I'm not good, at all, at t
 

Hey MG, Not good at it?...
 

To hear it as you created it w
 

To hear it as you created it with Magic sound bank and ZFS bank do I need to use such sound banks, and if so how do I go about it ???

Tony

Hi Tony, Yes, you would nee
 

Hi Tony,

Yes, you would need the same sound fonts to hear it exactly as I did it, since I had these instruments loaded as I worked in Composer. There are two ways to go about it, as far as I know. The first way requires that your system have a sound card.

I got the Magic and ZFS banks from http://www.sf2midi.com/index.php . This site has a lot of free downloads (requires registration). I used Sound font Librarian to add the presets for these instruments to the GM bank that came with my sound card. (Sound font Librarian: http://www.sf2midi.com/index.php?page=software .) Then I used the Sound font Bank Manager that came with my card to load the changed GM bank into the built in synth.

If your system doesn't have a sound card, you can use Synthfont (www.Synthfont.com). To use this, you open a midi file in it, then click on an instrument and use F3 to navigate to the bank (like ZFS), then F4 to choose a preset (like #40 solo violin). You can play back the midi file and/or have Synthfont record the piece to .wav or .mp3, which by setting it to record to a file and not speakers, takes a very short time.

Composer will have a similar capacity in the near future, I understand.

For now, the most simple thing would be if I put an mp3 recording of the piece on www.soundclick.com/mgjacobs , where you can listen to or download the recording. I will put it there tomorrow.

I'm far from being an expert on this sort of thing. I'm not even sure I always have the terminology correct. (I hear the individual instruments in collections referred to as patches sometimes and presets at others, for example.) But all the software I mentioned has help available.

all best,
mgj

Hi Fred, Thanks for the kin
 

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the kind words--way to kind, but thanks. I'm sure the piece will change if these refugees from the snow decide to play it again, but the neat thing is that these guys can be trapped in this snow storm for as long as I want. Who knows, back at the main terminal, there might be a guitar player, another trombonist, etc. who hears about the group in the lounge and joins them. (Though for some odd reason, I really like the sound of the ensemble as it is, though I can't recall a violin in such a group.)

Odd you should mention brushes. I looked, several times. I couldn't find in the standard drum kit anything that sounded like brushes on a snare drum, so I used the one that came closest, I thought, to brushes on a cymbal. The drums are what I'm least satisfied with and will look at more closely. For now, that drummer looked pretty red and glassy eyed, so I didn't make him think too much and gave him just one basic measure for each theme.

The double bass was what was part of small jazz groups during the years when I frequently visited clubs and lounges, so there just happened to be one with a cancelled flight in the airport. I guess that nowadays he'd play an electric bass. So maybe these guys are trapped not only in a storm but in a time warp.

Glad you liked the harmonies. One reason for doing this was that, since it's supposed to be improvised, maybe I could get myself to stop analyzing so much before putting anything down, and if I thought it would sound good, to at least give it a try.

I hope Patsy is doing well. I look forward to the announcement that you've put a new painting on your web site.

all best,
mgj

PS. I'm going to make a recording of Snowy Night and put it on Soundclick tomorrow.

Hi MG, I don't know abo
 

Howdy guys, MG wrote: ----
 

Hi MG, Those #'s for th
 

Hi MG,

Those #'s for the brushes are wrong. For midi, it should be C#-0, etc. But they don't work too good on my system. I used brushes before, but I have to go back and try to remember where. I'll try looking for them.
Cheers,
Fred

Hi again, MG Try this for t
 

Hi again, MG

Try this for the brushes:

D 0 - brush swirl
E 0 - brush tap swirl

Use them together. The brush tap swirl should be at least a quarter note or longer, and the brush swirl maybe an eighth note. I would keep the brush tap swirl going and probably use the brush swirl either on the beat or every other beat. It's a little confusing because the brush swirl sounds more like a tap and the brush tap swirl sounds more like a swirl.

The main thing is the velocity. If the brush tap swirl is too loud, it will sound like the chef in the kitchen dropped a stack of metal plates. It has to be loud enough to hear according to the velocity of the rest of the instruments, however. It takes a good bit of playing around with, but it will work. The brush tap and the brush slap notes don't sound too good.

Cheers,
Fred

Hi Fred, Thanks for the hel
 

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the help. I think I might be getting somewhere. I also went and overwhelmed myself. Noticed there's a Brush kit, so opened the GM bank in Vienna and listened to what was there. Then started opening others, like Magic, Musica Theoria, ZFS, etc. The percussion components seem to be the same but there is a big difference from one bank to the other in how they sound.

You're right about the amount of playing around that might be involved in getting the drums right, especially for someone as dumb as I am about it. In going through the various kits, I found some interesting sounds, but I don't even know what the instruments that produce half them are called, much less what the look like or are made of.

I thought about waking up the flute player. Also thought about having a guy with a trumpet wander in. There is also a vibraphone sitting over in the corner. Maybe the next snow storm.

Thanks again,
mgj

Hi Sherry, I have to take s
 

Hi Sherry,

I have to take some of that back about the upright bass. There's a program featuring recent performances by country music groups on one of the PBS stations we get, and as often as not a group has one.

all best,
mgj

Hi MG, You said: Thanks for