done? Is it a real orchestra with a conductor? Or synthesised?

I haven;t tried it, but timing is surely an issue? Like in the opening of the Grieg. Or Rach 2.

Maybe in the future there will be an AI implementation which can emulate a conductor and listen to the piano?

Hello, and thank you for your interest! As another user has pointed out, this concept has been explored before. However, our goal is to expand the repertoire beyond the standard works and make it more accessible to users, that will be including also 2 pianos concertos.

The music is digitally produced and carefully edited to sound as expressive as possible. You can find excerpts of most of our concertos on our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/concertocompanion/?hl=en.

For timing, when there are shorter solo sections, we provide click tracks and timestamps to help you navigate through the piece easily. During cadenzas, the video will pause, allowing you to play your part, and you can resume it afterward.

The idea of incorporating AI is certainly promising, but the technology is not quite advanced enough yet for our needs.

[concertocompanion]

As fas as I know, there's 4 of these sorts of things now.

G-Phil
Music minus one
Smart Soloist
...and now this one.

Difference is this one seems to be rather inferior with its synthesised orchestra sounds. I was listening to the Beethoven and there's a rather odd beating sound with the repeated instruments that I haven't heard in others, and it's very synthetic unfortunately.

You’re absolutely right—there are indeed a few other platforms out there, but each offers a unique experience.

Our clients so far have been very satisfied with both the sound quality and the overall experience. We’re also committed to continuously improving the quality of our products.

If you’re interested, you can listen to more concerto samples on our Instagram page -   https://www.instagram.com/concertocompanion/?hl=e - or download for free the second movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, to try it out yourself: https://concerto-companion.com/product/maurice-ravel-piano-concerto-in-g-major-part-2/.
Now

[concertocompanion]

The trouble is every tool has the same selection. I get it, the pieces provided sell, but it's frustrating if you want to learn something different.

At the moment, we’re prioritizing concertos that are most commonly performed in concert halls and competitions. However, we’ve also begun working on a few lesser-known works.

We’d love to hear your suggestions! Feel free to reach out anytime at contact@concerto-companion.com