Music • Sound • Video • Art

There are two documentaries on Brian Eno that I am aware of and both are outstanding. One is from 1989 and is called Imaginary Landscapes. This is a fantastic look at Eno of nearly 20 years ago. As far as I know, it’s out of print (though a quick search will yield much info). The shots of him in his 1989 workspace alone are worth it, particularly when contrasted with contemporary scenes of his workspace from a very recent BBC4 documentary on Eno entitled Another Green World. (Hint: Everybody is moving “into the box” these days.) For different reasons, the latter documentary is not available for viewing “across the pond” in the US, but info can be found here. Both of these documentaries make for fascinating and highly recommended viewing.

Below is the VHS sleeve for Imaginary Landscape. I can’t figure out why they have not re-released this on DVD…

Front Cover

Rear Cover

So I decided to try my hand at writing some sort of dramatic orchestral piece (and I blame this guy Hetoreyn and his VSL Podcast for this you know*)…

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I’ve been holding back from trying to write something like this because, well frankly, my formal knowledge of theory and composition is not really up to the task in my opinion. With traditionally orchestrated stuff, there is a much larger, tighter, and more widely recognized rule set and when you break the rules or don’t know them, it stands out like a sore thumb. I’ve been trying to get up to speed on music theory with the thought that I would move on to more structured studies of composition and arranging. It’s a slow process compounded by my lack of time. But Slow Steady Progress is the order of the day….

Except for those damn podcasts! They make me impatient!

I have many of the tools (or so I thought), some of the knowledge (just enough to be judgmental), and I keep hearing these wonderful compositions. Surely I can come up with … something? Well I m trying my hand at it..and boy is it humbling. Some things I’ve learned in the last 24 hours:

• I really do need to know my Theory better. Yep. I spent 2.5 hours trying to find the “right” chord progression for the horns and if I knew my theory I’m pretty sure it would have taken me about 10 minutes to end up where I finally did. I’m not even sure where I ended up is “right”. We’ll see if it survives.
• It’s the articulations, stupid. I have three Orchestral Libraries: EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Platinum, VSL Special Edition, and Miroslav Philharmonik (acquired over the years during various sales and promotions). Between them, I have a pretty good set of different articulations. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have the particular type of articulation I need for the Horn section that I hear in my head. OR I do, but I need to construct it out of several separate articulations (via a great method offered by Todd Jones in episode 4 of the VSL Podcast), and I don’t understand how to do this. Right now the horns sound tired and extremely flabby despite all types of velocity and expression programming. (They are supposed to be epic and a call to battle!) I think maybe they are just the wrong articulations.
• Choose your orchestral library wisely. While trying to solve the above problem I thought I’d use bits and pieces of all three libraries to create the arrangement. I discovered that it is very difficult to layer up the EWQLSO and VSL Libraries convincingly without a lot of work on reverb and ambiance. The VSL instruments are recorded really, really dry. This is nice because you can add exactly the type of reverb you want. EWQLSO is recorded with a lot of presence and a big hollywood sound. Even “dry”, it has a good deal of reverb in the recording. Getting the two to play nice requires a good deal of work. I’m sure it’s possible, but I didn’t get there. I had more success combining the EWQLSO with the Miroslav Philharmonic Library. (I use the MPL to provide some bite to the horn section.) So basically the lesson is this: When you pick a library, choose one that you can grow with. The VSL product line has (1) amazing breadth, (2) extraordinary depth, and (3) a breathtaking price should you want to get the whole thing. EWQLSO has (1) a big sound, (2) a fair number of articulations, and (3) a reasonable price (particularly if you can get it on sale). The VSL still wins on the breadth and depth, but it is just too expensive for me.
• What does a reasonable expression automation curve look like for horns? Cello? Violin? I always read that careful programming of note velocity and expression (cc11) goes a long way to helping your parts sound more authentic. But what does a reasonable expression curve for an instrument look like? Is this a reasonable bit of cc11 programming for a “horn” section?

So. Exactly one year ago today, and despite the advice of a good friend, I publicly made a set of new year’s resolutions. So how did I do?

1) No new synthesizer plug-ins between January and June 2009. – Hah! Two weeks after writing that post, NAMM ’09 hit and then I wrote about a bunch of stuff that I wanted. (Incidentally, at least 4 of them I bought over the next few months.) My lack of time for music has not lessened my acquisitiveness for (soft) synths it appears. I even picked up a Roland JV2080 on ebay on the cheap recently.

It’s out of control. I need a 12 step program. That said I am looking forward to NAMM 2010…

2) I will complete the various tutorials and learning projects that I have started for the tools that I own. – Umm. Sort of. I did complete the NI DVD on Kontakt and almost completed the NI DVD on Absynth. (These are some great resources; unfortunately they were made for Kontakt 2 and Absynth 3 and are getting “long in the tooth.” There is still much that is useful however, and if you can pick them up on eBay, it is well worth it.) I also went through a lot of the MacProVideo stuff for Logic. Very helpful too. (I would have gone through more, but frankly their N.E.D player is flaky these days and I’ve started to explore alternatives like GrooveBox.) In any case, the list of tutorials currently awaiting completion is long: Propellerhead RECORD, LIVE8, MAX for LIVE, Omnisphere, etc. I have to figure out where this fits in my schedule.

(Btw, GrooveBox had/has a sale going on: $99 for 1 year of unlimited online access to its tutorial library (regularly $299). Seems like a no brainer.)

3) I will recommit to my piano practice. Nope. Not even close. I had to halt my formal lessons before the end of the spring 2009 semester. (It does not look like I will be able to start my lessons again until fall 2010 at the earliest.) More than anything else on the list, this bothers me.