23 Jul
2006
23 Jul
'06
4:57 a.m.
Hello all--
It feels good to finally get back to composing and recording a little.
I've been working on an old piece I never finished. The draft audio
files are here:
Blues in C 1
OGG
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1.ogg
MP3
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/mp3/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1.mp3
Usually I record the audio directly into Ardour or Audacity, but this
time I recorded the MIDI performance instead, into Rosegarden (I also like
Muse very much), then played back the slightly cleaned up MIDI file and
recorded the audio produced by the tone generator (a rack-mounted Roland
Fantom XR) that was being "played" by the MIDI file, which is here:
Blues in C 1, MIDI (standard MIDI file type 1)
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/midi/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1_version-2.mid
A much older version of Blues in C 1, MIDI file:
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/midi/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1_version-1.mid
My Blues in C 2, a more recent composition that I finished and recorded
before finishing Blues in C 1:
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-2.ogg
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/mp3/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-2.mp3
Both of these "blues in C major" were created with one original idea: to
take a standard, bare-bones, dirt-simple blues progression in C
(tonic/subdominant/dominant "1, 4, 5" song) and try to do something
"interesting" with it, but retaining the essential skeleton of the blues
in C major. In Blues in C 1, I aimed for putting in a different "passing
chord" for every beat of every bar, only briefly landing on C, F and G
at their mandatory times. For Blues in C 2, the more recent composition
but the first to be completed and recorded, the idea and intent remained
the same, but the technique I used was to have a bass line that shifted
all around the C, F and G which formed the piece's structure, and that
technique allowed for some interesting melodic composition.
Anyway, I hope everybody's doing well--
Steve Doonan
New Mexico US
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that
they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses
slowly, and one by one. -Charles Mackay
----------------------------------------------------------------
23 Jul
23 Jul
5:23 a.m.
I downloaded and listened to
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1.ogg
and
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-2.ogg .
They both sound really good.
blues-in-c-1.ogg:
Sounds very much like a real grand piano being recorded professionally.
Very nice.
blues-in-c-2.ogg:
Sounds a bit more like MIDI. I don't hear as much expression from the
flute. If a synth is being used, it sounds VERY nice and lifelike.
By the way, which license are you planning to release these under?
-Jordan
On Sun, 2006-07-23 at 00:57 -0600, Steve D wrote:
Hello all--
It feels good to finally get back to composing and recording a little.
I've been working on an old piece I never finished. The draft audio
files are here:
Blues in C 1
OGG
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1.ogg
MP3
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/mp3/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1.mp3
Usually I record the audio directly into Ardour or Audacity, but this
time I recorded the MIDI performance instead, into Rosegarden (I also like
Muse very much), then played back the slightly cleaned up MIDI file and
recorded the audio produced by the tone generator (a rack-mounted Roland
Fantom XR) that was being "played" by the MIDI file, which is here:
Blues in C 1, MIDI (standard MIDI file type 1)
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/midi/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1_version-2.mid
A much older version of Blues in C 1, MIDI file:
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/midi/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1_version-1.mid
My Blues in C 2, a more recent composition that I finished and recorded
before finishing Blues in C 1:
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-2.ogg
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/mp3/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-2.mp3
Both of these "blues in C major" were created with one original idea: to
take a standard, bare-bones, dirt-simple blues progression in C
(tonic/subdominant/dominant "1, 4, 5" song) and try to do something
"interesting" with it, but retaining the essential skeleton of the blues
in C major. In Blues in C 1, I aimed for putting in a different "passing
chord" for every beat of every bar, only briefly landing on C, F and G
at their mandatory times. For Blues in C 2, the more recent composition
but the first to be completed and recorded, the idea and intent remained
the same, but the technique I used was to have a bass line that shifted
all around the C, F and G which formed the piece's structure, and that
technique allowed for some interesting melodic composition.
Anyway, I hope everybody's doing well--
Steve Doonan
New Mexico US
12:10 p.m.
On Sun, Jul 23, 2006 at 03:23:12AM -0400, Jordan Nash wrote:
I downloaded and listened to
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1.ogg
blues-in-c-1.ogg:
Sounds very much like a real grand piano being recorded professionally.
Very nice.
For the piano sound I used my favorite piano samples, William Coakley's
"Perfect Piano V":
http://williamcoakley.com/piano.php?product=V
These samples are a little expensive, but not really much more than the
alternatives: a ROM add-on card that can be installed in a hardware tone
generator or synthesizer, or a "virtual instrument" plugin for computer
software such as Synthogy's Ivory. I have tried both myself (and own
Roland's SRX-02 "Concert Piano" add-on card which I never use
anymore--anybody with a Roland Fantom want it?) and have listened to
demo audio files of countless highly touted piano samples, but to me
William Coakley's samples sound the best. They are really superior,
beautiful piano samples on CD that can be loaded onto a compact flash
card which can be inserted into a Roland Fantom series keyboard, or a
Yamaha Motif series (I use a Roland FantomXR rack-mounted tone
generator).
blues-in-c-2.ogg:
Sounds a bit more like MIDI. I don't hear as much expression from the
flute. If a synth is being used, it sounds VERY nice and lifelike.
Blues in C 2 was recorded as digital-audio, using a patch on my old
GeneralMusic RealPiano Expander tone module for the piano/choir sound,
and one of the many nice flute patches on the Roland FantomXR, played
onto a second track in Ardour using my 88-key MIDI keyboard (a Yamaha
P-90; I love Yamaha's particular weighted, hammer-action keboard).
By the way, which license are you planning to release
these under?
I tagged both the MP3 and OGG files with the Creative Commons
non-commercial, attribution, share-alike license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
In truth, I really don't care how people use my files or my music, so
perhaps I should have left off the "non-commercial" stipulation. I'm
just happy if people listen to and use my music at all. ;-)
Steve
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are
removing a weed and not a valuable plant to pull on it. If it
comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
----------------------------------------------------------------
9:44 p.m.
Hello all--
It feels good to finally get back to composing and recording a little.
I've been working on an old piece I never finished. The draft audio
files are here:
Blues in C 1
OGG
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1.ogg
MP3
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/mp3/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1.mp3
Usually I record the audio directly into Ardour or Audacity, but this
time I recorded the MIDI performance instead, into Rosegarden (I also like
Muse very much), then played back the slightly cleaned up MIDI file and
recorded the audio produced by the tone generator (a rack-mounted Roland
Fantom XR) that was being "played" by the MIDI file, which is here:
Blues in C 1, MIDI (standard MIDI file type 1)
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/midi/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1_version-2.mid
A much older version of Blues in C 1, MIDI file:
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/midi/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-1_version-1.mid
My Blues in C 2, a more recent composition that I finished and recorded
before finishing Blues in C 1:
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-2.ogg
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/mp3/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-2.mp3
Both of these "blues in C major" were created with one original idea: to
take a standard, bare-bones, dirt-simple blues progression in C
(tonic/subdominant/dominant "1, 4, 5" song) and try to do something
"interesting" with it, but retaining the essential skeleton of the blues
in C major. In Blues in C 1, I aimed for putting in a different "passing
chord" for every beat of every bar, only briefly landing on C, F and G
at their mandatory times. For Blues in C 2, the more recent composition
but the first to be completed and recorded, the idea and intent remained
the same, but the technique I used was to have a bass line that shifted
all around the C, F and G which formed the piece's structure, and that
technique allowed for some interesting melodic composition.
Anyway, I hope everybody's doing well--
Steve Doonan
New Mexico US
6:08 a.m.
On Sun, Jul 23, 2006 at 12:57:24AM -0600, Steve D wrote:
Beautyful. Sounds very 'real' :)
Much of this one sounds very familiar, like I listened to it already
in the past. Not necessarily a bad thing. Feels like early morning,
gentle sunshine, but interesting things could happen later on the day :)
Thanks for sharing.
--
Thorsten Wilms
11:39 a.m.
On Sun, Jul 23, 2006 at 10:08:29AM +0200, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
On Sun, Jul 23, 2006 at 12:57:24AM -0600, Steve D
wrote:
Beautyful. Sounds very 'real' :)
Much of this one sounds very familiar, like I listened to it already
in the past. Not necessarily a bad thing. Feels like early morning,
gentle sunshine, but interesting things could happen later on the day :)
Thank you Thorsten, Jordan for you comments. The Blues in C 2 may sound
familiar because I composed/recorded and posted the result to the Linux
Audio Users' email list before, maybe a year ago. Since that time,
several people asked me, since that piece was labeled "2," whether there
was a "blues in C" number 1, and one man in the Phillipines
heard an old MIDI file of the unfinished first "blues" and asked me for
an MP3 of it. Those queries made me dig up this 20 year old piece
and begin to work on it again.
I posted the links to both Blues in C's just because both pieces were
composed with the same original idea, to start with a strict, simple
1-4-5 blues progression and see how much I could do and how far I could
go with the progression while still maintaining and not discarding the
progression itself. ;-)
A photo of my original chord chart for Blues in C 2 (originally named
just "Steve's Blues") is at the following location if anyone cares to
see it. (The "7-6" that follows some of the chord names was my way of
indicating to myself that the voicing of that major or minor (depending
on "M" or "m") 7th chord should also contain the 6th. The minus sign
did
not indicate a flatted-6th/augmented-5th.
http://www.xscd.com/pub/pics/steves-blues-1-chart.jpg
It was fun recording to MIDI format first, and then digital audio. I
think I'm going to do more of that. Speaking of which, is there anyone
who has a completed 2-4 minute Hydrogen or MIDI percussion track they
might be willing to share with me? I would love to improvise/compose
some piano music to someone else's drums. I have done this with
Thorsten, with digital-audio, but I would enjoy doing something similar
with a strictly MIDI or Hydrogen percussion track.
Best wishes,
Steve
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
He is a fine friend. He stabs you in the front. -Leonard Louis
Levinson
----------------------------------------------------------------
25 Jul
25 Jul
11:08 a.m.
On Sun, Jul 23, 2006 at 07:39:54AM -0600, Steve D wrote:
It was fun recording to MIDI format first, and then digital audio. I
think I'm going to do more of that. Speaking of which, is there anyone
who has a completed 2-4 minute Hydrogen or MIDI percussion track they
might be willing to share with me? I would love to improvise/compose
some piano music to someone else's drums. I have done this with
Thorsten, with digital-audio, but I would enjoy doing something similar
with a strictly MIDI or Hydrogen percussion track.
Well, if it's not too boring it's me again ... ;)
Single Hydrogen pattern attached. Requires Millo-Drums v3 from top
of the list on http://www.hydrogen-music.org/?p=drumkits and
Hydrogen >= 0.9.3.
If anyone gets that to work and likes it enough to work with it,
I will add variations, fills and breaks :)
--
Thorsten Wilms
27 Jul
27 Jul
10:42 p.m.
On Tue, Jul 25, 2006 at 03:08:16PM +0200, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
Single Hydrogen pattern attached. Requires Millo-Drums
v3 from top
of the list on http://www.hydrogen-music.org/?p=drumkits and
Hydrogen >= 0.9.3.
If anyone gets that to work and likes it enough to work with it,
I will add variations, fills and breaks :)
--- ---
Thank you very much for posting that Hydrogen percussion track Thorsten.
I like it very much. I have downloaded it and and going to try to work
with it. Thanks again--
Steve
28 Jul
28 Jul
10:17 a.m.
On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 06:41:55PM -0600, Steve D wrote:
My pleasure. I'm confident whatever you come up with will be more than
worth my little effort :)
Not wanting to put you under pressure, I can always recycle this stuff.
New attachment, with Into, variations, breaks, fills and a mini arrangement
for presentation.
This drummer needs to be pirate with a parrot on his shoulder to manage the
ride, I guess ... whatever grooves is my approach to drum programming ;)
--
Thorsten Wilms
If anyone gets
that to work and likes it enough to work with it,
I will add variations, fills and breaks :)
--- ---
Thank you very much for posting that Hydrogen percussion track Thorsten.
I like it very much. I have downloaded it and and going to try to work
with it. Thanks again-- 
23 Jul
23 Jul
9:51 p.m.
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 00:57:24 -0600
Steve D <groups(a)xscd.com> wrote:
Hello all--
It feels good to finally get back to composing and recording a little.
I know the feeling!
I've been working on an old piece I never
finished. The draft audio
files are here:
Nice to know I'm not the only one who does that.
Blues in C 1
I enjoyed listening to these. They sounded very clean. Blues isn't
really my thing, but I can appreciate your effort and the quality of
your playing.
--
Will J G
10:06 p.m.
It feels good to finally get back to composing and recording a little.
I've been working on an old piece I never finished. The draft audio
files are here:
Blues in C 1
OGG
[...]
My Blues in C 2, a more recent composition that I finished and recorded
before finishing Blues in C 1:
http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/audio/ogg/stephen-doonan_blues-in-c-2.ogg
Very nice tracks, it's kind to have told us this was blues :).
I particularly liked the way you harmonized the chords. Sounds great in
both cases, nice job.
Thanks,
Y.
6746
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10 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
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Carlos Pino -
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