Sigh, another day flies past, tiny fragments of progress made in the art of muisc. Tiny fragments.
First, work on 'All Controlled By Someone', and some backing vocals. I tried up-tuning them to sound 'female' but the results were not very good, so recorded some simpler ones, which were then band-limited in a nice way. Then, some general balancing to the track.
In the afternoon, another regular batch of work on album distribution transfer, then work on the All Controlled solo. I decided to use the MODX, and recorded 3 or 4 solos in MIDI with different organs, all were adequate, but none quite right. Then, I recorded three solos with a flute-glockenspiel instrument, again fine, then some solos with upright piano, this time simple live recordings rather than MIDI. These were more relaxed and jazzy, they seemed to fit better; but none of the 12 or so solos seemed right. I then created a new instrument from a raw 'strings' sample, with instant fade in and out, and high pass filter to create a stark and synthetic sound. This sounded good, so I recorded a MIDI solo with this, then exported it.
The solo was recorded at 120 BPM but at the speed of the song is 140. Some programs complain about importing, I needed to simply change the tempo, not the actual speed of the music. Fortunately, Prometheus can import and ignore the actual recording tempo. I did this, then quantized the result, then recorded it as it played back though the MODX. At this stage it sounded fine, but I thought it might be better to bypass the synth entirely, so I loaded the MIDI notes into the song and recreated the MODX instrument in Prometheus, thus came full circle, and created a sequenced solo which is based on a live play; notably the timing was 'repaired' in the process.
This made me think of the Beethoven, as performer and composer, and the difference between the two. He would improvise lots of possible starts and directions, and notate those improvisations. I could have used my live recording and not cared about the notes, or the 'perfect' timing, but I notated the result like a composer rather than stuck with the recording like a performer. There was, here, limited advantage in expressive quality, as the instrument had no sensitivity to the keys. Still, I feel more a composer than performer at heart; at least in this case. Perhaps, at times, I feel more performer than composer. Today's experiences illustrates the border between the two.
