Originally Posted By: dcuny
For me, melody is king.

You've got the form and surface details, but there's no melodic idea that's holding it together. It's like listening to a guitar solos that consists of bunch of licks that are strung together - there are some pleasant moments, but it the end, it doesn't go anywhere.

Getting BiaB to create a cohesive melody with RTs is possible - see this and this for a couple my own attempts. As you've discovered, it required lots of cutting and pasting, stretching and pitch-shifting individual notes, and then looking the other way when the timbre didn't quite match up.

In the end, it's an interesting puzzle of trying to match bits up, but isn't necessarily the ideal way to go about creating a composition.

On the other hand, there are some fantastic sampled instruments available these days. And with some creative editing, it's possible to take an average MIDI instrument and get some surprisingly good results.

But that's just my opinion, and I wouldn't want any of this discourage you from experimenting!

And a good opinion. I'm not promoting this as anything other than trying to see what can be done in BiaB, never having used it before this project. I might not use this method to create music for release (albums? Remember them? https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-william-gilbert/id16739698) as I do use techniques that resemble or include the ones you describe above. And I do use lots(!) of sampled instruments, often combined with a lot of compulsively over tweaked MIDI edits smile

Putting aside the Melodist and Soloist parts of BiaB for the moment, you can give a RealTracks "player" a lead sheet of changes, and an arrangement in the form of bar controls and sections, etc., and the RealTracks "player" (carefully chosen and maybe massaging the audio data afterwards) can come up with a cohesive interpretation and rendition of what you have written. Like a session player.

What you can't do in this model is to write out a melody line or lines and give that to a RealTracks player to "interpret". Like a session player.

Look, I've spent many years playing all kinds of tricks to create music, and I do get that there are no meaningful shortcuts; usually when one tries to take them they turn out to be the long way around anyway...

In a sense, BiaB is a form of algorithmic performance (as opposed to composition, again leaving out the Melodist and Soloist) and it has certainly been fun listening to different musical personalities be superimposed on my changes. I do agree, though, in many situations it isn't necessarily an ideal way to go about creating a composition. In the end it is an interesting puzzle of trying to match bits up, and puzzles can be fun just in the doing.

I don't find your comments the least bit discouraging, and I have enjoyed receiving and thinking about them.



Last edited by mwgilbert; 08/24/15 04:41 PM.
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http://www.mwgilbert.com