Posted
Hi
I'm evaluating Synfire Pro to create orchestra backtracks from piano / voice midi sources. The concept of Synfire looks to me very promising for this.
Unfortunately I'm a bit lost in getting the right start for my use case. There are many tips and tricks for detailed tasks in Synfire here, but I'm missng a bit are step-to-step howtos' for simple end-to-end use cases. If someone can give me some step-by-step hints for my use case I'll produce and post a Camtasia-Video on youtube on it.
Here the case:
1) Preparation step before loading into Synfire
take a piano/voice midi edition from an Aria/Song and assign a tempo track taken from historical, famous interpretations (I use Cubase Time Warping Tool for this).
Attached is a such an source (non t'amo piu from F. Tosti, tempo track is taken out of Luciano Pavarottis interpretation here )
2) Load into Synfire Pro (preserving the time track)
3) generate a classical orchestration around the midi source ( at least some nices strings for the beginning...)
4) export resuilt as midi to Sequencer/DAW (in my case Cubase) for further manual adaptions and high quality output
Thanks, Thomas
Mo., 17.03.2014 - 17:29 Permalink
Hi Thomas,
welcome to the user forum!
The workflow you suggested is perfectly fine. Although it might be easier to accomplish the task without the tempo track in Synfire. You can add it later to the Cubase production.
The steps to take are as follows:
- Import the midi file into Synfire. Be sure you keep the setting "Import for Harmonizer" (or similar) for all tracks, so Synfire will not change the note pitches. There's also an option to import "All Tracks as Static".
- Switch to the Harmonizer tab, tick all tracks for input, and go through the piece, verifying all locations where chords change and select the appropriate chord. There is a video for this workflow here: &list=PL96FBAA5F21C2665A&index=8
- Since you already have the melody in MIDI format, you can skip to 1:40 in the video.
- Once your Harmony progression is done, you can verify it through playback with a simple chords-only accompaniment: Add a new instrument with a strings or smooth e-piano sound. Set its Interpretation parameter to "Auto-Chords".
- Add new instruments for your desired orchestral accompaniment. Sketch individual melodic lines using the Figure parameter. This is demonstrated in this tutorial:
(https://users.cognitone.com/content/orchestral-workflow-example-tips-0)
or this one:
&list=PL96FBAA5F21C2665A
Step 5 will take the most time. It's the actual composing. Playing around with different figure types (colors) will make you learn how to use them creatively over time.
Happy composing!
Di., 18.03.2014 - 23:56 Permalink
Andre, your step-by-step description was very helpful. It's definitively the tool I was looking for. I've tried all the ones that we usually find by searching for "arranger band midi orchestrator composer". The features and scalability for professional use and workflow integration are beyond of what I've seen so far. I've purchased Synfire Pro today.
But I'm aware and know it from other software on this level, like Cubase, Vienna Symphonic Library that it will take me some time to learn and be able to really benefit from all the features. After that, I'll contribute on youtube with step-by-step tutorials for the area of orchestration backing tracks / karaoke orchestration.
Congratulations for this excellent software!
Thomas
So., 23.03.2014 - 21:40 Permalink
Well, after over a year of using Synfire, I'm not sure I'm even half way up Everest yet! But to be fair I'm only a hobbyist and I don't get a great deal of time to spend as a user. But the view from half way up is pretty spectacular too, so just keep climbing!