Howdy Mark,

Ok, so I got brave and started messing around with your file (but I did save the original for reference). I added some timpani (and used Gary's left and right hand hits ) in "real time" and this is the file, along with the GPO file that goes with it.

<center><table border=1><tr><td>stars with timpani
Stars19GPO-26988 with timpani.not (103.4 k)</td></tr></table></center><center><table border=1><tr><td>GPO file for stars with timpani
Stars19-26989 with timpani and bass.gpo (95.3 k)</td></tr></table></center>

What I did: I added a new track for the timpani, recorded it in, and then converted that track (which had different pseudo pitches for the two hands) to a "single line, multi pseudo pitch" notation. It was nice, because having the GPO "right" and "left" hand hits makes it easier to use both hands to get rhythms better, and using the Composer feature of having multiple pseudo pitches on a single line makes the notation look like a real drum line, that could be scored for a real musician.

I haven't cleaned it up any at all - there are a couple of places where the rhythms could be a bit cleaner, and where the pitch could be changed for better effect. To change the pitches easily, I would probably re-convert the line to a five-line staff just for ease of manipulation. You can feel free to do any changes sooner rather than my getting to it later, if you want

I've also just started for a few measures adding in some bass ensemble, but since that's not anywhere close to even being completely entered, much less "adjusted", I have hidden and muted that track, though you will see that the bass ensemble is loaded in the GPO Studio file.

Since I don't have the privilege of posting MP3s here, I'll let Mark do that if he wants

I briefly tried copying over the timpani track into the MIDI version of the file (the stars 12 one), but I ran into a couple glitches, in that not the entire track was copied over. I'll try to get back to that and give a report and file

Thanks for letting us noodle with your piece - it gives me a fresh perspective, and it makes me listen to the piece in a different way to try and incorporate an element into someone else's composition.

ttfn,
Sherry