Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

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varpa
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Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by varpa »

I've made an album of solo piano music, mostly original semi-classical/mellow material: https://edwarddiehl.bandcamp.com/

Made using AVL-MXE, Mixbus, Pianoteq, LSP impulse response, and OvertoneDSP PTC-2A with ebu-norm to set final LUFS level.
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by oscillator »

Impressive quality!! TBH it is not my bag of tea but I can appreciate the skills and the excellent recording! :)

So you created this live, improvised?

MusE DAW running on Debian 11 Testing/XFCE4.
https://oscillator.se/musik

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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by jeanette_c »

Hey hey, this is a beautiful album @varpa . Lovely playing with such well balanced dynamics. Also the processing is very nice and subtle, just enough to not be stone dry.
I was quite reminded of George Winsto, I hope this is not a comparison to take offense at.
Maybe in that concentrated dosage the music is too light hearted and rounded for my depressed soul. It does have the beauty of srping.
The way that I listened, I can't be sure whether the turbulent Ocean is part of that, but that grounded me. It sounds like it had a few teething problems, but it's full of your fluid touch.
--
distro: ArchLinux, DAW: Nama, MIDI sequencer: Midish
All my latest music on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS4rf ... 7jhC1Jnv7g
Albums, patches and Csound on http://juliencoder.de
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by GMaq »

Hi @varpa!

Well, well, well, something I've been waiting to hear for years has arrived! I have not perused the whole album as of yet but it has been playing while I'm indoors this afternoon and you play very well and I like the selection of tunes, to echo Jeanette for solo piano the amount of production is perfect!

Congrats on your album and I'll look forward to both more listening and more published work by you in the future!

As a side note your long-time stalwart use and support of AV Linux is very much appreciated!

Best, Glen
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by varpa »

Thank you all for your kind comments.

Oscillator: These pieces were recorded live, in multiple takes, and then combining the best takes. Some pieces are completely composed in advance, on others I have main themes worked out, and then after playing through the fixed parts, I improvise over the chords. It was all recorded as midi, and then I combined and edited the midi files. I did my takes directly in Pianoteq, which has the nice feature of automatically recording everything you play. After getting enough good takes I import the midi files to Mixbus. This has advantage that you can fix your mistakes in midi, add notes you missed, change velocity, etc. Of course, its always better to start with a good take to begin with. Then with the final midi I make the audio. I also like having the final midi, which I can refer to later in case I forget how to play the piece.

Jeanette_c: Thanks for the compliments. As a long-time lurker I have listened to a lot of your work and have been very impressed by the quality and sophistication of your productions. Concerning reverb, it does seem to me that a little goes a long way. I seem to prefer convolution reverbs, but I'm not too opinionated about which ones I use (mostly using the free Samplicity reverbs). I agree some of my
pieces are George Winston-like, which even I am sort of ambivalent about. I do like that style, but only as a piece of a well-rounded
musical diet.

GMaq: Thanks for your on-going development a AVlinux which I have used for many years, and on which quite a few of these pieces were written (since I commonly practice using Pianoteq on my computer). Of course, I also have a deep respect for your musical (and cinematographic) prowess. Now that I managed to make one production, I will try to make more, as I actually have a lot more material.
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by milo »

This is really lovely! I listened to the whole album with my wife, and she liked it too! It's not very often that my wife will like any music from this forum (I usually don't bother playing anything for her), so that is high praise.

I envy keyboardists, because I spent my formative years on fretboards and never quite got the hang of keys. But I'm learning slowly. Thank you so much for sharing this really pleasant album.
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by Tenaba »

Wow, this is crazy good. A lot of dynamics in your playing.

I haven't listened to the album in it's entirety yet, but so far my favorite is "Dance of the Butterflies".

I make music as Tenaba! Bandcamp

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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by nils »

I like it very much.
Nice 20th century piano music! A bit of Francis Poulenc, a bit of Nobuo Uematsu. Just what I like :)
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by briandc »

I like it! Very therapeutic indeed! Thanks for sharing this!

(I wonder if this type of music could be done well with synths...???)


Brian
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My sound synthesis biome: http://www.linuxsynths.com
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by glowrak guy »

My favourites from your very enjoyable music are Tranquil Evening, Merry Gentlemen, and Waxing Moon.

I hope your access to the lobby piano at the hospital, is as a medical professional, student, or neighbor.
But in any case, honing your skills there would be a blessing for all those in earshot!
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by glowrak guy »

briandc wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:38 am I like it! Very therapeutic indeed! Thanks for sharing this!

(I wonder if this type of music could be done well with synths...???)


Brian
The extent of a given synths envelopes and waveforms, and the fluidity of play might be
key factors. There are sample-based synths, and Pianoteq would qualify as a modeling synth.
Vital wavetable synth has some sounds made with piano-like wavetables,
and Yoshimi would allow layering various plucks and leads to craft sounds that played similarly
to a piano. And then there are the infamous long (but happy) hours of practice...
Cheers
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by briandc »

glowrak guy wrote: Mon Feb 14, 2022 1:41 pm
briandc wrote: Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:38 am I like it! Very therapeutic indeed! Thanks for sharing this!

(I wonder if this type of music could be done well with synths...???)


Brian
The extent of a given synths envelopes and waveforms, and the fluidity of play might be
key factors. There are sample-based synths, and Pianoteq would qualify as a modeling synth.
Vital wavetable synth has some sounds made with piano-like wavetables,
and Yoshimi would allow layering various plucks and leads to craft sounds that played similarly
to a piano. And then there are the infamous long (but happy) hours of practice...
Cheers
I don't disagree with you glowrak guy. I was thinking about something different than sounds that emulate a piano though. (Otherwise why not just use a piano, right?)
The envelopes would need to have settings like slow decay, no sustain and moderate release time (if ADSR) to give the same playability, aisi.
I think amp and filter sensitivity would also be important, to give expression to the note velocity.
As far as the waveforms and filter settings, that would depend on the desired sound, I guess. I'm getting some really expressive sounds out of Wsynth these days that I love. There's often aliasing in the upper end that I wish could be avoided, but the expressiveness of the low and middle ranges is very pleasing to my ears.
I think this type of music would "fit" with these types of synth sounds.

just my 2c...!

Brian
Have your PC your way: use linux!
My sound synthesis biome: http://www.linuxsynths.com
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by varpa »

Thanks so much for the comments and suggestions.

Milo: Glad to hear you and your wife like it. I've noticed this type of mellow music seems to be more appreciated by women.

Nils: Thanks for the comparisons to several composers I am not familiar with. I will definitely check them out. I appreciate the comment about 20th piano music. I only know a little music theory, and I like to play things that go beyond my basic theory knowledge while keeping "musical", as least according to me.

Briandc & Glowak Guy: It is an interesting suggestion to try the music with synths. In fact, I have dallied a bit with synths, but for the
most part it has not worked for me. I do come from a piano background so I tend to prefer the piano sound. On the other hand I appreciate a
lot of the synth pieces others have posted here so it is something to aspire to. When I have used synths I tend to layer them on piano sounds.
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by glowrak guy »

@ varpa; as an experiment, you could take a midi track and render it with a synth sound you like,
and in audacity or a daw, offset it's position from the original piano track, between beats or syncopated to taste,
and lower it's volume as seems right to you. Or you could create a piece played fast in the upper registers,
play it back in audacity noticeably slower, recapturing mid-tones, and creating 'space' between notes,
and in that resultant space, place an offset track or two of sounds you like, and record the slowed playback with timemachine.
This would be more difficult in the more classical pieces with key-changes, but a harmonious piece like Tranquil Evening
could be susceptible :wink: DecentSampler sounds could be cool for this. I like 'The Lamp', the 'Array Mbira', and
'Winter Voices', to get things into special spaces.

Korg made (makes) a fortune in piano sounds nicely layered with other instruments. Not out of reach when playing
PianoteQ with Yoshimi, and a few rakarrack effects to stir up the peanut gallery.

How about that Mathew Stafford? Got himself on the train headed west, and won himself a ring!
Cheers
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Re: Solo Piano Album - Spring Serenade

Post by glowrak guy »

briandc wrote: Mon Feb 14, 2022 8:19 pm ... I'm getting some really expressive sounds out of Wsynth these days that I love. There's often aliasing in the upper end
that I wish could be avoided, but the expressiveness of the low and middle ranges is very pleasing to my ears.
I think this type of music would "fit" with these types of synth sounds.

just my 2c...!

Brian
@ Brian: Those dssi synths, wsynth, xsynth, whysynth and hexter are quite under-rated.
Calf monosynth and wavetable synths are also good, but lacking in soundsets. I see wsynth
has some soundsets, Maybe you'll be able to make some keys-playin' presets for it, in your explorations?
The rather vast amsynth collection is awaiting the challenge :wink:
Cheers
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