Posted
Hello, everyone,
I am still unable to grasp how Synfire works, so I thought I would share a file with some melodic ideas and see what the more experienced musicians can do with it. My idea is to have the song in 5/4, in the key of C major. I am not sure how to proceed from what I have here.
If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. I have the idea that Synfire Express is an extremely powerful tool, but has a steep learning curve. I can't seem to find a way to go from what I know to what I need to know to use the software. Any help would be great!
Joe
Sun, 2025-03-09 - 13:53 Permalink
Your question reminds me that we also need a Melody First tutorial (we already have a Harmony First tutorial). I'll try to describe the steps here as best as possible.
At the beginning, create a container for every part of your song or use the song template that comes with Synfire. Set the root container's Scheme parameter to 5/4.
You can import your melody ideas into each container from a midi file as static pitches (or record or draw them). Simply select the container before you open the import dialog with Phrase >> Import.
Run the harmonizer on the imported Take to find possible chords (if there is no Take parameter, simply drag the Figure parameter to the Take parameter to convert it). Depending on the melody there are many possible chords to choose from. When you apply the result it is saved to the Harmony parameter in the container.
If you want to replace chords later on, which is very likely, you need to convert the static pitch melodies into a dynamic type, so melodies will follow Harmony when you change it (e.g. the horizontal blue symbols). You can do this by running Figure Recognition on the Take. You find it on the parameter inspector when you select the Take parameter. It is essentially the same procedure as with Recording.
Don't despair if the dynamic melodies sound slightly different from the original. This is inevitable as there is no definite "math" that could recreate the exact same notes. Just go with the figure recognition settings that come closest. You can later adjust Interpretation settings and individual accidentals of your melody symbols to get the exact melody you have imported.
Now you have a song structure with (dynamic) melodies and harmony that you can fill with phrases and sounds according to your preferred style. Let us know when you got there. We can continue from there.