A Christmas gift

[Sherry C]

Hi David,

Merry Christmas late, and Happy New Year early, so it averages out

Thanks for sharing this with us! A big, rich, full sound to be sure - well done The vocals sound pretty darn good for not being actual folks. I love Dickens, so thematically this is a lot of fun.

Just out of curiosity, which devices do you use for this? My devices may not be yours, but maybe some of them are (or are for other folks)

ttfn,
Sherry

[dj]

Hi, Sherry:

The .not file attached above is set for Notation Software synth for the top half of the score and an external port for the bottom.

I usually do midi out from Composer into a pair of mid-range Casio CTK-651 keyboards as GM sources. Both of those go into a Zoom MRS-1044 16-track digital recorder which, in turn, goes back into my computer.

I do have a few other synths and samplers available -- 23 at last count, ranging from a midi-fied 1972 ARP Odyssey I to (most recently acquired) a Kurzweil RG-200 digital piano. It's at the point where my wife says 'If another comes in, one has to go out.' Her collection of wind instruments doesn't figure into the equation, of course.

For orchestral sounds, I import midi into Samplitude Music Studio (by Magix) which has an excellent pool of sample-based instruments. The orchestra in Your First Christmas Tree is Samplitude.

I am increasingly impressed by the Ace Studio AI voice program. They keep updating it and improving the library of voices. The original voice set was mostly Chinese/Japanese, the phonemes of which don't particularly work with Western music. Recently, they've added a bunch of Western-style voices that work well. It's a monthly subscription but after two years, you get it free for life, so there's that.

And, I have music going back to 1978 to put into it.

Happy Holidays (or what's left of them).

David