A Night In Northridge

This is a jazzy orchestral piece inspired by Vince Mendoza and Gil Evans.  If this were recorded with real players I'd have some instrumental solos on the vamp at the end.

NORTHRIDGE

Enjoy,
J

Very nice job thru out.  It is amazing what we can do now-a-days with virtual instruments.  Very well crafted work (and for the record "I like Jazz"). ;)

The only suggestion I can make here is that one of the wind instruments (I *think* it is the clarinet) was a bit harsh to my ears in the mids to high-mids.  I'd soften its attack by removing some of the EQ on that guy.

Beyond that, I'd like to hear it with a live band and I bet it would have quite a jazzy groove once you add some solo instrumentation.  Hope we get to hear it!

Thanks for sharing,
Tom

The woodwinds are physically modeled, not sampled  (Wallander Instruments).  I like the playability and expression, but it's hard to get them to sound as nice as a high-end sample library. I'll try taking the edge off with the UAD Studer to see if that helps.  Otherwise I'll try the Kontakt factory woodwinds (old VSL samples) or I'll have to pony up for the real VSL stuff sometime soon.

I composed this in Sibelius, one line at a time.  I didn't alter the MIDI much when I brought it into Sonar and used my good sounds.  If I had gone through the labor of performing each part, I'm sure the results would be that much better...but it's still a mockup. 

Nice melodies man...I agree with the suggestions about the woodwind tones.  I like the drums sounds alot and the soft brass.

Hi Janet,

If I'm just going to record/produce a simple rhythm section based piece and/or something that comes from my piano keyboard vocabulary , then Sibelius isn't the tool for the job.  Sonar is much better and quicker for that sort of thing.

For me, "pencil and paper" composition/arranging/orchestration has almost nothing to do with what I can physically play at a keyboard.  My orchestrations can have anywhere from 2 to 7 real parts going on....actually up to 12 parts, but then it's too dense and "out there" to be appreciated by anyone other than me.  The only way to check the intervals between the various parts easily is if they are spelled correctly enharmonically. Sonar's notation may spell an A major chord as "A -Db - E".  The sound is correct, but spelling-wise, it's like spelling "cat" as "kat".  When (and if) the part gets transposed into the appropriate clef for various instruments, it's doubly important that the spellings are correct and easy to read.

Also, if you are used to composing with notation, Sonar really isn't equipped to enter notes from the notation view.  I don't think that you can tie notes together, re-beam note groupings, etc.

That said, Sibelius has a couple of niggles that drive me nuts.  They still don't have MIDI input quantize, and I would love it if they incorporated some DAW-like MIDI editing capabilities to edit controller messages, velocity, etc.

Thank you, Jonas. Very interesting.  Yes, it does bug me that Sonar will call a C# a Db, even when you're in the key of A.  Seems like a simple thing to program.  Not that I can program anything, though. :) 

It can get rather tedious making sure all the chords are correct, but I often resort to PRV to check them.  It's often a dead give-away if two notes in the bass are a 2nd apart, for instance. :) 

Hi Janet,

When I'm orchestrating, I'm not primarily thinking of chords.  The linear/horizontal motion of each voice is the primary consideration.  Then I do a 'vertical' check of the intervals between all the parts, which often has harmonic implications, but I'm firstly looking for unacceptable interval clashes. Flat 9th intervals are usually the culprit.

Huh???  To demonstrate what I'm talking about, I first played a short chord sequence at the piano.  Although I could have orchestrated the chords exactly from the piano part, the linear aspect of it (the voice leading) is parallel and kinda boring.  When I say parallel I mean that the third of each chord is always on top (in the piano example).

The orchestrated string example has real voice leading (no parallel intervals) and the lines are much more interesting/3-dimensional.  These techniques are actually quite easily mastered with the correct training.

MP3  SCORE

Jonas, that's generally the way I do it too.  (If I'm following you.)  I play the melody first, then the bass, then start layering in the middle parts. If it gets too complicated I'll have to type a part out note by note, but I prefer to just play it as I hear it.  Then I have to go back, like you say, and make sure the chords work.  And by then I start hearing different 'lines' or at least riffs that I'd like to hear.  Or I guess I DO hear, but want to write.  :) 

Very nice Jonas!  Your orchestral libraries sound great, and the mix is perfect.  I know what you mean about orchestrating voices in a linear fasion verses parallel chord movement.  It's the best (and most fun) way to orchestrate.  Although, in a complex section, it takes some time to find the right intervals.