Aus Meines Herzens Grunde, or From the depths of my heart.
This is from Bach's famous (infamous for music theory students) 371 harmonized chorales. I sight read one or two of these at the piano every day during my warm up. I always imagine what it would sound like if I used some synth patch or crazy sample instead of a piano. I also want to see them in the MAM player. I plan to do a series of videos on these chorales, and who knows maybe I will eventually get through all 371 of them.
I chose the first chorale because I did not really know which one to pick. Why not start at the beginning? My next one will be number forty two of course.
The sounds used are stock samples of the Rhodes I piano that came with the kontakt library. I really like the Rhodes sound, it is one of my favorite instruments. In case some of you are not familiar with this instrument, it is an electro-mechanical piano. It has hammers that strike small metal tines to produce a sound. I will defiantly make more videos featuring this instrument.
I took a pretty simple approach to this one. After my last two projects, I wanted something that was fun and on the shorter side. The video quality is not the best in this one. For some reason when I use the scrolling lines view of the MAM player, I get lots of jitters no matter what I do. I see this on other videos as well. I think it has to do with the video capture not doing such a good job with horizontal motion. Also the edges are very sharp, so any tiny shake or jitter is very obvious.
I did the usual with the audio. I worked on phrasing, mixing, and mastering. The voices are panned to make them more distinct. I also used some slight eq as well. The mastering side of things was pretty basic, just a high pass filter to roll off the extreme lows and a brick wall limiter to prevent clipping. I made the repeat of the first section a bit quieter. This is to imitate the terraced dynamics that you might encounter in baroque music. It sounds a little weird on this instrument, but overall I felt it was better than just having the repeat at the same volume.
I hope you enjoy this video, the next one will be up soon!
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op9PVh6bIy4
Monday, June 27, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Surfer From Mars: Project notes
This is a piece I composed for a game based on the browser game Pardus. The working title is "the Threat Within." It has not yet been released. This will be the intro music for the game.
The game developer wanted something that was upbeat, but other than that, I got no real instructions. Left to myself with no direction, I thought about what kind of music would be associated with Pardus. Music in space? Ambient noise was my first instinct. However, I thought back to when I used to host an amatuer internet radio show for Pardus, and one genre that was more or less universally loved was surf guitar. I guess flying space ships is a lot like surfing.
I knew almost nothing about surf guitar music when I began this project, so my first few days were spent listening to as much of it as I could find and reading forums. My favorite group was the Chantays, although I don't know if much of their sound is in my piece.
I once saw Andrew York perform at the Fret House in Covina. He remarked that there were not enough guitar pieces in the key of b minor (right before playing a piece in b minor). This was years ago, but I have made it a long term goal to compose something for guitar in that oft neglected key. My piece is not in the classical guitar style, but at least its a start.
I wrote an original melody that reminded me of a Javanese kroncong song. However, that one turned out to be too square sounding. I rewrote it a few times and finally got something that I was happy with. The melody is repeated in the second section, but altered for the muted guitar. I made the supporting instruments fairly generic, and in the end I think I got a pretty good surf guitar type sound.
I used samples from Kontakt and Battery for this piece, and sequenced it in Cubase as usual (oh how I long for a 64 bit version of pro tools!). However, for some reason Kontakt does not come with a clean guitar sound, so I had to hunt for one of those. My budget was -0- so I ended up using the best samples I could find for free. They were not the best sounds I have ever heard, but they worked out. The reverb and most of the effects are from Guitar rig. I felt that the reverb could be a bit drippier, but I only really had one choice so I went with it.
I learned quite a bit trying to mix and master this piece. It is really quite difficult to do. I am not 100% satisfied with my results, but I am definitely getting better. I need to review the book on mixing that I have, and perhaps buy a few more from amazon.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_buk0Kb5IJM
The game developer wanted something that was upbeat, but other than that, I got no real instructions. Left to myself with no direction, I thought about what kind of music would be associated with Pardus. Music in space? Ambient noise was my first instinct. However, I thought back to when I used to host an amatuer internet radio show for Pardus, and one genre that was more or less universally loved was surf guitar. I guess flying space ships is a lot like surfing.
I knew almost nothing about surf guitar music when I began this project, so my first few days were spent listening to as much of it as I could find and reading forums. My favorite group was the Chantays, although I don't know if much of their sound is in my piece.
I once saw Andrew York perform at the Fret House in Covina. He remarked that there were not enough guitar pieces in the key of b minor (right before playing a piece in b minor). This was years ago, but I have made it a long term goal to compose something for guitar in that oft neglected key. My piece is not in the classical guitar style, but at least its a start.
I wrote an original melody that reminded me of a Javanese kroncong song. However, that one turned out to be too square sounding. I rewrote it a few times and finally got something that I was happy with. The melody is repeated in the second section, but altered for the muted guitar. I made the supporting instruments fairly generic, and in the end I think I got a pretty good surf guitar type sound.
I used samples from Kontakt and Battery for this piece, and sequenced it in Cubase as usual (oh how I long for a 64 bit version of pro tools!). However, for some reason Kontakt does not come with a clean guitar sound, so I had to hunt for one of those. My budget was -0- so I ended up using the best samples I could find for free. They were not the best sounds I have ever heard, but they worked out. The reverb and most of the effects are from Guitar rig. I felt that the reverb could be a bit drippier, but I only really had one choice so I went with it.
I learned quite a bit trying to mix and master this piece. It is really quite difficult to do. I am not 100% satisfied with my results, but I am definitely getting better. I need to review the book on mixing that I have, and perhaps buy a few more from amazon.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_buk0Kb5IJM
Monday, June 20, 2011
J. S. Bach "Little" Fugue in g, BWV 578
This project was more difficult than I originally thought it would be. The video on my channel is actually a re-up. The original video had a few note errors; I was in a rush when I put the score into my sequencer. I made many other changes in addition to correcting notes.
First, I was not really happy with the overall sound of the original. I wanted the voices to stand out more. However, the more I did to achieve this, the more I hurt the sound of the voices. After much automation and eq-ing, the piece sounded flat and ear fatiguing. I went back to the beginning (again) and made just a few simple changes. I panned the tenor and alto voices left and right, and narrowed the soprano to the center. I spread the bass out to the entire field. I also did some minor eq-ing to make the voices stand out. The soprano I left more or less alone, since it was not really interfering with the other voices too much. I did some automation to cut the volume by 2 db or so during a trill that seemed to overwhelm the other voices. The alto voice got a high shelf eq with a slight attenuation to give the soprano some breathing room. The tenor got a high-pass filter to let the bass voice live a little, and a low pass combined with a high shelf to help the alto stand out. If you listen carefully you can hear that the timbre of the tenor is hurt by this processing, but overall I felt that it was worth the loss to let the other voices stand out more. The bass got some slight eq. In addition, whenever there was a long note I generally automated a 1-2 db cut for that voice. These long notes mask the other (more interesting) parts. The organ has tons of overtones, making it a real challenge to mix the voices and not hurt the timbre of the instrument. The end result is perhaps unnatural sounding, but I think it works very well with the video. I earned a new found respect for mixing artists after this project, those people really perform miracles (as do the mastering artists).
Second, I put the reverb on each track as an insert rather than having a single instance as a send. I found that this gave a more realistic sound.
Next I revised the phrasing a little. I wanted a somewhat human feel to the performance. I achieved this by fist turning off the snap function in my sequencer so that when I adjusted note lengths they would not be perfect divisions. Second I changed the phrasing when a musical idea was repeated, especially the fugue subject and especially between the voices.
While listening to live performance organ videos on youtube to get a feel for what the reverb should sound like, I found the version of this piece performed by Ton Koopman. I really really liked his ornaments, so I added some to my version in Koopman's style. I thought it was fun to see the ornaments in the MAM player. Usually ornaments are not written out in a score so you have to use your imagination to "see" them.
The bass needed revising as well. Some viewers had posted on the previous video that the bass was out of sync. I was a bit confused by this, since everything was midi generated. I start out with everything aligned to the beat, and the bass notes were exactly in time. However, it occurred to me that someone listening to the video with pc speakers would not have a very good low frequency content to their audio. The bass notes are samples from very large pipes, probably 16' or even 32' long pipes. The air takes a long time to get moving, and the initial attack of the note is very soft. This is hard to hear if your speakers have a limited frequency response. To adjust for this I moved the bass ahead by 30 ms or so. I apologize to anyone if this makes the bass sound out of time, but I hope that it will improve the overall listening experience for most people. I checked on my pc speakers, and the bass timing did indeed sound better, although some of the higher notes sound a bit early.
I also made some minor changes to the tempo: I chose to slow the piece down by 3 bpm to 82, and got rid of the retard at the end of the piece. The ornaments seemed to work better at the end when played full speed.
Finally I had some fun with the look of the video. I changed the colors, changed the output to balls instead of bars, and adjusted the vertical resolution so that black bars appeared at the top and bottom. This reminded me of scrolling paper rolls like those used for a player piano.
Revising this project took many hours over a two week period, most of which were spent shaking my fist at the monitor and trying my best to not throw the computer out the window. Eventually I got everything as good as I could, and called it good enough. Many other things too mundane to mention went into this project, and I doubt anyone wants to read about them.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1XD1MSES_8
First, I was not really happy with the overall sound of the original. I wanted the voices to stand out more. However, the more I did to achieve this, the more I hurt the sound of the voices. After much automation and eq-ing, the piece sounded flat and ear fatiguing. I went back to the beginning (again) and made just a few simple changes. I panned the tenor and alto voices left and right, and narrowed the soprano to the center. I spread the bass out to the entire field. I also did some minor eq-ing to make the voices stand out. The soprano I left more or less alone, since it was not really interfering with the other voices too much. I did some automation to cut the volume by 2 db or so during a trill that seemed to overwhelm the other voices. The alto voice got a high shelf eq with a slight attenuation to give the soprano some breathing room. The tenor got a high-pass filter to let the bass voice live a little, and a low pass combined with a high shelf to help the alto stand out. If you listen carefully you can hear that the timbre of the tenor is hurt by this processing, but overall I felt that it was worth the loss to let the other voices stand out more. The bass got some slight eq. In addition, whenever there was a long note I generally automated a 1-2 db cut for that voice. These long notes mask the other (more interesting) parts. The organ has tons of overtones, making it a real challenge to mix the voices and not hurt the timbre of the instrument. The end result is perhaps unnatural sounding, but I think it works very well with the video. I earned a new found respect for mixing artists after this project, those people really perform miracles (as do the mastering artists).
Second, I put the reverb on each track as an insert rather than having a single instance as a send. I found that this gave a more realistic sound.
Next I revised the phrasing a little. I wanted a somewhat human feel to the performance. I achieved this by fist turning off the snap function in my sequencer so that when I adjusted note lengths they would not be perfect divisions. Second I changed the phrasing when a musical idea was repeated, especially the fugue subject and especially between the voices.
While listening to live performance organ videos on youtube to get a feel for what the reverb should sound like, I found the version of this piece performed by Ton Koopman. I really really liked his ornaments, so I added some to my version in Koopman's style. I thought it was fun to see the ornaments in the MAM player. Usually ornaments are not written out in a score so you have to use your imagination to "see" them.
The bass needed revising as well. Some viewers had posted on the previous video that the bass was out of sync. I was a bit confused by this, since everything was midi generated. I start out with everything aligned to the beat, and the bass notes were exactly in time. However, it occurred to me that someone listening to the video with pc speakers would not have a very good low frequency content to their audio. The bass notes are samples from very large pipes, probably 16' or even 32' long pipes. The air takes a long time to get moving, and the initial attack of the note is very soft. This is hard to hear if your speakers have a limited frequency response. To adjust for this I moved the bass ahead by 30 ms or so. I apologize to anyone if this makes the bass sound out of time, but I hope that it will improve the overall listening experience for most people. I checked on my pc speakers, and the bass timing did indeed sound better, although some of the higher notes sound a bit early.
I also made some minor changes to the tempo: I chose to slow the piece down by 3 bpm to 82, and got rid of the retard at the end of the piece. The ornaments seemed to work better at the end when played full speed.
Finally I had some fun with the look of the video. I changed the colors, changed the output to balls instead of bars, and adjusted the vertical resolution so that black bars appeared at the top and bottom. This reminded me of scrolling paper rolls like those used for a player piano.
Revising this project took many hours over a two week period, most of which were spent shaking my fist at the monitor and trying my best to not throw the computer out the window. Eventually I got everything as good as I could, and called it good enough. Many other things too mundane to mention went into this project, and I doubt anyone wants to read about them.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1XD1MSES_8
Project notes: J.S. Bach Polonaise BWV Anh. 119
This was a fairly easy project. I play this piece to warm up on the piano sometimes, and I wanted to hear it played on the harpsichord, with the MAM player. I used Cubase 5.1, Kontakt, and the built in reverb with Kontakt for this piece.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li6VTT2luF0
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li6VTT2luF0
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