@Soundbed definitlely interested in your comments
hi!
Haven't played with the brass for a while. I've been trying to learn better strings writing lately. I am a very rhythm-oriented person and this forum has re-introduced me to counterpoint and harmony. So as a getting-older adult I'm trying to re-learn some harmonic and contrapuntal vocabulary ... which, while perfectly appropriate for brass has me hankering for string legato and lyrical woodwinds more than the punctuated, braaamsy brass I've done for the past couple years.
So...
I was playing with Infinite Woodwinds last night.
And it was really making me question whether I want to spend on Berlin Woodwinds.
?
But here's the brutally short answer, today:
Infinite Woodwinds is amazing — absolutely amazing — with short notes and fast or note-changing passages. I basically was slamming the keyboard in a syncopated way and making jazz that (yes with a little finesse of the MIDI) would have fooled many. Getting something lifelike or just super cool sounding was a huge release and I spent a ton of time jamming.
Not only "fast" passages. Any time a note transition to another note, Infinite Woodwinds is fabulous, and I remember IB being great with that as well. Fabulous really seems like the
bestest word for it.
And every new note is great too.
So, any short note, or, new note (transition) is great.
BUT ...
When I was going for longer more lyrical things, it was close and not quite what I wanted to be smoking.
For a beat or two, at a moderate tempo, holding notes sounds fine, even great.
But as soon as I held a note for "a while" it felt like I needed more hands to control ... something.
And ultimately it either sounded like it needed a human's "breath" — or — to be less "static" as you say, which is to say moving in a too-predictable fashion.
Which some people abbreviate as synthy but I don't like that word as much as saying "too predictable". Synths can sound great and unpredictable and organic and wonderful and lovely so calling disliked orchestral instruments synthy as a criticism seems like an unnecessary slight to the many wonderful synth performers on the planet.
:emoji_angel: (that's supposed to be an angel emoticon ... it sort of looks like a
cotton top tamarin with a halo on my screen, but what do I know about heaven?)
And yet I don't want random fluctuations in sustained notes, of course.
I want a player with years of experience to craft my phrases.
Sadly I am not (usually) that player.
It makes me feel like I could probably do some "expressive" vibrato automation or progressive vibrato ... and maybe I could. But I would hope a sampled package would have a player that does that for me (I would hope).
So, I am left again trying to figure out if I want to use Infinite Woodwinds for anything that involves more transitions and note starts than long, held notes (proportionally) or learning how to automate whatever it takes to give life to held notes (it's not only the mod wheel).
The above was a meditation on Infinite Woodwinds ... it might apply to Infinite Brass as well. Certainly not meant as a criticism, but more as an attempt to reach out to the infinite and try to figure out when I want "those Williams' piccolo runs" what to reach for ... in fact, I usually don't write longer held woodwind parts anyway.
So maybe it's fine. It's fine. Players only have so much breath. They have to stop playing to breathe sometime, right? I'll simply write lines that don't have a lot of sustained held notes. Or if I do, I might buy a sample package where there's a sampled player who has spent more years than me learning how to breathe into their instrument and make it sound like wisdom.
What do I know of heaven?