compose a symphony

Got started at mixing over the weekend. I have to start from scratch, since the tempo shifting caused a lot of my mod wheel and pedal events to be in the wrong place.

I learned a lot mixing Odd Quartet for the RPM Challenge ‘08, so I should be able to do a decent job this time around.

Over the last week I managed to shift all my events to half speed, then double the tempo so everything comes out write when I do notation.

I also went in and fiddled with the tempo automation where needed, so everything’s pretty much the same, but the notation comes out right now.

This messed up a lot of the modwheel and pedal positioning, but I will need to redo that anyway as I go through the mixing process.

So, on with the mixing!

I went through yesterday and did some cleanup in the move of my first movement from Garageband to Logic. In the version of GB I was using at the time, I had no tempo automation, so I just played rubato to get a ritardando when I wanted one.

Now that I have tempo automation, I needed to go through and fix all those events to be correct at tempo, so I can go through next and use tempo automation for my ritard.

Now that I’m done with RPM ‘08, I’m going to get back to my symphony. The good news is I learned a lot about balancing, mixing, and tweaking Garritan Personal Orchestra when I wrote “Odd Quartet” during RPM, so I should better be able to tackle this one.

In 2008 I plan to hit my symphony hard, starting with polishing off the first movement. It’s been note-complete for more than two years. With Logic (instead of GarageBand) I can play the MIDI controls on my Trigger Finger in real-time without changing the notes, so I should be able to make at least the first movement happen.

Next up will probably be the third movement, since I have all the major themes written for that one, and it will also be the shortest movement.

I just bought a second copy of Garritan Personal Orchestra for my new machine, and also picked up Jazz and Big Band. Once those arrive I’ll get to polishing off the first movement.

I’ve been using Garritan Personal Orchestra on my G4. I bought Logic Studio Pro recently for my MacBook Pro. I decided to see how things would sound with the orchestra JamPack samples instead of GPO.

GPO uses the mod wheel for controlling the “volume” meaning volume but also picking a different set of samples to cover the changes in sound between playing the instrument loud instead of soft.

With some help from the Apple Store folks, I figured out how to open the samples in the EXS sampler, then assign the modulation to cover sample selection.

My dynamics work, but the sound is still nowhere near as natural as the GPO sound. I think the JamPack library is probably not as good. (No surprise—it’s a lot cheaper, and seems to be designed more for backing sounds than full-scale orchestral simulation.)

I may break down and get another GPO license for my MacBook Pro. Or I may just export each intrument dry on the G4, then master all the AIFFs in Logic.

I have an overall artistic concept for the entire piece.
I have a first movement that is note-complete, but I’m still working on the mixing of things. I have published to the web a short song (Beyond) that will provide one of the main themes for the second movement. I’ve sketched a little dance and a second theme for a third movement. I have published to the web (Summoned!) a piece for band that I can expand into a fourth movement if I add another theme.