I was working on a Beethoven video when I stumbled upon the Zgame Editor Visualizer (say that three times fast). This is a plugin that produces a video based on audio output, midi, or both. It is still very new and has the feel of a beta program. However it has quite a lot of potential. As of now there are no presets to interpret Midi data that come with the program. Also according to the Zgame people it does not have Midi look ahead, so you will not see a scrolling score like the MAM. Basically this is like the visualizer that comes with WMP or itunes but much more powerful. You can make your own preset, but that requires programming skills (of which I have none). I found this particular preset on the Fl forums. It was created by user StephenM, so many thanks to him. I saw a video of this preset and immediately thought Chopin for some reason. The best thing about ZGEV is that it renders video, so I don't have to resort to a third party desktop recorder. This means much higher quality videos in theory. Also you can use this plugin by downloading the demo version of FL studio to try it out. You cannot save projects, but you can output files.
What needs to be said about this particular prelude? It is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for piano.
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzrzSWkKE0I
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Project Notes: J. S. Bach chorale 86
The title of this chorale Wie schön leuchtet der Morgernstern translates to "How brightly shines the morning star."
This one was a simple test to see if I could get good results with the MAM player using the new settings I found. The results were promising, although I still got some wiggle with the bars. I will try to further tweak this for better results using different output quality and frame rates.
I used the choir from the stock Kontakt library for this piece. While it sounds very nice, this particular instrument is better suited for a mix rather than a stand alone performance.
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl0_OaWy18Y
This one was a simple test to see if I could get good results with the MAM player using the new settings I found. The results were promising, although I still got some wiggle with the bars. I will try to further tweak this for better results using different output quality and frame rates.
I used the choir from the stock Kontakt library for this piece. While it sounds very nice, this particular instrument is better suited for a mix rather than a stand alone performance.
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl0_OaWy18Y
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Project Notes: Euphonic Sounds by Scott Joplin
This is a great piece by Joplin. It differs from stock ragtime in several ways. The most notable difference is perhaps the bass part which deviates from the typical oom-pah.
I used a new (to me) midi visualizer again for this video. The program is called Miditrail. It has three different views: 2d 3d and raindrop. The program is actually quite powerful in some ways and can be highly customized. Unfortunately it takes a little bit of computer knowledge to adjust. For example to change the colors of the notes one must open a file and edit the color data. I think the data is in hexadecimal notation, but I am not 100% sure about that. I could not figure out how to get rid of the file name and data readout at the top and bottom of the screen. This is why I have the black borders in case you were wondering. There are some pretty good videos on youtube using this visualizer.
I sequenced this one with Cubase 5.5.3 as usual. I will upgrade some day when they fix the windows nightmare and correctly implement group tracks. Or when Protools comes out with a 64 bit version. I will just get that instead.
I used samples from the stock Kontakt 4 library. The instrument is called 'concert grand.' It sounds really good compared to some other piano sample instruments that I have used. However it lacks the realism needed to pull off a solo piano performance. It sounds like there are 2 velocity layers for the instrument. When you go from loud to soft the sound is really disturbing. It sounds sort of like the microphone is being moved farther away from the piano instead of the pianist playing more quietly. I used this as a challenge to improve my skills. I bounced the track to an audio file and then edited the volume automation to create dynamic contrast instead of using velocity. I can't say that this was totally successful, but on the other hand it was better than using velocity to control dynamics. This instrument also plays from the pianists perspective, or the low notes to the left and high to the right. This always sounds quite strange to me. Under normal conditions the audience does not hear a piano performance from left to right like this. I would not use this sort of panning instrument for most applications, but for a midi visualization it actually worked quite well.
I found two interesting pieces of information while making this video. First the manual for the MAM player has been updated to reflect settings for win7, and second there may be a Pro version of the MAM coming out at some point. I won't hold my breath for the pro version, but I will definitely try out the win 7 settings for my next video. I want to try out the choir that came with Kontakt on a Bach chorale. Hopefully I can get a better quality video with the new settings.
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD9Th1Q96NI
I used a new (to me) midi visualizer again for this video. The program is called Miditrail. It has three different views: 2d 3d and raindrop. The program is actually quite powerful in some ways and can be highly customized. Unfortunately it takes a little bit of computer knowledge to adjust. For example to change the colors of the notes one must open a file and edit the color data. I think the data is in hexadecimal notation, but I am not 100% sure about that. I could not figure out how to get rid of the file name and data readout at the top and bottom of the screen. This is why I have the black borders in case you were wondering. There are some pretty good videos on youtube using this visualizer.
I sequenced this one with Cubase 5.5.3 as usual. I will upgrade some day when they fix the windows nightmare and correctly implement group tracks. Or when Protools comes out with a 64 bit version. I will just get that instead.
I used samples from the stock Kontakt 4 library. The instrument is called 'concert grand.' It sounds really good compared to some other piano sample instruments that I have used. However it lacks the realism needed to pull off a solo piano performance. It sounds like there are 2 velocity layers for the instrument. When you go from loud to soft the sound is really disturbing. It sounds sort of like the microphone is being moved farther away from the piano instead of the pianist playing more quietly. I used this as a challenge to improve my skills. I bounced the track to an audio file and then edited the volume automation to create dynamic contrast instead of using velocity. I can't say that this was totally successful, but on the other hand it was better than using velocity to control dynamics. This instrument also plays from the pianists perspective, or the low notes to the left and high to the right. This always sounds quite strange to me. Under normal conditions the audience does not hear a piano performance from left to right like this. I would not use this sort of panning instrument for most applications, but for a midi visualization it actually worked quite well.
I found two interesting pieces of information while making this video. First the manual for the MAM player has been updated to reflect settings for win7, and second there may be a Pro version of the MAM coming out at some point. I won't hold my breath for the pro version, but I will definitely try out the win 7 settings for my next video. I want to try out the choir that came with Kontakt on a Bach chorale. Hopefully I can get a better quality video with the new settings.
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD9Th1Q96NI
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
J. S. Bach Chorale # 251 Ich bin ja, Herr, in deiner Macht
Translation: I am indeed, Lord, in thy power.
When I began making these videos I only knew about the MAM player. I was quite impressed with its possibilities. However after making a few videos I became frustrated with the difficulties of obtaining good quality video from the MAM. I spend my free time over several days and found a few interesting visualizers. Most of them, while amazingly beautiful, were too abstract for what I wanted. Morphyre is my favorite from the abstract bunch, although there are many good ones.
Other programs I found require some programming skills. There are some videos using the processing language on youtube for example that are really good. After seeing these I am motivated to learn that language. I know nothing about these things, so I expect it will take a year or two before I can use processing to make videos.
The program I used for this video is called simply Midivis. It can be found here: http://www.horningabout.com/midivis/
There is no license that I could find, so I assume it is freeware. I will be emailing the creator with a thanks and a link to my video after it is up.
This visualizer is similar to the MAM player, but has a 3d- rotational view. Also it is more stable. I was able to get a much better quality video out of this thing compared to the MAM player. At this point it is a matter of fudging with frame rates and other technical details to get better quality. Since I know almost nothing about such things, it is a process of trail and error.
I chose this chorale simply because I liked it. As I mentioned in a previous post, I sight read through one or two of these every day. While they are not all zingers, the best of them are quite beautiful. This one in particular had a nice baroque feel to it. I also wanted something fairly short to try out this new (to me) visualizer. I saw no point in do a project that required 20 hours of work if the end result was not good.
Along the lines of trying out new things, I chose the monologue synth that came with Cubase 5. I have so many instruments available to me that it is hard to choose one. Between cubase stock and komplete 6, I have acess to literally thousands of sounds. That is more than I will every likely use. Monologue was prommising at first, but ended up being a big dud. Nonetheless I pressed forward with it. If I never use these things for projects, I will never know what I have at my disposal. Also, I now know that if I want a particular sound, I should look elsewhere.
The main problem with monologue is instability. Starting notes or notes after a pause were particularly bad but there were plenty of other annoyances. The instrument first came with cubase sx2 according to sound on sound. It feels like it has been updated with the digital version of duct tape, whatever that is. It barely limps along. There are better quality mono synths that can be had for free, although they do not look as nice as this one. The only reason I stuck with monologue was the sheer challenge of it. Could I get a good sound from a bad instrument? I think I got an o.k. sound but not great. How will I ever learn anything if I only use great instruments like absynth?
video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOUrElPZ2hU
When I began making these videos I only knew about the MAM player. I was quite impressed with its possibilities. However after making a few videos I became frustrated with the difficulties of obtaining good quality video from the MAM. I spend my free time over several days and found a few interesting visualizers. Most of them, while amazingly beautiful, were too abstract for what I wanted. Morphyre is my favorite from the abstract bunch, although there are many good ones.
Other programs I found require some programming skills. There are some videos using the processing language on youtube for example that are really good. After seeing these I am motivated to learn that language. I know nothing about these things, so I expect it will take a year or two before I can use processing to make videos.
The program I used for this video is called simply Midivis. It can be found here: http://www.horningabout.com/midivis/
There is no license that I could find, so I assume it is freeware. I will be emailing the creator with a thanks and a link to my video after it is up.
This visualizer is similar to the MAM player, but has a 3d- rotational view. Also it is more stable. I was able to get a much better quality video out of this thing compared to the MAM player. At this point it is a matter of fudging with frame rates and other technical details to get better quality. Since I know almost nothing about such things, it is a process of trail and error.
I chose this chorale simply because I liked it. As I mentioned in a previous post, I sight read through one or two of these every day. While they are not all zingers, the best of them are quite beautiful. This one in particular had a nice baroque feel to it. I also wanted something fairly short to try out this new (to me) visualizer. I saw no point in do a project that required 20 hours of work if the end result was not good.
Along the lines of trying out new things, I chose the monologue synth that came with Cubase 5. I have so many instruments available to me that it is hard to choose one. Between cubase stock and komplete 6, I have acess to literally thousands of sounds. That is more than I will every likely use. Monologue was prommising at first, but ended up being a big dud. Nonetheless I pressed forward with it. If I never use these things for projects, I will never know what I have at my disposal. Also, I now know that if I want a particular sound, I should look elsewhere.
The main problem with monologue is instability. Starting notes or notes after a pause were particularly bad but there were plenty of other annoyances. The instrument first came with cubase sx2 according to sound on sound. It feels like it has been updated with the digital version of duct tape, whatever that is. It barely limps along. There are better quality mono synths that can be had for free, although they do not look as nice as this one. The only reason I stuck with monologue was the sheer challenge of it. Could I get a good sound from a bad instrument? I think I got an o.k. sound but not great. How will I ever learn anything if I only use great instruments like absynth?
video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOUrElPZ2hU
Friday, July 8, 2011
Project notes: Kismet Rag
This piano piece is credited to Scott Joplin and Scott Hayden. It was originally published in 1913.
I chose this one almost randomly from Joplin's works. I wanted to make a rag time video, but not Maple Leaf or the Entertainer (although I will get to those eventually). I went through some sheet music until I found a piece with a nice groove to it.
According to wikipedia, kismet means 'fate' among other things. The picture from the sheet music shows the sphinx. I have no idea what this piece has to do with Egypt or fate, and if I had to guess I would say it was just a way to sell more copies of the score when it was published.
I used the ragtime piano samples from Kontakt. While nice sounding, I ran into a bit of a problem. At velocity level 99-100 there is a huge jump in both timbre and volume. This made editing velocity levels problematic. I wanted the sound of the louder attack on some parts, but the volume change was more than I wanted. I had to go in and edit the volume automation after the velocity levels to smooth things out.
Phrasing this piece was more enjoyable than one might expect. I had fun with subtle changes between phrases and on the repeats. I edited the midi notes on each repeat rather than just copying and pasting them. The subtle differences between similar sections give the piece a more pleasing performance. This did add time to the production time of the video, but I feel that it was worth the effort.
Once again I ran into the limitations of the MAM player. It is a wonderful piece of software considering it is free, but obtaining a good looking video is nearly impossible. I might be able to do it if I took 10 takes and spliced the good parts into a single video. However my editing skills are too limited at this point for that kind of work. The problem is jitter. The program just does not run smoothly most of the time. It seems to run smoothly at random intervals. I will be looking into a different program or two for my next video in hopes of getting better quality results.
As a side note, I stumbled upon a genre of music that I was unaware of: novelty piano. It seems that it was an off shoot of ragtime, and was performed on the player piano much of the time. This sounds like the perfect music for some videos!
video link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GD6odp2biQ
I chose this one almost randomly from Joplin's works. I wanted to make a rag time video, but not Maple Leaf or the Entertainer (although I will get to those eventually). I went through some sheet music until I found a piece with a nice groove to it.
According to wikipedia, kismet means 'fate' among other things. The picture from the sheet music shows the sphinx. I have no idea what this piece has to do with Egypt or fate, and if I had to guess I would say it was just a way to sell more copies of the score when it was published.
I used the ragtime piano samples from Kontakt. While nice sounding, I ran into a bit of a problem. At velocity level 99-100 there is a huge jump in both timbre and volume. This made editing velocity levels problematic. I wanted the sound of the louder attack on some parts, but the volume change was more than I wanted. I had to go in and edit the volume automation after the velocity levels to smooth things out.
Phrasing this piece was more enjoyable than one might expect. I had fun with subtle changes between phrases and on the repeats. I edited the midi notes on each repeat rather than just copying and pasting them. The subtle differences between similar sections give the piece a more pleasing performance. This did add time to the production time of the video, but I feel that it was worth the effort.
Once again I ran into the limitations of the MAM player. It is a wonderful piece of software considering it is free, but obtaining a good looking video is nearly impossible. I might be able to do it if I took 10 takes and spliced the good parts into a single video. However my editing skills are too limited at this point for that kind of work. The problem is jitter. The program just does not run smoothly most of the time. It seems to run smoothly at random intervals. I will be looking into a different program or two for my next video in hopes of getting better quality results.
As a side note, I stumbled upon a genre of music that I was unaware of: novelty piano. It seems that it was an off shoot of ragtime, and was performed on the player piano much of the time. This sounds like the perfect music for some videos!
video link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GD6odp2biQ
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Project notes: J. S. Bach Chorale Forty Two
The title of this chorale, Du Friedensfürst, Herr Jesu Christ translates to "Thou Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ."
A friend of mine recently gave me an old Roland u-20. This is a synthesizer of the rompler category. A rompler stores sounds and plays them back, as opposed to a proper synth which generates sound internally using any number of methods such as additive or subtractive synthesis. This particular instrument, while vintage-ish, is a fairly low frills example from its time (1989). Judging by the prices on ebay, it is definatly not a sought after instrument.
I was not really expecting to ever use the u-20 for anything. However, after playing with it for a while I discovered that it has some really nice sounds. Many of these sounds are cheesy its true. But its GOOD cheese. It has some internal effects, the possibility of 30 voices, and 6 parts with a percussion part. unfortunately the interface is confusing. The Roland u-20 can be summed up as: the opposite of user friendly. Perhaps I am just spoiled with all of the modern vsti available now a days. Also many of the buttons on my u-20 do not work, which means I can't really edit any of the sounds or parameters. I have to just use stock patches.
Because the learning curve was so steep for me, I chose a really short piece for the u-20. This chorale is only 9 measures long without repeats. While short, it still has that amazing Bach part writing that one can expect from his chorales.
This project took several days to complete, mostly because I had to learn the u-20's ins and outs. The manual reads like it was written by stereo manufacturers. One confusing example is that the manual refers to both timbres and patches, but does not explain why two terms are needed for the same exact thing until the middle of the manual or so. I guess I am just a total newbie when it comes to hardware.
Link for video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7Igsd82zY
A friend of mine recently gave me an old Roland u-20. This is a synthesizer of the rompler category. A rompler stores sounds and plays them back, as opposed to a proper synth which generates sound internally using any number of methods such as additive or subtractive synthesis. This particular instrument, while vintage-ish, is a fairly low frills example from its time (1989). Judging by the prices on ebay, it is definatly not a sought after instrument.
I was not really expecting to ever use the u-20 for anything. However, after playing with it for a while I discovered that it has some really nice sounds. Many of these sounds are cheesy its true. But its GOOD cheese. It has some internal effects, the possibility of 30 voices, and 6 parts with a percussion part. unfortunately the interface is confusing. The Roland u-20 can be summed up as: the opposite of user friendly. Perhaps I am just spoiled with all of the modern vsti available now a days. Also many of the buttons on my u-20 do not work, which means I can't really edit any of the sounds or parameters. I have to just use stock patches.
Because the learning curve was so steep for me, I chose a really short piece for the u-20. This chorale is only 9 measures long without repeats. While short, it still has that amazing Bach part writing that one can expect from his chorales.
This project took several days to complete, mostly because I had to learn the u-20's ins and outs. The manual reads like it was written by stereo manufacturers. One confusing example is that the manual refers to both timbres and patches, but does not explain why two terms are needed for the same exact thing until the middle of the manual or so. I guess I am just a total newbie when it comes to hardware.
Link for video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7Igsd82zY
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)