tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119918719087869579.post7757898773882442130..comments2023-11-03T05:44:29.722-07:00Comments on The Electric Semiquaver: Go with the "Flow"Kenneth D. Froelichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12140430781961765944noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119918719087869579.post-28319327999220775172009-07-23T15:48:46.481-07:002009-07-23T15:48:46.481-07:00I seem to be a different breed... I love it how th...I seem to be a different breed... I love it how the use of notation software speeds up things. Maybe this is because I did not write a lot music using paper and pencil in my life - when began to get into it, I was already equipped with Sibelius (version 1 for Windows, if I remember correctly). Same with word processing. <br /><br />My wife, for one, switched to the PC only after having written a huge amount of text by hand and by typewriter. After one year of typing in each and every senctence after having developed it by pencil, her handwritten notes became shorter and shorter. After five years it was only one word and a horizontal line, or so. Now she sits in front of her laptop and performs kind of "air pencil" movements, without a pencil. Looks like Khattak dance, very amusing.<br /><br />Rather than deliberately running in clogs I like to rely on a running shoe as good as it can get. If I want to run slower, in order e.g. to have a more conscious perception of the landscape, or to make more conscious and well-balanced moves, I try to do just that, rather than inventing handicaps.<br /><br />The imperative behind my workflow considerations could be put like that: after having found the basic compositorical idea without computer, but also without a pencil, just walking around or so, I want the notation software to<br /><br />1. allow to get the idea stored as fast as possible, as easy as possible, as less distracting from the music as possible.<br /><br />2. ease the elaboration of the basic musical ideas, i.e. arrangement, orchestration etc., I certainly do not shy away from using the acoustical MIDI feedback. Detection of mistakes, i.e. mistranslations from the mind to the score, but also, as the libraries and performance automation become better, checking if some orchestration sounds reasonable (keeping in mind what real players can do, of course)<br /><br />3. provide me with readable and cool looking sheets almost on the fly, so that I have to do only minor editing. Thumbs up for magnetic layout!<br /><br />4. provide me with a playback sounding good enough to be used as a first layout for, say, a theatre director. Or at least after substituting some solo voices by real performers. That said, it should also be possible to leave some voices played back by the notation software in a hybrid production, e.g. soft pitched percussions which are not so sensitive to being recorded against staying MIDI. Thumbs up for Sibelius Sounds Essential, and all thumbs up for ReWire integration in Sibelius 6, wow!Fritz Fegerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07840387425711917723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119918719087869579.post-37743456409111908222009-07-23T13:54:59.588-07:002009-07-23T13:54:59.588-07:00Thank you for another thought provoking blog!
I h...Thank you for another thought provoking blog!<br /><br />I heard a wonderful and probably highly exaggerated story about Australian academic Andrew Brown's observation of Steve Reich for his PhD on this very topic. Allegedly, Andrew told Steve that he would just observe him working in his studio and not say a thing. He watched Steve slowly put a bar of music into Finale from his handwritten notes, with the mouse, one note or rest at a time. <br /><br />At the end of a phrase, Steve started putting in a repetition, again one note at a time with the mouse. After putting in 4 or 5 phrases, each with the mouse, slowly and surely, Brown couldn't help himself. "Did you know you could just use the Mass Mover to copy and paste that phrase as many times as you like?", he asked. "Of course," said Steve, "but how would I then get a sense of time passing?".<br /><br />I don't know if this is true, but it's a lovely story nonetheless and one those of us who have gone from paper to computer all feel to some extent, I feel. By the way, I find when arranging the Ideas Hub is invaluable. I also find it's good when I'm working with students to store and develop ideas they are working on, and I also like using it as an educational tool, to offer young students a number of starting points for their own composition. I've published a series of such lessons for high school students through the Australian Music Centre. And recently shared a Sibelius file on my website where the opening ostinati for Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells are in the Ideas Hub, ready to be put back together (the student has to complete a structural analysis to do this)! www.composerhome.com.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119918719087869579.post-24232324226277632642009-07-22T13:26:18.472-07:002009-07-22T13:26:18.472-07:00I can relate to this as I used to work on a very o...I can relate to this as I used to work on a very old Toshiba laptop. Note entry was done via the thumbstick and keyboard. It was a rather slow process, and the built-in MIDI didn't sound that great, either. However, the rationale behind that was that it forced me to focus on each individual note—ensuring that they were actually worth being there—as well as forcing my imagination to substitute real instrument sounds for the General MIDI. Working this way, I was able to justify every note written, as well as audiating the instruments' sounds instead of relying on the computer.<br /><br />This is different now though, as Sibelius's latest sounds are quite good. I've found that printing out a few pages at a time with hidden whole rests makes the process of filling in the empty spaces quite fast while testing ideas at the piano.tjhewerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16788268624228578567noreply@blogger.com