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Crossover Music Question

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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Fri Jan 25, 2013 8:44 pm

ConnieR wrote:Thank you to everybody for your replies. ow, Surfwhammy, you really get int oa lot of technical details! I'll have to read your posts through a few more times to make sure I understand everything.


Doing everything in digital music production is a bit complex, but (a) it works and (b) you can do in your sound isolation studio everything that is done in multimillion dollar studios, which makes learning how it all works a productive activity . . .

I am planning to do a video tutorial to demonstrate how to do a basic rhythm section for a Country Western song using a combination of NOTION 4 bundled instruments and the free version of Addictive Drums, which is a VSTi virtual instrument, which is not difficult to do, so check this topic over the weekend, since I am planning to do the video tutorials this weekend . . .

Addictive Drums (XLN Audio)

The difficult aspect is learning all the various technologies, which includes learning how to record real instruments and singing correctly, as well as how to do the mixing and producing correctly, but you need to know these things regardless, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :)
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Re: Crossover Music Question - sound files

Postby scarter » Sat Jan 26, 2013 8:36 pm

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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Mon Jan 28, 2013 9:31 am

I created the first iteration of the basic rhythm section for a new Country Western song for my pretend musical group (The Surf Whammys), and at present the pattern is three verses ("AAA") although the last half of each verse could be considered as a chorus, in which case the pattern is "ABABAB" . . .

All the instruments are NOTION 4 bundled instruments, with the exception of the drumkit, which is the FREE version of Addictive Drums (XLN Audio) and consists of a kick drum, snare drum, and hi-hat, where the general idea is to demonstrate how to use a VSTi virtual instrument, but I also like the way the Addictive Drums drumkits sound, especially the snare drum rimshots when they are pumped a bit and have plenty of reverberation . . .

Addictive Drums FREE (XLN Audio)

This is done with NOTION 4 running in 64-bit mode on a 2.8-GHz 8-core Mac Pro (early 2008) with 20GB of memory running Mac OS X 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion), and the MP3 file was created in iTunes 11.0.1 (12) running in 64-bits . . .

[NOTE: I used some of the T-RackS CS Grand vintage signal processors in NOTION 4 for the MP3 version, but I removed them from the NOTION 4 score that is posted, so you do not need to have T-RackS CS Grand (IK Multimedia) to work with the NOTION 4 score. And for reference, it takes approximately 12 hours to do a basic rhythm section and melody this way when the song is far enough along that I hear it in my mind, where the bulk of the work is focused on fine-tuning the bass, electric guitar counterpoint, and melody, which is fine with me . . . ]

"More Than Enough" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section and Melody -- MP3 (5.4MB, 274-kbps [VBR], approximately 2 minutes and 36 seconds)

I used the NOTION 4 bundled Piano and Techno Synth for the melody, and I like the texture of the Techno Synth, which gives the song an intriguing feel, which for some reason reminds me of "Crimson and Clover" (Tommy James and The Shondells), so I might run the Electric Guitar through a tremolo unit and have a bit of FUN doing some arranging and producing, where it is important to understand that at this point in the development of a song it always is a good idea simply to listen to it for a while, since even though you might hear everything clearly in your mind, it is different when there is music notation and a nice blend of instruments, where the key from the perspective of arranging and producing is to become an expert in the song, which I suggest you can do only if you listen to it over and over for a while, where the general goal is to design and to construct everything to the level of detail of a Fabergé egg, and the fact that the song already reminds me of something is encouraging, even though I am not entirely certain of what it reminds me, although it might be that everything is remarkably simple except for the texture of the NOTION 4 bundled Techno Synth, which I think changes the mode a bit (perhaps adding a Lydian, Dorian, or Aeolian flavor, except that while I hear it, my knowledge of music theory is not so advanced to be able to identify easily what is happening), really . . .

"Crimson And Clover" (Tommy James and The Shondells) -- YouTube music video

Really!

This is the first time I have used the NOTION 4 bundled Electric Bass, and I like the way it sounds (surprisingly nice deep bass TONE with punch), although after listening to it with headphones I need to run it through the T-RackS CS Grand Vintage Tube Program Equalizer EQP-1A to boost the near subsonic TONE . . .

I also like the NOTION 4 bundled Electric Guitar, since among other things I have discovered how to make it sound like a lap steel guitar, although I am not doing any lap steel guitar at present in this song, but there is a bit of whammying, of course. And there is a bit of electric sitar TONE every once in a while, which adds a nice flavor to the song and might be another reason that the song reminds me of "Crimson And Clover", except that "Crimson And Clover" does not have an electric sitar, but so what . . .

So what!

At present, this is a traditional mix with respect to the placement of instruments, where most of the key instruments are centered but with a stereo spread, which works nicely for a basic rhythm section mix, and this is a loudspeaker mix done with the new calibrated full-range studio monitor system at 85 dB SPL, which is one of the reasons the instruments sound "big" . . .

I use 440-Hz as the reference tuning pitch, and if you examine the PDF file for the NOTION 4 score, you will note that I have three staves each for the Kick Drum, Snare Drum, and Electric Bass, where the strategy is to have a set {Left, Center, Right} panned accordingly so that when I record the NOTION 4 generated audio in Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) I have more control of the placement of these key instruments in what I call the "Spherical Sonic Landscape", which also includes the ability to use different types of signal processors (a.k.a., "effects plug-ins") on the different channels, which is yet another way to control the position of instruments, as well as to have a bit of FUN with reverberation, echoes, and other motion effects . . .

[NOTE: NOTION 4 has true stereo panning controls, which is stellar. Digital Performer 8 has stereo balance controls, which are very different from true stereo panning controls, but you can add the MOTU Trim plug-in and this gives you true stereo panning in Digital Performer 8, where the difference is that NOTION 4 does it with one advanced panning control, while it takes two controls to do it Digital Performer 8. And for reference, a stereo balance control only lets you adjust the relative volume levels of the left and right channels. A stereo balance control will not let you swap or interchange the left and right channel panning locations, which is the key difference and is what makes having a true stereo panning control so important when you want to position instruments and singing very precisely within the stereo image, with this being particularly important for having a bit of FUN with the way everything sounds when you listen with headphones . . . ]

Image
NOTION 4 Mixing Board ~ Snare Drum Channels

"More Than Enough" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section and Melody -- Print -- PDF (238KB, approximately 3 really big pages [22" by 35"])

"More Than Enough" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section and Melody -- NOTION 4 Score -- NOTION (1.3MB)

At this point in developing a song I usually record the NOTION 4 generated audio as soundbites in Digital Performer 8 via ReWire 2 and then do the producing for the basic rhythm section, followed by recording the lead vocals, which works nicely . . .

And after doing that I usually hear the parts for a few more instruments, so I might add some real lead guitar and rhythm guitar or perhaps switch to NOTION 4 to add some virtual instruments, and now that interfacing with Reason 6.5 (Propellerhead Software) where music notation on NOTION 4 External MIDI staves controls the Reason 6.5 instruments is working nicely, I can add Reason 6.5 instruments, as well, where the general strategy is to have a well-defined system or "formula" for doing songs, so that everything flows nicely and there are no mysteries regarding the technical aspects . . .

I plan to do a video of the step where I record the NOTION 4 generated audio as soundbites via ReWire 2 in Digital Performer 8, and I probably will include some information on the various general types of signal processing I do with effects plug-ins once the soundbites are recorded in Digital Performer 8 and I switch to mixing and producing, as well as recording real instruments and singing, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :)

P. S. These are the lyrics for the first verse . . .

[1ST VERSE]
More than enough
I give to you
More than enough
You know it's true
You ask me why I never give you all I've got
I answer you, "More than enough is quite a lot"

©2013 RAE Multimedia
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:26 pm

This is a bit of follow-up to your questions, since they are excellent and relevant questions, hence providing more information will be helpful . . .

ConnieR wrote:Hi,
I'm mostly a classical music composer, but I would like to do what I would call "cross-over" music, like music with a country feel, or rock, etc. Sort of like film scores, which combine orchestral and other styles of music, or the instrumental arrangements on some of the country singers' Christmas CD's. My question is this, is Notion suitable for that, or should I look for something different?


As noted in my first reply, NOTION is excellent for these composing activities, especially if one of your goals is to create songs that you can sell on CD or for purposes of marketing your songs to musical groups, directors, and so forth . . .

If the only interest is in composing, per se, then I suppose a pencil and some blank sheet music will work nicely, but with NOTION you get to hear the instruments, which especially for "play by ear" musicians who are venturing into composing in more genres is very important . . .

And for reference, I interpret "I'm mostly a classical music composer" as indicating that you are reasonably proficient with music notation, which is important, since NOTION is a music notation composing program, although if you play a MIDI instrument (keyboard, electric guitar, or electric bass), then you can input music by playing it on a MIDI instrument . . .

On the other hand, if you are new to music notation, then it just takes a bit more work, since you can teach yourself enough music notation to be productive in NOTION, where as an example of a simplified system for doing music notation, I only learned soprano treble clef as a child singing in a liturgical boys choir, so I am reasonably proficient in soprano treble clef but generally have no clue about the other clefs other than that they are weird and either map to entirely different notes than the soprano treble clef or are sufficiently offset to require me (a) to remember offset, (b) to do a real-time mental mapping based on the offset, and (c) to do all (a) and (b) sufficiently fast to make everything happen in a timely way, which is not something I can do at present, hence I avoid it diligently . . .

The strategy I use is based on logic, mathematics, and facts, where there are two very important facts:

(1) There are only 12 notes (C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B) . . .

(2) There are 8 or so octaves, where if you include the subsonic frequencies and some of the nearly supersonic frequencies, there are 10 octaves, more or less, but nearly nobody can hear the lowest octave and the highest two octaves, hence at least for what one might call "popular music" they essentially are irrelevant . . .

[NOTE: I can hear some of the subsonic notes, but I think that the practical upper limit of my hearing is around 13.5-kHz, and notes in that range are so high that nobody can make sense of them, even though the formally defined "full range of normal human hearing" is 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz . . . ]

Using scientific pitch notation, (a) the lowest notes are the ones in the C0 octave, where C0 is 16.352-Hz and is subsonic, which for most people indicates that you can feel the sound but cannot actually hear it and (b) the highest notes are the ones in the C10 octave, where C10 is 16744.0 and the highest note in the C10 octave is B10, which is 31608.5-Hz and for the most part is nearly absurdly higher than the highest note in the normal range of human hearing . . .

[NOTE: C10 is not shown in the following chart, which is a clue how nearly absurdly high it is . . . ]

Image

[SOURCE: Scientific Pitch Notation (wikipedia) ]

This is a mapping of the keys on an 88-key piano to the corresponding scientific pitch notation octaves, where the highest notes at the far-right have fundamental frequencies in 3,000-Hz to 4,200-Hz range, although there are higher frequency harmonics and overtones . . .

Image

[SOURCE: Piano Key Frequencies (wikipedia) ]

With this information in mind, the practical reality is that by focusing on soprano treble clef, which includes a few notes below the staff and a few notes above the staff, this provides a range of approximately three octaves, as shown in the following diagram . . .

[NOTE: It is not so difficult to remember C3 through C7, which is four octaves and is plenty of notes . . . ]

Image
C1 to C9 on the Soprano Treble Clef

And this is where one of the features of NOTION becomes very useful, where specifically you can define a soprano treble clef in such a way that the notes actually play one or two octaves lower or higher, with the practical strategy being to define staves for guitar, viola, and cello as playing one octave lower and to define staves for bass as playing two octaves lower, although this also can be handy for cello, since cellos has a bass range and a guitar style higher range . . .

In some respects, this strategy makes a bit more sense if you happen to play electric bass and electric guitar, because the lowest pitch four strings are the same, except for the octave, and there is a recording technique where an electric bass part is "doubled" on electric guitar to add clarity to the notes, where the electric guitar plays the same notes at the same locations on the fretboard as the electric bass but the notes on the electric guitar are an octave higher, all of which makes sense when you think about all the notes as being the same set of 12 notes but played in different octaves, where instead of needing to remember 88 notes, you just need to remember 12 notes and approximately 8 octaves, which I think is vastly easier to do conceptually . . .

As an example, this is the way I define the soprano treble staff for an electric bass, where the key is to observe that the notes are played two octaves lower . . .

Image
Soprano Treble Staff Transposition for Electric Bass

Another thing which is very handy is Nashville Notation, which is a shorthand strategy for chord patterns and is based on numbers . . .

Nashville Notation (wikipedia)

And the reality for most Country Western, Rock and Roll, and Rhythm and Blues, as well as DISCO and Pop genres is that by the time you learn 50 or so songs, for all practical purposes you know all the songs, since there are not so many chord patterns for songs in these genres, where there really are just two patterns based on two songs "Louie Louie" (The Kingsmen) and "Sleepwalk" (Johnny & Santo), where the "Louie Louie" pattern is "1,4, 5" and the "Sleepwalk" pattern is "1, -3m, 4, 5", with "-3m" being the relative minor third, where another way of writing the "Sleepwalk" pattern is "1, 6, 4, 5" . . .

Learning the electric bass parts for the songs on "Meet The Beatles", "The Beatles Second Album", and "Something New" works nicely for learning the basic numerical patterns for nearly every song in the aforementioned genres . . .

Studying songs written and performed by Hank Williams is another excellent strategy, as is learning a few Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly songs . . .

ConnieR wrote:Would it be best to do the instrumetnal parts in notion, then export it to another program to add a drum track?


Drums and Latin percussion are instruments, and you certainly can write drumkit and Latin percussion instrument parts in music notation in NOTION, where the key is to learn how to do syncopation via music notation . . .

On the other hand, there are "drum machines" in Reason 6.5 (Propellerhead Software), and you can use the Reason 6.5 drum machines to play drums, which you can control via music notation in NOTION 4 on External MIDI staves . . .

No matter how you do it, everything needs to be coordinated and synchronized, and when there are verses, choruses, bridges, and interludes, there is no single pattern that covers everything, hence from my perspective it is easier to do it with music notation most of the time, although there are some interesting rhythms that can be generated automatically with Reason 6.5 drum machines . . .

~ ~ ~ continued in the next post ~ ~ ~
Last edited by Surfwhammy on Thu Jan 31, 2013 12:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Mon Jan 28, 2013 12:26 pm

~ ~ ~ continued from previous post ~ ~ ~

Nevertheless, the primary advantage of doing drumkit and Latin percussion (cowbell, guiro, shaker, castanet, maracas, bells, and so forth) with music notation directly in NOTION is that you need to specify everything, which in turn requires you to understand the various drumkit and Latin percussion instruments, as well as when, where, and how to use them, and you can mix and match, where you can do some of the work with bundled instruments and VSTi virtual instruments in NOTION 4; some of the work with drum machines in Reason 6.5; and some of the work with real drumkit and Latin percussion instruments, but regardless I think that you need to understand drumkits and Latin percussion instruments at least well enough to compose basic drumkit and Latin percussion parts using music notation and VSTi virtual instruments, as well as the NOTION 4 bundled drumkit and Latin percussion instruments, which includes more advanced pitched percussion instruments like marimbas, xylophones, and vibraphones . . .

ConnieR wrote:Part of my problem is that I don't know how to "write" non-classical music onto a score. Also, I don't play an instrument, which makes it difficult to add a Midi track in Notion.
I know this is probably a dumb question, but I'd apprecieate any help. Thanks.


As noted in my first reply, it is all music, and there are more similarities than differences . . .

Classical music tends to have a different overall set of rhythm patterns, chords, and instruments, but the notes are the same, so it mostly is a matter of listening to the more "popular music" genres and learning the respective rhythm patterns, chords, and so forth, where the best strategy is to listen to popular and historically significant hit songs in the genres you want to learn, where in some respects the important bit of information is that all the songs can be played with a simple chord pattern, simple electric bass part, simple drumkit part, while you sing the simple version of the melody, and if you goal is to focus on learning how to write popular songs in the aforementioned genres, it is not necessary to do anything overly elaborate, which is one of the reasons that listening to Hank Williams songs is a stellar activity when you want to learn how to write Country Western songs . . .

For example, even though there is some very elaborate lap steel guitar, bowed violin, and electric guitar soloing on "Honky Tonkin" (Hank Williams), (a) the chord pattern is very simple and (b) if you can play the basic chords and sing the melody, then there you are, which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: One of the key aspects of Hank Williams' songs is that the lyrics tell a story, which is very important for all the genres but especially for Country Western music . . . ]

"Honky Tonkin'" (Hank Williams) -- 78 RPM record -- YouTube music video

Fabulous! :)
Last edited by Surfwhammy on Thu Jan 31, 2013 12:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:31 pm

I wrote a third verse for the new Country Western song and recorded a prototype lead vocal, which included doing a bit of producing for the various instruments and adding some reverberation and custom echoes . . .

[NOTE: My voice was a bit hoarse at the time, but so what. And for reference, with the exception of the Drumkit (kick drum, snare drum, and hi-hat), which is the FREE version of Addictive Drums (XLN Audio), all the instruments are NOTION 4 bundled instruments, and I did a bit of signal processing with T-RackS CS Grand (IK Multimedia), Pro C for ducking and Timeless 2 for custom echoes (FabFilter Software Instruments), Classik Studio Reverb (IK Multimedia) for custom plate and hall reverberation, and TrackPlug 5 (Wave Arts), where TrackPlug 5 is a noise gate and brickwall equalizer for the lead vocals, and there are only six instruments (Drumkit, Electric Bass, two Electric Guitars, Piano, and Techno Synth), which is a clue that it does not require a lot of elaborate instrumentation for Country Western songs once you discover how to do a bit of producing to make everything sound "big". And everything is 64-bits, which is stellar . . . ]

"More Than Enough" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section and Lead Vocal -- MP3 (5.9MB, 292-kbps [VBR], approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds)

[NOTE: This version of the song might not be so stellar that it will become a hit record, but it is sufficient for purposes of presenting the song as a songwriter toward the goal of selling the song to major recording acts, where the key is that the overall levels are reasonably good, which maps to people being able to hear the chords, rhythm, bass, melody, and lyrics, and it forms a good foundation for studying toward the goal of identifying things that can be improved, which is part of the overall development of a song, with the advantage of basing everything on the foundation of music notation done in NOTION 4 being that you can make changes and enhancements in a logical scientific way, which is the "formula" or "complete system" aspect, where other than recorded real instruments and singing, which you can redo, everything else is easily reproduced and recorded as new soundbite, and since it is synchronized to measures, you can insert new measures in many instances without needing to record all the already recorded real instruments and singing, where you only need to record real instruments and singing for the newly added measures, perhaps for an interlude, bridge, chorus, or whatever . . . ]

This version was done in Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) after I recorded the NOTION 4 generated audio as soundbites in Digital Performer 8 via ReWire 2, and this is the strategy I use, since it is easier to do the mixing and special effects work in Digital Performer 8 . . .

I am pondering the idea of adding strings, since there is a bit of space at the end of the song where currently there is only kick drum, but I like the raw electric guitar, so I plan to do some experiments to make the electric guitar a bit more present or whatever, and I might do the electric guitar part with a real electric guitar, although I like the NOTION 4 bundled Electric Guitar, which I ran through a double Fender amplifier rig with a tremolo pedal in AmpliTube 3 (IK Multimedia) to get "bright" Fender TONE . . .

It is a Country Western song, and angst always is a good theme, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :)

P. S. I am doing some video tutorials on the song and will post links when they are ready . . .

P. P. S. Since it is a Country Western song, it tends to be a good idea to include something about driving trucks, food, and beer, so one possibility is to add a bridge or interlude where there is a spoken word soliloquy which includes something along the lines of "Baby, I love you and I work all day driving my truck to make money to keep you living in style, but every once in a while it would be nice if you visited the part of the house which apparently is a mystery in your universe--you know, the room folks call the 'kitchen', where you might explore the idea of getting me a beer and cooking supper", really . . . .

Really! :P
Last edited by Surfwhammy on Thu Jan 31, 2013 12:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Thu Jan 31, 2013 3:34 am

This is the video tutorial for the first part of the Country Western song, and it is focused more on producing and the high level aspects of ReWire 2 rather than on the way one configures the various software for doing ReWire 2, where the general idea is to demonstrate how everything works when you have the software correctly configured and additionally have done some things to make it a system, where for example you might save project templates for Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) that have all the ReWire 2 channels specified for a set of audio tracks, so that instead of needing to create audio tracks and then to assign ReWire 2 channels, you have a project template where everything is created and assigned, which makes doing the NOTION 4 to Digital Performer 8 ReWire 2 step faster, which is fabulous . . .

"More Than Enough" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section and Melody -- Video Tutorial PT 1 -- Windows Media Video -- WMV (69MB, approximately 30 minutes)

Fabulous! :)
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Thu Feb 07, 2013 3:52 am

Continuing with the example, this is the new version of the fabulous Country Western song, "More Than Enough", and it has three new percussion instruments (Addictive Drums Ride Cymbal and LP Black Beauty Cowbell and NOTION 4 Guiro). I cloned the single vocal track to make two more vocal tracks, where the primary vocal track has a virtual festival of effects and is panned top-center, but the two cloned vocal tracks are panned mid-left and mid-right, where they have just a few very specific vocal effects, mostly to add a bit of what one might call "syrup and shadows", which is an interesting way to take a single vocal performance and make it sound as if it were several vocal performances, and the primary reason for doing this in some respectsis to emphasize the singing at the start of the song, which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: I set the drumkit staves to play their notes two octaves lower so that I can work with them as treble staves, and the staff labeled "Cymbal" plays the LP Black Beauty Cowbell B and a Ride Cymbal on A. The NOTION 4 Guiro plays on the fourth beat of each measure, and this is a very simple percussion pattern, but with the Hi-Hat, Snare Drum, and Kick Drum it adds a bit of syncopation and adds some complex flavors to the rhythm pattern . . . ]

Image

This version also has a bit of Timeless 2 (FabFilter Software Instruments) custom echo on the rhythm guitar, which is the NOTION 4 Electric Guitar, and the specific preset for the custom echo is designed to emulate an electric guitar playing through an amplifier, so it is a bit subtle, but it works, and it enhances the "Crimson And Clover" (Tommy James & The Shondells) flavor . . .

I revisited all the levels and made tiny adjustments as needed, and I cut some of the deep bass from the kick drums, as well as added a bit of midrange and high-frequency punch to the kick drums . . .

"More Than Enough" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section, Lead Vocal -- Part 2 -- February 6, 2013 -- MP3 (5.9MB, 291-kbps [VBR], approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds)

Fabulous!

For reference, the reason I refer to this version of a song as "Part 2" is that the primary focus of the first version (a.k.a., "Part 1") is composing the basic rhythm section and melody and recording it, but once that is done I change the primary focus to arranging and producing, since the work now is done in the DAW application (Digital Performer 8 [MOTU]) and in some respects is a matter of listening to what is recorded toward the goal of adjusting levels, enhancing everything, and identifying more stuff, where depending on what the particular "more stuff" happens to be, I will switch to NOTION 4 and add a few specific instruments, which I do in a numbered clone of the original NOTION 4 score, or I might record some real instruments and do a bit of singing . . .

Overall, there are not so many differences in this version and the immediately previous version, but this version is more produced and sounds more like it should, where from a similar perspective the focus is on identifying and reifying the Gestalt, where if there is a single rule at this step it is that a new part should be added only if it enhances the Gestalt, which is another way to state that a new part needs to do more in combination with everything than the part does by itself, which is what the Cymbal, LP Black Beauty Cowbell, and NOTION 4 Guiro do, even though they are very simple parts . . .

At present, there are 19 tracks in Digital Performer 8, and the tracks for the Lead Guitar (a.k.a., "E. Guitar") and the vocals are shown in the following screen captures, where you can get a sense of the effects I am using . . .

Image Image

Lots of FUN! :ugeek:
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Fri Feb 08, 2013 10:21 am

After listening to the mix from two days ago (February 6, 2013), I noticed that the lead vocal was louder in the right channel, so I did a bit of checking and determined that there is a bug in the current version of TrackPlug 5 (Wave Arts), which I was using on the cloned mid-left and mid-right channels, so I used MultiDynamics 5 (Wave Arts) instead, and this solved the problem . . .

I also added Saturn (FabFilter Software Instruments) to the Master stereo output track with the "Magic Mastering" preset, which adds a bit of clean vacuum-tube saturation, among other things, where the logic for using this particular preset it that I like the way it sounds, since at present I have nearly no idea how this particular plug-in works, which in some respects indicates how much I trust the expertise of the audio engineers and software designers at FabFilter Software Instruments, and I am comfortable with this perspective, since Timeless 2 (FabFilter Software Instruments) is the most amazing echo unit in the known universe, and I know a lot about echo, where at present the reverberation and echoes for my signature vocal sound is a combination of CSR Classik Studio Reverb (IK Multimedia) and Timeless 2 (FabFilter Software Instruments), and I like it, because when combined with a few other effects plug-ins I can make vocals sound "big", all based on a single monaural vocal performance, where for reference the key to the vocal sound was adding selected instrument "ducking", which I do with Pro C (FabFilter Software Instruments), which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: The key to being able to trust my ears is having a calibrated full-range "big and heavy" studio monitor system with a flat equal loudness curve at 85 dB SPL, since the only way one can mix and master accurately is be able to hear everything accurately, which according to the fundamental principles of acoustic physics requires a calibrated full-range "big and heavy" studio monitor system and an acoustically tuned sound isolation studio. You can make some tiny adjustments after the fact when listening with studio quality headphones, but the primary mixing and mastering needs to be done when listening to loudspeakers. And for reference, "full-range" is defined to be 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz, and the only way to get the deep bass is to have "big and heavy" loudspeakers, which for all practical purposes at the dawn of the early-21st century requires having a pair of subwoofers to augment the primary loudspeakers, because the days of full-range loudspeaker systems are a thing of the past, with the reason being that it costs too much to manufacture and to ship "big and heavy" loudspeaker units, so nobody does it other than for custom designed systems, which tend to be very expensive, with the exception of The Fabulous Affordable Studio Monitor System™, which is the way I did it for approximately $1,500 (US) . . . ]

The Fabulous Affordable Studio Monitor System (IK Multimedia FORUM)

Image

"More Than Enough" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section, Lead Vocal -- Part 2 -- February 8, 2013 -- MP3 (5.9MB, 286-kbps [VBR], approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds)

Fabulous! :ugeek:
The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
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Re: Crossover Music Question

Postby Surfwhammy » Sun Feb 17, 2013 10:29 am

And if you get to a point where you cannot take any more Country Music for a while, you can switch to having a bit of FUN with Pretend Kenny G and Pretend Nirvana in a new genre I just created called "Surreal Easy Listening Grunge™", which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: At present, I am pondering the idea of having Pretend Paul McCartney and the Pretend Everly Brothers do the singing, with Pretend Ace Frehley (KISS) doing the lead guitar work, since that would make the song even more surreal and is one of the things you can do (a) when nearly everything is virtual, where to be precise you can create genres and musical groups that otherwise exist only in your mind, and (b) you actually listen to songs and by virtue of focusing on "play by ear" rather than traditional music theory you can remember stuff; emulate it; and then tweak it. The Fender Jazz Bass, Grand Piano with Strings, and Tenor Sax are done with MachFive 3 (MOTU); the Drumkit is done with Addictive Drums (XLN Audio); and everything else is done with NOTION 4 Bundled Instruments. The NOTION 4 generated audio is recorded as soundbites in Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) via ReWire 2, where it is enhanced and mixed for the betterment and enlightenment of others using signal processors from T-RackS CS Grand and Classik Studio Reverb (IK Multimedia) and Timeless 2 and Saturn from FabFilter Software Instruments . . . ]

"The Darkest Hour" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section and Tenor Sax -- February 17, 2013 -- MP3 (8.6MB, 284-kbps [VBR], approximately 4 minutes)

Fabulous! :P
The Surf Whammys

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