Composing in midi
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URL: http://www.MetalMusicArchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=658
Printed Date: 24 Apr 2024 at 7:58pm
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Topic: Composing in midi
Posted By: Time Signature
Subject: Composing in midi
Date Posted: 31 May 2010 at 1:08pm
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I was wondering, does anybody here use Tuxguitar, Guitar Pro or anything like that when composing metal (and other types of music)? ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: Vehemency
Date Posted: 31 May 2010 at 1:33pm
| With my very first compositions (sounds weird to use such a noble term haha), both metal and folk(ish) stuff in 2006 I think, I did use Guitar Pro to keep track of structures and so forth. Nowadays when I get ideas I just record them straight away and have abandoned all midi / note softwares. |
Posted By: Time Signature
Date Posted: 31 May 2010 at 1:35pm
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I use both. I find that the midi software is helpful in imposing some kind of structure to the ideas. -------------
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Posted By: Certif1ed
Date Posted: 01 Jun 2010 at 7:24am
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I used to use MIDI exclusively in Cakewalk (pre Sonar), because the PC I used back then wasn't powerful enough to handle audio streams, and also because I was reading for a degree in music, and conventional notation was my preferred compositional method. Now that I don't have to think about structure, I don't - I like to follow ideas on what seems like a natural path - and it's really easy to see the overall structure in a wave editor, in terms of the various sections of the piece.
I do try not to have too much structure in the ideas themselves - it keeps the theorist terrorists guessing that way (I can't stand people who constantly blather on about which mode of which scale is being used, especially in "Classic" Rock) - if it feels right, then that's enough, and if it raises the neck hairs, you can only ever go one better...
MIDI still has its use - if I want to play in a keyboard piece, for example, and be able to share it quickly with others who might want to play it - or even better, for transcribing a piece of choral music to help a choir member learn their part accurately, or as a rehearsal aid.
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Posted By: simonkrogh
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2011 at 2:26am
I've been using Noteworthy Composer for a while. It doesn't care if my measures and time signatures fit, which makes it a very immediate tool to work with. I've used it for writing a lot of riffs and rhythmic patterns. It's only ~2MB and runs on almost any Windows machine, which is nice 
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Posted By: Andyman1125
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2011 at 10:03pm
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All my music is written in Guitar Pro 6 and "recorded" using midi. ------------- http://bit.ly/kZR7BC" rel="nofollow">  http://andywebb.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow - My Bandcamp
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Posted By: SKwid
Date Posted: 18 Sep 2011 at 8:05pm
i use fruity loops 9 and various vst's, effects and plugins to make my music, the combination of whitch changes every time -------------  
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Andyman1125 wrote:Posted By: Andyman1125
Date Posted: 18 Sep 2011 at 8:34pm
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For "metal" GP6 isn't too great (it's tough getting a real-sounding distortion) but for a lot of what I wright I'm able to pull it off. ------------- http://bit.ly/kZR7BC" rel="nofollow"> http://andywebb.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow - My Bandcamp
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Posted By: SKwid
Date Posted: 18 Sep 2011 at 9:31pm
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i have THE best distortion vst.. but i guess gp6 doesn't support vst plugins -------------
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Posted By: Andyman1125
Date Posted: 19 Sep 2011 at 6:18pm
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I don't believe it does, no. It has some cool pedals/amps, it's just hard to get them to sound "authentic." ------------- http://bit.ly/kZR7BC" rel="nofollow"> http://andywebb.bandcamp.com/" rel="nofollow - My Bandcamp
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Posted By: Stooge
Date Posted: 19 Sep 2011 at 7:28pm
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I don't do a ton of composing, but when I do I use Guitar Pro 4. I only used a newer version once, and I remember the guitar distortion it used sounded closer to what was produced by an amplifier. At the time, I didn't like it and preferred using the older version. I'll try a newer version again someday. ------------- https://armchairmaestro.com/" rel="nofollow - My Music Blog |
Posted By: SKwid
Date Posted: 19 Sep 2011 at 8:53pm
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Posted By: Stooge
Date Posted: 20 Sep 2011 at 9:10am
Stay MIDI my friends!! ------------- https://armchairmaestro.com/" rel="nofollow - My Music Blog |
Posted By: VX
Date Posted: 03 Feb 2013 at 7:11pm
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I`m better at coming up with idea`s playing them live, so only I go for MIDI composition exclusively for classical arraignments. However, that being said, I do know that if your looking for a good way to apply realistic touch to a GP composition, there`s a VST called "Shreddage x". Which is pretty good when you import it into virtual amp`s like Guitar Rig and Amplitube. It can sound very real if you mess around with it for long enough. ------------- www.soundcloud.com/voiceex |
Posted By: bartosso
Date Posted: 06 Feb 2013 at 10:04am
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Guitar Pro 5 is pretty good. It processes sounds with a gizmo called Realistic Sound Engine and it sounds much better than midi. I used to use it quite a lot. ------------- http://shrineofllyria.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - http://shrineofllyria.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: VX
Date Posted: 07 Feb 2013 at 12:58pm
You are very correct, my friend Guitar Pro`s RSE 2 indeed sounds a lot better than MIDI. Though if your into that, I highly recommend you try using "Shreddage X" or "Electri6ty" for the final rendering process, via virtual amplifiers (stuff like "Guitar Rig", "Amplitube", "RMX bundle" etc). I`m not an expert on sound synthesis, but I do know that as far as MIDI compositions go, combining between programs usually produces the best results. And its not as complicated and time consuming, as it may sound. For example: here`s a quick way on how to achieve an even more realistic sound than GP, while working with programs such as "Shreddage" (Which is particularly good for metal. Hence the name) Here are the basic steps on how to achieve realistic sound for guitars, via MIDI: 1) A good and fast way to do this is to compose the guitars themselves in in Guitar Pro. 2) When your done doing that, your work is already more than half done. 3) After you are finished with the composition itself, you opened it up in as a MIDI format in your DAW program. 4) After which, you load "Shreddage" as a virtual instrument (Make sure its on your existing MIDI track). 5) Open multiple MIDI channels (a channel for each guitar part), and arrange the various parts. 6) Select in "Shreddage" what method of playing you want (hand orientating, open chords, tremolo , etc) for each part. Its is of course best to separate between rhythm and lead guitar, to achieve maximum result. 7) Once you've done doing that, you are ready to export your MIDI into wave files. For here on its very easy. 8) Every composting you do render through "Shreddage" will be without any distortion. The only EQ that you should do is cut off some "air" in the middle, and apply minimal reverb (if any). 9) Once that's done, you open a new project (and if you have an existing one in mind, possibly with drums & bass, than you should use that). 10) Load a virtual amplifier into your imported guitar parts. Select which effects and distortion you want, and, presto! your done. And, no, I personally do not use "Shreddage" or Guitar Pro. But I am familiar with Kontakt instruments ("Shreddage" is a Kontakt instrument). So I know that, logically, what I have described should get you a better result than GP, being as GP`s amps do not compare to more dedicated virtual amplifiers. And in case your wondering, yes, you can also compose in "Shreddage". But I don`t recommend that being as "Shreddage" is good for simulating touch, in specific. Or, at least that`s what it sounds like. You can google it. ------------- www.soundcloud.com/voiceex |
Posted By: bartosso
Date Posted: 07 Feb 2013 at 8:50pm
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Thanks for the tutorial! I think you've mentioned this Shreddage before, I've already told my friend about it, he's really into VSTi based composing yet not really that good at playing guitar so it may come in handy for him. I started recording my stuff with real instruments so hopefully there'll be no need to use that kind of software. I love GuitarRig though. ------------- http://shrineofllyria.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - http://shrineofllyria.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: VX
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2013 at 12:02am
Anytime if your friend needs help, you are welcome to refer him to this short tutorial! my English isnt so good, but being as you mentioned that he is infact familiar with working with VST`s, than I am sure that he will make sense of this in no time. Its alot easier than it sounds.------------- www.soundcloud.com/voiceex |
Posted By: bartosso
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2013 at 2:08pm
You really don't have to excuse yourself every time you post, your English is not bad at all I'm by no means an authority in the field though - I'm Polish and I study french translation and literature so my English isn't perfect either. Besides there are Americans who make worse mistakes than any of us  Not on this forum though, OUR Americans don't make mistakes and when they do it's always on purpose.As for VST, I'm really overwhelmed with the abundance of options this stuff offers. Amazing. I'll translate your tutorial into french and send to the guy, if you don't mind, obviously. He seemed really excited about it.
------------- http://shrineofllyria.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow - http://shrineofllyria.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: VX
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2013 at 10:48am
I`m glad to hear that you find my English to be satisfactory, and your word as a future linguistic expert means more. Not to mention that I am sure that your English is better than mine and, yes, I am aware that there are many Americans which do not put my effort into such grammatical aspects. Truth be told, one of the reasons as to why I try to phrase my correctly is to avoid any possible misunderstandings. You know how it goes on the internet, everyone has something to say, so in my opinion trying to keep things on at least a basic level of understanding, will go along way.And about VST, my friend you have no idea. Ive been researching what`s out there for my own music, and I have to tell you that there are some insane samplers out there. And for all genres. ------------- www.soundcloud.com/voiceex |