Ricercare a Due Voci no. 12, Francesco Guami, 1588

[dj]

Hi, Walt:

Well, as for arcane, antique sounds, I'm a bit of an arcane antique myself, so . . .

An interesting example of a later ricercare. Are there lyrics for this? I hear it being sung in a cathedral, with lots of reverb.

Also nice use of Midi CC's to alter the standard GM voices and create new sounds from the stock ones. Outside the box thinking!

David

[herbert]

Hi Walt,

I doubt, wether the music was composed for singing. The rhythmic contents of the voices are to different to permit a common text. What do you mean by “the tyranny of the downbeat (especially from a post-tyranny-of-the-downbeat perspective)”


Hi David,

You say: “Also nice use of Midi CC's to alter the standard GM voices and create new sounds from the stock ones. Outside the box thinking!”

The files I have looked at have only straight lines for midi CC’s. I can’t hear any new sounds.


Herbert

[dj]

Hi, Herbert:

Walt made use of (if I remember as I've deleted the file) CC's 73, 91 and 92.

In particular, CC 73 (Attack time) altered the initial sound of the two voices, Clarinet and Perc Organ (again, IIRC), giving them a more "singing" quality, which is why I said I was reminded of cathedral voices.

David

[herbert]

Hi David,

I am using Composer and the Microsoft wavetable. The CC’s you mention have no effect whatsoever. I didn’t think that the Microsoft wavetable is as sophisticated. You must be using some other system.

In any case, changing CC values when driving a sample player, does not create new sounds but allows you to use a different set or sets of samples already contained in the sample player. Some CC’s may control effects or LF oscillators for vibrato control.

Cheers,

Herbert

[dj]

Hi, guys:

Well, I'm using the word "sound" in a more generic sense than being a specific voice on a synth or sampler.

Much of the perceived quality of a musical note lies in the attack phase of the envelope. Remove the attack from a piano note and it is difficult to differentiate from violin.

By slowing the attack time down, using Midi CC 73, Walt removed the initial "punch" from the clarinet and organ voices he selected, allowing them to be smoother and more vocal-esque.

The synth I was playing back on was a Yamaha XG machine, which responds to more Midi CC's than the basic Microsoft Wavetable device. Although I don't use it, I would suspect that software like Garritan would respond to most CCs.

The only thing I miss on the XG machine is portamento, which Walt also used on the Ricercare piece. I should should play it into my Korg or Oberheim and see what happens.

David

[Sherry C]

Hi guys,

Good points David - when I started digging into sound fonts I was amazed at what folks could do with the sounds based on the different MIDI ccs they used (eg. "pads", etc.). Not all libraries or sound samples or VSTis use the same ccs for the same parameters, nor do they all respond to cc's that are used for different libraries/sound samples/VSTis.

If you're into using MIDI for audio production, you've really got to know the particular controllers used for your sounds, and how to use them to achieve the desired effects.

ttfn,
Sherry

[herbert]

Hi,

Here is the problem, we don’t know what instrument library Walt has used. He might tell us.
Generally we should expect that unless the music is presented using the Microsoft wavetable, we should also be provided with a .mp3 file and some indication of the samples used. What do you think, should this not be a rule?

It is possible but not so likely that Walt and David have used identical sample libraries.

David could you please post us a .mp3 file of what you hear?


Cheers,

Herbert