Deleted

[Acclarion]

Gone like the wind.

[tchampe]

Dave and Becky,

Beautiful performance with a not-bad-at-all-considering-it's-on-the-fly production, to boot! You can trust me on this; I've been involved in a couple of Midnight Studio projects that make your production values here look like a Michael Jackson video! (A story for another time) I'm especially impressed with the way you perform so seamlessly with the virtual quartet, something that I have always found challenging and see myself doing more of in the future. Do you guys have a piano reduction of the quartet part on your music? Of course, this tune doesn't have a pile of tempo changes or rubato patches, but there are some stretches where the strings are resting, aren't there (I'll have to listen again)? Do you have a metronome light pulsing the tempo on your iPad or are the internal clocks in your heads accurate to 1/1,000th of a second?

Again, great performance and thanks for sharing it here. I look forward to your virtual concert on the 27th.

Tom

[William]

That looks like a great collaboration and very interesting to see the interaction between the live players and VSL.    

[Acclarion]

Hi Tom,

Haha, with regard to production values, I wanted to get a theatrical smoke machine and some pyro, but Becky wouldn't budge (added some digital smoke in the concert anyway!)

You'll get a kick out of our strategy for playing along with the strings.  We made a "virtual instrument" with number counting, etc.  Example:  1, and, 2, and, 3, e, and, a, etc.  Then, we assigned each command to a keyboard key.  After creating the midi parts with the appropriate tempo changes, we made a new track with the counting, to sync/match up with the midi strings.  These allow for much more flexibility than simply a click track.  If we have a 3 second fermata, followed by a 2 second complete silence, we can have counts to ensure we release the notes and re-enter at the exact time (still with lots of practice, of course).

Anyway, that's how it's done.  Thanks for checking it out! 

William, thanks to you as well for listening.

Dave

[tchampe]

@Another User said:

We made a "virtual instrument" with number counting, etc.  Example:  1, and, 2, and, 3, e, and, a, etc.  Then, we assigned each command to a keyboard key.  After creating the midi parts with the appropriate tempo changes, we made a new track with the counting, to sync/match up with the midi strings.  These allow for much more flexibility than simply a click track.  If we have a 3 second fermata, followed by a 2 second complete silence, we can have counts to ensure we release the notes and re-enter at the exact time (still with lots of practice, of course).

So let me get this straight: You're not looking at a PDF of your notated clarinet and accordian parts on that iPad and making page turns with a foot switch...you're reading your parts off a running MIDI notation track along with your counting track? In Cubase? Sort of "Follow the Bouncing Ball!" ala Mitch Miller? If so, very clever. (If not, help me understand how you're doing it.) This performance also brings up a sticky question: could you foresee yourselves using this approach on a live concert date? Pianist/singers doing a Holiday Inn singles date have been making rhythm track accompaniments since the Casio days, but you legit guys are a different kettle of fish. It would not be without precedent, however. Before the lockdown, I caught a couple of ballet/modern dance shows, one from NYC, one from China. Both danced to prerecorded tracks that took full advantage of the complete sonic liberty that studio production gave them: soundscapes, montages, any type of vocal or instrumental music you can imagine, you name it. Would I have rather heard these folks dance to live musicians? I don't know...most of what they did simply could not be produced by musicians in the pit. It would be a completely different show; apples to oranges. What do you guys think? 

[Acclarion]

I actually got just as confused reading your interpretation of my explanation, as you did with my original explanation!  I wish we could do what you're suggesting, but we are only human, after all :)

It's actually quite simple, if I can explain it:  the audio counting cues (one, and, two, e, and, a, etc.) are added to the string playback file, which we hear in our ears through headphones, while following the score on the ipad with foot pedal as you suggested.  So basically, all it's doing is giving us more precise cues at certain points than a click track alone would be able to do.  A lot of subdivision of beats using the one-e-and-a concept allows us to create a more ambitious tempo track (which will get even more rubato-esque when we put the whole project together next year).

As for the idea of us with backing tracks, we already did this back in 2016.  We made a pretty ambitious 10 plus minute "Disney Classics" medley with us alongside orchestral arrangements, and did a live concert in Toronto, using the exact same concept as this piece.  It worked quite well, in terms of the blend of instruments and backing tracks, and the crazy number of tempo changes.  The only thing I'd improve today, is the actual orchestral backing tracks, which were "good" for the time, but would be better with the added experience (and libraries) I have today.

The "last" Acclarion album next year, essentially is all about "us" with others, and I could for sure see doing the entire album in concert (although the likelihood of touring at this stage of our lives is minimal).

Dave

[tchampe]

Oh, OK, I get it. Frankly, I feel a bit silly for not grasping your meaning off the git-go. Clearly overthought it. I have considered doing something like that to help me record myself with MusicMinusOne tracks. You don't have a MIDI file to track along with but you could manually record the click while listening to the track then adjust any click that went a bit rogue to put it right on the sweet spot. Of course, with the same amount of time you could probably memorize every ebb and flow of the accompaniment and just...uh...play the damn thing. But what fun would that be?

[Acclarion]

Looks like the accordion has put a stop to all social activity on the forum...not the first time it's caused people to remain speechless :) lol

Anyway, just a quick heads up that I'll be removing the link tomorrow, so feel free to check it out (or not) before then.  

Have a great weekend!

Dave