It's better with TAXI

[ComposerLDG]

Each time I let my membership expire and attempted to navigate the music waters without it, the following things happened:

1. My composing skills became lax and somewhat apathetic.

2. I felt out of the loop

3. I missed the comradery and friendship

Without the listings to stretch the creative muscle and impose deadlines, it's easy to fall into that compositional rut. Not good! These are just a few reasons I'm glad to be back and plan on sticking around for a long time.

My thoughts this morning.

[RobertElse]

Right on Loren - I had the same experience myself. I'm just building my catalog up now after letting it lie static for a long time. Feels good.
I really like your music and just became your 300th follower on SoundCloud. We have a similar area of focus: piano and orchestral textures.
Best wishes and maybe run into you at the next Rally...
Robert

[RobertElse]

Loren - forgot to ask: what piano did you use for "An Empty Chair?" Do you use mostly sound libraries, or acoustic, or both, and what are your favorites? I'm mostly using the various pianos in Kontakt (Grandeur, etc) and East West (the Bosendorfer and Steinway, mostly). I have a very nice Steinway grand but it's hard to get a good clean sound with no damper or other extraneous sounds. And I find recording acoustic directly to an audio file (versus midi) extra challenging because you don't have a chance to adjust notes, velocities, etc. after the fact - you've got to get a good take and that's it. Just curious what your style and preference is in that area.
Best wishes,
Robert

[ComposerLDG]

Loren - forgot to ask: what piano did you use for "An Empty Chair?" Do you use mostly sound libraries, or acoustic, or both, and what are your favorites? I'm mostly using the various pianos in Kontakt (Grandeur, etc) and East West (the Bosendorfer and Steinway, mostly). I have a very nice Steinway grand but it's hard to get a good clean sound with no damper or other extraneous sounds. And I find recording acoustic directly to an audio file (versus midi) extra challenging because you don't have a chance to adjust notes, velocities, etc. after the fact - you've got to get a good take and that's it. Just curious what your style and preference is in that area.
Best wishes,
Robert

Hi Robert, and thanks for the previous reply also. I used The Maverick on that track. That's one of my favorite virtual grand pianos. Love the sound of it. I agree with you totally about acoustics! I love playing (and tuning) them, but they are difficult to record, plus no MIDI. It sure is a different world than it was when I started playing piano many decades ago!

[RobertElse]

I like The Maverick too... great sound. Will revisit soon. Thanks for the reply.
Robert

[TuKatz]

The Maverick has become one of my favorite pianos to use, it is such a supple instrument. I also use the Steinway alot and have also fallen in love with the Una Corda (extra sounds and all). Awesome instruments guys.

[edsmaron]

This is interesting to hear and comes at just the right time. My first renewal is coming up soon and, after a long string of failures, I've been on the fence about whether to continue. Thanks for sharing.

[ComposerLDG]

The Maverick has become one of my favorite pianos to use, it is such a supple instrument. I also use the Steinway alot and have also fallen in love with the Una Corda (extra sounds and all). Awesome instruments guys.

Yep, love The Maverick! I also like The Giant and use it a lot. What I'm really looking forward to doing is sampling my 1930 Kurtzmann grand piano and loading it into Maschine when I get it.

I'm tempted to get Una Corda. As a piano tuner, I love the sound of clean unisons. A single string is about as clean as you can get. As for The Grandeur, I do like it, but I have to make sure to eq out some of the high end because it can be quite piercing if I let it get away from me.

Great piano discussion!

[ComposerLDG]

This is interesting to hear and comes at just the right time. My first renewal is coming up soon and, after a long string of failures, I've been on the fence about whether to continue. Thanks for sharing.

That's great! Yeah, there are just so many benefits. When my membership lapses, I just feel like I'm wandering around out of the loop.