Music Requests

Post by **Haplo** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 1:05 am

Okay, so I know there's an 'unclaimed sound effects' thread, but music and sound effects are two different things, in my opinion, and I've got a request for a type of track.

I just recently have been listening to several variants of Greensleeves, and I think it would be cool to have our own greensleeves-type track with a guitar and maybe a lute and a harp, to produce some relaxing and calm, yet upbeat and interesting, music for exploration or travel in the forested areas of Hammerfell.

Nichevo · Post by **Nichevo** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:47 am

I second you on that. I have some Greensleeves variations as well that I like very much. We would have to adapt it to TR though (as you sort of pointed out), having people yelling plagiarism at the forums wouldn't be a very nice scenario

Graff · Post by **Graff** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:25 pm

By "our own greensleeves-type track" do you mean a track with greensleeves style instrumentation and feel, or a TR variant of greensleeves? I'm all for the former, but the latter would be selling ourselves short.

Graff.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:21 pm

I think if people hear the greensleaves tune they'll be thinking, "wtf, is christmas!". I know greensleaves dosent actualy have anything to do with christmas, but that's the association it holds for most people.

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:31 pm

I meant the former. I agree that making our own version of Greensleeves would be kind of cheap.

Post by **Haplo** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:38 am

Okay, sorry about the double post, but anyway:

I have a question. Is there a music program out there that you can use to make music with, ie, not using a keyboard or instruments or mic or anything? You can just select a sound/instrument and hit record, then play & stop and select diff. instruments to play at different times?

Because I REALLY want to make music, but I can probably only do it if it the above is capable. BTW I have my own music software, I guess you could say. I have Cakewalk Music Creator + Dreamweaver.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:08 am

We are just putting the finishing touches on our GCSE Integrated Assignments...mixing them and suchlike. My ridiculously talented friend angus hasa good strings piece, and I'll ask him if I can have a copy of the recording for use after we have finished GCSEs...its a really good string quartet number. His is just done on really good MIDIs...mine is all recorded live, but since its all on bass, ridiculously distorted guitar, theremin and acoustic guitar as percussion, I guess it wont fit the theme

Graff · Post by **Graff** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:09 am

Haplo wrote:Okay, sorry about the double post, but anyway:

I have a question. Is there a music program out there that you can use to make music with, ie, not using a keyboard or instruments or mic or anything? You can just select a sound/instrument and hit record, then play & stop and select diff. instruments to play at different times?

Because I REALLY want to make music, but I can probably only do it if it the above is capable. BTW I have my own music software, I guess you could say. I have Cakewalk Music Creator + Dreamweaver.

You could do what most of us (apart from Macar, I think) do, write a MIDI score rather than record a song, that way you can orchestrate multiple MIDI instruments.

Post by **Haplo** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:48 pm

How do I do that? In the program(s) I have, I can't hear anything I might create, because I don't have something called a MIDI output. Pardon the French, but WTF is that? A speakers not good enough?

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:17 pm

Graff wrote: You could do what most of us (apart from Macar, I think) do, write a MIDI score rather than record a song, that way you can orchestrate multiple MIDI instruments.

The Program I use (Sibelius 4) uses notation to create music. You place notes on the staff by clicking, typeing, using a midi keyboard or scanning sheetmusic. Then the program can play it back as a midi or, with the correct plugin, as wav.

As always, if anyone has any midi's they want resampled, send them my way! I can open midi-files, in sibelius and it plays them with the instruments I choose.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:35 pm

I use Sibelius at my school and I do find it has quite a lot of problems if you try to get a bit too technical. Not only do I get it skipping parts of bars, sometimes it wont play a note in a hook so you get a nasty gap, and with my mate's piece a whole part was totally out of time with the rest when he played it.

Luckily this can mainly be fixed by transferring to Cubase and using some of the niftier MIDIs in the recording studio.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:52 pm

What version does your school have? Mine has 2 and it's way different than 4. I'm learning also, how to do a lot of things I had assumed the program couldn't do (ie. crescendos on a single note)

There are some isues if the orchestration gets too dense (ie. A huge orchestral swell) I realised this was because my ram was too low. The solution I discovered was to split it up and record tracks in chunks (ie. woodwinds+brass, Strings and Percussion) then mix them in a sound program. I find it easier to use as a musician than the more technical programs like cakewalk.

As for hooks... what are those? Sorry I'm clasicaly trained, and have no Jazz/Rock/Pop knowlage.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:41 pm

Ahh a hook is a term which is similar in meaning to Ostinato. Usually its to do with electronic music or vocals. I guess my problem was actually with a riff, which again means the same except it refers to guitars and bass guitars. I had a bass riff with a slurred note, and apart from playing it the first time the riff was played, on repeats it just wouldnt play.

Yes it is Sibelius 4. Posh school, ya see.

And it is likely that the computers are the problem, but cubase does have far more tools for tweaking a recording. You can export from Sibelius to Cubase if you need to play with it after writing out the music.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:15 pm

If I had cubase I would certainly use it. And yes, Sibelius' main weakness is lack of fine controll.

Graff · Post by **Graff** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:38 pm

Haplo wrote:How do I do that? In the program(s) I have, I can't hear anything I might create, because I don't have something called a MIDI output. Pardon the French, but WTF is that? A speakers not good enough?

You sure that your sound card doesn't have a MIDI output? Check your soundcard settings, most soundcards fitted within the last four years have one.

knightmare · Post by **knightmare** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 3:17 am

i have FL Studio and i have profesional guitar recording hardware in my room, and an acoustic/electric guiter, so if you want a soft mellow guitar part i can record some stuff with Line6 Gearbox software and Ableton Live 4

Scott MacDonald · Post by **Scott MacDonald** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:32 pm

If you are looking for a decent midi maker I used Anvil Studios I believe and It was exelent.
Greensleeves is a nice tune but to me it doesnt apeal for exploring even in a forest, I think that a slow Scottish tune would be nice for that kind of stuff, but something like Loch Lomond or O' Danny Boy would be nice for this kind of event, you know what anything with Gracenotes, throws, grips, taorluaths, doublings, birls, shakes, Crunluaths, ect. are good tunes. Well and other suff is good too, Im just sayin these are Ideas.

Orix · Post by **Orix** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:35 pm

Would anyone mind doing an orchestration of Odowacar's Song of the Air Sprites? He's not been around for a month, but I doubt he'd mind, he might even be pleased, I know I would

. I really love the peaceful, yet sad, tune, and would probabaly make for a good exploration tune, especially for desolate areas. Whether you do it in normal or Hammerfell style instruments is your choice.

[url]http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=14022[/url]

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:46 pm

I would do it, but it's an MP3, not a midi. That means I'd have to pluck it out by ear- which would take me a while. If anyone wants to transcribe it into midi, then I could orchestrate it.

[edit] I have the piece half done. But I realised that I wont feel comfortable posting it without Odowacar's permission. I'll post it if anyone knows how to reach him for his consent.

Post by **Haplo** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:21 pm

Graff wrote:
You sure that your sound card doesn't have a MIDI output? Check your soundcard settings, most soundcards fitted within the last four years have one.

Well, my soundcard was fitted with my computer, which was assembled sometime around 2000 or before. So, I doubt it. However, it shows something in the output list, but it won't let me select it, or it won't work (I'm not sure which)

Graff · Post by **Graff** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:43 am

On your master volume settings/or your speaker settings in control panel, see if there's something that says "SW Synth" or "GM MIDI".

matts05 · Post by **matts05** » Wed May 03, 2006 2:53 am

Our school wind ensemble plays "Prayer of St. Gregory" by Alan Hovhaness. I recently listened to the orchestra version that my band teacher had, and, I don't know about you, but I think that song sounds like it might fit in to TR. You can listen to a preview of it here, from Amazon.com - [url]http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/clipserve/B000001SGT001002/0/ref=mu_sam_wma_001_002/104-8965978-4819157[/url]

Give it a listen, it's pretty cool.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Wed May 03, 2006 3:07 am

That's a band arrangement? I swear I hear strings. Anyway, TR has a polocy against using copyrighted music. And even royalty free music is not really what we're looking for. We prefer original music from our members.

Scott MacDonald · Post by **Scott MacDonald** » Wed May 03, 2006 2:17 pm

So my idea is discarded with no effort at all. Some of the names took me 20 minutes to remember.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Wed May 03, 2006 3:42 pm

You could have saved yourself 20 minutes by writing "ornaments". Because, frankly, most people have no idea what you were talking about.

matts05 · Post by **matts05** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:59 pm

I guess I didn't know about that technical mumbojumbo about copywrights and stuff.

And yeah, that audio clip is a string arrangement, but I was just sayin we had a symphonic arrangement at our school.

Oh well.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Thu May 04, 2006 11:20 pm

That's okay. I was just telling you how we roll. But youre right, it does have the right sound to some extent. Though if you listen to MW and OB music, you will see that the explore music dosent really have a strong melody- it just sort of a wash of continuous color.

Did I really just describe music as a wash of color...

Scott MacDonald · Post by **Scott MacDonald** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:07 pm

Macar wrote:You could have saved yourself 20 minutes by writing "ornaments". Because, frankly, most people have no idea what you were talking about.

ummmmmmm Its stuff you play on bag pipes basicly a serries of Gracenotes in a certain sucssession.

Macar · Post by **Macar** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:27 pm

His point was that writing the actual names of them was pointless showing-off. (look at all the ornaments I know!)

Graff · Post by **Graff** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:23 am

Guys, don't bash one another, otherwise I'll have to slap you with a wet fish.