Fugue No. 2

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

Fugue No. 1

I have no idea how I wrote this thing.

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.

Stretto No. 1 & 2

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

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.

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

3 Part Invention | Minor No. 2

Woo, my teacher is pretty impressed with this piece, and he wants to put up the score on his website. Wooooooot!

3 Part Inventions | Minor No. 2

2nd invention in minor! Definitely a big step forward.

3 Part Inventions | Minor No. 1

Eeee just started on inventions in minor, spent loads of time smoothing out the lines and checking, hope it goes well :)

3 Part Inventions | Major No. 5

The motif sounds very familiar, I hope I'm not ripping someone's melody off. But in any case, there's zero chance we're writing the rest of the invention the same way :D

Invention Major No. 4

  Pretty pleased with how this piece turned out, and decided to just run the finale midi output through Logic.

3 Part Inventions | Major No. 4

3 Part Inventions | Major No. 3

Got rid of as many unwanted 6/4 chords as possible; made the playing range actually playable on the piano with only two hands. Woo!

Star of the County Down | Tin Whistle

I found this lovely tune that seems to be very well played on the tin whistle, this is my arrangement.

3 Part Inventions | Major No. 2

Went a bit long on this piece, so I stopped just after the 3rd page :-/ Because it was so long, I used some double counterpoint so I won't have to write all those lines. Lazy eh?

Best Service.de

Had chocolate included in my order :D Thanks so much :D

3 Part Inventions | Major

3 part invention, in major. Whew.

Ode to a whistle

Whew, this piece (my homework from last week) took awhile to sequence and mix due to my schedule at work heating up. Only managed to do bits and pieces over the week and finally got a big chunk of evening free today so decided to finish it.

Learnts lots from this little sequencing piece, for example:

VSL Flute, Solo Violin and Solo Cello
Learnt how to use the performance intervals. Like man, they are soooo awesome. For the flute, I was beginning notes with the portato patch for a stronger attack, then switching over to the performance legato patch for smooth transitions.

On the violin and cello, I attempted to apply the same idea but it felt really static. Experimenting with using the performance portamento patch helped somewhat, but it tended to jump out at me. What I think made it work was to use the portamento patch only for note changes up to a tone in distance; it gave an improved sense of life and yet still be smooth and not too earcatching.

Kontakt
Used my Zoom H1 to record various sounds; breath noises, chair creakings and coughs.
Audacity was then used to clean up any noise (very little, the Zoom H1 is amazing!) and chop up the bits and pieces into usable .wave chunks. Thank you audacity team!
Finally, all these were brought into Kontakt and laid out. If you got a good set of headphones, you may hear these artificial artifacts.

Custom IR
I captured a custom IR for use with this piece. It's not a 4 channel impulse like what's in the vienna suite, but I made it and I like it :P

Mixing
Mixing was as usual. I had major trouble setting up my spatial acoustics. Today, I decided to check my "final mix" with my Shure SE215 IEMs (and Grado SR80s). Not expecting much, but holy dang, everything jumped out at me. Levels, spatial placement; everything was WRONG.

I then re-mixed with the Shures, and was delighted to be able to find out how much I needed to put the levels for my ER and tails so that the instruments sat in a space I wanted, and I could eq off the highs off the strings and their 'verbs waaay easier.

After the remix I felt that everything didn't sound as boomy and cluttered as before. Maybe because I pushed the two stringed instruments waaay back in the mix, but there are still there to provide a textural bed for the flute to float on.

One other thing I've noticed is that the music is originally composed on piano staves (though the melody was composed first on an irish whistle) with no thought for instrumentation. I think I would actually prefer the flute to be playing higher up in its range where it becomes more sweet, and not so warm and mid-rangey. Something to think about, since the violin and cellos are pretty close as well. On the master bus's EQ, it was all mid range frequencies, no super highs and the lows were remarkably clear.

It's time for bed, I'm so tired.

FX with convo reverbs.

Hunting for a low cost way to generate my own impulses, and found this great tutorial that not only shows a means of creating your own impulses, but also how convolution reverbs can be used for as effects. Very cool :)

Sequencing and double counterpoint

3 part counterpoint, with 12 bars in the middle demonstrating double counterpoint. Very last bar should be a G and Bb (Gm), not G and D (G5 open).