MIDI Sequencing Skills
To demonstrate MIDI sequencing skills, I have created a rendition of the Ghostly Galaxy music from the soundtrack of platforming game Super Mario Galaxy. The rendition can be head on the SoundCloud link directly above. I chose this piece of music to do as it's quirky and musically quite interesting. Overall I am satisfied, but I perhaps should have chosen a more complexly layered piece as I find my version to feel a bit empty with only 10 instruments. Throughout the post I will comment on some of the limitations of this rendition.
Inputting MIDI Data and Editing Events
Opening (Cello Section Pizzicato)
The Dark Winds synth throughout the project pans from left to right to create an eerie atmosphere.
The slow opening arpeggio was inputted by real-time performance to give it a more natural sound. I used a MIDI keyboard controller as I play piano and keyboards. This is my most preferred method of input; it comes most naturally to me and lets me get down my ideas much more quickly.
Afterwards I turned down the velocity to give it a softer timbre.
Bassline (Bass Section Pizzicato)
The bassline was inputted by step-recording to get a precise feel, and quantised to a 1/8-Note setting, as I think a bassline should provide a solid foundation for the rest of a piece to ride. At first the bass notes' placement was on two separate octave pitches (left pic) as I thought this might make it more tangible, but eventually I decided to delete these notes and just have it on the lower octave (right pic) as it was ultimately less intrusive on the rest of the piece.
Main Melody (Flute, Marimba)
The notes of this melody were inserted by clicking in, because the extra notes I added on the marimba parts (pictured) are complex and hard to play. Clicking in gives you full freedom without having to worry about instrument skill, which can be very helpful sometimes. The notes in the first part of the melody are long in length to make the reverberations of the marimba more pronounced and relaxed, while the notes in the second section are short and stabbing, creating tension. To be honest I prefer the marimba version as I found it difficult to make the original version of the melody sound good without the quality of a real-life flute; this is an example of how MIDI can sometimes hold a musician back.
Adding to this effect, I applied Logic's crescendo function to make the marimba notes grow in velocity as the piece plays, further building a sort of tension. I find the crescendo function to be useful in making something sound more as if it was played by a human, and it is exciting to listen to. Velocity of notes is often a better thing to edit than the volume of an entire track, as it allows you to express different feelings with the same instrument across time and even alter an instrument's dynamics in some cases such as brass instruments.
I put the flute part on two separate octaves to give the sound more depth. This helps the flutes to stand out amongst the other instruments.
Harmony (Clarinet)
The higher notes are of a lower velocity, making them more delicate. This was done manually with the drag-up menu below the piano roll.
Stylistic Interpretation
Tempo and Time Signature
The tempo of Ghostly Galaxy is 115bpm. This is quite upbeat, fitting the game's running and jumping action. I think the piece might have sounded a little better at slower tempo, but I didn't want to stray too far from the original.
The time signature is 3/4. 3/4 is not common time, so the piece sounds more unique that way.
Choosing and Combining Sounds
This piece of music is orchestral with a bass synthesiser as a twist. I used 'Dark Winds' from the Warped Synths section of Logic's library to simulate the sounds of wind in the source piece. This gives the music atmosphere and makes it eerie.
I kept a lot of the instrumentation the same; the bass and cello sections, as well as the flute, are as they were in the original, though they lack a certain charm found in the original because I don't yet have the skills to replicate the sound on that level. The flute section's notes are more drawn out as it is on a legato setting. The bell synth in the original is replaced with a marimba as I wanted to experiment with grace notes and arpeggios. I think it makes the piece sound more outlandish overall. The high-pitched synth that comes in on the second section is now a clarinet as it complimented the flute more to me.
The violins voicing the melody of the original's chorus has been altered to a chinese violin called an Erhu. This also helps to make the piece strange and somewhat alien. The notes on the erhu are again more drawn out, in order to draw attention to the changes in timbre produced by the instrument when holding the same note for a long time. This is in stark contrast with the 'Cloaked Bass' synth. Again, I think these sounds are a bit limited and would like to eventually use better-sounding ones. Finally, the orchestral percussion gives a certain kick to the chorus that really sets it apart from the verses. This percussion is atmospheric with a lot of reverb.
Automation and Instrument Parameters
The pizzicato cello section fades in at the beginning. This achieved by automating the track's volume to rise from silence to +2dB. I think this creates the impression that the listener is wandering into a new place, as if the music is coming closer towards them.
The EQ of the Marimba is filtered to emphasise mid frequencies, and high frequencies to a larger extent. This is to establish the instrument as the focal point of the track and the carrier of the melody. Furthermore, the notes played on this instrument are high in pitch, so emphasising higher frequencies draws attention to the melody.
Adding to the effect of making higher notes on the clarinet softer, I applied the same effect to the high frequencies in EQ. Using the latch function, I filtered the frequencies in real time, creating naturalistic slopes that can be observed in the screenshot. This again makes the higher notes sound more delicate through subtle nuance. As you can see I did the first hump fairly well but messed up the second one a bit.
Arrangement
Segments of this piece are divided by markers. There is an introduction, four verses, two choruses, and an ending. In the original there are technically just two verses and a chorus that repeat indefinitely, but as this is a standalone version I gave it a complete structure.
The main melody of this piece is fairly repetitive. I placed a cycle over the essential part that repeats itself when working on it for convenience so that I wouldn't have to keep placing my cursor back to the start of it. This allowed for constant improvement of all the parts in this section.
The piece opens with a wind sound and the bass section playing a quiet introductory note that leads into the rest of the music by suggesting a dominant chord.
The introduction establishes the piece's key and brings in the cello section. The cello and bass sections sort of interweave, communicating rhythmically with each other.
Verse 1 introduces the piece's principal melody. This is at first just on a flute. This section has a somewhat lofty feel carried by the flute and upbeat tempo.
Verse 2 begins to grow more complex as the clarinet plays a rising harmony that builds tension. I'm not completely happy with the clarinet as I think it gets a bit grating on the higher notes, but it's the best I found.
The chorus changes its instrumental pallet a bit, but the cello section remains which maintains consistency across the piece. This section modulates to the key of G minor and is dramatically contrasted with the verses. The Dark Winds are absent from the chorus to further isolate the section.
The marimba doesn't arrive until Verse 3, replacing the flute. This sustains the listener's interest and keeps the piece from getting too repetitive.
Verse 4 has largely the same structure as Verse 2, but with the marimba again added to the mix.
As this piece of music is from a videogame, it didn't originally have an ending because it played on loop. For this reason I had to add my own ending. I wanted the piece to culminate into all the instruments sounding together at the end. It's a bit messy but I'm happy with this little experiment, The final chord is the tonic of the piece's key, making it satisfying. The Dark Winds sound parallels the piece's beginning, tying things together to help make the project a cohesive work.
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If you want to see my audio sequencing work, click here: https://lrbmusictech.blogspot.com/2018/01/audio-week-1-241.html
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