Guitar strumming

[Chickinox]

Dear Herbert,
one more detail. In a previous message you told ... <<< To get reasonable sounds, you need to do a lot of midi editing. There are several good books available on this subject.>>> Could you suggest me just a pair of these titles suitable for a 54 years old dummy?
Thank you very much!

Paolo

[Sherry C]

Hi Paulo,

One other way to get realistic MIDI files is to record them "live". There are a variety of ways to do this with guitar. You can buy a MIDI/acoustic/electric guitar such as Godin and Parker make, or get a MIDI pickup to put on an existing guitar (Fishman, Roland, and Axon make some fine ones) or on the less expensive end there is the Sonuus unit (which I have the first version which isn't so hot except on single notes, but I hear that they have improved tremendously). There is also a unit called the "You Rock Guitar", which is guitar-shaped, but uses what looks like fence wire for the strings, but is purported to allow a guitarist to do some pretty nifty MIDI work at a fairly minimal price point.

You can use any of these MIDI inputs with Notation Composer, and come out with a live sound AND sheet music. Composer keeps the actual recorded MIDI information, so all the little "humanized" factors are still there, while giving you a good clean piece of sheet music to go with it (provided you've stayed within some reasonable coherence with the metronome If you didn't, you can use the ReBar feature to clean it up.)

Just another thought

ttfn,
Sherry

[herbert]

Hi Paolo,

“54 years old dummy?” - Music and music production is just the thing that will keep your brain in best shape, well into the future. They say, physical exercise is an important ingredient.

I have used two books:

1. Acoustic and midi orchestration for the contemporary composer.
Andrea Pejrolo and Richard DeRosa.

2. The Guide to Midi Orchestration.
Paul Gilreath

It depends on your aim. To get a good midi track for just a guitar, Sherry’s method is best.
If you want to create orchestral sound tracks, the above books could give you a start. No doubt you would agree, that training your ear to musical but also general acoustic events, is important.


Best wishes,

Herbert

[Chickinox]

Thank you to all of you for your advices.
Not being a guitar player, the only chance to record midi guitar parts would be: 1) learn to play the guitar (fascinating but time consuming) or 2) use the old balck&white friends (good technique needed for complicated parts). This is why the "tweaking idea" seems so interesting for me.
This 54 years old dummy is a surgeon that about 20 years ago truncated his promising musical career ... for professional reasons and therefore is now a little bit out of order in the midi knowledge!
I shall try to find the books, the titles sound very promising to me.

All the best

Paolo

[herbert]

Hi Paolo,

If you want to just spread out each note in a chord by a fixed amount for all chords, here is a fast way to do it:
1. Select your guitar staff and split melody and accompaniment in the staff menu to get a single staff for each string.
2. Select all notes for one string in all of the song by selecting the staff of one string in the region menu and convert region to selection of notes. You can now shift all notes of the staff at the same time by the same amount. Continue for all strings.
3. Merge staves for the guitar.
4. Rename the combined staff “Guitar” again and make sure to use the proper channel for the guitar.
You will now get a better sound from your guitar. Depending on your sample library, the sound of the guitar will sound warmer by lowering velocity but increasing volume to the right value.

Best wishes,

Herbert

[Chickinox]

Dear Herbert,
I should send you a barrel of italian wine to be grateful enough.
<<<You can now shift all notes of the staff at the same time by the same amount>>>
Could you plese explain how this is done step by ste on the Piano Roll page?

Thank you, God bless

Paolo

[Chickinox]

So sorry ... Done, it works ... I am slowly getting proficient in this job, hoping that Mr. Martin Barre guitarist of Jethro Tull would not blame too much for corrupting his marvellous playing ...