I normally start with the tempo markings from the score without using rit. or accel.  This makes it easier to slow down difficult passages that are hard to play on keyboard.   I usually import the audio when first starting the project which helps with planning things such as string slides, articulations, etc.  The audio is muted though while recording parts.  When I'm ready to do the tempo changes, I solo the audio track and turn on the metronome during playback.  I listen to the audio track for the feel and where it speeds up and slows down usually a few measures at a time.  The audio is then stopped and the tempo changes are drawn in.  Usually I'll start with the basic tempo for the measure and then draw in the little changes.  The tempo changes can actually change for every 32nd note played in some passages especially for harp parts.  I have to be very patient with the tempo map.  The tempo map can either make or break a piece.  

I'm much faster doing tempo maps now than years ago.  I can now hear most of them and draw them right the first time.  So it's one of those things that just takes a ton of practice.

Jim 

haydn12


I normally start with the tempo markings from the score without using rit. or accel.  This makes it easier to slow down difficult passages that are hard to play on keyboard.   I usually import the audio when first starting the project which helps with planning things such as string slides, articulations, etc.  The audio is muted though while recording parts.  When I'm ready to do the tempo changes, I solo the audio track and turn on the metronome during playback.  I listen to the audio track for the feel and where it speeds up and slows down usually a few measures at a time.  The audio is then stopped and the tempo changes are drawn in.  Usually I'll start with the basic tempo for the measure and then draw in the little changes.  The tempo changes can actually change for every 32nd note played in some passages especially for harp parts.  I have to be very patient with the tempo map.  The tempo map can either make or break a piece.  

I'm much faster doing tempo maps now than years ago.  I can now hear most of them and draw them right the first time.  So it's one of those things that just takes a ton of practice.

Jim 

I wonder if the new features in AudioSnap would somehow make this process a "bit" simpler....

I haven't tried the AudioSnap feature for this but it may not work well.  Orchestral music doesn't always have strong transients like rock or other types of music.  Also, finding basic tempos isn't that hard.  It's the stuff within the beats such as speeding up notes in arpeggios in the middle but hanging on the last note before the next beat. 

Jim

Jim,

You're right about the transients....

There's a new feature in the latest version of Sibelius that allows you to conduct the tempo in real time using the space bar.   Maybe that could be the place to do that part of the work? 

From the website "and the amazing Nutcracker sequences that had been painstakingly programmed by James Ortner, who had spent over three years inputting the bulk of the score using the GPO software and Cakewalk’s Sonar sequencing program"
 
 
Wow, I guess the staff view really does suck in Sonar!
 

A1MixMan


From the website "and the amazing Nutcracker sequences that had been painstakingly programmed by James Ortner, who had spent over three years inputting the bulk of the score using the GPO software and Cakewalk’s Sonar sequencing program"
 
 
Wow, I guess the staff view really does suck in Sonar!
 

Nowhere in that stement does it indicate he actually used the staff view in SONAR...

This is not intended as an insult to GPO, because I use it all the time for composing and sketching and some of its sounds CAN be used for the final mockup; but why wouldn't you use a higher-end library to get more realistic results?  Do real players cover up the lack of articulations in GPO?

There are no real players in this mockup using GPO so there is no covering up. 

Another ballet company up in the northwest used the GPO mockups for their ballet.  It was cheaper than paying the royalty fees for the audio recordings plus we were able to change the tempos for their performance.

GPO was used to show what a small orchestra library can do without the costs of purchasing the larger libraries.  I think that the Nutcracker proves the point that you don't have to have the huge libraries to get decent results.  What you hear in the recordings cost $149 for the library and ARIA player.  You can't beat that for the money. 

I do use many of the larger libraries for my other work such as Vienna, ProjectSAM, Kirk Hunter, Sample Modeling and a few others.  Even in my large templates, there is still quite a bit of GPO instruments.  The woodwinds blend quite well with other libraries.  I also use the Garritan Authorized Steinway quite a bit.

The best thing about the Garritan libraries is how well they work with notation programs.  I've been using the Concert and Marching Band library in Finale for doing marching band arrangements.  

I use the piano roll view for all MIDI editing.  It's what I started with many years ago.   I do use the staff view for recording live instruments and vocals.  

Jim 

Nice job, Jim.  Excellent.

Let us not forget the author who used his mind as a sample player, and sequenced with a pen and paper.  And occasionally a real orchestra to prove what he already knew.