How nice to wake up to a bunch of replies - thanks fellas.
Now, I should respond to some of the comments.
Herr Voigt
I can't take any credit for the composition, only my interpretation of it.
As I said it's a cover of Secret Garden's "Reflection" from the White Stones album.
If you like their music have a look here
http://www.secretgarden.no/lowband/fs_f ... eling.html
I'll comment on the other bits a bit later on.
Jimmy V
quote: "So that is what GPO sounds like"
Well, that is what it sounds like in a beginners hands!
I'm working on another track with it and own up to starting with a GM midi file, but I'm developing it bit by bit.
If you fancy a listen to it (unmixed, unfinished) click here
www.tonaleffects.co.uk/minuet.mp3
Back to Herr Voigt:
quote
" I think in the middle part the string orchestra covers the piano a little bit, I would take the strings 3-4 dB down. Sometimes (at the beginning of a new phrase) they sound a bit hard. Try to smoothen the attack.
Did you choose a sound with damped violins?
What about engaging a real violinist for the solo part?
The piano is ok, it could be played with a bigger dynamic range, sometimes I would wish to hear a softer sound with a smoother attack, too. When you play the piano part on a good Steinway or so, you will hear the different attack between piano and forte. "
If you have GPO I used the following for the track
Violin 1 Gagli solo
Vlns 1 sus-short mutes
Steinway Piano
Cellos Lush
Now the thing I'm getting my head around with GPO is the fact that cc1 controls the timbre and volume on many of the samples.
I'm trying to balance this against the velocity too.
I have to thank Shroomz massively for his VM1 device, else this track would still sound like the screams of a very short nun at a penguin cull
So it's been a matter of experimenting between velocity and modulation/timbre/volume.
For each instrument I had to find the right point to start in terms of capturing the mood with the timbre. This is where the VM1 really helped.
The strings sounded very wooden with a constant velocity but had the right "feel" overall. So what I did was use cc1 curves (drawn into Cubase after) to create swells. In a sense I used a low cc1 as a slow attack and then reversed this on alternate chords for a decrescendo.
I'm sure that over time I'll find the right way to do it, but this seemed to work well enough.
Yes, later in the track the string section is much harsher, but on the original by Secret Garden it too is a much fuller sound and I suspect it contains synth pads layered in too.
The piano was a bit of a cop out to be fair, settling for a velocity that sat nicely, without varying it too much. I used the VM1 to fix the velocity initially then edited some of the notes afterwards. The feel of my midi keyboard doesn't allow maestro style playing at perfect velocity.
So all in all that was the learning bit of GPO.
It was nice to use so few instruments (as opposed to my usual stuff) so I could concentrate on trying to get a good clear mix. I was quite happy with that part of the experiment.
Thanks again guys for the comments to date.
