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(i)Tempo Changes Now that we have all the notes in position and their correct velocities we can now come to the tempo changes. Usually you will find some indication of tempo on the score left by the
composer. This is just as a guide and need not be strictly adhered to. Your
best option here is to listen once more to your audio recording of the piece
and note down where tempo changes occur. You can really bring your sequence
to life by the correct use of tempo changes. Observe any ritardando's
and accelerando's in the score to give you a guide to the feel of
the music. Just how much you wish to quicken or slow down the pace is best
left to your interpretation. Experiment with different values until you
are happy. Try and make the changes as smooth as possible. Several sudden
jumps from one tempo to another during a rall or accel can sound very jerky.
You may find on the score the word TEMPO followed by a number. This indicates a difference in tempo. When the music needs to return to a previous tempo then the number where that tempo was last used will be indicated after the word TEMPO. Although not always indicated, you may find after listening to a recording of the piece you are working on the tempo will either quicken or slow down at the end. This is used to good effect that the end of the piece has arrived. Sometimes you may encounter that the music needs to pause in the middle
of a piece and you find that even if you set your tempo to the lowest setting
at that place there still isn't a long enough pause for realism. Well the
trick here is to make a time signature change so that the bar will be longer
and therefore will give you a longer pause. For example: you have come to
the end of a passage in 3/4 time and a long pause needs to
take place. To achieve the necessary pause you need to make the time signature
change on the last bar of that phrase to 4/4 and slow the
tempo down to make an appropriate pause and then return the time signature
back to 3/4 on the next bar where the music continues to the
next phrase. Please note that if you are carrying out this operation after
you have completed your sequence you will have to move all your parts forward
by one beat otherwise you will have the first beat of the music after the
pause on the last beat of the 4/4 bar.
Tempo changes can also be put to good use for varying the timing of a piece so as to 'de-humanise' it. I can spend just as long adjusting tempi on a piece as it took to actual sequence it. (ii)Expression Changes As mentioned earlier there will be times when a crescendo or diminuendo occurs on one long note or chord therefore ruling out the possibility of using velocity changes. The only option open to us here is to use expression changes (control code 11). If your sequencer possesses a midi mixer then this can be extremely useful for this task and will be explained further on. For now, I am assuming your sequencer doesn't possess a midi mixer and we will therefore have to insert the changes on the tracks. It is usual for you to find on the score after any cresc/dim and indication of the volume to rise/fall to. You may have a note or chord that needs to cresc. from 'p' (soft) to say 'ff' (very loud). Set the note or chord velocity to ff and just before the cresc. begins we need to insert an expression change value. This value will be determined by the dynamic at the beginning of the cresc/dim. So in our example the expression value would be changed from 127 to, say about, 50. Now we need to increase the expression values. The increment by which you set the changes are down to the feel of the cresc/dim. Experiment is the key word here. Try increments of 5 and hear how that sounds. The increments don't even need to be divided equally along the cresc/dim. Again, experiment. The end result, in our example, should be that we achieve an expression value of 127 just before the note/chord finishes. M8: Extract from Hungarian March by Berlioz
After the cresc. has finished we will still have our expression set at the correct value until another cresc./dim. occurs. However, if you are performing a dim on a note or chord then just before the next note/s after the dim you must restore the expression to 127. Obviously you will need to copy this procedure for each midi channel the cresc affects. This same method can be applied when dealing with 'sforzando's' (sfz) or 'forte piano' (fp) etc... A little warning here; never insert any control codes at the same location as a 'note on' command. This may result in 'midi choking' and cause the note or control code not to occur. Insert them just a little bit before the note/s that are to be affected. If you do have a midi mixer then you will need to set up all the necessary control codes needed and record your initial set up. When you come to a cresc./dim that requires the use of expression changes then as above set your velocities to represent the final volume of the cresc/dim and set to record your expression change just before the cresc./dim occurs. If you follow the example given in the previous paragraph you will need to set the expression of the midi channels concerned to 50 and then as you start to record simply drag the appropriate sliders back up to 127 before the note or chord finish. It is advisable to now quantise these expression changes to cut down on the amount of data being sent out that may cause overloads if in excess. (iii)Balance Of Instruments When setting your initial volume changes you will need to try and achieve a good balance between all the voices being used. Think logically about each instrument and how 'loud' they are. For example; you wouldn't have an oboe sounding as loud as a trumpet playing at full volume or a crash cymbal sounding like a finger cymbal (unless your sequencing some Hari Krishna music!) Never set your volumes at maximum. Distortion may occur. Each sound module and their voices are different so there is no hard and fast rule about this. It is for you to judge the correct balance between voices. Don't have each voice fighting to be heard. Very often it is a combination of voices that achieves the colour of sound. When listening to classical music you may find it extremely difficult to pick out particular instruments at times because they are being used together to achieve a particular colour and this is called good balancing. However, don't forget that when an instrument needs to be heard then do just that and emphasize it slightly if needed. Most of the time though, if you have set up your initial volumes to give a good balance, the velocity changes within the music should do this for you. Giving the voices their correct panning is also part of balancing but not every orchestra follows a standard of where each instrument should be placed in the stereo field. (iv)Voices The choice of voices to be used in your sequence will seem quite obvious and as not every sound module has identical voicing it will be left to your judgment on the choice of voices to use. There are a few pointers though that should help you out. The string section can quite happily be played on one voice, namely a fast attacking, fast decaying orchestral string voice. Do not use one of the many slow attacking, sustained strings except when sequencing a very legato slow movement. When a solo Violin is called for then, again, select a fast attacking, fast decaying Violin voice. The Piccolo and Flute can share the same flute voice if you're restricted by midi channels, otherwise you could use a separate Piccolo voice for that part because a Piccolo does have a different timbre to the Flute. The English Horn can be substituted by an Oboe if your sound modules are without an English Horn or if you're short on midi channels. (Remember to look out for duplicated notes!). The Trumpet and Trombone and even the Tuba can all share the same voice if you're restricted by the lack of midi channels although doing this will not achieve a good balance particularly on the stereo field. Use a 'straight' Trumpet voice, i.e. not a jazz or mute type although the score may call for a Mute Trumpet in places. If the score indicates a Cornet then using the Trumpet voice will suffice. Where Horns are indicated it is usually understood that French Horns are to be used. However, on occasion you may be called upon to use Fluglehorns or Post Horns. If your sound modules lack these voices then simply keep to the French Horns. Obviously when a Piano is called for you need to select an Acoustic Grand or similar. No Rhodes here please! When sequencing Piano's remember to insert appropriate sustain control codes (64). The Percussion side of the orchestra is usually poorly represented on most sound modules so you will just have to put up with what you've got. A few tips here though may help you achieve some realism. The orchestral Crash Cymbal can be better emulated by your sound module if you drop the pitch of your Crash Cymbal slightly. Experiment with your pitch bend wheel to achieve a realistic crash and then insert a pitch bend into your sequence. You will notice that a lot of times the Crash Cymbal of the orchestra
is prevented from sustaining. This is achieved by the percussionist by pressing
the cymbals against his/her chest after the strike. If your sound modules
don't possess a 'gated' percussion voice then to achieve this
in your sequence we need to input a second crash just after the first but
giving the second crash a velocity of zero so in effect we are damping the
first crash. This method only seems to work on most sound modules so experiment
to see what you can achieve.
The Gong, if you haven't one amongst your voices, can be obtained from the Crash Cymbal by, again, lowering the pitch but quite substantially this time. The orchestral Bass Drum is, again, usually set at a lower pitch than an Acoustic Bass Drum found on most sound modules so the method of lowering the pitch as described for the Crash Cymbal will work fine. Sometimes you may find you get a better orchestral Bass Drum by using a low pitched Acoustic Tom instead. I have usually found that the Triangle voice on most sound modules to be of little use for orchestral sequences so if you have an inferior Triangle try using a high pitched Glockenspiel note. |
