Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

We're putting YOU in the drivers seat!

Moderators: admin, mdc, TAXIstaff

User avatar
Merryband1
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 477
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:52 am
Gender: Female
Contact:

Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by Merryband1 » Wed Dec 01, 2021 10:49 pm

Dark Bring a Torch, Take Five?

I played the piece over again today and then added Big Empty Hall and some RAUM in the DAW. I'm a little concerned about how small the waveform looks, though. Do you think it's loud enough? I didn't run it through the compressor this time. I've had pieces returned for being too soft before. I'm not going for an exact duplicate of how the Jingle Bells piano sounds, just a similar feel.

Thanks,
Merry

User avatar
AlanHall
Serious Musician
Serious Musician
Posts: 1148
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2020 5:46 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Great Black Swamp, northwest Ohio
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by AlanHall » Thu Dec 02, 2021 6:14 am

Merryband1 wrote:
Wed Dec 01, 2021 10:49 pm
Dark Bring a Torch, Take Five?

I played the piece over again today and then added Big Empty Hall and some RAUM in the DAW. I'm a little concerned about how small the waveform looks, though. Do you think it's loud enough? I didn't run it through the compressor this time. I've had pieces returned for being too soft before. I'm not going for an exact duplicate of how the Jingle Bells piano sounds, just a similar feel.

Thanks,
Merry
Merry,
Compared to the piece I listened to just before yours, it is significantly quieter. I typically run a peak limiter on the end of my master bus, allowing me to bring the program material up to whatever number I want without any obvious compression, and without fear of clipping. Just a suggestion!

Oh, and I like the performance :D

User avatar
Merryband1
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 477
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:52 am
Gender: Female
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by Merryband1 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 10:20 am

AlanHall wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 6:14 am

Merry,
Compared to the piece I listened to just before yours, it is significantly quieter. I typically run a peak limiter on the end of my master bus, allowing me to bring the program material up to whatever number I want without any obvious compression, and without fear of clipping. Just a suggestion!

Oh, and I like the performance :D
Hi Alan!
Thank you for the kind words! That's the first time I've been able to play it through all at once without making any egregious errors like wrong notes or getting off-tempo! :D I'm not sure whether I have a peak limiter in my DAW or collection of software tools, but I will look! Maybe the NI Supercharger has a peak limiter built in. :)

Thanks,
Merry

User avatar
AlanHall
Serious Musician
Serious Musician
Posts: 1148
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2020 5:46 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Great Black Swamp, northwest Ohio
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by AlanHall » Thu Dec 02, 2021 11:30 am

Merryband1 wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 10:20 am
I'm not sure whether I have a peak limiter in my DAW or collection of software tools, but I will look! Maybe the NI Supercharger has a peak limiter built in. :)
I'm not familiar with the NI Supercharger, so I'm no help there. I'm sure you'll get it sorted out. Some sort of limiter at the end of the signal chain is good insurance against clipping, and aught to include a nice visualization to help you achieve optimum output. When you get one, you'll be happy :D

User avatar
Merryband1
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 477
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:52 am
Gender: Female
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by Merryband1 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:25 pm

AlanHall wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 11:30 am

I'm not familiar with the NI Supercharger, so I'm no help there. I'm sure you'll get it sorted out. Some sort of limiter at the end of the signal chain is good insurance against clipping, and aught to include a nice visualization to help you achieve optimum output. When you get one, you'll be happy :D
I found the limiter in my DAW! Here's the modified track, with compression and limiter at the end of the chain! The waveform looks a LOT better! Thanks for the great advice, Alan!
Dark Bring a Torch with compression & limiter

Merry

User avatar
AlanHall
Serious Musician
Serious Musician
Posts: 1148
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2020 5:46 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Great Black Swamp, northwest Ohio
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by AlanHall » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:28 pm

That's good, Merry, sounds great! At least as expressive and dystopian as the first ref. I really like the low notes of the piano filling up the big empty raum :lol:

User avatar
Merryband1
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 477
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:52 am
Gender: Female
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by Merryband1 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:50 pm

AlanHall wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:28 pm
That's good, Merry, sounds great! At least as expressive and dystopian as the first ref. I really like the low notes of the piano filling up the big empty raum :lol:
Thanks so much, Alan! That is what I wanted to achieve. I knew I couldn't come up with anything like the other two references!
I already have "DBAT" uploaded to my TAXI site, so I'll be sending in the submission later tonight or tomorrow. Before the deadline, for sure!
Yes, I just knew I needed some low notes in there. I only have 88 keys, so I'm glad I put the piece in A minor, so I could use that lowest piano note! :D I also added in that upper E for more moodiness in the second phrase. It doesn't change the piece much, but I think it adds just a bit of flavor.

Cheers!
Merry

User avatar
AlanHall
Serious Musician
Serious Musician
Posts: 1148
Joined: Tue Jan 07, 2020 5:46 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Great Black Swamp, northwest Ohio
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by AlanHall » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:54 pm

Are you doing this all on a 9-foot grand, or do you use VIs?

User avatar
Merryband1
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 477
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:52 am
Gender: Female
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by Merryband1 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:28 pm

AlanHall wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:54 pm
Are you doing this all on a 9-foot grand, or do you use VIs?
:lol: I could only wish! It's an older model Clavinova, not sure of the vintage because it was a present from a musician friend at church who was blending households with an old college chum who moved to the city and brought her own piano. Yamaha sampled a really great piano for their Clavinovas, probably keeping the same samples for the later iterations. I used to play a later model at our church that had way more instruments added, more like my 90's vintage Yamaha Portable Grand (with 76 keys). The cool thing about the one I use at home is that I can plug left & right cables directly into my interface, or I could use MIDI cables if I preferred. I just used the actual piano sound with the left/right/interface and the sound really impressed me. Then I made all the rest of the changes in the DAW.

Merry :)

User avatar
Merryband1
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 477
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:52 am
Gender: Female
Contact:

Re: Question about Dystopian Christmas Piano

Post by Merryband1 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:46 pm

CTWF wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:42 pm
Merryband1 wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:28 pm
Merry :)
Nice work, Mary. My only comment: Jeannette needs the second "n" in the French title (I know, I know :roll: :lol: ).

Tom
:lol: :D I will fix that posthaste! Of course, it doesn't mention either Jeannette or Isabelle on my TAXI page, but still...

Merry 8-)

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: hubert, Majestic-12 [Bot] and 39 guests