Composing: Virtual Instruments 101 February 12, 2008
Posted by Damon Sink in : Composing, Notation, Virtual Instruments , trackbackIf you want to write music with a computer, no matter what software you decide to use, you will probably want to start employing virtual instruments to let you hear the most realistic playback of your sketches in real time. Virtual instruments are essentially computer programs designed to respond to MIDI messages and then play the sound(s) of a particular instrument back for you. Most often, this is accomplished through a detailed process of sampling (recording) the notes of the instrument and then programming an interface that will mediate the MIDI performance information (turn this note on, hold it for this long, make it louder, etc.) and “trigger” the appropriate samples.
For many years this sort of functionality was the province of external hardware synthesizers or the synthesizers built in to a MIDI keyboard. You would record or notate the MIDI notes into the computer and then send that MIDI information back out to a synthesizer which would then play back the sound on that channel. The switch to virtual instruments just means that your computer is now the synthesizer; so instead of investing in external hardware, now we can buy instruments and install them on our workstations and integrate them with notation or sequencing software. Virtual instruments can be programmed to emulate the sound of real instruments, or they can be virtual synthesizers that generate electronic sounds. Check the blogroll for a link to a great post listing some great and inexpensive software synths.
In another post, I wrote about using the Kontakt 2 sampler as a virtual instrument inside of Finale. The “patches” (a term that is a holdover from the days when you used to program synths by making connections with patch cables) were software instruments from the Vienna Horizon Series Solo Strings. Each instrument is sampled (recorded) playing the notes of the whole range of the instruments using different techniques (pizzicato, tremolo, arco) and different dynamics and sustains. In this example, think of Kontakt 2 as the virtual equivalent of a hardware synth module and the string patches as the sounds that are loaded into it. Now I can use Finale as a way to create the right sequence of MIDI messages to play back those samples in real time and hear my composition in a fairly realistic form. Carefully programmed MIDI files intended to co-create the sound of a live ensemble are often called “mockups.” Composers use these mockups to demonstrate the music that they are composing for a film (for example) to a director or music supervisor. It is increasingly necessary for film and tv composers to be able to do realistic sounding mockups of their work. Lots of music (for television especially) is produced entirely with virtual instruments these days.
The second way to compile a list of MIDI messages which will play back sounds through a virtual instrument is with a program like Garage Band, Cubase, Digital Performer, or Sonar, called a sequencer. In this environment you play the performance in via a MIDI controller (usually a keyboard) which the computer records as MIDI data (note on, volume, etc.). It is possible to create very detailed performances in this way without ever using notation, and many composers work primarily in this realm, especially if they are responsible for accomplishing the finished music themselves and aren’t going to be recording the music with a live orchestra or ensemble.
Because I am a classically trained composer, I tend to gravitate to the realm of notation first. I like the functionality of seeing the score and hearing it played back to me by convincing sounding instruments. I have been thrilled to embrace this technology, which was only in the fledgling stages when I started out. If you want to learn to compose music, be sure to pursue training in music theory and notation as well as investment in technology. There is no substitute for the powerful combination of your musical intuition and imagination PLUS the knowledge of melody, harmony and counterpoint that comes through the study of music theory. I will be developing some theory teaching materials on this site over the next few months that use some popular video game music cues as starting points for understanding music theory. Look for those and post comments about specific music that you would like to know more about. Your feedback and questions are always welcome.
Damon
The Studio Files
Comments»
Hey Damon,
As you know, I recently purchased Reason 4 and the Abbey Road Refill…Yesterday, I was attempting to synch Reason with Logic for the first time, and while I was successful I had a couple of unforseen problems.
I synched Reason using an External MIDI track–though an auxillary channel strip had to be created for some reason. I assigned the I/O to be a stereo ReWire pair input and the output of my MOTU 8 pre. This allowed me to play through Reason in real time.
I did notice that there were separate channel strips for “Prelisten,” the click track, and the Master. Prelisten didn’t seem to do much, nor did Master. Recording went smoothly, except that I could not monitor playback. Furthermore, when I created a new track via an internal Logic instrument, it synched the logic instrument with reason, playing the two sounds in unison.
This was somewhat frustrating, as the manual did not offer much help. Also, I can’t seem to find a way to adjust the tuning of my Mellotron (a completely separate issue)–it is out of tune with the pianos, etc.
I love the Reason and Logic software, but their lack of explanation is frustrating (especially Reason, which offers little or no help.)
Any thoughts?
Hi Mike–
I won’t be able to check on this until tomorrow. Sounds like if you get monitoring fixed, you should be all set. You could tweak the tuning with a pitch bend setting in your Logic track.
Sit tight.
Problem Solved–apparently, a new external MIDI track must be created (in addition to the first external MIDI track created when you start a project) in order to monitor/record reason instruments in logic. I knew it had to be something simple since I had made sure that all of my audio was routed to the outputs of the MOTU. Should be smooth sailing from here on.