goodseed
This is fantastic!! Could you please provide a few details of how long it has taken you to create this and mix it down? I'd also be interested to learn what percentage of time was spent on the recording side vs the midi editing side.
Brilliant piece of work and a brilliant piece of music.
I started it in late March or early April and finished it yesterday. I think it's done. I'd say composition and orchestration are my primary concerns. The ideas, planning out their textures, variations, developments and repetitions are the first concern. While I am composing, I am also sequencing the material, inventing and editing the composition and programming all the necessary patch changes and midi controller information. There's also techniques about creating a groove, a feel, that must be understood musically in order to program MIDI accordingly.
The vast majority of production time is spent in the staff view, the event list and the tempo view. Making the wave file is relatively simple: When I am satisfied with the composition and the interpretation (the MIDI sequence) I render a stereo wave file. At this point I am mastering because all the mixing took place in the MIDI sequence and in the VSL player's virtual mixing board. Any new dynamic changes are handled by Sonar's audio volume envelopes, and I added some signal processing to lighten up harmonics a bit and to improve the stereo spatial range.
If you're interested in my technique and process, you can read this May 2014 article:
http://soundbytesmag.net/jerrygerberinterview/ Glad you enjoyed the piece!
Jerry