Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Fugue No. 2



This time, the counter-subject is properly harmonized with the subject - unlike last week's which had octaves :D

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Stretto No. 3 and 4


Pretty please with No. 4, all lines are smooth and melodic, and stretto comes in the bar before the melody cadences at a perfect fifth up.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Stretto No. 1 & 2


Beginning the study of Fugue with stretto. No. 1 appears to be very, very wrong.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

To Zanarkand | 2013

Due to life changes, I'm getting rid of lots of stuff I can't move, and my piano is one of those that won't make the cut (My sax makes the cut :P)

This is also played back with Pianoteq Stage. Given the amazing co-incidence of namm special offers and pay day, I thought it was time to get it.

The particular setting I'm using is the D4 Intimate setting, which, to my ears allows the lower register to not be so upfront. The velocity curve is also a custom curve downloaded from the Pianoteq site - fits very well with the CP33.

Mixing it was quite difficult though, as there were very big differences in dynamic range from the softly played parts and the f-ff parts. Didn't want to go the compressor route, so decided to just give a gain of +8 for the whole piece, and rode the faders for those parts that peaked 0dbfs. Reverb is just VSL Convo.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

AvantGrand :3

I popped over to Chappels of Bond Street during lunch today to hopefully try the new NU1, but didn't see it, so tried out the AvantGrand instead.

Compared to my teacher's C3, I felt the keys were lighter. Not necessarily bad, just different. It felt amazing under my paws though, definitely a big step forward from my CP33, and I felt I could pull more dynamic range out of it.

The speakers on it didn't seem to generate the kind of bass I'd expect from a grand - my teacher's C3 sounds way bigger, but it is impossible to compare since they are in totally different acoustic environments.

I was testing the AvantGrand with To Zanarkand, the only piano piece I've committed to memory. As luck would have it, there was a fellow final fantasy fan in shop (from Norway!) - and I was wearing my distant worlds shirt as well :D