[Music] From The Lake - AVAILABLE NOW

OK

It's tomorrow morning

It's tomorrow morning

This 

Yeah, I've texted him but he still hasn't responded to my message. He's a pretty busy guy. I definitely don't want to annoy him by constantly messaging him about it, so we'll just have to wait and see. If he still hasn't sent it by tomorrow I'll post another MIDI demo or something.

ok

He just responded and said he'll get it to me soon. So, fingers crossed I guess.

Not that he's unreliable or anything. Like I said, he's very busy. And when I say very busy I mean I can't even comprehend the amount of stuff he has going on, so sending me a flute track I forgot to ask for in the first place is probably lower on his list of priorities than a lot of things. So it's no big deal. He's great and very professional and I'm really excited to be working with him.

Oh, and he'll probably be filling in the acoustic guitar part for me - and potentially some electric guitar.

Nothin' wrong with being busy.

Just keep on trucking, my friend. Can't wait to here those guitars, btw; I love me some acoustic. <3

Here we go:

Remember that this is raw audio so we haven't done anything to it yet, plus it's a low bitrate mp3, but good enough for what this is. We actually need to do another take on this because the end is a little sloppy, but you get the idea.

That is lovely

;_; why can't I play the flute like that?

*cries in a corner*

(I guess I can't play the flute at all. D:)

Here's the section that flute solo occurs in as heard in the MIDI version, for comparison or something:
So definitely a lot of improvement having a real person actually play it (plus MIDI flute just sucks anyway and is way quiet). And as you can see, or hear rather, a lot of instruments left to record in just this passage alone.

O.O Whoa. That really is a big difference.

Definitely like the human version better.

I like it, very calming on the nerves

We actually need to do another take on this because the end is a little sloppy, but you get the idea.

dem semiquavers amirite

i reckon i could do that on a flute probably much worse tone quality though

Wow, that MIDI version is wonderful.

Great job all around!

We actually need to do another take on this because the end is a little sloppy, but you get the idea.

dem semiquavers amirite

i reckon i could do that on a flute probably much worse tone quality though

Yeah. If it weren't a solo it wouldn't be a big deal because you wouldn't notice some of the notes being glossed over or whatever if it were being played by other instruments.

She has really good tone quality - dat vibrato. I've heard her play it right a dozen times before, mistakes happen, and for some reason I just didn't catch it in the studio. Well, none of us did. It's an easy fix though.

I think she's wishing I hadn't posted it because it she thinks it makes her look bad lol. It isn't a big deal though, because we'll just get a better take next time. And really I wouldn't have posted it at all if I hadn't already said I was going to. Oh well.

Tell her to stop it! Heck I thought it was pretty good, you music people have to catch the mistakes. We music lovers just enjoy it ;P   

Just when things seemed like they were picking up steam, we've reached a bit of a lull. The only downside with working with so many people and musicians is that you're working with a lot of people. That means lots of schedules to synchronize, and, because of how life goes, that means lots of rescheduling and changing plans and moving things around etc.

That's okay, though, because while for the most part April probably won't have much activity, May and June will for sure. I'm hoping this weekend to start recording tuba, but that's seeming unlikely so that might have to wait a bit. Trombone and saxophone to come after. I imagine acoustic guitar recording will be done sometime soonish, since the guy handling most of the recording is playing that, so he doesn't need me there for it to be done. Synths and piano are getting recorded a little bit here and there. Bass is still being worked on as I type this, and then June will yield some awesome drum recordings. Somewhere in here I hope we can begin violin recording - this month ideally but most probably not until May at least.

I was going to start recording cello this coming Saturday, but the cellist quit on me suddenly , so that probably won't be done until late this year since I have to find someone new now and I don't know anymore cellists. But that's okay, one thing at a time.

In trying to get everything coordinated I made up a chart for me to keep track of what has been recorded, what hasn't, and who plays in which song. It's certainly helping to let me know at a glance what needs to be done but a side-effect of it making up the chart this early on is that it all seems quite overwhelming (there's lots of songs and a ton of instruments, though many of them will be virtual).

Spoiler for:

While it looks as though we're only halfway through recording flute even though we've been working on that for like a month now, there's actually not a lot left to record for that.

That spreadsheet shows a woeful lacking of bass clarinet

Yeah, I've been debating adding more or just cutting it entirely, which is why it's just stuck at one song at the moment. I could even just give bassoon parts to bass clarinet or something, but I'd rather not.

I suppose this makes a good opportunity to talk about the somewhat strange choices in instrumentation going on sometimes. The thing to remember most is that this is being done on a budget. That doesn't mean I'm going to sacrifice the quality of music by leaving things out that I feel need to be there, but it does mean that I just can't afford to use every instrument I want on every single song which is a major reason when looking at the spreadsheet that the brass and woodwinds' appearances are kind of spotty. This isn't such a bad thing, though. In actuality I ended up liking this more because it subtly gives each song a different characteristic. But it does mean I have situations where I have to think "does this really need a bass clarinet part or can I just use the bassoon which I'm already going to pay for anyway?".

The other thing that is a more specific reason that there is a lack of bass clarinet is that there are already a lot of bass instruments: bassoon, trombone, tuba, guitars (which I generally have in the tenor range most often, but still has a lot of bass notes), bass guitar, cello (and french horn can get a bit low sometimes too). That isn't even counting piano, marimba, timpani, etc. This is also the reason there is no contrabass in the strings. It would be nice to have, but it's just not practical (plus I don't even know anyone that plays the bass because no one does - it's boring).

So I don't know. I was just thinking about this last night actually. I think what will happen is I'm going to save recording bass clarinet for last and just wait to hear how the tracks develop until then. If there's enough room to squeeze another instrument into the bass range then I probably will.

Such a long reply to such a short post

Hey, when you're on a budget, the best course of action is to the make the most of what you have. I can tell you're doing just that.

Do whatever else you can as well, of course.

The budget has actually been beneficial, I think. As I said it's made me limit instrumentation but I do think that's been a good thing. If money weren't an issue, I would probably have put every instrument in every song (minus "Graveyard" and not counting percussion and "specialty" instruments). It's made the writing better, really, because I've had to think a lot more about balance than I normally would and whether certain things are actually necessary.

Also it keeps things fresh for the listener's ear, mostly subconsciously. For example, there's a period of 5 consecutive songs without the acoustic guitar. It's an important instrument, and it isn't left out of those songs to save money, but just because the budget made me consider whether it was actually needed to have it in those songs, which it turns out the songs are better without it. And while you might not notice consciously the absence of an acoustic guitar, your ear will. The aural color the instrument brings will be noticed and welcomed after a 5-song absence. Things like that are important when you consider there's 19 songs - almost 80 minutes of music - which can be very tiring to a listener sitting through it all at once. Changing things up like that keeps it from getting too tiring too quickly.

I guess today is HaloOfTheSun Gives Lectures On Musical Mechanics Nobody Asked About Day.

The aural color the instrument brings will be noticed and welcomed ...

I love it when you talk dirty. 

o.o

o.o