Water Fountain by David Foster midi by DPDAN

[DPDAN]

Hi folks,
I am so happy to finally get to post something for fun.
I have always loved this piece and, well, coming from me you guessed it.... I copied it by ear from David Foster's Symphony Sessions CD.

Water Fountain (http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/DPDAN/Water%20Fountain%20by%20David%20Foster%20midi%20ar rangement%20by%20Dan%20Kury.MP3)

The Piano is TBO (The Big One)
All section strings GOS
One instance of Garritan Stradivarius Solo Violin
The rest of the instruments are the glorious GPO
1 Flute, 1 Piccolo, 1 Oboe, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 4 French horns, 2 Tenor Trombones, 1 Tuba, Timpani, Harp, MarkTree, Xylophone, Celeste.

This piece was produced using Digital Performer 5 (http://www.motu.com/products/software/dp/features50/)
Enjoy!
Dan

[Worra]

Hi folks,
I am so happy to finally get to post something for fun.
I have always loved this piece and, well, coming from me you guessed it.... I copied it by ear from David Foster's Symphony Sessions CD.

Water Fountain (http://www.mydocsonline.com/pub/DPDAN/Water%20Fountain%20by%20David%20Foster%20midi%20ar rangement%20by%20Dan%20Kury.MP3)

The Piano is TBO (The Big One)
All section strings GOS
One instance of Garritan Stradivarius Solo Violin
The rest of the instruments are the glorious GPO
1 Flute, 1 Piccolo, 1 Oboe, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 4 French horns, 2 Tenor Trombones, 1 Tuba, Timpani, Harp, MarkTree, Xylophone, Celeste.

This piece was produced using Digital Performer 5 (http://www.motu.com/products/software/dp/features50/)
Enjoy!
Dan

I'm biased - since you use the TBO.... but it sounds great!

[Len]

When I was younger I was a real DF freak and this was one of the songs I learned to play by ear off that CD. Wow, does this bring back some nice memories of playing piano (which I do less of now, having turned more to guitar).

Thanks very much for sharing this - its sounds brilliant. One small point - is there perhaps too much reverb on the TBO? It just sounds a little "strong" to me. Or maybe a different "flavour" of reverb (more transparent?) might make it sound even better? Just my humble opinion.

Any chance you might consider sharing the MIDI file with us? :D

Cheers

Len

[football]

Very well done :D

I think it could be even better with some additional sound libraries (other than TBO which is probably about as good as it gets)

Nice job

[DPDAN]

thank you everyone for listening. David Foster is my musical hero.
Dan :)

[geronimo001]

Good work! That's not my kind of music but i respect David foster a lot...cause he's Canadian!:D

[Przemek K.]

Wow...thats beautiful. David Foster is one of the Composers/Producers which work I really love, especially this one.

You captured the emotion and feeling really well ( couldn't make it better :) )

[ddarwin7]

DPDAN:

Sounds Brilliant. Very well done. I really like the sound of TBO in this mix. TBO and the White Grand are 2 of my favorite pianos, because they just really seem to sit well in a mix.

What format TBO did you use here? gigasutido, Kontakt etc. What do you thing is the best way to process TBO from an instrument stand point (Not the mix). Is it best to leave the sound as it(dry and unprocessed until the final mix) is or is it better to EQ, apply some plugins, compressors, limiters, etc on the instrument track (I sometimes apply some limiting even on my individual tracks). Any thoughts? Thanks

Dd

[DPDAN]

Hi ddarwin7,

Thank you very much for your nice compliments, I'm honored that you enjoyed listening to it.

I personally never compress a piano, yikes, an acoustic piano needs to breath on it's own. Too many people feel like they have to use plugins galore with recorded music. I love plugins as much as the next guy but, I usually only use compression on some vocals, bass, and drums and other instruments as well, but it always depends on the type of music "pop or not".

I used TBO in GS3. The only thing this entire project received as far as plugins go, is one Altiverb reverb for everything, and some EQ on some of the strings. That's it.

Lots of fader automation though. I always record everything to audio tracks, and then automate each track starting with 1st violins from beginning to end. Then I listen to the 1st vlns and automate fader levels for 2nd violin, and so on. Once I get all the strings mixed, I assign them to a stereo AUX fader as a strings master. I do the same mixing process for woods, then brass then percussion. Once all the individual audio tracks are automated, I then go back and automate the fader levels of all four group masters to accomodate blend. Sorry I started rambling there.

Anyway, I'm glad you liked it, and hopefully some of how I do things can be incorporated, or at least tried in your next project. What works good for one guy doesn't always hold true for everyone.

Have a great weekend!

dpDan :)

[ddarwin7]

Hi ddarwin7,

Thank you very much for your nice compliments, I'm honored that you enjoyed listening to it.

I personally never compress a piano, yikes, an acoustic piano needs to breath on it's own. Too many people feel like they have to use plugins galore with recorded music. I love plugins as much as the next guy but, I usually only use compression on some vocals, bass, and drums and other instruments as well, but it always depends on the type of music "pop or not".

I used TBO in GS3. The only thing this entire project received as far as plugins go, is one Altiverb reverb for everything, and some EQ on some of the strings. That's it.

Lots of fader automation though. I always record everything to audio tracks, and then automate each track starting with 1st violins from beginning to end. Then I listen to the 1st vlns and automate fader levels for 2nd violin, and so on. Once I get all the strings mixed, I assign them to a stereo AUX fader as a strings master. I do the same mixing process for woods, then brass then percussion. Once all the individual audio tracks are automated, I then go back and automate the fader levels of all four group masters to accomodate blend. Sorry I started rambling there.

Anyway, I'm glad you liked it, and hopefully some of how I do things can be incorporated, or at least tried in your next project. What works good for one guy doesn't always hold true for everyone.

Have a great weekend!

dpDan :)

Thanks DPDAN;

That's some really good advice. I've heard lot of your other music postings and they all sound pretty good. Too bad I do not have altiverb. I do have Gigapulse that came with GS3 orchestra and Gigapulse VST. While the quality of reverb is good, the selection really sucks. Looks like the key is the fader automation. You seem to have a good working setup. I am going to stop tweeking the knobs and start making some music.

For orchestral mixes with piano, do you think its best to leave the piano soundboard sound out of it or include a bit of it into the piano sound. I know for solo piano pieces it seems to sound better with the piano soundboard convolution. But with mixes? What do you think.

Thanks

[DPDAN]

For orchestral mixes with piano, do you think its best to leave the piano soundboard sound out of it or include a bit of it into the piano sound. I know for solo piano pieces it seems to sound better with the piano soundboard convolution. But with mixes? What do you think.

ThanksGood question, when I use TBO I load the number 2 .gsi patch.

I would say trust your ears and what they tell you. Use whatever sounds best to you.

Have fun mixing, it's the most fun part to hear it all finally fit together.
Also, I agree about the Gpulse convolution reverb. There is nothing necessarily wrong with the software, you nailed it when you said the selection of IR's is poor, I agree.

May I plead with you to purchase Altiverb 5. The sound and selection of IR's is second to none! Altiverb has been a Mac only product, but Altiverb 5 is going to be available very very soon for Windows, hopefull in a few days. You will not regret it.
Save up for it or sell something,... but get it! :)

Dan :)

[Fabio]

When I want a fine expression, I also make a wide use of fader automation on audio tracks. (it is close to what pros do even if mixing acoustic tracks).

But the fine performance and programming of tracks is the starting point: your excellent piano part is just another evidence. Congratulations.;)

[ddarwin7]

Ok, DPDAN and Fabio.

Good opportunity for me to pick your brain a little more, as you guys are pros at what you do. I've done very little automation (as I understand it) so far, and may be that's part of the problem I've been having to get the stings to sound more natural. The reason I've done very little automation so far is becaused I mainly play piano, and have not done too much orchestral work.

Sorry, I may ask dumb questions, just bare with me. Automation, riding the faders is what you are talking about, right. You basically enable write mode to the fader controls and then read it while recording the instrument. Is this much different than using a volume pedal to contol the volume at the instrument level. So for finer fader controls, I am assuming you would press shift the whole time you are on the faders. If this is what you are doing, do you use a control surface or mouse click, I can see that this can get a little tedious with a mouse.

Dan: I was thinking of altiverb at first, but when i looked at the list price, I changed my mind very quickly and went with the Gpulse VST. Now that I think about it, I should've waited. Looks like I may need to soon break the piggy bank.

Thanks for the helpful hints

(Looks like some clown out there was trying to hack the Northersounds site, did anybody else experience what I am talking about)

[tradivoro]

Hey Dan, finally got a listen to this, great work as always... Great playing and kudos on capturing the whole composition by ear... thanks for sharing how you did this too... :)

[DPDAN]

Thank you Fabio for your congrats, I wish I could play piano nicely, but all those chords were plunked in one at a time, and even some were created one note at a time. Of course I did have to edit some of the velocities to accomodate the exact voicing that I wanted for each chord. Thank you for listening.

ddarwin7, It sounds like automating fader movements is a real pain in your DAW. In Digital Performer, you simply turn on fader automation record enable, (little red button above the fader) then mouse away. No holding down shift or anything like that. Also, you can not create fader automation that is worth keeping while you are rendering the audio track of the instrument/s. Record the instruments to audio tracks first, then go back one at a time and manipulate the fader with as much emotion and feeling as you can muster up, at least that's how I do it. Use the fader to intimately allow instruments to enter and exit phrases with maximum detail.
As I have said before, Altiverb 5 is worth it's weight in gold, so to speak :)

tradivaro, thank you for listening I always appreciate your compliments!

Dan :)

[ddarwin7]

ddarwin7, It sounds like automating fader movements is a real pain in your DAW. In Digital Performer, you simply turn on fader automation record enable, (little red button above the fader) then mouse away. No holding down shift or anything like that. Also, you can not create fader automation that is worth keeping while you are rendering the audio track of the instrument/s. Record the instruments to audio tracks first, then go back one at a time and manipulate the fader with as much emotion and feeling as you can muster up, at least that's how I do it. Use the fader to intimately allow instruments to enter and exit phrases with maximum detail.
As I have said before, Altiverb 5 is worth it's weight in gold, so to speak :)

Dan :)

DPDan

I am amazed that you did the piano, part note by note and entering in data. That to me looks like a lot of work, specially for piano, but you did a really good job. The problem is that I don't know everything there is to know about Cubase SX, even thought I've been using it for a while, like anyother major software this thing is a beast and has a steep learning curve. But I would have to start to learn to do the automation more efficiently.

Thanks again for all the good tips, and I'll be looking to hear more of you music. I will keep my eye out for Altiverb and start banking some money. One of my other problem is that I have such an abundance of libraries that I purchased, and never get the time to learn them fully. I have most of the really good piano libraries, and I have orchestral libs ranging from Garritan to EW to VSL to kirk hunter. I literally have 1000"s of dollars worth of libs. But the problem is I feel like a jack of all trades and master of none. I never got down to the nuts and bolts of studying ensemble building with just one library. I have to rethink my strategy.

Thansk again DPDAN

Dd

[DPDAN]

I think it was M.A.S. that said it is so important to accurately know the tools you DO have and make the best from them. You do have alot of libraries, holy cow!

Many of those libraries that you have are incredible, but they are so cumbersome to use. It takes 30 minutes just to audition some of the cello sounds. Way too time consuming for me.

Thanks for your kind words and learn that automation. My guess is the manual explains how to use it, I'm sure it is really easy.
Thank Dd

Dan

[Rob Elliott]

DP pan - very nice. TBO, IMHO is the ONLY piano that can pull off this p-ppp type of playing. TBO opens up so much more possibilities. This same piano can play Bruce Hornsby.

Again, again great job.


Rob

[beach]

Simply wonderful, DAN!!!!:)

With admiration, :o
Roberto

[DPDAN]

Rob, thank you so much. Amazingly the TBO is a Yamaha C7, and even though a C7 is known for it's "in your face" brightness, the TBO is very useable in any situation IMO. I have never liked it when someone stamps a piano brand "name" with a certain style of music. Of all pianos, a C7 is known for it's rock n' roll sound. I agree it sounds very nice even in soft passages. I also love the micing as opposed to the extreme left/right (low high) traditional way of micing a piano for studio type recording. The Neumann is perfect for this. Heck, I think even David Foster prefers a Yamaha, this was even more fitting in this situation. Bruce Hornsby, now there's another incredible pianist. We are so blessed to be alive at the same time as these truly gifted musicians!

Roberto, I am honored to know that you have heard this, and that you like it.
May I take this opportunity to encourage you all to buy David Foster's CD titled The Symphony Sessions. It contains some of my very favorite music on this planet.

I am blessed to have these compliments!
dpDan

[havax]

I would very much like to hear this, but unfortunately the links are messed up, and I copy and paste the link to the address bar and it just does a file not found trick. :(


wait a sec, nm... I got it.


OMG, this is fantastic! Very emotional, and I like the staggered instrument starts in places, makes it sound so human/convincing.

Have you ever heard the music from that movie The Notebook? The piano part kind of reminded me of that. Great work DPDAN. :)

[Styxx]

This is outrageously beautiful!

[DPDAN]

havax, I am so glad you were able to hear it.
I love this writing by David Foster. I have not heard the music from "Notebook" but thank you for your very nice words.

Styxx, thank you for listening too, I trust you can listen to this when some of those students give you a rough time. Hopefully the music will take you to a place of reassurance that those bad times too shall pass.
dpDan

[Styxx]

havax, I am so glad you were able to hear it.
I love this writing by David Foster. I have not heard the music from "Notebook" but thank you for your very nice words.

Styxx, thank you for listening too, I trust you can listen to this when some of those students give you a rough time. Hopefully the music will take you to a place of reassurance that those bad times too shall pass.
dpDan More today than ever I'm afraid. So glad you had this posted!

[sammy24]

wow, that was just gorgeous-- great work Dan, very impressed --

[DPDAN]

Thank you Styxx and Sammy, I am so blessed by your thoughts!

Dan

[DPDAN]

Tradivoro, Przemek K. and geronimo001,
I am sorry I did not thank you for your post here.

I appreciate your time listening.
Thank you, I didn't mean to leave you out of the thank yous. :)

Dan :)