Pastlives Revisited

Started by dandelO, October 22, 2013, 11:14:01 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

dandelO

#45
Cheers, that clears up a lot, was pretty confused there.

I must say, that's probably one of the cheesiest tunes I've ever heard, lovd it! :D MIDI instruments sound awful!

Again, I have attachement issues here too so, here's an external link to a quick edit at one of the only places I can find to share files that works for me. I just doubled the length and gave it an offbeat, upped tempo in the second half, so far. Later I'll be able to do more, this was just a little practice as I'm not used to this MIDI thing yet.

Smell the cheese!

*** NEW LINK BELOW ***

j meyer

Left clicking that link gives a server not found message,
right clicking gives an unknown error occured message.

dandelO

My fault. There's an extra dot there, should be www64. Not www.64.
I'll fix it now.


j meyer

Ok that worked!
Got the file and listened to it.We can do it that way it seems. 8)

Have you found a way to convert the voices to vsti with FLS?
Because then we could work out a basic song structure with midi,change the voices
to higher quality vsti and maybe then add real instrument tracks,like solo parts
or so.
What do you say?

dandelO

Really easy to convert the voices to any other instrument. The MIDI file loads all the note(and any automation data, I think) patterns directly into the step-sequencer channel container(called a Wrapper in FL), the sequencer is directly linked to the 'piano-roll', which is just the extended complex pattern writing version of the step-sequencer, all the patterns in your MIDI file show in the piano-roll, so your drum, bass and clav all have their own piano-rolls. In the sequencer I can simply context-click the channel Wrapper and select 'replace'. That keeps all pattern data and swaps the instrument wrapper to any given voice or plugin at all. The new instrument just takes over playing the pattern.

dandelO

But...
Exporting .mid with replaced vsti instruments strips the pattern completely from the .mid. Just tried it. Looks like they must be shared with MIDI instruments and then rendered to sound file to continue. That creates a problem of only the person swapping instruments being able to hear it before it's rendered to a wave. I'll keep experimenting, this was just a quick test to see if vsti voices would save...

j meyer

Sounds promising!
I didn't expect to have the vsti voices exported via midi,so having it as a wave file
in the end would be ok for me.
A sound example could be shared and the other(s)could write some tips or remarks
and the swapping guy,the mixing sound engineer so to say,should be able to
integrate suggestions and then share a new sound example.No big deal I'd say.
Do we want to make that reggae a bit more elaborate?

dandelO

Good good. Elaborate? The parts already there sound to me like a nice bridge/chorus structure. A verse type section for 8 maybe next linking back to the uptempo chorusy section after, really anything goes though, I've already been playing live along to the loop, it's very easy tune to play along with. Maybe, if you haven't already, you could replace, or double up the bassline with a real recorded bass, it really needs something not digital to take that generic, Super Mario(how my youngest daughter described it) sound away. I have a bass and a guitar here, too. I might learn the line and mess about with some live recording tomorrow when the kids go to school. We wouldn't have to remove any tracks, just beef them up a bit with natural instruments. But whatever.

j meyer

I haven't recorded a real bass yet,just used it to practice basslines
some years ago.And to get it looped it seems more pratical if you could
record a real bass.Ain't there any cool sounding vsti basses?
There are ways to make it sound more natural by combining voices also.
And at a later stage adding some reverb and delay makes a difference,too.
I'll test some structural ideas on my end,maybe an intro part and some
rhythmic variation,a little melody perhaps,don't know,let's see. ;)
Whatsoever,I'll try to keep it simple and easy to integrate.

dandelO

I'd be happy to do some bass and guitar lines, already have some that will complement the shonky midi parts. There's a half decent vsti that I have called Boobass, I've used it a lot and constantly get told by my bassist friend not to! :D
To be honest, I agree, I'd much rather have a real bass, which is why I have his here, to redo all my existing Boobass parts properly, it really makes a difference, might as well put it to use here. I'll get on to that tomorrow.

dandelO

Bit of fun. ;)

dandelO

Since it would be quite wrong for me to play with my Action Man, He-Man or Barbie figures at my age, I've taken to dressing up my instruments. There's nothing strange about that!

j meyer

 :D I hope you undress  them before playing,at least the strings.

Maybe you should wait a few days with recording a bassline in case we have some
changes in the structure.
If you don't mind I would like to re-do the additions you did to the drums or put them
somewhere else.Or better some congas or bongos for that?
What you have the organ playing is something I would have a rhythm guitar playing rather.
If we have the organ and the clavinett and a rhythm guitar it might get to cluttered.
To support such rhythmic stuff some percussion instruments could come in handy.
Would that be ok to you?

dandelO

No probs, I'll just wait and see what you come up with in the meantime, having trouble with soundcard and Wavepad recording when I tried earlier, I think it's just program related because Windows sound recorder is working perfectly, I'd really rather not have to use that, I'm putting in a new usb soundcard instead of the onboard mic-in that I tried earlier, I know the card works fine with Wavepad as it was in my last computer with no issues.