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Hello Henry, you asked for a crazy post: 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️ 🧙‍♂️🧙‍♂️ sorry for the late reply 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 😑 The sound quality is definitely improving, kudos to you on buying a new microphone; since the tone is now much sharper and intense, I would exaggerate the dynamic changes a little more if you're going for this sort of microphone placement. But as others have suggested, putting your microphone farther away could produce better results. As for your short piece, I quite like it, reminds me of those pieces from the Trinity or Yamaha Piano curriculum, not that it is a bad thing. On that note, maybe you could have your students play a few of your pieces. I'm sure there is a lot to learn in regards to technique and form. Here's what I found about playing your own pieces in an exam: https://teacherhub.abrsm.org/mod/page/view.php?id=1473 anyways, 💪 💪 💪 💪 💪 look forward to your new compositions

Thanks Peter. I've discovered the tremblement ornament in MuseScore sounds better than a regular trill. Another workaround would be to write out the notes of the trill in full, exactly as I'd like them to be played. They do also have a harpsichord add-on; but it's a bit pricey for just one instrument: so I probably won't bother with it.

I know that if you're using a Musesounds instrument sample, then the trills will be executed more realistically and humanized. But if the harpsichord is still a MSBasic soundfont then the trills will unfortunately sound very mechanical and artificial. I've had the same problem with using MSBasic Piano soundfont instead of the Musesounds, because with the Musesounds Piano sample you can't manipulate different notes of chords to be played at different velocities so that was a deal-breaker for me. I've recently started falling in love with the sound of the harpsichord for some reason. I've always hated it when it was used as part of early Mozart and Haydn symphonies. But somehow it's really grown on me. Perhaps the construction of some more recent/modern Harpsichord models that have the capability of playing micro-tones made me really enjoy them much much more. Now I want to write my own microtonal pieces too! I don't know what it is about chaconne's and passacaglia's but, even though I love variation forms, I find them quite boring and overly-long. There is lots of space in your writing though, which is a good feature to have in harpsichord and piano music as the thickness of chords (if too thick overall) can become the most salient feature of a piece and overpower the ear with it's percussiveness. I like the prelude and the "fugue" though! The trill in the prelude was just fine I thought! It didn't sound too mechanical to me - it was played at the right speed in comparison to the rest of the notes surrounding it. Your "fugue" has some moments which sound just like some Bach invention or sinfonia, not sure which though. Thanks for sharing!

hi @Alex Weidmann! I like your new idea. I think when writing for many instruments in midi it is easy to produce a rendering where it sounds like the instruments are all playing too loud and the whole orchestra is screaming. I think you can prevent this by balancing the instruments dynamically by having a clear idea of foreground and background material and using the full dynamic range of the orchestra. I can tell some parts of this are meant to be quieter than others by their character, but they are perceived by me as being played at the same intensity. Thanks for sharing!

Hi @Samuel_vangogh! I love the mixolydian mode you use here! And the use of parallel 4ths is also quite nice! I think the piece loses a little steam in the ad libitum section. Maybe you could find some way to return from where the piece stops back to the main theme and then conclude the piece? Thanks for sharing!

I really love the microtones, because it surprisingly adds expression to the midi recording. As an unintended result, this makes your recording sound a lot more authentic. The way you incorporated the microtones is also subtle which may contribute to the realism. But for a first time this is impressive, because adding these extra layers of harmony can really add to the complexity. Given this added complexity, your compositions are still extremely well organized, and your scores are always fun to read and follow along. I'll have to consult with you when I get to microtones in Music Jotter!

Hi @JorgeDavid, I'm not familiar with jazz music at all, but your music sounds jazz to me and is quite enjoybale. Thx for sharing! Henry