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easy orchestral..easy made

Posted

http://soundcloud.com/janamdo/easy-orchestral

Nice to experiment with the intro and harmonies: subtle chord movements with chord variants

I used here the intro from the orchestral and experiment with the phrases and Chord varinants and relative scale ( Cmajor versus A minor )

https://soundcloud.com/#janamdo/chordcontrastoef  

 


Sat, 2013-01-19 - 23:37 Permalink

Hey Janamdo - That's a very lovely piece.. All your questions and hard work are paying off.  I especially liked the action in the middle of the piece. 

Sun, 2013-01-20 - 00:34 Permalink

Thanks Mark
Nice to hear you like it !

The middle of the arangement are strings more subtle and this could be further enhanced ( easy to do with Synfire i think ) 
Yes, it seems to that i have had enough questions in the past with some tough issues ( but luckily  i am used to it when it becomes not that easy) ,  and reading post on the forum can reinforce the knowledge about Synfire further.

I am leaving my idea to compose from scratch by inputting the notes self : it should love that and than is Synfire really for Eternity.
Unfortanely Synfire is not ready for this yet..i hope it will ever in the future. ( if technically possible ?)
On this way i can build up knowledge by lessons more. 

I am using the Yamaha style now as basis for a arrangement : if they are composed by professionals than they have a good quality and to learn from..important.

Synfire has so some much to offer in terms of handling the musical objects to explore ideas and learning to deal for instance with harmonies... further you can focus more on different aspects of composing.

 

 

Sun, 2013-01-20 - 05:25 Permalink

I like what you have posted! Good work. Did you use Yamaha styles as basis for this orchestral? You chose the harmony or did you use Synfire suggestions?

 

Keep up the good work.

Musically,

Eduardo

Mon, 2013-01-21 - 15:31 Permalink

Thanks

Yes i used a Yamaha style for this orchestral...16 instrumenst in this midi
The styles comes also with different songsections ( e.g intro A, Intro B )..especially for the mainsections can you use than different sections to give the arrangement enough variation and harmony variation.

I choose also harmonies by myself, a subject before you master this complete, this you must first practice and understand ( i think) before you can let do it by Synfire.
A good point to realize from you Eduardo.. let Synfire also work to get a nice sounding harmony as alternative for your own designed progression.

The yamaha styles are composed by professional musicians, so they have quality and you can use this at your advantage.

I give the Synfire file ..than you get a better idea from it can hopefully stimulate your creativity 
Try out different sections by select one with mouse and use the down/up arrow to get it on the bottom to make it a playable section.

Section B (copy) what Mark likes..you can drag the whole section to the library for other uses
Also you can extend this section with a other chordprogression.

Use the chordruler to see the overall harmony of the whole arrangement ..it is not the same harmony as used in the rootcontainer  where all starts ( compare this ).
The harmony is applied in the songsections containers and the chordruler reflects this.

For instance the intro has small intro A and later on a intro B ( for variation) and i go from Am --> C with all sorts of C chord variants ( triads, sevenths , ninths ) ..this all for variation.
You can imagine that you can make in this intro also functional substitutions too ( i did not ).. by replacing the C ( tonic ) with a iii or vi chord but has the same function as the C chord but not as strong as the original C.

Another interesting feature is when you are working with chords that Synfire has  "matching chords to a given key "
When in the instrument tab view .. you select the harmony parameter in the parameter column and parameter inspector screen is be seen at the right.. when you click on the Ext button( chord Extension )..you see at the top
"Matching current(key) "..from there you can choose alternative chords what fits in the present key.

The main sections have a I -V -I  movement ..more subtle should be a I -IV-V-I ? but I-V -I is a strong movement as the primairy triads
Modulation can also be applied for contrast .. so with this arrangement you can try out different ideas

I hope other people can use this about building up a arrangment with a Yamaha style ! ...there a lot of them floating around on internet so you can build a huge library from them.

 

 

Tue, 2013-01-22 - 19:11 Permalink

Thanks!


Now only try get audio in the arrangement for more versitale arrangments   

Sun, 2013-02-03 - 19:27 Permalink

Thanks!


The drums are included in the stylesections.. so it is a matter of combine them at your taste.
But in this arrangement the FX tracks are brought to the foreground combined with the drumming and add a extra voice sound for the mood.
First idea was to do something with automation, but this also acceptable 


And ofcourse some chords progressions changed ( i like to do this in real time while the sections are looping, but don't know yet how to do that: see Question on forum ) 


Composing on this way you can only do this with the versatile Synfire P/E ( Cubase cannot compete with Synfire) 

Tue, 2013-02-05 - 16:42 Permalink

Another exercise to do more with the saxophone : http://soundcloud.com/janamdo/fate-beat


Unfortanley there is not yet control in Synfire E what i can master for the articulation off the saxophone like in Cubase used with a dedicated controller lane.


I must investigate this more and there is hardly functional movement of the chords and i am not really satisfied with this    

Fri, 2013-02-08 - 15:17 Permalink

Hi janamdo, any chance you could help a Synfire noob and post the cognacs? I'm still tryng to feel at home with containers.

Fri, 2013-02-08 - 22:13 Permalink

Thanks for that. I guess I'm trying to figure out the advantgages of having several containers for each song section as opposed to just the one.

Fri, 2013-02-08 - 23:40 Permalink

All the songsections numbering A, B, C, D ..  are here variations on one songsections pattern
Therefore i stack them in a column than i can chance them in a loop for listening.
You know that you can have a container and drag the containers in them ? ..and collaps the container and reopen it again


So for collecting the songsections you can drag them first in a Container A and make a first song structure  line up


Now you must pull out the sections B,C,D out of section A and stack them vertical for listening  in a loop , while you select the section and position it to the bottom ( you know the vertical order is important for containers : bottom container is the "playing container"


How you do this ..is up to you and look at what Synfire has to offer for all those container positioning


For example :  i made a songsection from several containers and than i "grouped "the containers..to get a songsection and made a copy from it and add a extra harmony container  to get a different songsection than the one where i made a copy from it


 


 


  


 

Fri, 2013-02-08 - 23:48 Permalink

You must find out what works for you the best
But the workflow i used can be a general workflow :


Make a songstructure and add variations in the songsections and try combine them to a musical result
Overlapping songcontainers are also powerful or extensions of them


Container variation ( songsection) can be bypass a sound or adding one ..or play you own , to name something 


   

Sat, 2013-02-09 - 10:29 Permalink

Hi Bagatell


How is it going working with the containers


Can you dechiper the cognac file I started a joke ?

Sat, 2013-02-09 - 11:20 Permalink

I have the general idea. I just need time some more time with Synfire - I've only been using it for a few days. I'll get there!

Sat, 2013-02-09 - 13:10 Permalink

There is a root container where all starts with.. start(keep it) simple ..start with adding a new container to the rootcontainer as start and than as next exercise use the songpointer to get a new container added to the rootcontainer where you want on a position of the measure time line.


Most important for a arrangement with container is that to be able to hear a container you must use the lowest container in the arrangment screen.


Set the snap to 1/1 to get whole measures and it is now more easy to get the right length of a container if you extend/schrink the container by mouse.
Repositioning a container on the measuretime line is becoming more easy now , because it "snapped" to the whole measures positions of the measure line ( timeline )


Another step is to select a number of containers ( CTrl + Mouse ) and drag it to a position ( better with  Left and right controls of keyboard )

Note:
i do miss a Shift + Mouse command for container to select a first container and a last container  and than all containers between are also automaticlly selected ( like in Windows for working with WORD)


 


Enclosed a example file


  

Tue, 2013-02-12 - 00:33 Permalink

Again  a  piece of music : Harppianoballad  and now with the new MUX vst plugin for the harppiano , GM sounds and native HALion4 sound ( gitar)
Further a  control parameter for Harppiano and a modulation from C major to Aminor  ( relative minor ? )   
http://soundcloud.com/janamdo/harppianoballad

Thu, 2013-02-14 - 22:49 Permalink

Again practising with the circle of fifth for doing modulations : a tough subject ( for me ) and beware on the V chord what is leading to the tonic to estabilish the new key ...on closely versus distantly related keys
Study the video from Cognitone about this subjcet ..meticulously.

I do have graphical problems with Synfire when using the palettes and the circle diagram ( i did now a reinstall for windows 7 64 bit , but it make no difference)
Too much clicking on the circle of fifth diagram makes that the mousecursor is going to flicker and the palette is no responsive anymore.

I use 32 bit true color with 2 screens together --> I think the combinition of Synfire with this makes it too much for the 4 processors..strange enough the cpu usage in a tool on my desktop shows no high  usage ?

Nasty  problem again with the computer crap    

 

Thu, 2013-02-14 - 22:49 Permalink

A test music section made with MUX ( top notch soundquality ) on all tracks http://soundcloud.com/janamdo/from-09-piano-to-accordion-mid  to hear MUX and learn to deal with it more ( but there is more under the hood)  

- Modulations is a rather complicated method to perform in Synfire ..so it takes time to master this
I should like to experiment quick from Gm to ..but that is rather difficult to perform in Synfire
There are 3 situations : from sorce key...iV-V-I(target key)  and from sourcekey....V-I( targetkey) and weaker modulation  without IV and V as pivot chords   

Enclosed a cognac file where i cannot get a volume fade out from bar 17 to 25 : how to do this basic task?

Atferthoughts...
Can not do it volume fadeout for the whole section at once seems? ..so i take one volume fadeout for a track and copy the volume parameter to the other tracks.
Further i need to practice with the modulations. 

Question: Is there someone who can modulate with the circle of fifth ?.. i don't get it working in Synfire Express

 

Sun, 2013-03-03 - 21:38 Permalink

Hi Janamdo

 

 

Check out this site for brass: (http://samplemodeling.com/en/index.php)

 

The only problem (slight) is they have to run on Kontakt 3.5  and some on Kontakt 4.    I haven't bought em, but I'm blown away by the realistic quality of them..  Intricate articulations may best be left for your DAW.  Unless Cognitone puts in more intricate control of CC events, velocity, low/high octaves etc. But then we get back to the re-inventing the DAWl scenario. 

 

It is a bit of a process to work on a piece, knowing that certain aspects will have to be dealt with later in another program.  With time, we will all get used to it.. I can nor function comfortably fixing one insrument even though another instrument may have notes, or a riff that I know I do not want to end up with. 

 

It would be a luxury to have SFP/SFE control all those parameters, but I think the orignal intent of Cognitone was to do prototyping and not creating an all in one package. 

Sun, 2013-03-03 - 22:36 Permalink

Hi Mark


Thanks for you thinking about this important subject of articulations in Synfire.
Ofcourse is Synfire a awesome program for protoyping!


To get a realistic library for classical articulations is no problem for me...


For the steep price of Synire Pro ..you may aspect that you can do articulations for modern and classical music..yes Synfire pro can, but can this be improved? 
For Synfire Express i like to see a basic level of articulation for popmusic ( bass, guitar .. ) and i like to the idea to have this graphical ..the controlling of the articulation like in Cubase is be present in Synfire P/E too ( i am modest..me? )
( Cubase is now improving their score editor in a way comparable of that of  doing articulatiuons in Finale or other  editors, so than it becomes very easy for composing too. )


Although i own Cubase what is capable in the future to compose ( when the score editor is improved and get a overhaul)
I like the do the articulation in Synfire Express too..if Cognitone comes up with a graphical articulation editor (like Cubase) it becomes the best composing program to use ever.


 


 


 


 


 

Mon, 2013-03-04 - 20:50 Permalink

 


Interesting sax instruments, but is needed a windcontroller for playing this ?



Check out this site for brass: (http://samplemodeling.com/en/index.php)


If the windcontroller can control the articulations of the sax in HALion 4 ..in real time recording on a easy way than i need also a controller for the articulations for a guitar/bass etc.


The cheapest solution is, if Synfire Express can express it self more with articulation and probabably is it a mixture of using a windcontroller and a editor what works the best. ( i don't want spent now 350 euro on a windcontroller )  


:)

Mon, 2013-03-04 - 21:31 Permalink

You can play the samplemodeling software in 'studio time'.. That is first pass you lay down the notes, then in overdubs, you add more controllers.. Basically you do two or three more passes or hand edit in particular articulations or effects you would like.. 

 

It of course does make use of a wind controller, which gives it the most controllers available in live time.  

 

I wish it had a demo available.. It is the most realistic brass sound out there,