A vague history of instruments used.
Since I am writing this, some musical 'life story' background might interest anyone else who has suffered from the "would-be-musician" syndrome.
This is really a story of a person who never went the extra mile to get the best equipment from the start. Partly it was
a matter of money, partly it was the period of electronic music development where the main advances in sampling and
computing had not been made. But it was partly the oddity of the writer who liked to experiment, to find out what
happens if you try x or y or .. whatever. Huge time was spent. I mean HUGE, all for the slightest of results.
I am, I believe, like many, many ( millions of ?) other people who feel they have potential to make good new music,
but in my case it has become diverted into a chase for a "really good instrument sound."
Sad life. But what else can you do? If you lack very high live-performance talent, no one is likely to listen to your
own 'creative efforts' unless you are in the right place at the right time, with the right background training and
contacts. And you will probably have to work in a style that is either "lowest common denominator popular" or
intellectually sophisticated enough to appeal to the elite. Perhaps the best chance of some audience these days is
one of the music sites, like soundclick or even you tube. I believe several people have actually listened to some
youtube videos I made!! And there are the forums and demonstration areas for users of orchestral libraries.
However, it remains a fascinating hobby to use your computer to orchestrate and play music whether your own or
others. It is very instructive to see the sheer brilliance of some other's work. And there is that mysterious something
that turns yet another exercise of composition into a piece that speaks to many people. Even composers whose work
you can't usually stand, can produce a wonder. Not "impressive" or "advanced" necessarily, but just magically 'right'.
A gem ... a classic.
Ok, just for the record then >>
There were natural instruments first ....
Recorders at a rural NZ primary school (1956-ish) of course, then ukelele and guitars till "The Lawrence Ensemble"
( 2 brothers, 2 sisters) played and sang pop on local stages. Hmmm.
Then, being on a farm, made a pipe organ (powered by vacuum cleaner) from father's spare milking machine pipes. A
ludicrous device with elastic powered plastic bead valves connected to the keys. But it did make a 'pipish' noise.
Usually. Come to think of it, because the beads were not well seated it made a faint 'piping' noise all the time. But it
looked quite stylish ... in an "ancient dark varnish with aluminium painted pipes" sort of way.
Then on moving to NZ's capital city, (1962- ) used piano and various modified harmonium devices, taught oneself
keyboard and music. ( did you know you could make vibrato on these by adding an air leak powered rotating panel of
balsa wood over the reed output?) Had access to church pipe organs from small to huge. Such a fun noise. I doubt I
am the first person to find that a large organ at full throttle does things to your mind. Unleashes the inner extemporizer!
Then, having at the time a well payed job, bought a delicate little english one string per note piano made by Morely,
with an all wood frame. Sounded quite like a guitar actually.
Then converted a second hand guitar into a bowed version. Two strings octave apart, with a set of wooden keys to
press down behind the frets. Shortly after, spent a few years with real cello, under pressure from an esoteric group
of 'philosophers'. Not difficult actually, but self taught cello is not good for learning bowing conventions.
An amusing thing in my memory is of me on a small Vespa motor scooter with cello held between legs ( knees jutting
out into other traffic) , and young lady behind on pillion with her viola floating about somewhere. And music scores.
And accessory bags. Only a 90 cc Vespa too, chugging through rain up some steep Wellington hill . Amazing no
accidents. Also discovered how assertive in performance some string players can be. Felt like the midst of a battle.
Then came an electronic age ( 1980-) ....
First was a Yamaha pop. keyboard with banks of separate transistor oscillators for each note, and drawbars to mix
frequencies . It could sound like a baroque organ (with a reverb unit added), but was a sad mistake, could have had an
early Roland (?) brass and strings synth. Sigh. Circumstances then changed to basic life support only from artistic
income. Some electronic learning resulted in add on multi-vibrator sound modifications. Wasted hours trying to play
the Yamaha like string or brass via the foot volume pedal.
Perhaps 5 years on, added some cheap child's sampled keyboards. Had a sound envelope, but not programmable. ..
or midi enabled.
More years on, acquired a bottom end mini FM modulation Yamaha PSR ... because it had programmable envelopes
and midi.
No velocity on keys. And the dreaded rubber switch pads began to wear out before one would like. ( How come they
can make under-key rubber pads that can last for ever, but the selecting switches, like TV remotes in this house, wear
out in no time?? )
Another 3 ? years on, acquired a second hand Roland D20 which though limited in sound - being 1980s tech - had a
nice keyboard and many parameters to adjust. Made some quite realistic sounds, despite having only a limited number
of tiny samples and square and triangle waveforms. After huge effort and time that is!! All on a tiny one line LCD
screen. Aaugh. SO fiddly, day after day, back/ forward/up/down through menus within menus.
It still operates over 20 years later, though one has had to clean out dust from the odd under-key pad. You have to
near disembowel the thing to access this though. Hmph.
Added various cheap second hand sound modules, including Roland D550 ( with even greater numbers of back and forth LCD menus) . Some good sounds found.
Then as one moved from programming Amiga computers to Windows PCs, sound fonts became available A large improvement except that I was into strings and orchestral sounds and most soundfonts were, and are, fairly poor imitations .. sampled I believe, from earlier models of Kurzweil and the like.
Much time, over years, spent rebuilding soundfonts. You start by fixing any faults in intonation, re-loop any loud
clicking joins. (horrible work .. there are not very good tools for that job) then its a matter of adjusting envelopes and
filters etc. Then for ensembles you start combining the better single wave ensemble fonts with several solo
instruments, adjusting note range, volume, panning etc. Always the problem for this was lack of a decent solo violin
sound.
Ah yes ... a rave!! .. With the millions of good violinists around the world, and the popularity of violins, and the need
for them in all classsical electronic representations, how come there were no decent free or amateur violin sound fonts,
or even good commercial versions for many years. It's not just me, I have read forums where someone asked for the
same things, but no satisfactory reply was forthcoming. And I only ever found two web sites where a player had
provided at least half-usable violin demos or samples. As for the appalling noises used as violins in commercial
keyboards... good grief.
If they were going to make a sample anyway, why not use a well played pleasing violin sound?
Its only quite recently as far as I can tell, that high quality violin emulations have been available.
Never mind. My sound fonts still lacked quality compared with the new top orchestral sets, but these seemed too
expensive, or required a new, more capable computer just to use. Then needed a keyboard replacement so went in
2009 to the cheapest Korg... which happened to be able to make fairly high quality solo strings and brass, the very
things I was lacking.
You have to realize though, that a modern instrument like that has huge numbers of parameters that can interact and
affect the sound. The inbuilt presets were NOT adequate for serious orchestral material. And the on board samples
are still limited and mostly pop. oriented.
If I live long enough may still acquire a top orchestral set. And the quantum leap choirs. etc .... etc .. Except that they
seem to be constantly demanding greater computer resource, so that I can never quite bring myself to spend the money
... again.
End of life story, in all probability. Somehow, never got around to those wonderful compositions that were going to stun the world ...
I should insert here, ( 2012) ..that unexpectedly my son contributed a sound Library , the Miroslav Philharmonic, which, though consisting of older samples, is turning out to produce some very good sounds indeed.
Cheerio. ....