I've been making my intro of a short score to a trailer for something simple for myself.

I am using a type of Chinese Bamboo Flute. The use of the flute's various articulations and presets, directed me immediately to a duet, using two Flutes, one preset with a different articulation of its sound supporting the original simple melody with a simple harmony/counterpoint.

So I started with playing the first simple melody. Np.
Now as I play that back I hear the counterpoint (in my head), but it's not like I can just play the counterpoint in, I hear it a note or 2 late as I listen to the melody...so I thought np, I'll use the midi interface of Cubase (this vsti doesn't have an au version) and "pencil it in." Holy crap, that is tedious, inefficient and less than accurate. IF it's accurate it sounds very robotic, btw but even that is taking forever, and I think I can add "randomness" or "swing" later...though I actually want to control the exact timing of the attacks in more places than I realized. So if I take off the snap function to do that, I better put it right back, cause otherwise, if I create a note, it's a monster of timing and off beatiness (my own word, since I'm still working up the courage of reading a book of music vocabulary...the problem being, after learning about wet and dry, glue, brightness and bouncing, the vocabulary is not what I'm used to coming from scientific fields like mathematics and medicine).

Sometimes I want the same instrument to contain it's own harmony because of the particular articulation, but I can't change the velocity of one of the notes in a diad or more of notes, which can't be right. I highlighted it, took my pencil, went to the automation lane, and it's like, "pencil away buddy, I'm changing all of them..."

Is this problem(s) more of my lack of knowledge of the midi editor interface, or midi editors themselves? Should I play around on my keyboard and use pencil and paper, or have a "scratch" track and fool around until I hear something good and then cut and paste? I tried to loop the melody track and then use the original track to play with moving notes to the harmonies and boy that wasn't the way to go...is it as simple as instead using a second copy of the track to mess around with?

So I've stepped back and reconsidered I don't know something pretty important:

I don't understand the most efficient workflow, wtf is it? ...and don't tell me learning more of the technical side of something will kill the natural intuitive creative process. Absolutely not, in my experience. Genius, seems to be, how many details can be brought to bear to the final result, being for an athlete, a surgeon, a teacher, or an artist...imo.

 

Last edited: May 9, 2016

The best question I have seen in Audiosex. Of course not just about the melody.

Now wait for the non-systematic answers.

 

I develop my melodies and counter melodies with the piano. But you can do it with those flutes, just play the second flutes with the first in loop and find that counterpoint that you hear in your head... develop it until it sounds good to you.

Pencil tool? Not for me...

 

It's simple,

If i were you, in this case i would have each flute line being played on it's own midi track, but each track being triggered by the same VSTi. So later on during the mixing phase each instrument can be mixed individually and then combined in a mix bus as needed. Plus if you need to change individual notes it's easier to select midi regions from just flute 1, flute 2 ,etc. This idea gets exacerbated the bigger the orchestra gets. So if the instrument itself isn't polyphonic there's no tactical reason to combine parts onto one midi track.

Also in midi editors, with a stack of notes you can select just one and change velocity and whatnot individually. I think it's just pilot error on your part. Try selecting the individual notes in the automation lane itself not in the midi lane, or visa versa as the case may be.

Alternatively, if you did need to overdub midi parts into a region you just recorded. For example, recording piano parts one hand at a time because of difficulty. On the transport bar in Cubase, in the midi section, there's a drop down menu to change the midi in to overdub/replace. This is what you look for in other daws as well, changing the midi in mode to overdub as opposed to replace.

 

@shomyca, @Funk U Ok, I didn't know about the overdub/replace option, (unless you mean when it loops and overwrites but keeps each take) so I'll be hunting for more midi tutorials for both cubase and PT. It's just hard to find any tutorials beyond, "this is the on button." "click on the on button." "experiment." I did try to select only one note in the diad from the top or the bottom to no success, though it did look like the pencil only was moving its "made dark" velocity line...I've further investigate.

I just find it shocking to realize the sound/instrument you choose to use can change the melody you decide to create. I was going in reverse, using midis and playing with stacking instruments for a fuller sound or cutting up midis by melody and harmony and arranging instruments. I never encountered wanting to change the music itself because of the instrument I used.

I will try to loop until I succeed or die trying for now...ok, maybe until I get hungry.

The flute is like the one used on an old TV show Kung Fu, where the actor that was "suicided" and reported as auto erotic asphyxiation while in Japan I think...Bruce Lee was supposed to get that role, but didn't...the vsti though can change the articulation so it's not just that one classic sound.