On Wed, Dec 22, 2004 at 12:20:58PM -0700, Hans Fugal wrote: > I'm interested in rendering some organ works electronically. The first > step of course is to get the music in the computer, e.g. in MIDI > format. > > [...] music is in multiple voices, and I would like to instrument each voice > differently. I have tried recording them one at a time, in an ensemble > style, but even when I follow a metronome it ends up sounding like > trash. I have decided that either I need to work on my ensemble > playing or I am going about it the wrong way. Maybe I should just > record the manuals and try to separate out the parts into separate > tracks as a post-processing task. [...] > > What do you all do in this situation? The same issues naturally apply > to other styles of music as well, e.g. choral or orchestral. --- --- --- For myself as a pianist, I have tried to use a metronome, and then quantization later to move separately recorded parts into sync with each other in time, but the result sounds very mechanical and unsatisfactory. Now I don't use a metronome at all. Instead, I create my own personalized, flexible and variable "metronome" by first recording a "scratch" track via MIDI of the entire piece in at least skeletal, rudimentary form, that I will later mute and eventually dispose of once the other individual voices and tracks are recorded. For that first track I play the entire piece without concern for absolute note-perfect performance. Instead I'm just trying to get the rhythm and "groove," interpretation and expression, the tempo and volume variations of the piece established. I begin the track with a "count off," striking one key of the digital-piano as a drummer would tap his sticks together to get all the performers into the same tempo before everyone begins to play the piece. Later, after I have recorded this crude but expressive scratch track, I record each of its parts individually into separate tracks, one at a time, by accompanying myself as I listen to the first "master" scratch track. It becomes like playing along with another musician instead of trying to follow a metronome, and it is much easier to get comfortable and "in sync" with the tempo, beat and interpretive nuances of one's own master track than with a sterile, overbearing metronome. Then, after all voices and tracks are recorded separately, I mute the first master/scratch track, do a little editing of the MIDI data of the remaining tracks, then play back all of the tracks except the first/master/scratch track and mix and record the digital-audio output. -Steve D Portales, NM US -- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. -Mark Twain ----------------------------------------------------------------
