Moseph

I was thinking about getting VSL SE sometime in the not too distant future, but I may just spring for an EWQLSO Gold/Symphonic Choirs combo. Decisions, decisions. EDIT: I take it the rebate form means that you don't actually have to buy directly from East West?

I like to bounce every track down to a wav file before I actually start mixing, and then create an entirely new project out of those wavs for the mixing stage. It removes all of the clutter (VSTs, automation envelopes, MIDI notes, etc.), which I find helps me to focus on the mix rather than the compositional elements.

'nuff said

It sounds ... like a lot of hype. How much do these things cost?

I'm moving to St. Louis sometime this summer, but I'm not sure exactly when. If I get up there before this happens, I'd definitely be interested. What kind of timeframe are you looking at for ticket purchasing?

The difference between banging on a piano and music by Mozart is one of organization -- this is in fact fundamental because organization is what differentiates music from mere sound. There is almost no system or organizing force when you bang on a piano (except maybe your strength and hand size), but Mozart's music is highly organized -- it follows the system of tonality, it is set up in such a way as to introduce and continually reference certain material, it reflects the musical trends of the 18th century, etc. Mozart, then, is objectively more organized than banging on a piano -- but that doesn't necessarily prove that Mozart is better.

That's basically what I was getting at. I misinterpreted the whole physical habit thing as a blanket statement rather than a piano-specific statement. Unfortunately I've failed to grasp this point. I'm not sure how the creative process of exploring harmony and musical ideas is notably different between ensembles. I may not be taking 'arranging' literally enough in this context. Yeah, I didn't explain that really well. The point was that some people, myself included, compose even at the piano on a sort of step-by-step basis rather than a play-something-then-write-it-down basis. I frequently am not able to easily play on the piano the things I've composed -- even when I composed them at the piano -- because my focus is more on writing stuff down and working it out on paper than on playing it.EDIT: If it clarifies my workflow any, when I'm composing at the piano, I frequently keep the pencil in my hand even as I play notes with that hand -- it lets me get back to the staff paper more quickly.

An artist's vision for a work, though, can be very explicit, or it can be extremely loose, permitting such things as aleatoric music, instrumental parts that can be played on any instrument, improvisation, interactivity with the audience, and perhaps computer-assisted composition. That said, I don't think anyone is advocating feeding a melody into an auto-harmonizer, pressing go, and choking down whatever it spits out. Even the bits that were worth keeping would likely require tweaking and/or personalization. Maybe think of it as a potential inspiration to be used, abused, or discarded as the whim strikes you rather than as a mecha-composer-bot. EDIT: I made you an image macro

Cool. All clear on that, then. I deny that muscle-memory and physical capability have any bearing on arrangement procedures in general, although they may be factors for certain people and/or types of arranging. Anything arranged with only a mouse and sequencer or pencil and staff paper, naturally, will be affected only by mental biases. I would argue also that any arranging in which the intellectual aspect outweighs the physical (e.g. writing for a horn quintet or choir) will likewise avoid physical influences regardless of whether or not the arranging occurs at the piano. Obviously, though, something like jazz comping or soloing is going to be very physical and reflexive.

Using "go" as a transitive verb FTW.

To add to what Yoozer said, it's like collaborating with another musician: The other person thinks differently than you, so they're going to come up with variations that you habitually avoid. There's nothing old-fashioned about that. Do the above comments refer specifically the MySong software, or to some more advanced "intelligent arranger" that I'm not aware of? I'm going continue the argument that I think dannthr was trying to make, but the points I'm about to bring up assume that we're talking specifically about MySong: 1) Physical limitation doesn't affect one's ability to deal with harmony, especially when MySong only generates very basic chords that could easily be played on a piano. Constructing chords in a sequencer removes physical issues entirely. 2) MySong, from what I can see, does pretty basic harmonizations. I haven't seen or heard anything on the website that suggests it's capable of coming up with anything a halfway-decent composer wouldn't think of. I get the technology as a tool bit, but MySong looks far too limited to be of real use to anyone but its target audience -- people who don't know how to write music. It could perhaps speed up the writing process for a composer, but there's no indication that it will improve a composer's output.

Music of my Groin as background music?

Hahaaaaaaa! The software has a "Happy Factor" slider! I love it! Regarding usefulness for a musician: The software generates three- or four-note chords that change with the measure. This can also be done by playing every possible three- or four-note chord on a keyboard and deciding whether it sounds good in context. Useful for quick foolin' around and experimentation? Yes. Useful for someone who doesn't know how to work with harmony? Yes. Useful for a musician to get some quick ideas? Yes. Useful as some sort of computerized collaboration partner that will give a musician profound new insight? Definitely no.

Yeah, I downloaded Kid Icarus too when it first came out on the Virtual Console, but I never got far. Someday (after I finish Zelda II and Super Metroid) I'll go back to it. It's frustrating, certainly, but the little I've played of it seems to exemplify the straight-forward, unforgiving gameplay that characterized so many early platformers. And I have a soft spot for that type of game.

According to ZDNet, Windows 7 will have both 32- and 64-bit versions. It's an old-ish article, though, so it's anyone's guess as to whether that's still up-to-date info.

I saw a video a while back (I think someone on OCR linked it) where a guy had drawn pictures into the piano rolls of his video game music arrangements, and they still sounded good when they were played. I can't find it, though; does anyone have the link?

It's an extremely large download, but I really like the bass guitar sounds included with Independence Free.

I dunno, if they sound really, really good they might be worth the trouble (for those of us who have no money to purchase actual sample libraries ). If I get the time, I'll go through some of them and throw together an NN-XT patch if they seem worth using. Speaking of uncompiled samples, there's a whole lot of cool stuff at the Sound Exchange, but the download procedure is unbelievably inconvenient -- you have to download each individual sample separately. It's a shame, because there's a lot of stuff there that would be useful if it were easily usable.

http://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/FBRC2008

Prepared piano samples and beer-pouring sounds? I may have a use for these.

Here's a breakdown of what she was thinking for each of the games: Spider-Man 3 -- "Oh, he just loved that movie!" Ninjabread Man -- "Isn't that cuuute?" Mario/Sonic Olympics -- "OMG current events! Must be educational!" Super Smash Bros. Brawl -- "Rated Teen! It must be very violent!" Mario Galaxy -- "... it says U R MR GAY on the front ..."

I get the cookie for being last.

Konami code, then? Okay, never mind.

Maybe he'd only appear if you were logged in and had a 200+ post count.

Speaking of mascotship, NWG ought to be added to the list of characters who appear on the upper-right of the site.