Category: Jam Session
Hi all. Through the power of audio editing and fantastic virtual instruments, I have created an overture of sorts to my series of graphic audio inspired audio stories. Originally it was meant to be the main theme, a sort of noir-inspired intro combined with with an epic sci-fi feel. What it turned into is an overture of sorts, a medly of possible songs which I could potentially use and expand upon. I'd love to know what the soundtrack enthusiasts among us think. What works, what can I improve on? I'm learning the keyboard, but am in my infancy at this point. That said, I'm pretty darn happy with this. But do feel free to tear it down.
This link is to soundcloud, but if that doesn't work for you, let me know and I can send you a dropbox link. The audio file should play right away.
P.S. I've also done a ringtone using Garage band called Ringing Chords, another soundtrack song, Melencholy Home, which is set to a sci-fi drug overdose in my story, A Body Enraptured, which is also there. Also, there's an audio book which plays right after my song plays. I don't know why that happens, but it's called the Witcher, and it's a fantastic book series. The song after that is Bella's Lullaby by one of our own zone members. Again, not sure why it plays on mine, but she does good. Give her a like, will ya?:)
The Nightshade Medley
I like it! I like the strings.
Can I ask what you used to create this? How did you edit, what program did you use, and what created the instrument sounds? Do you have a keyboard, or was it all done on the computer, somehow?
I hope to put together some audio theater, and am asking because I'll need music. I also have never edited audio, and am trying to grasp Audacity, but am not having much success. My eyes glaze over, when I try to make sense of the manual!
I'll have a second listen, and give more detailed feedback, soon. Sorry to get a bit off the topic of your music.
Hey, no problem at all. I love talking audio. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm going to tweek the strings a bit to make them sound more full. I've used several pieces of software. For this song, I used a digital audio workstation called Reaper. A Digital Audio workstation or DAW, is something like Audacity, in case you didn't know that already. For the actual music I used a cassio LK keyboard to play MIDI - which is an electronic language that interprets the keys played on a keyboard. Then I used Kontakt, which is a plug-in to actually play the instruments themselves. Much less complicated than it sounds I promise. Essentially I set konakt to play something like a piano, drums, strings, guitars etc, then play each individual part one at a time. I also used Reaper for my "A Body Enraptured" Audio theatre piece.
I have used audacity pretty extensively however. I used it for my " Warring of Dreams audio theatre piece. As far as DAWs go, Audacity is pretty bare bones and easy to use. The easiest way to learn it is to actually play around with it in conjunction to the manual. If you aren't playing with it while trying to read, it will perhaps not create the context to be understandable. I'm not sure how much vision you have, but quite a large degree of audacity is accessible with JAWS and NVDA. Voiceover too I'm sure, if you have a mac, but I've never tried it. There's actually a nice little accessibility section in the manual that teaches you to get around some of the inaccessible parts of audacity, such as using the track alignment command in conjunction with the edit cursor to lign up your individual tracks.
I have heard of Reaper, but haven't installed it; I wanted to see if I could accomplish things with Audacity, first.
Thank you for the reply. I may send you a pm, after the holidays.
If you're new to audio editing, I highly recommend trying your hand at audacity first. Reaper is ... fantastic, but also a bit of a beast. There isn't much you can't do with it, and it is accessible in many wonderful ways, but it's got quite a steap learning curve. Try them both if you li8ke, reaper is free for the first three months if I recall.
I keep meaning to check this out because you've mentioned it on other posts.
This was really cool. I am not especially musical, so really envious of all you people who can make such things.
I like this!
This is nice, very good sounding string section. I would have quontized it a little more just to clearly define the beat some more, but excellent all the same.
Just curious which library spacifically do you use for the strings?
I prefer sonar for my production needs btw.
Overall, this is great - especially if this is your first completed attempt. I like the strings, and the section where the strings and piano are combined... that has a nice vibe to it! I liked the guitar section, and the rhythm you chose for that. It sounds pretty real, actually! If you are wanting a more powerful feel to that rhythm section, maybe try cutting out your 4th octave F and adding a low C sharp... that would be in the 2nd octave I think. This tweak would simulate the drop-D guitar tuning, which has a more powerful feel to it. I loved the strum pattern, too. I especially liked how you transitioned between chords (your C sharp and G sharp) at around 3:12-3:17. I get that you wanted to differentiate the chord changes, but blending them, as you did during the last transition, a bit sooner might help to get a more consistent driving rhythm to back up the great melody.
Loved the horns in the beginning. It is tricky to get the real sound with a synth. Maybe try the slightest fade out on the end of those passages to enhance the realistic sound of those instruments.
I say these things merely as potential things to add and tweak. I think it is great as is. You definitely should be proud of this project. Thank you for sharing it. Keep on creating!
Money, thank you. I use a casio midi keyboard together with a plug-in called kontakt. And I use virtual instruments from "native Instruments". Kontakt is not even remotely accessible unfortunately, but I have enough sight to use it okay. I'd love to find something easier though. I've never used Sonar, though I've heard it's somewhat accessible? I like reaper because it is very inexpensive, and has a whole lot of functionality. It's also reasonably accessible. I've also used Audacity, and while I like it, I find it's limiting in many fundimental ways. It's still a great place to start though.
Guitar, thank you for your suggestions. I'm not sure I understand music enough to fully grasp the stuff about the guitar, but I'll see what I can do. I've been meaning to improve this song a bit, now that I understand the instruments and software a bit better.
Sonar can be accessible with Jaws, and a few extra things. But I'm not sure if it works with NVDA and other screen readers.
That's alright; I mostly only use JAWS anyway. It's still the most robust screen reader out there, though when it works, NVDA has its goot points too, such as the ability to read what's under the mouse. One day I'll perhaps give Sonar a try. I really like Reaper, but one thing about it is it's incredibly customizable and a bit overwhelming. There's almost too many options. Right now my main points to work on are learning how to better utilize EQ and compression, then working on sound shaping techniques.
I'm not sure about window eyes either since I'm a jaws user myself. But with sonar and a program called hotspot clicker, there are scripts available from a website called VIP audio access that make kontakt rather accessible, I use it all the time, and it is one of my favorites. There are other scripts for music software on this site if you're interested in checking it out.
Really? that's very interesting. I will indeed check it out. I like Kontakt and its instrument library, but find navigating it a bit slow. Thanks for the info.