This is terrific stuff you can do
Thank you, I do appreciate it. You know, since a few people seem to show interest in my work, I shall continue to release more around here as I have time. I recently had to go through some computer maintenance but I'm set up once again, ready for anything! Muahahahaha!
my favorite piece of music produced by you has to be the tribal version of "Always There"---it has a really prehistoric sound
LOL I actually wrote that at 2 in the morning in about 45 minutes, for lack of something better to do!
: But I agree, I enjoy it as well. I may use the first part of that in an original composition someday, if I ever need Tribal music in a game or something. The "Always There" section is still a bit broken, but I may get around to cleaning it up someday. B)
What software do you use for all that?
For the MIDI files, I use two programs:
Noteworthy ComposerWith this, I can write a MIDI file that looks just like sheet music in a music book. The nice thing about this is that the files can be printed, and the software makes sense to people who know something about music. The downside is that it lacks fast, efficient control of MIDI events. In other words, changing volumes and stereo panning of instruments at certain points in Noteworthy is a bit of a pain.
Dowload the trial version of Noteworthy and import a MIDI file into it. You'll see that a MIDI contains nothing but sheet music data.
To solve the controller issues, I use
FL Studio 6: Producer EditionThis program is fully functional and able to write MIDI and MP3 files. On the MIDI side, data is entered on basically a graph. Height is note pitch, length is time. Multiple instruments can, like Noteworthy, be layered together. Just draw the chart and it plays the music. B) The nice thing about FL over Noteworthy is that controllers are just as easy to use as entering notes is. Making an instrument louder or softer is as simple as drawing a graph going up or down, on a graph (height is volume, length is time).
The nice thing about MIDIs are that they're relatively easy to produce, there is some free software (Noteworthy is about $40, but Anvil Studio is a free MIDI program), the files are tiny and easy to share, and anyone's computer can run a MIDI sequencing (writing) program. If you can run Solitaire, write a text file, or surf the Internet, you can write MIDI files.
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For creating the Tribal MP3, I used
FL Studio 6: Producer Edition(didn't I say I used that for MIDIs sometimes?)
Yep! FL is a great all-in-one Host Program.
(Host Program?)
FL Studio is set up to host other programs which can function as Plugins. A user can load up FL, then plug other programs into it to expand it.
(What are plugins for?)
These plugin programs can be for anything; they can add effects to sounds, help enhance a sound, or even Produce a sound (hint, hint)!
Here's the plugin I used to create the Tribal Mix.
ColossusI purchased it awhile back for half price (still $500!).
Colossus is an instrument library.
(A what?)
It contains a massive database (massive as in 32 GB (yes Gigabytes) on 8 DVDs, all of which is copied to my computer's hard drive) of .WAV files, basically. The wav files are recordings of real musical instruments, such as drums, guitars, people shouting, pan flutes, you name it, playing. These wav files are then compiled together into useable groups called "Patches". The end user (me) can load up these patches and use the sounds to create music. All of the sounds in the Tribal mix are sounds from Colossus.
Basically, I load up FL Studio, load up Colossus into a mixer port in FL, tie Colossus to a MIDI track, also written in FL. Suddenly the MIDI data written in FL is sent to the sounds of Colossus. The playback can be rendered to an MP3 file, producing the song on my website. B)
I also own
Symphonic Orchestra: Gold Editionwhich functions as a plugin just as Colossus does. Symphonic Gold contains the sounds of a full orchestra in 15 GB of recordings. I plan to use Symphonic Gold to extract the music in the LBT series into MP3 files.
(how are you going to do that?)
Well, the original movies have sound effects and dialogue covering up the music in the background. I am going to go through each of the LBT films and record each segment of each film into its own MP3 file.
(but that still leaves you with all of the sound effects and dialogue in the MP3)
Right, so how do we remove that? That's where the hard work comes in. I am going to re-compose the music by listening to the originals, and rewriting them by ear, trying to get them as close to the originals as possible. With the help of FL Studio and Symphonic Gold, I hope to produce soundtracks of each of the sequels. A huge job, I know, but I'll work on it slowly, as I have time.
