Diane

My good friend JonD just applied for Social Security and during his interview one of the topics was his deceased wife Diane. She passed at an early age of 52 in 2002. This brought back many fond but melancholy memories. Together we, but mostly JonD, wrote this song in her memory.

We used BiaB style Michel 1 - Slow Pop Orchestral

The drums were deleted.

The bass was changed to Cellos, Piano to a harp, strings stayed strings and the guitar was changed to strings. Note that all of these tracks were modified.

JonD played the piano and piccolo parts via his MIDI keyboard controller.

I played the lead violins and viola parts via my MIDI keyboard controller and I played the nylon guitar.

We copied, modified, and/or wrote a lot of the additional tracks/parts.

We hope that you like it and we are open for suggestions.

Hi Mario,

beautiful melody and arrangement. A very nice tribute.
Regards to JonD.

Guenter

Hi Mario,

The melody and harmony capture the melancholy and the fondness you describe very well. The words "hauntingly beautiful" appeared in my mind as I listened. A wonderful tribute.

All the best to both of you.
Noel

Hi, Mario.

There are some very nice bits in the music. Some of the parts are quite beautiful.

But... For me, it bogs down because of the strings. The changes from one chord to the next come out as unconvincing and mechanical. This Introduction to String Writing shows the problem - forward to 1:00 and you'll hear the sort of lovely chords that Diane has.

I think adding passing notes to the string part would get it away from the "changes with every chord" feel that it currently has, and I think would help out the song a lot.

Thanks for posting!

Mario,

A haunting tune.
I agree with dcuny's comments on the strings if you want them to sound like an orchestra BUT they now sound like a synthesiser pad which sounds good in my ears.

A nice tribute

Alyn

A nice arrangement and tribute. Thanks for posting.

Charlie

I'm not versed well enough in string productions to offer much help.....but it is a beautiful tribute. Would pair incredibly well with the right video.

I agree with Noel on that. You and Jon do nice music together. That's a special thing...

fj

Thanx to all for listening and the very nice comments and the super suggestions.

David you are absolutely right! Those BiaB block chords should have had some transition notes. That as well as the voicing is a problem with BiaB IMHO. I should have known better!

Alyn the reason they sound like pads is because half of the string parts are played using Solid State Strings, a third part Kontakt program that uses sounds from the old hardware synths. Maybe that was a mistake?

The next time JonD comes over we will discuss these issues. It is his tribute so what he says goes as far as I'm concerned, but he is very open minded. In fact he challenges me in chords, he knows a lot of theory, and I challenge him with progressions. We do have fun together and I hope that comes through in our music.

Like all things musical, it depends on what you're trying to do.

If it sounds like what you wanted, there's no mistake.

The melody and harmony capture the melancholy and the fondness you describe very well. The words "hauntingly beautiful" appeared in my mind as I listened. A wonderful tribute.

All the best to both of you.
Noel


+1 , I couldn't say it better. Very Nice. Tom

Friend Mario, this is a beautiful piece of music. I'm no exert in strings matters (other than maybe the shoe ones), but I understand the issue with the "blocks" from chord to chord in BIB, but I'm not sure that how much can be done about that since this "blocks" have to accommodate all kind of chord progressions one can imagine, that is, assuming that you are using BIB supplied strings accompaniment . of course, some string arrangement techniques can help, but it could also be time consuming. Again, sounds good to me.
Mike B.

Really lovely (and sad!) music! Beautifully put together. You should be doing movie scores. Really enjoyed this. Take care. Greg

Hey Mario,

This is truly beautiful! Very well arranged.
Simply a wonderful tribute.

Regards,
Rob

A lovely piece Mario, well done to both of you.
There you go with the movie theme sounds again! I can always do my own 'head video' to your work.

John

I just loved the ingenuity of using the program. To create something this ambient & atmospheric on such a sturdy & 'fixed' device as BBox is, that's no small feat

Mario ...

I fully agree with what our friend, Icelander, had to say.

And yes, the "block sound" of the pads and strings can be a challenge and the BIAB program falls a wee bit short on that particular issue. Don't get me wrong ... it's a fabulous program and we simply love it. But virtually every existent thing and person has a flaw here and there. There is no apparent work around to reduce or eliminate that blocky sound.

Mistake? Nah ... just an indigenous flaw in one of the tools of the trade. Sometimes the included "flaw" is better than a substitute if it says what you want to say. The best analogy I can offer is I would rather listen to someone with a significant lisp in his voice but has excellent command of the English language than someone with a crystal clear, dynamic voice but butchers the language. I hope you got the gist of what I was trying to say there.

No matter what, this was a wonderful tribute and we got more entertainment than the cost of admission entitled us to. I guess all that means, "Ya did good!"

Alan & Di

Thanx all for listening and the comments.

Thanx to David for pointing out the block chord problem, sometimes I get so wrapped up in one aspect of a song I overlook other potential problems. I have done string work before but somehow I got lost in the song. Anyway Jon agrees and I am changing some of the string parts.

Thanx for listening and all of your help.

Well heck, I missed it. Hope you repost with changes Mario.

Josie