I’ve just realized it’s Val Gardena, so is that Christopher James and Jeff Leonard playing on that or is it all VST? Still sounds amazing whoever it is. Thanks again.
I recorded a live quartet, Piano - Greg Goebel, Bass - Jeff Leonard, Drums - Reinhardt Melz and Sax - John Nastos. Chris had directed me to create an ambient first verse and then orchestrate around the quartet performance. One of the interesting challenges was to create a tempo map for the quartet that made “future” musical sense. I had, at one point, finished a virtual demo track so the musicians would have a good idea what they were getting into. It was a challenge, but an absolute blast to get this track down. There ended up being some great musicians on the album, but not on this track. J3PO on keys for several songs, Andy Snitzer on woodwinds, Taylor Eigsti and Alain Mallet. on eve more keyboards… a fun time had by all~
Wow! Thanks for the insight, Bob. You sure had some players on that project, can see how that would be such fun. I know you’re a busy man but, if you get the opportunity, could you enlarge a bit on the idea of creating a tempo map that made ‘future’ musical sense? I’m just an amateur who writes music for fun after retiring from my ‘day job’, I gave up on my musical career (jazz drummer) in the early 80’s, and that concept of a tempo map for such music is the sort of thing I need to further my musical education. Thanks again for sharing that wonderful project.
First of all, thanks for the kind words!
Tempo maps… When I think of how an orchestra works, it’s very rare that a tempo stays in one place. The goal is to follow wherever the conductor chooses to go with the tempo. In creating the map for Both Sides Now, Chris and I slaved over where tempos should land before presenting it to the quartet. This was originally intended to be an instrumental featuring the sax. As it evolved, we couldn’t do it without the lyric and that’s when tempos when out the window. The first verse was created by having McKinley sing to a drone with no click. It was then chopped up phrase by phrase to fit the pacing that Chris was looking for. After that, the real synthesis and bass parts happened in the intro. Meanwhile, we were in the studio recording the quartet which is basically a live take that you are hearing on the recording. Some synthesis and additional noises were added after the fact. Most of the synth work was in place, so we were able to play that through the phones for the quartet. But, because, we knew how the song was to flow with the quartet we were able to put a click track together ahead of time. I would guess that there were at least ten different tempo maps with a virtual quartet mock-up before we settled on the final tempo. That was the most difficult part of getting the song recorded! The session was a piece of cake! I recall us only doing two takes and we settled on the second with a couple of punches on bass. Vocals were quick and easy! The toughest part for McKinley was keeping track of the odd timing of the phrases but it got across exactly the emotion that Chris was looking for.
So that’s kinda the long story and summing up, the click moves around on a lot of projects that I work on. It’s all so the performance feels more “musical”.
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Thanks for that Bob, that’s a nice clear explanation. Decades ago I was a drummer, so I’m familiar with the idea of ‘pushing and pulling’ the tempo at various points to get the piece to breathe. This sounds like a more sophisticated approach to that basic idea that doesn’t rely on the drummer’s in-built ‘click’ and is made possible by the digital recording techniques that have come in since I was last in a studio (1983!).
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wrong post here obviously. admin please erase.
Hi folks I only used Crow Hill plugins for this track. I hope you enjoy it.
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Nicely crafted Michael! The descriptiveness of the piece is excellent. 
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Sounds great! Draws you in and keeps you interested throughout too. Lovely use of the instruments👍
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Thanks for posting that, Michael. That’s a really engaging piece with a really nice arc to it. Sounds great.
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Thank you all so much for the kind words! I am trying to keep you all in the loop of my progress, and I just wrote one of the best songs I have ever written! It is currently just missing some transition sounds and it’s actual mix, but here it is!
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So..I am in the final throws of finishing a long standing album project idea (we’ve all got one right?). As part of the process of finalising the score, I arranged the whole thing into piano duets (we all have our different processes!). I was quite taken by the results so I’ve released them as a sort of ‘B’ album. Each of the duets features a different Pianobook pack. I thought I’d drop you all a line here in case anyone is interested to have a listen. I’m going to submit extracts from each track for use as Pianobook demos as well.
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Having finally purchased a Windows 11 system, I now have my first Crow Hill product: the Imperial Electric Piano. This is the instrument from TCHC that really speaks to me as I’m not a classical composer and rarely use strings or other orchestral instruments. This removes the last hurdle preventing me from having some ‘skin in the game’ and sharing one of my own compositions with the far more talented and experienced members of this forum… so here goes! My music derives from my love of music from the late 1960s to the early 1980s that sought in various ways to combine jazz and rock. The works of artists like Miles Davis, Weather Report, Return to Forever, Frank Zappa, Soft Machine, the (Jazz) Crusaders, Brand X, Santana, Bruford, Steely Dan, and (early) Chicago, to mention many examples, occupy a significant percentage of my record/cassette (!)/CD collection. This piece is influenced by Weather Report’s instrumental ballads, most of which were written by Joe Zawinul, from the Zawinul/Shorter/Pastorius/Erskine period (8:30, Night Passage, Weather Report). With the exception of the Imperial Electric Piano, all other virtual instruments and effects employed are freely available from various websites. IF anyone is interested, I’m happy to identify these plus supply chord sequences etc. Thanks for listening.
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This is rather lovely Steve! Very chilled and very 70’s. What was the virtual sax that you used?
Thanks for the very kind words, Ali. Means a lot coming from a composer like yourself. Yep, when you hear bass guitar drenched in chorus, SC Prophet 5 patches and a ‘string machine’ (in this case a Korg PE 2000) in the background it must be the 70’s! As I’m so new to writing music I thought it best to start with the musical styles I’ve been listening to for 50 years or so and know quite well, rather than styles I don’t yet have a grip on. The sax is MONSTER Sax:
It’s a Yanagisawa alto, I think an A992, recorded using a Neumann TLM 103 and played by Berklee graduate Devian Zikri. It has a number of key-switched articulations and is available for PC and Mac. Give it a try, it’s free! Thanks again Ali.
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Thanks Stephen 
. I shall check out the Monster Sax for sure.