Fanatic's MIDI Music Class #4

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  | Started 7/1/2001, ended 7/7/2001
  | Goal: anything goes, try to use artificial delay effects and
  |       and use only these three instruments:
  |	1. Nylon Guitar
  |	2. Harp
  |	3. Standard Drum Kit
  | 
  | Musicians that contributed (in order of the show playlist):
  |     Lawrence Hunter    - "Down with the capitalist pigs, for communism will live forever"
  |     Nick Baker         - untitled
  |     Andrew (Team Kill) - "Zeiram Dance Mix - Classical Remix"
  |     Tyler Pantella     - "Tradition Petition"
  |     David Olofson      - untitled
  | 	Fanatic (#1)       - "Blinded"
  |             (#2)       - "Liar In Love"
  |             (#3)       - "Comatose"
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  There are two ZIP files in this package as well.

  gm_songs.zip     -contains all songs set to use GM instruments
  custom_songs.zip -contains all songs set to use the custom instruments

  The custom_songs.zip requires that you have the "Fanatic Set 04.sf2" loaded
  into memory on your sound card or system memory (for Live! cards). All the
  songs in midi_class_04.mp3 use these custom instruments, so you don't have
  to download the bank.

  To get the custom Sound Font bank or instructions on how to load them, go to my website:

	http://www.doomworld.com/fanatic

  Just click on the MIDI CLASS page. Instructions for drivers and loading the bank
  into memory are there, as well as the classes and links to the custom banks.

  Below are what all the musicians that conitributed had to say about
  what they learned. Enjoy the show!

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  | Lawrence Hunter says:
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I learnt how to use Merge in Elvolution Audio, and that is that.

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  | Nick Baker says:
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I was going to do more, but I ran out of time and inspiration...

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  | Andrew (Team Kill) says:
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The song was originaly titled "Zeiram Dance Mix", but "Classical Remix" was 
added to the end of that.  I found it very hard to use these instruments, but 
I'm pretty proud that I was able to pull off a techno song with them.  I did 
learn how to somewhat emulate an echoes patch using a nylon-guitar and a 
bunch of 32nd notes and some velocity stuff.  It isn't the best, and it's 
meant to sound like the sweeping effect of a sustained echoes patch.  The 
song was also cut to about 1/3 its original length to make it fit into the 
requirements.

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  | Tyler Pantella says:
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07/06/01     -     4:00 pm
Pretty cool, in my opinion.  I decided to do a song that kind of sounded
Chinese-ish because of the instruments you limited us to.  I made a basic
shamisen and warm pad accompaniment to work with, then got started with the
koto melody.  From then on it was trial and error.  I added another of each 
instrument to act as makeshift bass and backup melody.  It got going pretty good.  
Then I got a little stuck on the ending.. I went for an arpeggio-style sound but
it doesn't sound very professional.  Naming it and adding the final details were
all done the day before it was due.  I chose the name "Tradition Petition" because 
it is traditional and petition rhymes.
 
07/06/01    -     10:41 pm
$!@##$@!!#@$!$#@@$#! etc.... I just realized that I completed MIDI class 3 rather
than 4!!!! @!#$!$@#$!@#!$@##@!$!$@##@!$ here's the midi with the new instruments...
it won't sound the same but its the best I can do after realizing this so late into 
the week.  I switched all shamisens to nylon guitars and all kotos to harps, changes 
the pads to one of each.  Oh well....

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  | David Olofson says:
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A rather simple song; one "verse" and one "chorus" - the rest is just 
constructed from various harmonic/rhythmic effects. I've "abused" the 
two instruments quite a bit (for bass, mostly), so I'm not expecting 
this song to play very well without the specific sounds of the Class 
04 SoundFont. The GM file could use some instrument changes to be on 
the safe side...

As to "authentic playing style", you'd only find anything like it in 
the melody of the "verse", the background guitar appregiatos, and 
probably the drums. Nothing advanced, though, and I didn't work too 
hard on the recordings.

As usual, there are some multichannel delay effects, and some simpler 
MIDI echos, sometimes combined with multichannel delay. There are 
also a few of those "nervous hammering on cymbals" build-up tricks. 
:-) Also note the use of a bass drum + snare + low tom beat to boost 
the fills at times. (Heavily used in the Doom tracks. Seems to work 
well on most drum kits.)

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  | Fanatic says:
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I put a lot more effort into the class this time, and thankfully had a
surge of inspiration. So I got three songs out of this set.

I actually pushed myself to make outstanding delay effects, should be quite
noticeable. Lots of stereo delay effects, also did some cool volume swells on
the third song "Comatose" with the harps. Almost sounds like an organ to some
extent. I also did some slapback delay effects with the drum kit, which turned
out really nice. I didn't have to use as much reverb, since the delay filled
out so nicely. It definately gives me some new ideas on instruments and how
to get them to sound different.

Something to try for is stereo panning of instruments, especially cool sounding
with delay effects. The best combination I've found so far is 4 channels total
for one instrument.

1 - main instrument, pan center, 100 volume
2 - delay 1, pan left by 20, 80 volume
3 - delay 2, pan right by 20, 65 volume
4 - delay 3, pan center, 55 volume

And I just copy/paste the main instrument when it's all done, but paste it
offset by .07 seconds, .18 seconds, and 1 second for each delay segment. It
gives a nice offset, more random delay (natural sounding I suppose).

My second song "Liar In Love" was actually written a while back. It's something
I've been toying with on my acoustic guitar for a while. So the entire song
was written on a real guitar, and transcribed by me to MIDI. Turned out pretty
good. Although I couldn't find a way to immitate a hammer down or pull off. :)

// end of expierences

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  | All songs are copyrighted by the respective author (c) 2001
  | The show is copyright (c) 2001 Marc A. Pullen.
  |
  | If you are interested in using any of these songs or the show
  | itself for any reason, contact marcpullen@mindspring.com for
  | permissions. I'll get you in contact with the respecive author.
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