SHOW:
caustic file
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/80156103/CHANSON%20DE%20VOMIR.caustic
AND TELL:
Opening Disclaimer:
Even If you are prone to nausea I think you will make it through the track.
After all it's only a minuter and 25 seconds!
But I ended up being kind of wordy in the following text. SORRY!
The seed for this experiment started before I even downloaded CAUSTIC. I was just searching around for reviews of it....
I'd found out that a overpriced game I was hot to buy wouldn't run without continuous internet connection
and I was looking for a diversion while riding the bus to work.
(never found a bad review of CAUSTIC BTW).
I stumbled onto this site and read about the then recent updates on the home page.
There is a line about the PCM synth's new pattern editor:
"You can create entire orchestrations in pattern mode now, then drop them into the sequencer's single-page "pattern view"."
And I'm like... 'Whoa...Wait a minute! you can create ORCHESTRAL music with this thing!?!?"
My mind reeled with visions of writing a symphony on the bus, a modern day Mobile Beethoven!
on the second reading I understood the real meaning. ;~}
Later I watched the PCM Synth Tutorial video and where Rej explains using sound fonts
and he loads an acoustic guitar, and he says of sound fonts:
"you can get a lot of natural instruments so you can turn the PCM Synth into a very natural sounding instrument".
In the back of my mind I thought:
"OK yeah, cool, so maybe you COULD do a symphony"
(I still think sound-font import is one of the coolest things in Caustic. Thanks Again Rej)!!!
I set my sights much lower to a chamber group, thinking it
might be fun to try something in Caustic without drums anyway.
It took a while to get anything going and I was frustrated for a long time.
And yes I know:
It doesn't really sound classical, more like something out of a bad
movie from the 60's/70's or some horribly boring
piece that a youth orchestra would perform and you'd sleep through.
AND I don't think anyone that hears it is going think that it is performed by
real instruments or that I have a bright budding future as a 'classical' composer.
But I do think you can point to this and say:
CAUSTIC IS THE MOST VERSATILE MUSIC CREATION APP ON ANDROID!
well done there! im sure that took quite some time to arrange the parts...... writing orchestral score is a challenge. I remember writing score for drum and brass marching band..... all out on paper, and transpose to different keys according to the instrument and tuning type.
Nice job, W
BTW, add some thicker stereo reverb, and a compressor at the end of the master channel, lay it on heavy with a low threshold setting, and youll get a nice depth of sound for your track there
Loved hearing this piece. Very nice.
Good work! Nice piece for a short french movie ;-)
I love it, it's a great showcase for taking Caustic to extermes. I've been waiting for someone to do this (god knows I can't). Maybe an idea for the next song challenge...
And what's with the title? No nausea over here. It does sound French though...I agree with scarabee for the french movie soundtrack.
EDIT: Now that I've loaded it up and had a poke, I find it sounds less "computer-y" if you put a little bit of release time on the oboe, flute and harpsichord to simulate body/room resonance. It might not sound that natural what played alone, but to my ears it mixes better when the sound doesn't just cut off so sharply. Thanks for posting the source. (oh and it loads fine in v2.1
)
> oh and it loads fine in v2.1
Please... end the torture... now... ar... rgh...
PS. Thanks Wardini for the very cool track! Every time I see a track with a title in all caps I'm all glad because I know it's gonna be one of yours :p.
Back in my earlier days, I used to do alot of instrument "modelling" of sorts utilizing envs, filters, FX etc.... A piano for example is quite a challenge considering its unique characteristics due to its mechanical make-up. If the filter resonance in Caustic can have a more "flat" setting, I can achieve more of that "body" tone Rej was talking about in his recent post...... if a typical filter resonance knob range is 0 to 10.... then Caustic's filter knob range is 3 to 9 by my ears.
But regardless, Wardini took that challenge and got it done... awesome job.
Thanks everybody.
The title was just "chanson en ré majeur" for a long time. I played an early version for a friend and she said: It's so sickeningly sweet that I'm gonna puke. (granted she only likes Death Metal)
Vomir sounds so stately if you don't know French, and it also shows I am not taking myself too seriously here with this.
Yep the sample cut off are a little abrupt' I think the best way to deal with them would have been to just use volume automation, but it didn't occur to me. I didn't give those wind players much room to breath!
I did try some stuff with the reverb/compressor as jblann1 suggested but in the end it seemed like the less i did made it sound the most natural.
Maybe a song challenge could be for the beta test of v2.1…. not classical but maybe something simple like 'showcase the new features in a pleasing or novel way'.
Well, the thing is most of the features for 2.1 are "hidden things" as far as the audio that comes out on the other end. Apart from the ParamEQ. It's all about workflow in this release, which I find makes it a bit boring to be honest...What I'm really going to need from the beta test is just looking at the new features to see if they work ok and don't crash. Making sure all your old tracks load will help me lots as well, backwards compatibility is very important.
v2.2 will be worth having a showcase of new sounds because it should allow for LOTS of new sonic textures and experimentation, hopefully you guys won't have to wait as long for that one, like I said, it's pretty far along already.
Builderz Project will be enhanced with new features as well no doubt... I have ALOT of cool stuff in the works right now as I type even, and it's gonna push this app to its limits and your minds as well. I hope to introduce more cinematic type content (to merge in with electronic styles all together) to take what Wardini just pulled off (man you set me up to a new challenge with that track)
In case anyone is interested trying this genre I've discoved that really good quality FREE Orchestral sound fonts are by far the easiest to find. My guess is that because all notation software can use sound fonts, a lot of effort has been made by users for the good stuff.. (try a search for Free HQ Orchestra Soundfonts you'll see what I mean) I always am careful that the ones I get are that are royalty free and legal and they usally mention it somewhere on the site. I've got some other things I want to try with Caustic right now but with all your positive comments I'm inspired and definitely want to try something like this that is longer, more serious and deeper very soon.
One of the best I found is the "Saint James Orchestra" soundfont. I've been trying to find it's origin for quite some time (looking at web archives) but I can't find who owns the rights to it and under what conditions it was distributed... I wish I could distribute it myself as it's a good fit for the size/quality of a mobile app.
But like you said, there's LOTS out there...