Quatrième épouvantail (Fourth Scarecrow) for piano & orchestra

Good morning!

Nice to see you again. Here is my fourth scarecrow based on a well-known theme (and rehashed hahaà). I indulge in the poncifs of the genre and I hope you will forgive me my retrograde side. But it's very fun as I often said here, on my almost old days, to have a virtual orchestra and a high-flying piano on hand!

My teachers, peace to their souls, must certainly turn in their graves, they who swore only by the French avant-garde... By dint of writing these pastiches, they, turning around each time in their tomb, will end up resting on the right side !

The photos were taken during recent walks in the Parisian streets.

4 hours ago, Krisp said:

My teachers, peace to their souls, must certainly turn in their graves, they who swore only by the French avant-garde... By dint of writing these pastiches, they, turning around each time in their tomb, will end up resting on the right side !

  Crisp---

   A very fun and well-orchestrated piece.  Not usually my fare regarding muscial genre, but I truly enjoyed this---varied, unpredictable, and yet cogent as a whole.

                                        As for your revered teachers--- LET THEM TURN!

Hi @Krisp!

I like the intensity and concertante piano!  It's like a mini piano concerto movement!  I also love the dies ire theme sprinkled throughout the piece.  But I really like your instrumental style!  Thanks for sharing!

great production here, is this the konkact soundfont you are using?

I hear a few echoes of Liszt's Totentanz, but the Dies Irae is developed in a completely different manner, in regards to style, orchestral technique and harmony. If possible, I would definitely like to have a look at the score since you seem to be using quite a few extended techniques; it is wonderful to hear how all these "avant-garde sounds" could be incorporated into tangible, colorful music. 

good stuff, brother👌

14 hours ago, Rich said:

  Crisp---

 

   A very fun and well-orchestrated piece.  Not usually my fare regarding muscial genre, but I truly enjoyed this---varied, unpredictable, and yet cogent as a whole.

                                        As for your revered teachers--- LET THEM TURN!

 

Haha ! I'll let them turn a little longer, but I'll do allegiance to them one day by trying something much less audible...

12 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @Krisp!

I like the intensity and concertante piano!  It's like a mini piano concerto movement!  I also love the dies ire theme sprinkled throughout the piece.  But I really like your instrumental style!  Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you for your comment! I really appreciate it.

6 hours ago, Mooravioli said:

great production here, is this the konkact soundfont you are using?

I hear a few echoes of Liszt's Totentanz, but the Dies Irae is developed in a completely different manner, in regards to style, orchestral technique and harmony. If possible, I would definitely like to have a look at the score since you seem to be using quite a few extended techniques; it is wonderful to hear how all these "avant-garde sounds" could be incorporated into tangible, colorful music. 

good stuff, brother👌

 

Indeed, I had Liszt in mind, and necessarily, there are some reminiscences (but this relationship is also linked to the number and the choice of theme, as well as the principle of variation).

And then, my piano is much easier to play! (At least at a more moderate speed).

Initially, I didn't want it to be anything other than a musical beach in support of my slideshow. I got carried away a little and the music here overflows with its role as an accompanying person.

To return to the samples used, these are several mixed libraries:

The piano is Garritan Yamaha CFX (which alone weighs more than 150 GB, which is considerable, but I must say that since I got this VST instrument, it has really opened up new horizons for the use of the piano in my small jobs, because I find it sublime.

The orchestra, globally is the BBCSO pro of Spitfire Audio. It was basically the BBC orchestra that was sampled. This program is now a few years old but remains in my opinion a very good option under the 1000 euro mark for a complete and very well sampled orchestra. Some blame him for having a sound that is too "concert", with a natural reverb of the recording location (their London rehearsal room, I think) but that's what I appreciate precisely because I find it quite convincing and lively. It's a very beautiful starting point that sounds very good.

Note that Garritan and BBCSO have their own interface and do not depend on Kontakt, which in my opinion is a big advantage!

I also use here a trumpet sample (The Trumpet V2) which is pretty bad at the interface level (it's on Kontakt). So sometimes painful interface to use, some strange conflicts, and a rooting of midi instructions really not clear sometimes causing bugs and conflicts. But in return, the sound of their different trumpets is absolutely splendid. He for the time being remains very neutral and malleable. It is a modeling and therefore it does not have the heaviness of a sample. This also allows extreme virtuosity that is not always possible with samples.

On top of these elements, I use studio equipment that helps me give more character to these samples (compressors, EQ...). The fact that all this goes through hardware adds a certain amplitude that is not necessarily present in the sounds at the base.

In any case, thank you for listening.

(Ah, yes, the score... For the moment nothing is clean at home. Here for example, I only wrote a reduction for 2 pianos,  and frankly, it's a draft. One day, in my next life, I may put all this clean, but my goal is always to go fast now and I really don't have time to make efforts on this point...)
I often use my manuscripts as visual supports for my Youtube shares, with the idea of leaving the eye wandering, so that the music is not upset by the image. And the modified macro photos of my scores are finally frames that I sometimes want very abstract.

But I understand your request.

If I can, (on my return because I am traveling) I will post some photos of my music papers... Haha.

4 hours ago, Krisp said:

The piano is Garritan Yamaha CFX (which alone weighs more than 150 GB, which is considerable, but I must say that since I got this VST instrument, it has really opened up new horizons for the use of the piano in my small jobs, because I find it sublime.

I agree--the Garritan CFX is really amazing-- I have the "lite" version.    Every bit as good as VSL, if not better!

4 hours ago, Rich said:

I agree--the Garritan CFX is really amazing-- I have the "lite" version.    Every bit as good as VSL, if not better!

 

I also really like the pianoteq 8 which is of a completely different nature. We can also get very nice things with it, but it only serves me as a piano test when I want to go fast and not overload the machine (even if Garritan already works well with my Mac without slowing down. It is installed on a Thunderbolt 4 disk and does not cause much latency or cracking. You need a powerful computer, that's for sure. BBCSO pro consumes between 15 and 20 GB of RAM and occupies 1 TB on an SSD.

no pressure at all if you can't get the score. The BBCSO seems to execute those extended techniques very well, in addition to sounding quite realistic. I am simply looking for ways I could improve my sound production without having to rely on musesounds all the time. Is the BBCSO VST compatible with musescore?

6 hours ago, Mooravioli said:

no pressure at all if you can't get the score. The BBCSO seems to execute those extended techniques very well, in addition to sounding quite realistic. I am simply looking for ways I could improve my sound production without having to rely on musesounds all the time. Is the BBCSO VST compatible with musescore?

 

Yes, it's compatible. Unfortunately I don't think the result is satisfactory. Music editing software does not have (to my knowledge) the advanced midi programming functions that DAWs have.

For my part, I use Reaper and when I enter an orchestration, I have to play all the parts of my orchestration on the master keyboard then I have to turn the CC midi control faders for each sentence or each pattern in order to record the automation curves. This is the only condition to have a sound that lives, and does not remain in a fixed nuance. It is often necessary to do it several times to get the desired effect.

For BBCSO for example, there may be 3 main faders to move: Expression, dynamic, vibrato, and possibly others, plus mixing elements with choices of microphone modifications, reverb or other elements. It is an ultimately much more dynamic approach than a score that remains quite fixed on its indications. For example, a realistic crescendo is not played continuously and linearly. A series of pizzicati  must be a little chaotic and not strictly identical. A legato can be slow or abrupt, or even dripping, which is only possible by modulating the pressing force of each note on the midi master keyboard While playing on the expression and vibrato fader or other.

I also add that a tempo should not remain the same and what's more, attacks are never strictly together. I also sometimes voluntarily leave false notes. And even "duncks" (you know, the "couac")...

What might seem to us to be flaws, in reality participates in the realistic impression.

It is therefore true that it is considerable work to enter each passage in the DAW (and to get used to the midi view system that does not look like a score).

Sometimes, even more than for an orchestral score, you have to navigate in 200 or 250 tracks. It's pretty strong! But terribly addictive:

I almost feel like I'm making a real orchestra work: such a flute solo is not successful the first time, so I do it again. I politely ask the flutist who is under my fingers to better succeed in her staccato, the melodic design of a curve, a swell. She tries to do it (my hand tries to play properly)... but it doesn't work. So I do it again by taking a tempo below, and this time she succeeds.

For piano playing, it's easier. The VSTs react more or less like numeric keypads, but with a sound that is often more beautiful than the samples embedded in the clavinovas for example.

I have an old clavinova next to my desk. Its touch is correct (much better than my master keyboard Komplete Kontrol). So it's easier for me to play everything on the piano directly on this keyboard. That said, you need a power machine because the samples can cause significant latency. (for example, Garritan CFX weighs 150 GB, BBCSO pro weighs 1 TB on an SSD, and the RAM of my MacBook is occupied at more than 20 GB when I work on orchestration under reaper.

So, to summarize, using BBCSO samples will not be a great advantage with a score editor, even if the sounds are better. Those of Muse score are not bad by the way. But it is all the realism of the executions that will be missing, despite the deepest possible precision of notation.

Hey man, thank you for this wonderfully detailed reply. I appreciate your insights and can tell you have a passion for the production process, perhaps soon I will upgrade my production quality, but it will still surely be inferior to yours since I don’t use a keyboard to compose. It is quite true that those “imperfect” elements add to the realism of the orchestra. You should check out blake robinson’s synthetic orchestra, I think he has a similar attention to sound details as yours. 

Also I have subscribed to your channel, it is too underrated. Look forward hearing to more works.

Hey, thanks !
I didn't know this channel. I'm going to take a look.
In any case, I advise you to train in these tools.

A small miniature master keyboard can be very suitable. It is absolutely not a question of composing on it (I sometimes compose on the piano In a kind of routine, in the evening, but sometimes also simply on the train by noting a piece of stuff on a notebook, or on a block of music paper. But I didn't get used to composing directly on the computer, neither on the DAW nor on a score noter. (my old school)...

So the master keyboard is only used to "enter" the partitions in the DAW and access the varieties of controls.

And this is the moment that is both very long and exhilarating. The moment when you play your little puppets of musicians on the virtual stage. We activate the metronome and we manage to make them play what we noted, what we had in mind by noting on score.

From this point of view, we are finally very close to the real work of developing a musical project. A rehearsal, or better yet a recording session.

4 measures of double bass spiccato, with a progression from P to FF, a crescendo timbale rolling, followed by a bright cymbal to punctuate the climax, tubas lining in staccato, or even trombones. Come on, let's try again. We resume. Each in turn.

You see the idea...

In any case, if I had been told that this science fiction, to have a symphony orchestra in his office, available, would one day be within my reach, when I was still a student and we spent 2 days trying to generate bell sounds with a Yamaha DX7 on our commodores 64... And yes, I'm not very young anymore...
(But there are still many other things that I could not have imagined at the time, much more unpleasant for our world)...

I suggest you listen to the piano part alone, with a comparison between my two best VSTi pianos:
Pianoteq 8 Shigeru Kawai vs Garritan CFX Concert Grand

more depth on the Garritan CFX.  Like honey....