LinuxMusicians

I confess, this piece was done on win10, but is what I plan to be doing in Ubuntu Studio fairly soon. (and why I'm here.)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jib2zkscsj33d ... .wav?dl=0/

It's a fairly short essay that I wrote recently. BTW, No, it's not a statement on death or dying.

Let me know what you think.

Hey @andersen, I like the harmonies of the piece. The piano sounds very much like the MIDI piano, because - I suspect - it is sequenced or converted from a written score. Maybe you could improve by at least playing each motif once to capture you performance, both being slightly off-time and introducing more dynamics to it. The same could even help with the strings, although not so much.
Here's something that struck me while listening, perhaps quite a personal twist. I thought another percussive, melodic instrument only picking some notes up from the piano, sort of creating accents, might spice up rhythm. As I say, just a very subjective thought.
I am looking forward to your upcoming work.

Beautiful miniature, excellent work!

jeanette_c wrote: ↑Sat Nov 21, 2020 10:21 pm Hey @andersen, I like the harmonies of the piece. The piano sounds very much like the MIDI piano, because - I suspect - it is sequenced or converted from a written score. Maybe you could improve by at least playing each motif once to capture you performance, both being slightly off-time and introducing more dynamics to it. The same could even help with the strings, although not so much.
Here's something that struck me while listening, perhaps quite a personal twist. I thought another percussive, melodic instrument only picking some notes up from the piano, sort of creating accents, might spice up rhythm. As I say, just a very subjective thought.
I am looking forward to your upcoming work.

You're correct. It's a sequenced piece. Twas initially all piano, then I let in the cello and viola on the bottom lines, and violin on the top. It took a completely different course. Thanks for the very good ideas. The offset is a great idea. I have to add another part and then will re-mix a little better to carve out some space for all the strings, and back off the repetitive piano part. (which actually has a point to it in the center of things). Meanwhile I'm setting up my patch panel in QJackctl to get going on Ubuntu Studio. Learning curve... All new plugins and tools. (low growl) Yeah but it's Linux! (low muttering)
c
OK, my turn, You are creative. I haven't finished them all yet, but I like Endless Day. Frankenfunk is fun. I wonder how long it took you do them. My two cents... Add more bottom end. There are good acoustic drum synths. Bass as well (even a jazz bass). It's a holdover from a background in rock n roll, (along with the ringing in my ears)... but I like a solid tempo on the bottom It gives depth, and... anchors things. One other suggestion... kisses don't lie, needs a Les Paul. (Other direction,... up high) The rhythm guitar is good. But where is the wail? Hmmm??? Good stuff though. Is this a hobby or are you trying to build a career?

Thanks again for the ideas and comments. It's nice to make your acquaintance.
Cheers!

psyocean wrote: ↑Sun Nov 22, 2020 1:02 pm Beautiful miniature, excellent work!

Thanks @Psyocean. I 'm listening to Autumn Park and the second piano piece(as I write this). Very nice. Sorry, I can't read cyrillic alphabet, but the scenery is way cool. Quite a source of inspiration, I'm thinking.
Cheers,

I liked this. Something about it made me think about haiku.s3m from ye olde mod tracker days of yore. It was probably the sound of the electric piano and how the melody wanders around backed by synth strings.

If I could make a suggestion, try importing the midi tracks from this into Ardour or Qtractor or some other sequencer on Linux, and use it as a way to learn how to produce music in your new operating system. When listening, I thought that just a little bit of reverb and maybe some rich pad synths in the background would really make this come alive.

I like to preface my feedback by saying, this is just what I'd do if it were my track, there's not necessarily a right or wrong here:

- First, I think the basic composition is good. Nice piano melody, nice harmonies.

- The piano doesn't sound idiomatic to me. That's not a mortal sin, but in my mind I'm seeing a piano player picking out that melody one-fingered, which just feels wrong to me (I started out as a piano player). If I've got a solo line like that, I might rather hear it with a wind instrument. Would be killer on oboe, for example.

- The string parts get very dense towards the end of the piece, and there are bits of what sound like unintentional dissonance. I think this would work better if the instruments were more separated in the mix, right now it seems like a lot of string parts sort of piled up on top of each other. Maybe use a different instrument for the busier string lines, or a solo instrument sample instead of an ensemble?

- I agree with Micheal, bring these tracks into a DAW and give them some ambience, EQ, panning, etc. MIDI alone is pretty limited for doing a good mix.

Above all, keep it up! You've got some good material here, I look forward to more of it!

Not sure if it was the intention, but I like the idea of the piano "ostinato" part as time flowing away, which would fit the theme nicely. I agree on the suggestions to work on it within a DAW, just to give each instrument more room, be it via panning, equalization, or more: there's a lot of orchestration happening, and it's easy to drown everything otherwise. Good effort anyway, and I'm looking forward to listening more of your work!

Quite an interesting little piece - don't see the relevance of the title though

Howdy... been on the road to purgatory so haven't been around much.

Thanks for the responses, and tips, and refinements, for my non-linux contribution. I'm kind of busy on the dark side for now.

I would say don't... over analyze this. It was originally a piano essay that I fit to a string synth,... and then just got completely carried away. It was meant to be a score for a jazz piece initially, but that didn't pan obviously. Had planned to use it as a backing track, for a jam, but when it found it's way elsewhere, I thought I'd share it.

I used SI (studio instruments) strings in Cakewalk. I think they sound, OK... for an unsampled synth, but I agree that they are badly crowded. Klutzy... and the ranges are mismatched. My bad. I only made three passes. I don't do strings very often, but it was a LOT of fun for the short time that I wrote and assembled it in. I couldn't find the variation(s) I wanted so I put it down... for now. Learned a lot, but... So many projects,... so little time. Maybe the next go with this will include a synth voice like Massive. That might be a good jam.

You know, Zappa loved two chord jams ( Black Napkins - Zutes Allures & Watermelons in Easter Hay - Joe's Garage.) Great stuff. Truly tasty guitar work. And then there are the blistering one and two chord jams on Hot Rats. (listening to Gumbo variations right now... Ouch)

Keep creating, Andersen

@andersen I think it's good music but the strings IMHO ruin it a bit. They sound like 90s strings, like those used in SNES games.