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One option to consider is to buy an audio interface that is bundled with a sequencer. e.g. I bought a Tascam audio interface for less than $200 which comes with a streamlined version of Cubase. The cubase is more than adequate. Plus you will get a good sound card (D/A convertor outside the PC box), mic recording interface hardware. I eventually upgrade to the full price version of Cubase for other features. But if you just want to sequence the midi file exported from your notation softwre, the bundled version should be good enough. If you need more sequencing power, you can upgrade later.

It's a great piece. I'm even more impressed by your playing. Do you know of the "Sax on the Web" forum? If not, check it out. I think you should publish your work there. The saxophonist there will be glad to know that you have written such a great piece for Saxophone solo. IMHO, saxophone is a versatile instrument deserving more attention in classical music.

I recommend the book Structural Hearing by Salzer. The chapter on counter point is very good. I learn more from it than Fux. Mtt, I am by no means an expert in this area. I consider myself still learning to compose. but I do have the same questions as yours at one point, so I think I may share my experience with you. The way I use harmony and counterpoint is that I layout the overall direction from harmony standpoint. It's particular true for phrase ending and cadence. But within a prhase, I want to create more melodic interest of each voice, and I pay more consideration to counterpoint. I don't start with interval relationship between voices, but rather the shape (melodic interest) of each line, and check tine interval after. The simultaneous sounding of lines sometimes form chord that does not direct map to textbook harmony progression, sometimes not even notated by a reguarly chord symbol. They may serves as passing chord and with no function in the harmonic direction. (some people call it contrapunctual chord) Often time they tend to be more colorful than if I just create chord based on regular harmony grammer. I found it work pretty well for me.

I don't have the software with me right now; I don't remember there is a "sustain" string. I do remember mute is c# and pizz is f. The download I refer to is essentially a full package for GPO with Kontakt 2; not just the konkat player.

I use Cubase and GPO, and Keyswitch works fine. Couple of thoughts: - I looked at your screen shot, but not sure how you did it. I see "Violin Section" and "Violin KS" on separate staff. Are you loading two separate patches into two tracks? I think it should be a single track (at least it is how I use it) - If I misunderstand you in my previous point, another suggestion I have is to edit the note into the Midi editor directly (ignore how the piano keyboard coloring looks like in Kontakt) - You may also download "Garritan Personal Orchestra Kontakt Player 2.x" from the NativeInstrument support site.

I love it! Thanks for sharing. The opening (up to bar 20) reminds me of Mahler, which I like a lot.

Hi JohnD, I'm nothing closed to an advanced composer. I think I share a bit similar background to you, so may be I can share some experience with you, and hope that you find something useful in it. I am learning composition myself. My core profession is also software development. And I do like physic and maths. Back to your original question. It seems to me that you want a "Compositional procedure". I can understand your feeling that when we first started composing it is not clear whether to start. Unfortunately I would agree with the replies in this thread that such a compositional procedure does not really exist. Even if it does, you will most likely want to break it. (because either the procedure doesn't work and people don't use it, or it works but too many people use it and as a result you don't want to write something exactly like everyone else). My suggestion is to read the score (or transcribe song from recording) of a short piece that you like, and then analyze the various aspect of it (harmony, form, rhythm, etc.). After repeating it on a number of songs this way, you may conclude the commonality of the elements of these songs, and in particular the things that make you like the songs. Reading music theory is very important too. Otherwise you won't have the language to describe your observation. But most music theory is not compositional procedure. It's not clear to me what type of music you want to compose. But from your opening post, it seems that you're interested in "generic elevator music", so I assume it is something like smooth jazz and pop songs. One book I would suggest is "Jazz Composition : Theory and Practice" by Ted Pease. I also have "composing music a new approach" that PhantomOFtheOpera suggests. It's a good introduction to get your feet wet, but my experience is that it doesn't have enough meat to guide you write something like an elevator smooth jazz piece. Lastly, if you're into scientific explanation of harmony. Try this book : "Harmonic Experience: Tonal harmony from its natural origins to its modern expression" by Mathieu.

Thanks jbullen. I agree that there are places that it feels stagnant, for that I will try some modification later. When I first wrote it, my original idea was that I would insert some break to the polyphonic texture (more homophonic second theme). Apparently it was not as successful as I would like.

I just love counterpoint. I read Fux's book when I first learnt counterpoint. I found it a bit boring, may I say that. Later on I read Salzer's "Structural Hearing" and found its chapter on counter point illuminating.

Thank you dark_dragon, I'm glad that you enjoy this piece. I tried to keep this piece simple and restrain myself from using gimmicks (I fell into the beginner trap of in the past that the piece became scattered when I jumped between different "techniques" that I hadn't mastered)

Thanks Ron for your advice, and the tips on volume envelop. I know I'll need a better notion software, I'm just trying to make the most use of what I already have, particularly that my volume of composition is low (actually this piece is only my second piece of complete music); my day job has nothing to do with music.

Got it. I will add slur, accent, etc. after figuring out how to do it in Cubase. To be honest I don't know much about bowing because I'm not a string player. Is the composer always expected to specify bowing, or is it sometimes up to the principle violinst

Thanks Ron for the understanding. As for dynamic. Again, some oddity with Cubase. In the original multitrack system it sounds more dynamic. Somehow after mix-down to stereo the sound is compressed. I haven't figured out how to solve the problem yet. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks MattGSX for your super quick response. Your advice is very valuable and I will work on these areas of improvement. I know Rhythm is one more my weak spot. As for articulation. Do you mean the lack of articulation marking in the score, or do you also mean that you don't hear any articulation in the audio? The deficiency in the score is partly (I can't blame it completely) is that I edited the piece direct into the sequencer and the score is generated. I am running into a bit of trouble touching up the score afterward, for that I don't have software like Finale/Sibelius.

Hi all I have been viewing postings on this forum and really enjoy it. I'm amazed by the quality of the compositions shared here and the depth of the reviews. It's my first posting. I know the norm is that one should first contribute by giving comments before submitting his own work for review, and I have not posted any comment so far (mostly because I don't feel I'm qualified to make any comment with substance). I hope you don't mind I'm still requesting for a review despite not following the rule. I really need your help here as I do not have much access to other channels for getting review or advice. Here is a work I just completed, an Adagio for Strings. Below is the link to the audio as well as the score. I would appreciate if you can spend a few minutes to listen to it and give me some advice on where it can be improved. YouTube - adagio adagio.pdf Thanks Derek