Hi Steve, Your advice was invaluable, and it worked quite well. Thanks! Here's the fruit of my labors: Yet Another (Christmas) Recording. I recorded Bach's BWV 608 which is a fugal treatment of In Dulci Jubilo. I played this last week on the organ in church with the help of another in the congregation that has a really neat homegrown MIDI trumpet thing and portable sound module/amp. (He did the pedal line) This recording was mostly an excercise. It was made in Rosegarden using Hexter for the solid gold DX7 sounds, with a few LADSPA plugins thrown in for spice, mixed down with the help of JACK Timemachine and Audacity (it was too late to figure out Jamin and Ardour this time). I hope you enjoy the DX7 treatment of Bach's arrangement. http://hans.fugal.net/music/in_dulci_jubilo.ogg And if you don't celebrate Christmas... it's still a nice tune. As always, I welcome feedback. On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 10:54:38 -0700, Steve D <groups@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > -- De gustibus non disputandum est.
