REID here, invited by some Taxi TV listeners.

[cardell]

Welcome Reid!

I missed the show. Sounds interesteing, I'll have to go and watch.

Stuart

[Len911]

Welcome Reid! I watched the taped version of the show. My thoughts while listening to your song there before I knew it was your song was that the composer was really great and knew what they were doing, but the sounds and/or execution was sub par. It's difficult to make a judgement alone on the streaming, sometimes the music on the show is too quiet, loud, or too much room ambience. I listened again to the one you posted here, and conclude the same, I'm not fond of the samples. I'm not familiar with the instruments you used I'll have to google.
I thought some of the pieces on the show were too much trailer type pieces imo, and some went a little too far into underscore and became a little monotonous in places. I thought one of the best pieces was the last one, I don't know who did that one.

[Len911]

I found a video of the mallet kat thangy, @2:58 they do orchestra, not for very long btw, okay, I think I get it now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QBuUzCf-mA

[sguiles]

I'm watching the show right now, Reid.
Thanks for opening yourself up like this. Takes guts!

[manninghollow]

Hey Reid, Watched the show and thought it was very interesting. I also listened to your stuff and found it interesting. I thank you for standing out and asking questions which many of us have. Perseverance is the key. Hang in and listen to these guys on the forum. It is truly an inspiring resource. You can research, network, find where the bar is (the measuring and drinking one) and how your stuff measures up. I have found this to be a great help. You might also see if there is a local Taxi group meeting in your area. I cherish the local meetings we have here. I find all kinds of useful info as well as great new musical friends . Peace.

[nick.moxsom]

And welcome from me too, Reid.

I watched the show live (from midnight in the UK), and found it very interesting. Respect to your courage going on there.

Enjoy this forum. It's been a huge source of help, advice and support for me.

Nick

[rdefever]

Thanks for the warm welcome Pedro. and TechNoiZ looking to replace your percussion library...well if you are in Los Angeles, I would be the simple solution, real taiko, tabla, djembe, drumset, timbales, surdo, gongs etc...nothing like the real thing right.

I am in Culver City, percussion is my thang! Dam I would play strings or brass too but alas we all have our samples to fall back on.

I am curious, there were several negative MIDI comments during the show. I don't understand, unless those comments were from composers who actually play all the instruments themselves or have live orchestra players in their back pockets for every use and cue (not to mention massive wallets to pay them all...you use MIDI too? So what was your point?

Reid

[mikeymike2000]

Hi Reid,

I was in the chat room live and posted some comments. I was one of the people who said it sounds too synthetic and I said some other things but it was all to be helpful.

Here is the thing, as a guy who started doing orchestras a year ago with MIDI patches from 15+ years ago at that time I thought it was (a) good enough and (b) for some reason I thought people would call me up to conduct the live orchestra and record it all correct. Boy was I in for a journey.

So a little over a year later I have improved a lot, from this forum specifically, but will admit I still have a long way to go. Also from this forum I hooked up with people that I now write and arrange with. That too was something new to me and I didn't want to do it at first but once I started, now I am on a roll to work with lots of peeps cause it is quite amazing what happens when another artists steps in to 'mess with your masterpiece'.

OK so the sounds... when I said it sounded too synthetic I am not sure if it was one of yours or not but what I meant by that was it was very rigid, lifeless and computerized sound that was obviously a bunch of 1's and 0's.

The trick on these things is first having great quality sounds but then you have to program it. - For example I can write a piece and arrange it with all the instruments in the orchestra in a mere few hours. But to make it sound remotely 'real' and I still question if I am any good at that, takes 20-40 hours sometimes to get all the nuance of the instruments.

One of the ear openers for me was seeing Johnny Williams at the Hollywood Bowl (awesome story) but anyway, that made me work differently and I plan to see as many live orchestras as I can next year. Aside from that I am one of those guys who likes to listen to classical music, not just film scores, and see what all is going on under the hood.

If you want to hear one of my pieces you can click my Taxi link in the signature line and listen to "Flight to the Vineyard". It is prob still not good enough in sound to make a forward but I am proud of it cause it is many moons from what I sounded like even 6 months ago. (that song was returned to me after being written for a listing but it was returned cause it sounded really bad) I have not yet sent this version in to anything and am curious how it will do. But I expect it is still not quite there.

The most important things, aside from IMHO not quantizing, is the attacks and releases, then the velocities, then the articulations. This is all before you even start the final mixing.

In the show someone commented about if the people listening will know or not if it is MIDI. Maybe they do maybe they don't but the people between "us" and "them" DO know. So our game is to get as close as possible to 'fooling' the folks in the middle into not knowing. - One thing to try is put some of your songs in your iPod and do a random shuffle of real orchestras and your stuff, then it will be really obvious what "MIDI sound like". (This is a general statement and not referencing any of your work)

Think of it like this: if you were the producer of "any show USA", would you put song X in there if it was not "class-A" material? One thing to remember with Taxi is when you song is forwarded it is likely to be put in a major production that costs several hundred thousand dollars per episode to create. So in terms of production quality it is our job to match this kind of budget.

OK, babbled enough for now and it's getting late. hope this is helpful.

Edit: the new version of "Flight to the Vineyard" is posted up at 12:09 am if you happened to listen prior to this, have another gander. (an older version was there)

Last note is to get the most out of this section it is best to post one song and then ask for general feedback or ask 2-3 specific questions. From there, you will get feedback.

[rdefever]

Hey Mikey,

Good advice for sure. Thing is I have performed in full orchestras all throughout college followed by International touring as soloist and principle percussionist, chamber ensembles etc, and listen to classical music all the time...and I still like the sounds in my recordings, could some of the acoustic sampled instruments be better-yes but half of the sounds were not acoustic in the first place.
Now, then again I tend to love movies that many friends hate because one certain element that isn't to their expectation, I just take it for what it is and go with the larger picture.

This would be the best reason for external ears, and I will put that into effect more from now on!

(Excuse the rant, it's foundation is based on a long history of debate with film music composers and the legit composer(for a lack of a better word- meaning music for music/art) with much heated debate in my years past, now recently inspired.

The listing discussed in the show actually asked for electronic influences, now I understand more what that meant...an obvious electronic noise. No compressed strings or mixed in electronic guitar w/ creeping dual synth all of which inspired a flood of quick comments. Wtf, a voilin is not always played full and legato folks, did anyone notice the different tone within the form? and just a music history note: there was a century of NO vibrato!

On the same lines there were a rash of comments about the piano sound after its first note, really?? does every piano have to be a grand P in a massive concert hall with too much reverb, perhaps it was by choice, I mean nowadays who has only ONE piano sound? Additionally, I am sick of hearing that same B.S. copycat score to every film, bigger isn't better, and dumbing down just makes everyone dumb. The ever prevalent low bass monster has been WAY overdone.

The most amusing comment of the night was, 'here we go with midi again', and it was actually 6 tracks of MY voice singing, ha!
Best comment 'I feel like you are scoring to picture' and 'can we see the picture' Who wrote those?? please chime in because that! is what I am doing while I play, music to the story in my head.

All that said, I do have a better understanding of the expectations are in this area.

peace,
Reid DeFever
www.defever.com

[wen]

i'm going to have to go back and listen to that show. i only came in at the tippy tail end. I agree though, that took some guts. Thanks for doing that.