A day spent working solidly on videos for the Cycles part of Cycles & Shadows. I've made videos for each of the main Cycles tracks (1,2,4,5,6 - 3 has already been made), plus one for 'The String Quartet At The End Of The Universe' from the Shadows part.
All use Argus and the music data to export the frame numbers when each instrument is triggered. For most of the Prometheus instruments this is easy, but the piano is a little more tricky. It was recorded with MIDI, but the piano on Cycles I and IV was recorded in lots of little sections, and the song tempo changes between these. This makes it a little tricky to match the MIDI sequence with the actual music. I managed it, importing each section bit by bit, but had to hand-tailor the notes to show, so not all of the piano keys are seen in the video. We don't really want that anyway as the piano has lots of bass arpeggios, so only the melody will be visible here.
For the 'raw' piano of Cycles II, I could use the actual MIDI data to good effect, and all of the piano sounds are used (well, near duplicates are not sounded, there is a merging of two sounds which are very close). I also exported the velocities/volumes here, and used that for the size of the object. This looks rather pretty.
All of the videos are pretty, actually. The String Quartet uses lines for each of the quartet instruments, which makes the video look like an animated light-sabre duel, or game of 'Ker-Plunk'.
The camera movements add a lot to these videos. The camera sways a little up and down, but it regularly spins clockwise in a nice way. It's also angled back a little as standard compared to Cycles III, so the shapes seem to fall down as well as away into the distance.
I've noticed that my Tuesday premiere videos get a lot more views than the Friday ones. It will take another day to compile and upload these. It wouldn't be so hard to make a video for every Cycles & Shadows track. How badly mixed Eternal Cycles seems to my ears now! Well, maybe I'll create yet another remaster in a future decade... but, as Telly Savalas famously sang, not today.
