To Zanarkand

One of the pieces I've been practising on the piano.

Of Monitors and Pianos

Went down to Chappel's of Bond street today to check out Monitor speakers, tested out the HS50Ms and MSP5s. I can't really say which one is better... the HS50s definitely lacked bass, but the rest of it sounded very clear and sharp. The MSP5s on the other hand had a much stronger bass, and a smoother overall sound.

The lady who was demoing them to me also switched on the SW10 subwoofer, dang, that made a BIG difference. Not going to consider that as it's like more than the price of two MSP5s.

So, what next? The HS50Ms are almost a third cheaper than the MSP5s. I guess it's time to save up. I also listened to the MSP7s briefly, but could not hear what's better than the MSP5s.

The thing is, do I actually need a pair of monitor speakers? At the moment, using the VRM box is pretty good on the whole, the main issue I have with headphone mixing is levels. It is really difficult to adjust the relative levels - I rely on a small mono speaker for that at the moment, and would like a proper monitor to at least gauge my levels correctly. Given that apart from speakers, accessories like stands, isolation pads, cabling etc needs to be considered. Expensive hobby, this is.

~ pianos ~

On my way out, I though to try out the Clavinovas. The one I tried was the Yamaha CLPS408PE. And dang, the keybed is sooo good. The sound samples seemed to be very good as well, I thought I was much more expressive on it than my CP33. I think this is because it uses the GH3 keybed, and the RGE sound engine is probably lightyears ahead of my AWM engine. The touch is definitely closer (as I imagine) to my teacher's grand, though probably lighter, and no escapement.

There was also an AvantGrand in the shop but another customer was playing it so next time I visit Chappel's I'll see if I can give it ago.

Keep Moving Forward: Piano Composition.

Again, homework for my compo class. I think I explored too many kind changes to the groove and the changes come upon to sudden.

Finished remix

No audio samples, I'm afraid, but yes I finished up the FF6 remix last night. This little exercise (~40 hours over the last 16 or so days) gave me a lot of though on my instruments, production and composition.


I'll probably write more once we are allowed to post the pieces.

Short summary:
a) I need better melody line instruments - instruments with proper legato for example.
b) I could really do with some monitors and
c) While my harmony is getting up to speed, my humanization sucks bad.

More piano thoughts

Just back from a long walk along the Thames Path. My feet are killing me...

Anyways, I had another piano lesson today, and I'm slowly getting a feel of the differences between my CP33 and my teacher's grand piano. Now that I am quite acquainted with my CP33, I can easily say, it does not feel at all like my teacher's grand piano.

For a start, it does not take much effort at all on my teacher's grand to produce a note, and it is quite difficult for me to play softly on it. The tail end of the sustain on a real grand is also insanely long, unlike the CP33 that tails of pretty rapidly.

I think I'm going to be spending some time soonish looking at Pianoteq, Truepianos or Pianissimo. Pianoteq's sound, from their samples, does not float my boat at all, but I'll reserve final judgement after I've tried it. I like the sound from Truepianos. Pianissimo.... sounds quite clean. Will see how it goes.

EDIT: Pianissimo is out - windows only.

Logic's built-in Binaural plugin - nice!

Been using my lunchtime to work on the my piece for the OCRemix competition, and just used the laptop's audio out for now. Tried the binaural plugin on the master bus today, and once I got in-the-zone adjusting CC values,  I realized with a jerk that OMG, was I working with my headphones unplugged?

Evidently my phones were still plugged in nicely but heck that binaural plugin definitely works. Same effect I get from the vrm box really - obviously without the various room/speaker emulations. Good stuff emagic!

Done arranging, now "humanizing"

I'm using a solo Oboe instrument in Logic to get a mournful kind of sound I feel that is suitable for the start of the song I'm working on the OCRemix compo. Unfortunately, the solo oboe found within the EXS24 is only has two layers (not even velocity layers!), one of which is vibrato and the other non-vibrato.

After fussing around with the sampler - it is actually quite straightforward for the basic needs I require - but I really would not have understood how it work without youtube. Tutorials rock!

In any case, I decided to drop the vibrato layer, and just use one layer, and utilize the pitch shifter mapped to the mod wheel to create a pseudo vibrato. In addition, the default setup only utilizes the velocity of the keypress for the volume over the length of the note; this is not as flexible as I want as I would like to control how the note dies off over time, and not just end abruptly. To combat this issue, I simply remapped the channel pressure to velocity (manually drawn), so I can get a note that I can control vibrato and volume independently. And now I have to go through my other instruments to get custom variants made. GAH!

Don't Look Back: An original Piano Composition

Now, if only I can play it. The section with the chords I can't yet play at speed, but once I can, I'll upload something. My CP33 sounds really good with the pedal down.

Mmm this piano sounds good

I think it's a japanese vsti. Love the tone.

OcRemix: FFVI Compo

http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39840

Oook, looks like I'll take part in this. So I have to finish up my compo home work AND do a remix of one of the tracks. Gonna be busy :3

Saxophone Log: April 2012

Pretty please with this arrangement, I can't believe it only took today an a bit of yesterday evening. I did spend some time waffling about how to arrange this track, as it's kind of.. iconic? For awhile it was a ballad, then blues, then went to bebop, then back to blues again. Gah. I actually set it up so that some bars from the original were removed in order to fit the 12-bar blues feel.

I started recording once I had the drums, pad and basslines down. After recording, I tweaked the bassline to flow better with the melody, added in some tambourines starting from the 2nd chorus, and added a counter melody on top. I'm quite happy with how the counter melody turned out, as I played the main portion just once, and that's what you hear.

Apart from Addictive Drums, all the instruments used were built into Logic Studio.

It is practice, isn't it?

Due to my holidays, and various illnesses (damn you dry cough) I didn't touch my dear alto till today. And damn, it appears that my embouchure has suffered greatly in these few weeks >.>

Apart from tiring easier, I think my articulation and dynamics took a turn for the worse.

On the flip side, I though my improvisation is now much better - most likely due to the piano practice. More ideas, though really, I need to memorize the scales.

Ah well.

Equator D5s

Thinking of getting monitors, mainly the Yamaha MSP5 Studio. An alternative is the Equator D5.

Piano Pedaling and musings

Had another piano class on Saturday, that went pretty well. I brought in a piece of game music I've been practising on, and evidently I had zero idea on how to work the piano's sustain pedal, short of holding it down. Permanently.

One the CP33, it is now quite obvious that the sustain diminishes quite rapidly, so I don't hear how each bars clash as badly as when I played on an upright or my teacher's grand. Evidently, I needed to disengage/engage the sustain pedal so that the previous notes don't clash with the currently played notes. It is not as simple as I thought as one needs to lift the pedal, versus pushing it down, to disengage it. Kinda non intuitive physical action. Still, I got it for simple chord changes, and I'm working on the pieces.

(As a side note, now that I've got the CP33, it is very obvious the keybed ISN'T even close to my teacher's grand. Weighted it is, but in terms of feel.... no.)

I think this is another example of where a teacher comes in - instantly he told me what I needed to do etc. What's best was when he played the score first time round straight. Man, how many years of experience does one need to do that?!

In other news, during my visit home I brought back two of my Jamie Aebersold books, currently reading one during my break, it's Volume 1: How to play Jazz and Improvize! I found this, and another aebersold book about major/minor scales amidst a bunch of flute books. I'd bring the flute books back to the UK as well but then reminded myself I just do not have the time for it. Plus I've given up the flute anyways. But that's a story for another day.

Going through How To Play Jazz and Improvise NOW, versus 5, 6 years ago when I had ZERO idea of music theory is a big, big difference. I can actually follow along with the text, and when he says Dorian mode, I actually know what it is lol.

I must admit after this holiday jaunt, I'm slightly at a loss of what to do/practice for the musical side of things. I think for the sax, what I'll do is continue doing the improvisation book, and work on this How To Play Jazz and Improvise at the same time. Should keep me busy.

Totally forgot I had a Keystation at home

Many, many years ago, I dabbled in music, and had this idea of learning the piano, so got a Keystation 61es for practice. Back home on hols and totally forgot about it >.>

Dragged it out today, and the semi-weighted keys felt like synth action keys. No matter, this is for practice anyways, and saves me time heading over to Yamaha or Cristofori to rent a piano for an hour.

Plugging it into my mac instantly had it running, though I could not get it to work with Garageband for some reason - had to use Logic. I also have a Roland DP-2 pedal, a cute little thing that works well in cramped areas.

In use, the semi weight keys were actually quite good, it definitely does have a fair amount of weight. As I type this, I'm feeling the workout my fingers got from it. Definitely does not have the weighted feel of the CP33, but in my newbie opinion, this is a pretty good set of keys for the money.

Looks like next time I come home, I need not bring along my Akai LPK25 anymore :)

No sax, still got keys

On hols, no saxophone with me, but there are music places that rent out pianos an hour. Got to practice on an upright for an hour. The particular model of upright I got I definitely did not like the tone, sounds very brittle. Also, it was quite difficult to play softly, and the sustain pedal just went on forever. Not sure if it's because if it's an upright or just the brand (which I have no idea). My CP33 definitely reminds me of my teacher's Yamaha Grand, this one was totally out of my range.

Currently working through self-assigned homework, just finished several pages of background rhythm lines, next up will be smooth voice leading for chords.

Chord Progressions: Putting it all together

Another composition class tonight that went very well, and my teacher got me to finish up a full chord progression after. The above took about 2-ish hours.

Learning Piano Handbook

http://www.pianopractice.org/ Just found this, gotta go through it soon :)

The Wind, The Stars | Redux

For some reason, I didn't use the one "pro" sample library that I have, EWQL Symphonic Orchestra. And one of my friends suggested replacing the synthy choir sounds (his words, not mine :P) with perhaps a bass clarinet.

I gave that a go, and also tried out bassoons, clarinets and other deeper woodwinds, and did find the bass clarinet to be the best fitting.

This is also my first outing with Symphonic Orchestra, and apart from some interface issues with PLAY that I may want to spend time asking forums about, it all went quite smoothly. CPU time went up a bit, as well as ram usage, but on the whole it seemed very tame.

The flute does remind me of how a real flute reacts (from my limited flute experience) - cutting through the mix in the higher registers, and more mellow in the lower registers.

In the context of the song above though, I'm not convinced the flute works that well - in the higher register portion of the song, it feels very thin, while the lower notes do sound big, nice and fat.

Also fooled around with limiting, but decided to bypass it in the end as the mix sounded very forced.


Will do better next time!

Mastering

Booo!
Just finished listening to the podcast at http://simplyrecordingpodcast.com/self-mastering/ about mastering, and learned a lot more about the tools I got in Logic. Tools that I should have used but have no idea about.

Bwa.

For example, the Limiter. Never touched it, and I applied it to The Wind, The Stars. Seems to bring up the softer bits and increased the gain so that it's near 0dB.

More to learn, more to learn.