Eleanor Rigby My First Track With Notion

[benmmustech]

Ok as promised:

Ok after fooling around for the last month with my new score/orchestral instrument I have finished my first tune.

http://soundcloud.com/aaudiomystiks/eleanorrigby

I decided to start with The Beatles classic Eleanor Rigby, this was because I had the score (so I thought, The Complete Beatles Score has so many mistakes and it came with no articulation or dynamic markers so I had to really interpret what I had, this includes all the articulation, staccato notes, dynamics and fix the mistakes as I saw fit). I also decided on this track because it is pretty simple compared to some classical music.

I tried singing the vocal part but because my voice has dropped half a semi-tone I just couldn't hit the notes, I tried importing the track into Reaper to use the Varispeed button just as The Beatles had done so many times when they could not hit the high notes, no luck. The rhythm of the vocal melody line was just too hard, it didn't help that when I programmed the vocal part as a piano line, so I had something to pitch to, was full of mistakes. I gave up.

But that left me with a giant hole in the track without that melody line the track sounded hollow, so I decided to find some sort of vocal synth, something along the lines of the 9th by Beethoven and Clockwork orange.

I found this excellent free synth, the only problem it kept crashing Sonar, this is not a Sonar problem but a free VSTi problem. I couldn’t even freeze or save the track without the whole program crashing, I even tried 8.5 and the synth did not even work, no sound.

In the end I bounced the track out of one of my external outputs, put a bit of tube compressor over the top and bingo.

In the end I am pleased with the results, there are a couple of dud notes maybe you can pick them but I like the track it feels crazy with the synth vocal line almost post modern, ok pretentious wank, I hope you like and enjoy.

Peace Ben

[Surfwhammy]

I decided to start with The Beatles classic Eleanor Rigby, this was because I had the score (so I thought, The Complete Beatles Score has so many mistakes and it came with no articulation or dynamic markers so I had to really interpret what I had, this includes all the articulation, staccato notes, dynamics and fix the mistakes as I saw fit). I also decided on this track because it is pretty simple compared to some classical music.

I like the strings, and they sound realistic, but the synthesizer melody does not work for me . . .

You might be in need of the same epiphany I had a few years ago, which is that you probably are a baritone or tenor, hence attempting to sing soprano is not going to work . . .

For reference, I learned how to sing and sight-read treble clef as a soprano when I was in a liturgical boys choir, but I did not realize in any immediately conscious way that my voice had changed over the years until about half a century later, which is a bit mind-boggling, since one might expect that most folks realize they are baritones or tenors reasonably quickly, as contrasted to taking half a century, but I never gave it much attention and just presumed that I was a soprano, really . . .

Really!

Lennon was a tenor or perhaps a baritone, and McCartney is a tenor, and while McCartney continues to be able to do some amazing falsetto high notes, he continues to be a tenor, although perhaps with alto tendencies, if there is such a thing as a male alto . . .

Regarding synthesizers, there is a free version of SampleTank (IK Multimedia) that is the full-featured complete engine, and it has approximately 500MB of sound samples, which you download separately, and it is available in Mac and Windows versions . . .

SampleTank FREE (IK Multimedia)

XLN Audio has a free version of Addictive Drums, and it works nicely with NOTION 3, which is handy when you need a drumkit . . .

Addictive Drums FREE (XLN Audio)

Both of these are VSTi virtual instruments, and they are "heavy", which is the way I classify all VSTi virtual instruments that have a standalone user interface, so there are limits to how many you can have in a NOTION 3 score, which is due to NOTION 3 being a 32-bit application . . .

The way I work around the general limitation--which specifically is from 20 to 25 "heavy" VSTi virtual instruments per NOTION 3 score--is to have a set of synchronized NOTION 3 scores, where each one has perhaps five (5) common staves for reference purposes (kick drum, piano chords, piano playing the simple melody, and whatever), while the other 15 to 20 staves are for the next set of "heavy" VSTi virtual instruments, and doing it this way makes it possible to have as many as 500 to 1,000 "heavy" VSTi instruments for a song, which maps approximately to as many as 50 synchronized NOTION 3 scores, where I identify each score by appending a sequential number to the name of the file (for example, "Song-PT1.notion", Song-PT2.notion", . . . "Song-PT50.notion") . . .

I do everything on the Mac, but the same general rule applies to Windows machines, since NOTION 3 is a 32-bit application on both operating system platforms (Mac, Windows) regardless of whether the operating system itself is running in 32-bit or 64-bit mode . . .

After doing a series of experiments, I decided that for me the best strategy is to use IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments, so I start with a NOTION 3 score which has 25 "heavy" IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments, and once I have its structure and basic rhythm section working the way I desire, this becomes "Song-PT1.notion", and then when I need another 20 instruments, I do a "Save As" and name it to "Song-PT2.notion", followed by replacing 20 of the instruments with other instruments, except that since the instruments actually are SampleTank, SampleMoog, Miroslav Philharmonik, SampleTron, or Sonik Synth, I just change the selected sound sample to whatever new instrument I need, and then I adjust the notes or clear the staff and input new notes . . .

[NOTE: More recently, I have added Kontakt (Native Instruments) VSTi virtual instruments, so I use Kontakt stuff, which also are "heavy" with respect to the total number of instruments per NOTION 3 score . . . ]

Everything is synchronized, because five (5) of the staves always are the exactly the same for all the cloned NOTION 3 scores, and they are used only for reference purposes so that I know the various sections of the song, beat, basic chords, simple melody, and so forth . . .

And I record everything in Digital Performer 7.24 (MOTU) as "soundbites" via ReWire, so NOTION 3 controls the audio generation, which is done by the various IK Multimedia and Kontakt virtual instruments, but it is recorded in the Digital Audio Workstation as soundbites via ReWire . . .

This way, I can switch back and forth from (a) doing stuff via music notation and virtual instruments in NOTION 3 to (b) recording real instruments and voices in Digital Performer 7.24, and I do all the effects work in the DAW application (Digital Performer 7.24), because there is more available application workspace in the DAW for VST effects plug-ins, since the NOTION 3 generated audio already is there as soundbites, which basically maps to the DAW application not needing to do any audio generation for the virtual instruments, which in turn maps to more available application space for the VST effects plug-ins, but another reason is that by doing the VST effects plug-ins in the DAW application, I can adjust and change the effects later, which is not possible when the effects are done in NOTION 3, since whatever the effects might be doing if they were in NOTION 3 is recorded as part of the soundbites, hence is not easily changed or adjusted after the fact . . .

Also, I do everything dry in NOTION 3, and I peg the volume to 0dB for each instrument track in NOTION 3, which makes it easier to adjust everything once the generated audio is recorded as soundbites via ReWire in the DAW application . . .

The only thing I specifically set as near to what I want as possible in NOTION 3 is the panning location, where it is useful to know that NOTION 3 has true stereo panning, which is a two-part advanced control and is very different from a "balance control", where a "balance control" for a stereo track just raises or lowers the relative volume of the left and right channels but does not do true panning, and this is one of the most important features of the NOTION 3 Mixer in my view, since it makes it very easy to control where instruments are heard in the range of far-left to top-center to far-right, which I generally call the "rainbow panning arc" . . .

Regarding the melody for "Eleanor Rigby", try singing it an octave lower, which might work very nicely . . .

Lots of FUN!

P. S. I think this is an excellent first song in NOTION 3, and for reference it took me approximately five (5) songs to discover the rules for a complete system using NOTION 3 and Digital Performer 7.24, and as I recall the first song took me about 500 hours, since I had to learn a lot of new stuff about music notation, virtual instruments, orchestration, and so forth . . .

NOTION 3 is vastly powerful, and the fact of the matter is that you can do very elaborate and fully orchestrated songs with NOTION 3 and a DAW application, using both virtual instruments and real instruments, as well as singing, for sure . . .

For sure!

[GeorgePaul]

Refreshingly crazy ! Congratulations Ben !

[benmmustech]

Thanks for listening guys, yea Surfwhamy I am going to go back and try singing it an octave lower but I will use the same trick as The Beatles, use the varispeed button in Reaper, this will turn me into Soprano, def I am a baratone but I can sing Tenor.

Peace Ben