[ddots-l] Re: Question about Producing Classical Music

  • From: "Dan Rugman" <danrugman@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 20:00:11 +0100

Hi Sharon,

Making midi sound expressive is a problem everyone has. Even if you use the best sample libraries and soundfonts it will still sound completely flat unless you reach in and fiddle with things, sometimes on a note by note basis, ut hears a few suggestions for you to think on.

If you always do everything yourself and never print out scores for other people, then you could just disable the metronome and lay everything down, track by track, like using an old multitrack recorder, with out even thinking about the measures, beats and ticks. If you go down this path then you should spend some time getting really good at punch in recording.

The big disadvantage of this way is that you can't import the midi into a scoring program like Sibelius because it will be a complete mess.

If you do have to produce scores, or just want things organised into measures and beats, then the best thing to do is use the "fit to improvisation" option. I once had to mock up a piano concerto so I'll use this is an example.

Record the piano part first in the way you want it to sound. You then have to record a click track in time with the solo. Just set up a track on channel 10 and tap beats in time with the solo. Only use one note, C#3 is good and make sure that no other data gets recorded to that track. Then select the entire track and choose "fit to improvisation" from the processes menu. This puts tempo changes at the start of every beat so that the metronome will follow the solo part.

You'll have to delete the click track because it won't play beack in time anymoere.

You may find that the tempo changes a bit too suddenly sometimes, in which case you just need to create a series of tempo changes. Select the whole beat and enter the tempos at the start and end of the beat.

Next you can import any midi tracks you want and they'll play back in time with the solo part.

One thing to watch out for is quantising. Its great to have everything bang on the beat, especially if your producing a score, but this is probably the worste cause of the dreaded midi effect. After all, the best pianists can't play so exactly in time that they put down eight notes of a chord within a millisecond of each other. It sounds tedious but you'll have to go into the event list and shift the start times of things around a bit just to get the randomness back in.

As for dynamics - you can create series of volume changes which are great for carefully controlling crescendos, decrescendos and. Just select the region for the crescendo and then choose "create series of controllers". You just enter the start and end volumes and choose controller 7 from the list.

Hope some of this helps,

Dan
----- Original Message ----- From: "Sharon Hooley" <SHOOLEY2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Cake Talking List" <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2006 1:21 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Question about Producing Classical Music


Thank you for your responses!

when I play classical music without recording it, I like to be expressive, slowing down in some parts, speeding up in others, decreasing/increasing volume. Since I have only a 61-key synthesizer (because Health and Welfare requires that I have space enough to climb out the window in my room of a certified family home), I'll often need to transpose to a full octave lower in order to hit all the base notes, and transpose it back to normal, or even an octave higher to get the top notes. This means that I'll have to play the left-hand and right-hand parts separately, not to mention adding other instrument sound parts. My question is, how do I put it all in sync, since I would be running against the metronome a lot? Is this tedious work? (I play by ear, not by writing scores.

I'll appreciate any input.  Thanks!

Sharon
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