Symphony #12, 2nd movement

[Jerry Gerber]

I finished the 2nd movement today.  I love working with softsynths, particularly in combination with orchestral samples.  This movement is scored for 4 horns, trumpet, timpani, tambourine, cymbal, glockenspiel, celeste, 4 instances of Dune, 4 instances of Zebra and strings (1st and 2nd violins, violas, cellos and basses).

I hope you find it interesting!  Since I finished the producing today, you people are the first in the world to hear it, it's a world premier!   ?

PLAY

Jerry

 

 

 

[DeeringAmps]

Amazing work Jerry.
You always bring together excellent composition and masterful execution!

?'s ?

t

[Johnbee58]

This is very nice, Jerry.  Very impressive.  We don't have enough people today making this kind of music.  I'm glad you're taking it on.

?John B

[timboalogo]

This is an excellent piece of work Jerry. You've got an amazing talent for orchestral work! This is such a complicated piece to produce, can you tell us how you put it together?

Timbo

[Jerry Gerber]

2 hours ago, timboalogo said:

This is an excellent piece of work Jerry. You've got an amazing talent for orchestral work! This is such a complicated piece to produce, can you tell us how you put it together?

Hi Timbo,

Sure, thanks for asking!  First, since is the 2nd movement of a longer work, I decide which elements (if any) I use from the 1st movement.  In this case I ended the 1st movement on C# with a recognizable motive in the cellos and basses and used that to begin the 2nd movement in a different tempo, and including 8 soft synths; there are no synths in the 1st movement.

In choosing the synth timbres the first thing I do is decide which synths I want in the piece, in this case I chose Dune and Zebra.  Then, I go through the laborious work of listening to dozens of synth patches, some of my own and some factory patches, to see which ones I want in the piece.  I chose 4 instances (timbres or patches) from Dune and 4 from Zebra. Sometimes a patch will need light editing, often adding cc's to control the release time and the delay cutoff time.

Then I choose the orchestration, in this case a modest sized ensemble of 4 horns, trumpet, percussion, synths  and string section from the Vienna Symphonic Orchestral Cube library.  Then I begin composing.  For me, I never have a particular form in mind when I write.  I believe that form grows from content, every measure I write determines what comes next.  Even in song form I never think "verse, chorus, bridge, etc.", but rather let the music determine the form.   This allows for more experimentation, and doesn't lock me into trying to fit music into a pre-existing mold. 

The composing continues until I feel I've said everything I want to say in the piece.  I do usually have some idea how long I want the piece or movement to be, in this case I set a parameter of between 5 and 7 minutes, I think it's about 5:30.

I do all of my composing in Cakewalk's staff view, and all cc programming in the event list and controllers view.  I also use tempo view a lot when inserting tempo changes, ritards and accelerandos.

After the composing is complete I send a Cakewalk MIDI file type 1 over to Sibelius and create the score.  The last step, before rendering to a stereo wave file is to go over the event list details of every track looking for errors and unnecessary programming.

I master in Cakewalk and use EQ, Dynamic EQ, sometimes I'll use the Ozone exciter or the Sonnox Inflator.  I usually also make use of volume envelopes once the stereo wave file is recorded to match sections dynamically.

That's it!  The devil's in the details, so the more MIDI programming I do (attack times, release times, velocity, note lengths, cc11s, etc), the better it begins to sound.

I hope this is helpful in your music.

Best,

Jerry

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by Jerry Gerber

[timboalogo]

Thanks Jerry, it is very helpful and I appreciate all the detail. I have failed every time I've tried to do anything orchestral - never had the training and don't have the ear for it. You have both plus a wonderful composing ability, so it's nice to hear what a talented person can put together with midi and Cakewalk!

Tim

[Bajan Blue]

Hi Jerry

Fabulous as always - great piece beautifully put together

Cool

Nigel

 

[bitflipper]

Hi, Jerry. Wonderful stuff, as always.

Today my new Focals arrived, so I spent the first couple hours listening to my favorite Deutsche Gramophone recordings to get a feel for the new speakers. As expected, they sounded great. Next step, pull up one of Jerry's pieces. Guess what? This one stacks up with the best references I have on hand. On top of being a fine composer, you are also a bona fide Audio Engineer. You probably keep your lawn manicured as well, and squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom like a civilized person.

[Jerry Gerber]

2 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Hi, Jerry. Wonderful stuff, as always.

Today my new Focals arrived, so I spent the first couple hours listening to my favorite Deutsche Gramophone recordings to get a feel for the new speakers. As expected, they sounded great. Next step, pull up one of Jerry's pieces. Guess what? This one stacks up with the best references I have on hand. On top of being a fine composer, you are also a bona fide Audio Engineer. You probably keep your lawn manicured as well, and squeeze the toothpaste from the bottom like a civilized person.

Wow, you made me laugh bitflipper!  I am glad my audio skills are coming along, Yes, I am a bit of a obsessive-compulsive personality, no doubt.  I am still working on being a fully civilized person-not there quite yet!

 

[Jerry Gerber]

5 hours ago, Jerry Gerber said:

Wow, you made me laugh bitflipper!  I am glad my audio skills are coming along, Yes, I am a bit of a obsessive-compulsive personality, no doubt.  I am still working on being a fully civilized person-not there quite yet!

 

by the way, which model of Focal monitors did you get? I hear good things about their monitors.   I mixed the 2nd movement of symphony #12 on AdamS3H's...

[Wookiee]

Just had a chance to sit and listen to this properly, because your work deserves to be listened to properly.  I really enjoyed this the mix works well here on my Adam's.  Excellent composition and capture love it.  

[bitflipper]

12 hours ago, Jerry Gerber said:

by the way, which model of Focal monitors did you get? I hear good things about their monitors.   I mixed the 2nd movement of symphony #12 on AdamS3H's...

I got their newest model, called Alpha 80 Evo. It is close to the absolute bottom of the Focal product line. Focals for po' folk, you might say. Definitely not comparable to the S3s. However, if I did have S3-level money to spend I'd  probably favor the high-end Focals over the high-end ADAMs. But it's like imagining Lamborghini vs. Ferrari if I won the lottery.