Thomas: Works for Classical Guitar

[thomamd]

For this collection, I went back to my roots.  Fifty years ago, my father purchased an old Classical guitar for me.  The past few days, I have had fun arranging some of my pieces for the instrument!

I purchased the full concert guitar samples this morning, but none of these files use it (I used the SE version).  As there does not appear to be a Sibelius soundset for the samples, I see VE is stuck using only one.  If anyone has experience with the articculations (especially with Sibelius), I would appreciate hearing from you.

(Files redone.)    http://www.markthomas.ca/virtual-classical-guitar

Hope that you enjoy them!

Mark

[thomamd]

Now that I have the Concert Guitar samples, I thought I would redo the files.  Also, for the first time in 10 years, I thought I'd use Cubase to humanize the performance.  Although the software has changed over the years, there is still the bug that prevents Cubase from importing xml files.  But I manged to import as midi files.

I do not know the reason, but the top guitar sometimes sounds like it wants to be a banjo!

Files redone.    http://www.markthomas.ca/virtual-classical-guitar

Mark

[thomamd]

I just finished re-humanizing my Concert Guitar pieces.  I discovered that my using more Vibrato samples that non-Vibrato samples, I liked the finshed result a lot better.  When I  play my classical guitar, I do not use Vibrato as I tend to play Lute music and use my fingers to produce a much more mellow sound and not the traditional finger-nails used for guitar.  I wish that there were samples for just finger playing.

http://www.markthomas.ca/virtual-classical-guitar

Hope you like them,

Mark

[Francesco Pirrone]

Hi Mark,

i enjoyed your composition, the Duet particularly. 😊

I entirely agree with you that your rendition is better now: although the previous version is no longer available for comparison, i clearly remember the 'banjo' issue you were reporting the last time and i think you brilliantly managed to address it. Perhaps your mix might benefit of a bit more wetness, does it make sense?

Sincerely

Francesco

[thomamd]

Thank you for the kind words about my music, Francesco!  Actually, the duet was written years ago as a flute/guitar duet, but when I uploaded it here, I was told that the flute part was unplayable due to lack of enough spots to breathe. 😊

Mark

[Jos Wylin]

Hi Mark,

I agree with Francesco. The recording is a bit dry and to my taste there's too much 'humanization', so that the intonation is at times unpleasant. But I like the composition as a whole (overture). The guitar sounds OK in the version that I've listened to.

Max

[Francesco Pirrone]

@thomamd said:

Thank you for the kind words about my music, Francesco!  Actually, the duet was written years ago as a flute/guitar duet, but when I uploaded it here, I was told that the flute part was unplayable due to lack of enough spots to breathe. 😊

Mark

You are welcome, Mark. I am glad that you managed to change the flute into a second guitar part, it works. 😊

Francesco

[thomamd]

Thank you, Francesco and Max!

The question of reverb is a good one.  I have used the effect more in the past.  However, a conductor once advised me to be cautious with reverb as it is too often used in some Classical recordings to hide deficiencies.

Max is right about the over-humanization.  Although Francesco would agree that the version you hear now is much better that the first version, I over compensated with too many Vibrato samples.  I guess I still have a lot to do.

I should mention that although the Minuet, Trio and Duet are my work.  The Opening, and therefore, the Reprise is a badly plagarised Vivaldi.  I would never attempt to sell it.  I was sent a score that I messed with.  Vivaldi's score is infinitely better! Just access Youtube "Vivaldi RV 108" and you will see what I mean.

Mark

[thomamd]

The more I think about it, the more I think that I should not attach my name to the Opening and Reprise.  Although I changed a lot from the original Vivaldi, a casual listener would think that it was just a change in instrumentation.  Performers can take credit for performing masterworks, but I do not think I changed enough to call the composition mine.  Perhaps if I ever get around to describing all the pieces on the website, I can tell the listener about the original.  Till then...delete!

Mark

Edit:  I can be brutal with myself when I get tired.  I reached a compromise...just call it, "Variations on RV 108."

[Francesco Pirrone]

@thomamd said:

Edit:  I can be brutal with myself when I get tired.

In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with doing variations on a masterpiece. 😊

[thomamd]

@thomamd said:

Edit:  I can be brutal with myself when I get tired.

In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with doing variations on a masterpiece. 😊

But doing a variation and not declaring it is wrong. Over the years, I have had about 300 pieces on the web.  There probably only a hundred now as I periodically redo the entire site.  With two exceptions, it has been my work. This piece and the piece I called "Sinata K.297" have actually been somewhat a source of grief. It was fun doing them, but many times I wish I had never uploaded them, but what do you do after 200 views? All I really wanted was tips on a better guitar sound!

 

Edit:  I guess you guys felt as I did when someone played a folk song accreditted to the singer when I recognized the melody and chords as John Dowland's "Lachimae."

 

Mark

[Francesco Pirrone]

I see what you say on the 'variations' subject. Of course, only you can decide what is proper to upload on your website and how to credit the original author.

With regard to the great guitar sound tips, to achieve a good sound you need a realistic performance and a nice mix. As far as i can tell there are two ways to achieve a good performance and both require you to render your piece from scratch using your DAW.

a) You write within the key editor using as much articulations as needed, it takes a while to learn all the available articulations and to map your keyswitches/MIDI CC. example.

b) You play each line using a MIDI keyboard, in this case you will tend to use less articulations (let's say between 2 and 10) and you will map your keyswitches making sure you can play a line with ease using your right hand whilst you switch between the patches with your left hand. example. I prefer the second method and, if i had to play a classical guitar, i would personally use the mod-wheel to switch between vibrato and non vibrato samples.

Once you are happy with your rendition, you might wish to do some panning and place your guitars on a virtual stage....whether it is a small studio IR or a church/hall. This is all down on your personal preference, i always enjoyed listening (live) to classical guitarists in small churches with an intimate sound that could add something to the instrument while mantaining clarity.

Perhaps, some more experienced users might be able to suggest you a way to do all the above within your notation program.

I hope it helps.

Sincerely

Francesco

[thomamd]

Thanks for all the improvement suggestions, Francesco and Max.  I spent the weekend re-humanizing the pieces.  I changed many of the Vibrato samples and used them more selectively.  I also put in ritards into some of the pieces.  Although I have the complete concert guitar samples, I did not use any beyond Level 1.  So here is the updated versions which I drafted in Sibelius, humanized in Cubase 8.5 along with VEP, VIP, VS (Resonance preset) and MIR (.75 Main)

(File links in first post.)

Mark

[Francesco Pirrone]

You are welcome, Mark.

It sounds much better to me. 😊

Francesco