Some experiments in video music making
Some video experiments were done when I discovered the free microsoft program called Photo Story.
While Photo Story has fairly limited interface, it not only has transitions, but can be used to zoom and pan though images, and even join such movement smoothly.
To avoid copyright issues I have used only images captured by the family or public domaim images if available.
It is quite interesting how the movement within the images adds to the experience, the Amor Vittorioso video below, gives me quite sense of 'being there'.
Rather than fill up this site I have for now, uploaded experiments to youtube. The quality of images from youtube is nothing like the original but at least they may reach a number of people there. ( maybe ... I have doubt that many will ever notice them!)
They can be seen at the following links :-
Kyrie Eleison ( this had the same audio as the virtual singer kyrie on this site, but you tube reduces the bit rate)
Amor Vittorioso ( this has extended audio which ends with the virtual singer Amor vittorioso on this site.)
This video I would like to re-make with moving video in places for a greate sense of life, but so far I lack the programs and enough steady video footage to do this well.
La Alhambra..( memories of the Alhambra) In my version the usual guitar pattern is slightly modified and various changes were made to prevent you tube saying it was a copy of some other's
performance.
Nessun Dorma Set in the colosseum and surrounds! Images captured by wife and son were made into a video. The tenor is a virtual singer "david" ( made from my analyzed voice). Real audience
applause segments were blended into the audio at beginning and end.
Exultate Justi. Venetian images by wife and son make the background video.
Moto Perpetuo I was given permission by George Pollen, who owns the copyright on this arrangement of Paganinis violin work, to make public this version. See the note under the video for the difficulty of creating a synchronised video.
O Magnum Mysterium - Gabrieli A version with myriad virtual singers and brass chorus and soloists, for the answering choir.
( mostly real singers based on David, Rudolfo, and a little Roberta, plus non vibrato near standard voice and GMSE "aah" )
Dona Nobis Pacem My very early composition from somewhere 1960 - 1970s ( I think) . Orignally 3 voice parts, this version is more synthetic.
Alleluia from Bach cantata 142 There is something about this fairly simple music which for me, speaks of the surpassing. The sublime.
----------------- SOME VIDEOS STORED ON THIS SITE ------------------
Irish Traditional ...Morrisons 6,091 kb ( 6 meg) ..
My own arrangement of this Irish Jig. The bare theme was worked on first until there was some "life" in the sound. Then the theme was variously copied and pasted to produce a canon-like format.
Harmony, extra instruments and percussion were added as inspiration struck. It took rather longer than you might think to get enough variation in sound ! The digital instruments are my customized Korg
sounds plus Soundfont. The final wav file was processed for ambience.
I have put this WMV video here because the photo story output is much smaller for a high quality sound and video.
If your computer can not play it, the you tube link to FLV videos is below.
The images used for the video are from public domain sources ... though some colour change and improvements were made to keep all in sympathy through the video making process ( using photo story)
. They came from pd photos or ( with permission) irishviews ( This video can also be found on you tube at this link:- Irish Traditional ...Morrisons )
Vivaldi WMV video experiment 18, 647 kb (18.6 meg) Vivaldi Opus 3, No 11. 3rd movement in D minor. From "L'Estro Armonico".
Here my digital intruments replace the original real player sound. I have restricted the size of this download so the audio bitrate is only 96 kbs. Just enough to get the effect, but hardly high quality.
The idea was to see if a synchronised video image would give a greater or less sense of realism to 'artificial ' intruments.
The replacement sounds are mostly my custom Korg M50 based instruments. .. there's an odd soundfont and some user instruments made for Harmony Assistant. It seemed to require quite an effort to
get a violin sound!
This is NOT hosted on youtube. The original video was borrowed from there for this experiment, and since youtube has been forced to be .. hmm, "overbearing" .. on all materials these days, it might
be frowned on heavily if placed there.
The sequencer used ( Harmony Assistant), has a very useful script for synchronising a video to a playing score. You have to proceed from the beginning of the file. Any tempo changes made there will alter the relative position of changes made later in the file. You must get the first player movements synchronised then proceed in steps altering the tempo of the played file as needed to match the video. In this test, sometimes several bars stayed in sync but often the video players drifted in tempo. Quite a bit actually.
The experiment showed me a few things.
1. It is pleasing just to find you can do this video synchronising . The joy of something that works effectively..
2 You get to know and appreciate the music and the players in some depth after working through it many many times with different edits and approaches.
I thank them for the skill they display, and for the interesting personal character they reveal. The original complete concerto seems to have been done all in one sitting live on video. True disciplined
musicians.
3. Seeing the real musicians playing "your" intruments does seem to make the sound more authentic ... as if they are playing them.
This is probably a 'once only' experiment as I cannot see any way that one could make wide use of other peoples videos. And besides, the original sound is likely to be better. It was just interesting to know it can be done. If any reader happened to be an expert computer animator then an animated orchestra might be a better and more original project to try. A great deal of work though, I imagine.
Mozart meets Mendelssohn ( "Wedding March" as if by Mozart ) 24,476 kb. (24 meg)
This video features animated piano with violins, violas, cellos, bass, and horns. The animation is courtesy of the freeware "midijam' program. Midijam does not appear to be intended for classical music,
rather for pop group stage arrangements. Hence the electronic piano instead of a grand. And the strings are normally treated as a harp-like block in the background.
To achieve the instrument layout seen in the video I duplicated solo string staves until I ran out of midi channels. It is odd to see the instruments positions reversed from normal like this, and the animated
string bowing would be improved with greater movement , but at least there is some impression of an orchestra.
This original composition, and video, is an alternate version of the same piece which is on you tube at this link >> HERE
Paganini N 24 ( yet again!) - Live animation of Violin 8,148 kb (8.1 meg)
In a fit of enthusiasm I attempted to make a 3d bow play a 3d violin. It had to 'perform' live from a midi file being played, rather than spend days making a hugely complex and detailed animation
sequence. The idea being to play various files and get an instant result without further effort.
So far so good. Not sure I will try to go further. There are difficulties with different music files, as well as improvements that should be made in smoothness and accuracy.
Because it was so difficult to capture the video on screen I had to use an mp4 format. ( it still not as smooth as the original) Hence I could not import the video into 'movie maker' to substitute enhanced
sound, and had to rely on the inbuilt reverb FX ... which has gone a little uneven. The sound is a custom Korg M50 violin plus custom soundfont.
The programming language used for the 3d is "blitz 3d" , a fairly simple, older 'basic' style program.
The violin is a simple 3d .X model from another programming language. It was rather crude in shape and needed a good texture applied to provide 'fake' realism.
An animated virtual singer 2,144 kb (2.1megs)
See the description and link for this on the virtual singer page.