Space adventure sort of piece

Hi Sherry,

Thanks for experimenting with the volume level and preparing the MP3 of the GPO version of this piece. Indeed, that got a rid of a lot of the distortion, but there is still a lot in the last third of the piece.

Decreasing the volume level in Composer (Pro) had some unwanted effects, that I'll need to think about when further designing Composer Pro to work well with GPO. The volume slider in all versions of MidiNotate does something a little curious: it changes both the MIDI note velocities and the MIDI track channel volume level. I did this so that there would be a blend of increasing/decreasing loudness at the same time that there might be also a change in the texture of the sound if the sound driver does more with MIDI velocity than just change the amplitude of the sound waves. This has generally worked quite well for many years in MidiNotate.

As I pointed out about your touch sensitivity explorations, GPO is more sensitive about MIDI velocities. When you move Composer's slider to the left, you can particularly hear a muffling of the brass. A loud brass note comes out with a big punch. A software brass note eases out with much less punch (although still much more than some other instruments). Thus, the 1/3rd rather than 1/2 volume level you used when recording the GPO version of this piece, tended to drain the life out of the brass. The articulations have mostly disappeared.

For use with GPO, I think Composer Pro may need to blend MIDI velocities a little bit different with volume levels. And the volume slider will need to be connected to GPO's volume controller instead of (or in addition to?) the MIDI track channel volume level.

This problem might be able to be solved by going back to the original 1/2 volume level in Composer, and then using GPO's special controller (I forget which one right now) to reduce the volume level. I'll try that, unless you want to take a shot at it.

Cheers
-- Mark