A "DaveWalton/Spariam" collaboration film clip

[bc]

Orchestration undergirding/embellishing melancholy flute/violin always tugs at my spirit. Good stuff guys -- perfect mood for the scene. bc

[rockmann]

Great work on the film piece, Dave. And very interesting to hear the details behind your studio and work processes.The snippet you posted really sucked me in.. I'm going to have to try and see if I can find this move for my viewing and listening pleasures.Contrats!!

[gunter]

Quote:...and privately asked Doug if he would like to replace my pretend Irish flute with a real one.Replacing midi with the "real thing" is always great!

[liamkelly]

DaveInteresting (and comprehensive) set up you have. A small question for us anoraks - what sounds do you use Reason for mainly? I'm finding less and less people using it (might just be me) but I find it great for percussion and the rhythmic samples on the advanced sampler module.Just curious.

[davewalton]

Quote:A small question for us anoraks - what sounds do you use Reason for mainly? I'm finding less and less people using it (might just be me) but I find it great for percussion and the rhythmic samples on the advanced sampler module.Hi Liam,I had to look up anorak to see what it was. I think it really stands out for what you mentioned but also for the way it handles midi data. For example, I have a package called "Pure Tabla" which is a collection of loops in REX format. I'll load a selection of loops into multiple instances of Dr Rex, click "To track" for each and then arrange them to make it interesting rather than the endless monotany of the same loop. Also, it's so easy to select the midi data in the last couple beats of a measure and select "Change Events -> Alter Notes". It alters the selected midi notes thereby creating a unque "fill" or something different to enter into the next section. It's so easy to play with that and really give the song the feel of having a live player.Right now that's primarily what I use Reason for. That and there are a set or rhythmic patches in Maelstrom that are useful from time to time. Actually everything is useful it's just that for synth stuff it much easier to pull up Atmosphere or one of the "built in" synths that came with Sonar rather than having to open and keep track of a new Reason application through Rewire.Reason users are kind of a unique fan base in and of themselves. There's always some kind of connection there. If you're interested, here's one of my first "all Reason" tracks done in 2004 when I was first getting back to music. It's called "Arctic Nights", an ambient New Age piece. I think the only thing it suffers from is the little Taxi checkmark that says "Intro too long". It takes 20-something seconds to start. I now have other songs where I've already done a half-verse and I'm into the chorus at 20-something seconds. I'm learning. www.DaveWaltonMusic.com/MyMusic/ArcticNights.mp3DavePS - I originally thought that Reason was only good for dance tracks until I heard some guy on the Reason music forum where he had sequenced the entire "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" album (Rick Wakeman). That's what sold me on it. I thought if it can do dance tracks on one hand and Rick Wakeman on the other, then there was enough middle ground for me to explore.

[spariam]

A lot of what I do is with acoustic instruments like guitar, mandolin, and penny whistles (the Celtic thing Dave alluded to) and keyboards, but I use Reason off and on - all standard stuff, no refills. I actually got one of my best critiques from Taxi on a track I did with Reason. I treat it mostly as I would a synth, and I usually have many tracks going at once. I tend to layer and blend samples, and only do minimal patch tweaking (if I only had the time). Though I do have a classical background, I'm still working on how to make my East West/Quantum Leap libraries (Silver, Silver XP, Gold - w/ Cubase SL 3) sound good like Dave's

[liamkelly]

Dave (and Spariam)Thanks for keeping the thread going. Dave, an anorak is an old fashioned name for a certain type of raincoat. The kind of dreadful thing your Mom made you wear when you were 12 or 13 and not quite old enough to tell her no. It's a slang word over here for a nerd, geek. Although... I was 12 in 1972 - maybe raincoats have come on since then!Your Dr Rex comments put your use of Reason into context for me. I struggled to see why you'd use it (the strings, pianos aren't better than your other software) but your tracks that I've heard have an ethnicity about them and I can see how Dr Rex would be perfect for you (or anyone else) to slice up loops and stuff. So easy to use, to time-manipulate, to plug into sequencers etc. I never use Rex in Reason and consequently hadn't thought of that part of the software. Like you, I also thought that Reason was a purely dance sequencer and when I got back to music a couple of years ago I bought it because one of my wife's friends assured me that it would work great as a drum module. A realistic replacement drummer. He was wrong about that (I now buy loops from drumsonedemand.com) but in learning how to use it, I found it so easy to slot and chop bits and pieces into my host program (which is Cubase) that the thought of trying something new for those bits and fills and stuff ... well, I couldn't be bothered.Dave, when you say you came back to music - where had you been (metaphorically) - were your roots in a rock or pop (etc) band or are you classically trained? What got you to that World Music (for want of a better phrase) feel?Again, just curious. If I'm being nosey, tell me to get lost. No problem.Liam

[davewalton]

Quote:Dave, when you say you came back to music - where had you been (metaphorically) - were your roots in a rock or pop (etc) band or are you classically trained? What got you to that World Music (for want of a better phrase) feel?Again, just curious. If I'm being nosey, tell me to get lost. I think that "me" is usually my favorite topic. In the late 70's to mid-80's I played full-time in various non-descript bands that played cover music in hotels and clubs. I then spent the next 20 years writing software and only doing music as a "hobby". I "came back" to music in 2004.My roots are varied and I have no formal music education but I understand music theory at maybe a mid-level. My biggest and earliest influence in the 70's was Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), followed by Joe Zawinul (Weather Report). My older albums were things like progressive rock and jazz fusion. I started mellowing a little as New Age started to become popular and so a lot of music listening in the 80's and 90's were artists like Jesse Cook, Enya, David Arkenstone, Russ Freeman and the Rippingtons, etc. All of those artists dabbled or specialized in "World" music at some point or another and those sounds always appealed to me.When I came back to music in 2004 (and subsequently to Taxi) I was pretty rusty, still listening to 70's and 80's music and my idea of current music for film/television was nonexistant although my music was generally appealing to family and friends (Arctic Nights is an example of that I think).So without sounding like a paid spokesperson for Taxi, I joined because I felt that the critiques might help me get more current. I was right, they did and I also discovered a genre I never knew existed (Electronica). That was kind of a turning point for me and my "style" started to evolve out of the 70's and 80's because of that.That's the "Cliff Notes" version and the remaing chapters are yet to be written. Dave