City in the mountains

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PieterPenninckx
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City in the mountains

Post by PieterPenninckx »

Hi all,

I went a little out of my comfort zone with this one: it has ... a straight tempo with metronome (it's even quantized), drums and "electric guitar".

You can listen to it on my website.

My previous music was based on an improvisation of one recording that defined the melody, chords and structure from beginning to end. I followed a different approach here. Again, I started with a piano improvisation, but I didn't keep everything. I selected the good parts and played them again with a metronome. I've then cut it in pieces and moved them around, defining some initial structure.

The "guitar" is good old ZynAddSubFx with the Trash Guitar patch, taking the lowest notes from the piano. The level of distortion in this patch seems to be random and I have no clue how I could control it, so I've made four audio recordings and then automated the volume of each, so that at any time, you hear the track that has the most appropriate level of distortion.

The piano is Salamander Grand Piano with sfizz. I had some trouble with some notes being dropped by sfizz; I've solved this by increasing the maximum voice count to 128 (!). I think this extreme voice count is caused by the sustain pedal (which surprises me, but hey).

I've added some drums as well, which is new for me. I'm pleased that I've been able to add some diversity while not making it over complicated.

I liked how (in some versions), the guitar and the cymbal blend together, so I tried to blend more instruments. I've added some convolutional reverb (with IR.lv2) to the snare drum with a sample from the sustain pedal release sound from the Salamander Grand Piano (having "open source" instruments can be real fun for this type of stuff). I automated the wet level to be higher in the "bigger" parts. I've also done some experimentation with convolutional reverb on the "guitar" using the cymbal sound. Using EQ, compression and convolutional reverb, I was able to get the effect as if the guitar strings were rumbling against the cymbal. It turned out that this didn't improve the music, so I've left it out.

I believed that the last part (which was copy-pasted from a previous part) was too repetitive. I've tried adding another instrument to add more variation (the muted French horn that you may have heard in one of my previous pieces), but that sound didn't fit all the time. I think the timbre is too similar to the instruments that are already there. I've struggled a little trying to get this right. Then I stumbled upon a youtube channel called "Ear Opener", which taught me to think about the structure of my music. I think that's a valuable lesson, but that didn't exactly tell me how to solve my particular problem. In the end, I figured out that the last part was already repeating itself two times (once with low intensity and once with higher intensity). So I simply removed the first repetition. I like it much more now. I then continued making the previous part even softer by leaving out the bass drum and the guitar.

This time, I've done the mixing in Qtractor as well, which greatly simplified the workflow.

Tracks
  • Piano: Salamander Grand Piano (I'm still a fan of this one) with sfizz 1.2 with some EQ from Calf Studio Gear
  • Drums: AVL Drumkits (Red Zeppelin), on the snares there's convolutional reverb with IR.LV2, using the sustain pedal release sound from the Salamander Grand Piano as the "reverb file".
  • "Electric Guitar": ZynAddSubFx with the "Trash Guitar" patch (bounced into multiple audio tracks and then used the best track for each piece)
Lessons learned
  • It's easier to have a workflow entirely in Qtractor: you can just export your tracks.
  • Sfizz 1.2 works with sustain pedal (but you may need to increase the max voice count).
  • Convolutional reverb is cool: you can chage the "colour" of the reverb if you choose a random sample. I was surprised it works on my CPU (at least with buffer size 1024 and triple buffering). This is definitely a tool that stays in my tool-belt :-)
  • Never underestimate good old ZynAddSubFx :-)
  • Yes, you can cut your music in pieces and re-assemble.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to @Rainmak3r for pointing me to sfizz (at least two times); the new version supports the sustain pedal as well and it improved my workflow. Thanks to my sister for coming up with a title.
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Re: City in the mountains

Post by folderol »

I generally avoid quantisation, as it can kill the dynamics, but this is done quite well, so you get away with it :lol:
Nice work.
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
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Rainmak3r
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Re: City in the mountains

Post by Rainmak3r »

Glad you found sfizz useful, and very nice job on this song! It has a bit of a Space Dye Vest vibe to it, maybe because of the distorded synth guitar that reminded me of similar sounds in that piano oriented piece. The only thing that doesn't sound "right" to me would be the drums, as the snare sounds very dry: I would maybe have gone with a more electronic sound here instead, like a TR-808 (but maybe that's because I've started experimenting with that one a lot, so I'm biased :mrgreen: )

Another great effort, keep them coming!
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Re: City in the mountains

Post by glowrak guy »

This is a very nice and thoughtful theme, doesn't wander about, and has a destination. I would recommend
playing it faster, I played it at 150% speed in audacity, without losing the feeling. There are enough
dynamics and enjoyable melodic parts, that quantising would never cross my mind, and rarely
does anyway during my listening, regardless of the artist or genre. It's possible my mental state just unwittingly
de-quantises on the fly :wink:

This could become a nice theme for a TV drama, enjoyed at each episode. Not knowing your gear,
the Proteus VX plugin is free, works in linux Reaper via yabridge, and has dozens of varied drumkits,
each mapped across the keyboard when selected, along with a wide range of other instruments to draw from.
AVLinux distro comes with a Reaper demo, wine-staging, and yabridge setup, so you can try installing things after booting
a live dvd/usbstick, to see what you like, and what works etc.
Cheers
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Re: City in the mountains

Post by baconature »

I listened, finding it a beautiful piece of music! I had to try to ignore the buzzy sounds there in, and succeeded in that. It makes no sense to me allowing that which I suppose is an effect. To my ear that sounds as though my speakers have a cracked/torn cones, which they don't. I am just saying that to me detracts from the total, which I otherwise enjoyed. I had to listen to something that I know and trust to assure the status of my speakers :)
Tom ~ Idaho USA

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Re: City in the mountains

Post by psyocean »

Like this. Mood, tranqullity, feeling of music architecture...
Guitar and synth tales... https://www.youtube.com/user/Psyocean/
PieterPenninckx
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Re: City in the mountains

Post by PieterPenninckx »

Thanks all for your comments and feedback!
Rainmak3r wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 9:14 pm The only thing that doesn't sound "right" to me would be the drums, as the snare sounds very dry
That may be a difference in taste then, since this time, I was very conscious about the wet levels of the reverb on the snare. On the other hand, I still have no clue about the role of reverb and until then, I'm applying the "as little reverb as is still audible" rule. So this may improve when I better understand the role of reverb.
glowrak guy wrote: Wed Apr 20, 2022 8:50 pm I would recommend playing it faster, I played it at 150% speed in audacity, without losing the feeling.
Cool to know that people actually download my music to play with it :D
Now that you mention it, it was actually recorded at 130bpm; I somehow messed up the tempo and made it slower. So it doesn't surprise me that it still sounds good when you play it faster. 180bpm is pretty fast, though :shock:
glowrak guy wrote: Wed Apr 20, 2022 8:50 pm quantising would never cross my mind
folderol wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:08 pm I generally avoid quantisation, as it can kill the dynamics, but this is done quite well, so you get away with it :lol:
In my more classical oriented pieces, full of rubato, ritardando and accelerando, quantising is nearly impossible. In this more rock-like piece, it sounded out-of-tempo from time to time and I applied quantisation. My timing errors may also be increased by (accidently) messing with the tempo (slowing it down). Maybe next time I do something like this: record it slower and play it back faster to avoid the need for quantisation.
glowrak guy wrote: Wed Apr 20, 2022 8:50 pm Not knowing your gear,
the Proteus VX plugin is free, works in linux Reaper via yabridge, and has dozens of varied drumkits,
each mapped across the keyboard when selected, along with a wide range of other instruments to draw from.
Thanks for your suggestion. My next stop for drums is Drumgizmo, I think.
baconature wrote: Sat Apr 23, 2022 7:32 pm To my ear that sounds as though my speakers have a cracked/torn cones, which they don't.
Your speakers are fine :D This must have been an effect in the guitar patch I used. It's probably called "Trash guitar" for a reason :D
Rainmak3r wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 9:14 pm Another great effort, keep them coming!
psyocean wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 5:20 am Like this. Mood, tranqullity, feeling of music architecture...
Thanks! Well, I'm not intending to create more music in this genre, but there's more in the pipeline. Stay tuned...

Forgotten to say: getting out of my comfort zone and making a track in another genre than what I'm used to, taught me a lot.
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Re: City in the mountains

Post by Basslint »

I think this is very beautiful. I don't mind the synth guitar, I mean, I get what you were going for! :D
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Re: City in the mountains

Post by oscillator »

I have a weakness for those "falling" chords, really nice. And all the "disparate" sounds work really well together.

Thanks for sharing with us!

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Re: City in the mountains

Post by folderol »

Very nice playing. Sounds good overall.
The Yoshimi guy {apparently now an 'elderly'}
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