Getting the most from this great hobby!
This post is part of my guide on How to Record Your Piano at Home – and covers one of the fun things you can do with GarageBand. Thanks to something called MIDI and Virtual Instruments, we are able – surprisingly easily – to create orchestral backing tracks using GarageBand. The basic process creating an...
"Saint Saens ‘The Swan’ – Play Along with your Piano"Continue reading
Piano Solo? Piano can sometimes be a lonely hobby … do you ever want to play with your own band, ensemble or even orchestra? Well, these days you can quite easily create your own if you’re willing to spend the time. Keep reading to learn how. We pianists spend hour upon hour alone practicing. For...
"Create your own orchestra and play along on piano"Continue reading
So far, I’ve described how I decided what equipment I needed and which DAW and Virtual Instruments I’d use. Now it is time to actually play each instrument part into the computer. This, in itself, isn’t so hard (or so I thought) – playing one instrument at a time on a keyboard should be child’s...
"How to Record the Orchestra"Continue reading
A Symphony Orchestra is a significant body of musicians. For the String Section alone there could be as many as 60 musicians (16 first violins, 14 second violins, 12 violas, 10 cellos and 8 double basses). Then you have all the additional instruments (such Woodwind, Brass and Percussion) – a full stage. For my project,...
"Virtual Instruments and MIDI"Continue reading
We’re all fairly familiar with the interior of a Recording Studio, if only from seeing music videos over the years where the recording process is often featured. Image By Rebecca Wilson – originally posted to Flickr as Vicariously, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11992757 Whilst we recognise the image , the majority of us of course haven’t...
"What is a Digital Audio Workstation (or DAW)"Continue reading
Before embarking on the 18th Variation project, I decided that this time, rather than plunge head in and then get demotivated by poor results, I should do some decent research to get a fuller view of what is involved. My first step (seemed logical) was to research what is involved in creating a Home Recording...
"What do I need to know to create an Orchestra on my Computer"Continue reading
Some people might remember Mike Oldfield perhaps? He released an album called Tubular Bells back in May 1973 on which he played every instrument himself, recording track by track on a (then) state of the art multi-track recording system. This was featured on Blue Peter (he even re-recorded the Blue Peter theme song in the process)...
"Adventures in Digital Audio"Continue reading