Flute sonata

I'm not posting the flute sonata here, mostly because the GM flute has no vibrato. It can be found at: www.soundclick.com/mgjacobs . It is the first three selections on the page. If "play all in one go" is selected, the movement will play in sequence, without having to click again.

The piece is classical in form, a short (very short) song sandwiched between two more than less sonata allegros. The first movement needs, I think, work on the first theme, though perhaps not so much its development. The second movement, while I intended from the outset that it be short, it may have too much of that property, and I haven't yet any ideas suggesting what I might do about it. For the third movement, instead of working out original themes, I looked for a couple of lively folk songs, and I settled on two Irish sea songs--"The Holy Ground," and "The Irish Rover." I was tickled that working on them in the development section yielded some interesting and tuneful variations.

It is intended for advanced, though not necessarily virtuoso players.

Hello, M.G.:

I think people tend to malign the GM sounds to be found in most modern sound cards without realizing there are a lot of capabilities that don't get tapped.

Vibrato can be added to any track through the use of Controller 1, the modulation wheel. You can draw in vibrato using Composer's Graphovernotes function or, if you have a keyboard with a modulation wheel or with a mappable slider or knob, you can add it in real-time. I grant that such is not usually up to the sound of real vibrato on a real flute, but it's still there.

I gave some demo tracks to a band recently, mentioning that they were done with midi recording. "Oh, midi," they sniffed, then their jaws dropped when they heard the tracks.

As I say, there's a lot of capability in our equipment that doesn't get used.

David

Hi MG,

I agree with David. An advantage is that you can control where the vibrato begins and ends, the degree of vibrato, etc. The downfall is that you can't use it with GPO because the modulation wheel is needed for sound. I guess that opens a question ( or request )for Mark. Would it be possible to add one of the unused controllers as an alternative mod wheel? If so, could it be made to be recognized by GPO as such? Sounds like a tall order....I'm just fantasizing?
Cheers,
Fred

Hi David, Fred,

I really don't I malign GM by saying it's not as good as other sounds available (with exceptions, like the horns, which are very good). There is criticism in saying that, but certainly no slander.

I was aware that graph over notes and the first controller shown could be used to add vibrato. I did not use it for two reasons. One is that the Hagi flute still has a much more realistic sound. The second is that I find it hard enough these days to concentrate on anything, that I want to spend that time working on something new, rather than fiddling with the midi sound of something already done.

Some folks like sound engineering. I don't. Even if I had lots of time to spend on it, I wouldn't. But given the range of controllers Composer lists (most of which I suspect take a keyboard to implement), those dropping jaws you mention, David, are not surprising to hear about. The guy who did GUGS started, I believe, with GM and many instruments came out much improved, so--yes--it seems one can do a great deal. But I still prefer, if I can find an instrument I like, to use it out of the box.

Fred, the GPO problem you have really loses me in the fog of expertise I don't have. Hopefully, Mark will be able to help.

all best,
mgj

Hi MG,
I have the Hagi flute font, but I can only use it in Synthfont...which hasn't been working all that great lately. The Hagi flute is really a great font.
Cheers,
Fred

Hi, M.G. and Fred:

M.G.: Drawing in controllers in ANY sequencing program is always painstaking (Mark, that's not a Composer criticism!), so I know what you mean. I'm lucky enough to have some extra mod and pitch bend wheels in my stack, so they're handy. And, of course, it's things like stereo movement, pitch bend and modulation that make a track come alive.

Fred: I don't know GPO, but I'll bet there must be some way to map the mod wheel to different controllers. Failing that, you might put something like MidiOx and a virtual port in between to allow you to re-map the controllers when needed.

Off to load Hammonds, Rhodeses and other heavy things. My son's band has two gigs today -- a roadie's work is never done!

David

Hello David, M.G., Fred,

Did you know that you can "punch in" a live performance of pitch bend or mod wheel? While you're playing back a passage, you can twiddle the joy stick on your MIDI controller and hear live the effect, and at the same time record the effect.

I haven't tried this for a couple of years, and now that I think about it, I don't recall anyone else reporting using this feature.

Of course, the question will be asked, "Can the joystick be associated with some arbitrary controller?" That is similar to a question that was asked, "Can a graph of one controller type be copy/pasted to the graph of another controller type?" The answer to both questions are currently no, but these features are planned (the first of which was just planned this moment).

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Mark,

quote: Did you know that you can "punch in" a live performance of pitch bend or mod wheel? While you're playing back a passage, you can twiddle the joy stick on your MIDI controller and hear live the effect, and at the same time record the effect.

Nope! How you do dat? Is it in the manual? Thanks!

Best,
Fred

Hi Fred,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

How you do dat? Is it in the manual? Thanks!<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>It must not be very well exposed in the manual. Please take a look and let me know what I should do to better expose this feature in the documentation.

Thanks.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Mark,

quote:It must not be very well exposed in the manual. Please take a look and let me know what I should do to better expose this feature in the documentation.

I found it OK. However, it really doesn't apply to me. I do not have a mod wheel or pitch bend on my keyboard. I tried adding a staff below a sax staff and "punching in" the pitch bends manually while playing back the recording, but that doesn't work. Thanks!

Cheers,
Fred

Hi, Fred:

There is joystick-to-midi software (freeware) on the net. If you have any kind of joystick on your computer (or are willing to spend $20 to pick up a cheap one), you might use that in place of wheels on a synth.

Uhm, the name Midijoy comes to mind, but I'm not sure about it.

David

Hi David,

Thanks for the info. I'll check that out.

Cheers,
Fred