Fill 'er Up

Hi Sherry:
I have an old Roland GK1 with a GK2 pickup mounted on an old Squier electric guitar. Roland had newer since I got my rig but I was happy with mine (and I didn't have the money to upgrade).
The sensitivity and innability to filter out 'artifacts' (when I pressed a string at the fret it might trigger a midi event even without plucking - but it's called a phantom note because it is only a few ticks long and easy to delete from the file using a sequencer.
I can set it up to record the individual strings on a seperate track (midi channel) so the tracks from one to six carries the nots respectively from each string.
Pitch bend (PB) is read by string as well. Any track with unesential pitch bends are seperated in the sequencer and the PB's are deleted from those tracks leaving only the essential string PB's. If you record all on one track, then do a PB on one string ALL strings will act on the PB - yuck.
I have done live performances with it with these results:
1- The phantom notes sound making me sound like Les Paul
2 Sometimes the phantom note is not the correct sound because it may pickup my finger touching at a fret other than the target - owww
3- I have assigned the two lowest strings E and A to a bass in the sequencer and then my thumb picking had better be right on. The different instrument sound stands out.
4- I'm a picker by habit and my old fingers don't always finger AT the fret anymore so I may get additional artifacts or phantoms.
With practice, the thing does a good job.
There are some dedicated guitars out there, notably the Godin and they make recording to midi pretty easy.
Keyboards are generally note-on, note off instruments with wheel (pitch bend)capabilities. A midi guitar is constantly in pitchbend (unless shut off in the converter module, which is a whole 'nother issue for sound reproduction) and needs to do a lot of work. It is like working with a fretless bass. The better you manage the fretboard the cleaner intonation and correctness of pitch you get. The midi guitar is sometimes like fretless because often the strings are pushed slightly across the fretboard even with near precise fingering. Not noticable in performance without a midi rig, but the pickup slightly exagerates them.
Hope this brief overview helps.
Larry

Hi again Sherry:
I see no issue with hanging out with anyone in this forum. It is why I posted on a 'public' forum. Glad your here as well as the others. I just hope the lurkers join in and either give yea and nay to us, or contribute in suggesting ways. Either way I'm glad to have had some responce, and willing to give others the same.
A great day at you... Larry

Sherry wrote: a "chamber concert" means the bluegrass band is _inside_ the barn

As the old joke goes: "I like both kinds of music -- country AND western."

Hello Larry,

I listened to #17 a few days and #19 a few minutes ago. The main change I observed-- the return to the earlier material at the end of the piece-- helps to unify it as a single composition, I think.

The modal tonality and syncopation of first section reminds me of Dello Joio's 3rd piano sonata, written, I'm not sure, in the 1950's. I don't expect anyone around here to be familiar with it, any more than anyone should expect me to know... you name it... most big band tunes from the 40's. Any way, take the Dello Joio comparison as a compliment; he's a good composer.

I find the fuge-like section engaging-- sort of three fourths Baroque and one fourth jazz. Elements of syncopation have always been important in counterpoint. You took it a little bit further by mixing in some jazz feel with the Baroque. Nice composition technique in this section, such as some convincing sequences.

I found the 12:8 meter difficult to decipher. I kept hearing 2:4 instead of 12:8, three 2:4 meters per original 12:8. So, in Composer, I just changed the 12:8 to 2:4 and then the beats made sense to me. In a later section, changing 12:8 to 2:4 also works, but the barlines then need to be shifted by an 8th beat here or there. Just my opinion or ear here about the meter.

So, how did you get these notes into Composer? With the mouse, at a MIDI keyboard, MIDI guitar, or some combination? Whatever way you did it, you did a lot of musical work.

Cheers
-- Mark