On Golden Pond with the new Garritan Steinway

[Pingu]

Wow!! I can't wait to get my hands on the Steinway.

Dan, if you get bored, could you do the opening of 'Meet Joe Black'

[trentpmcd]

Sounds great. A great example of the Steinway’s tone color. You do have a wonderful ear.

I looked through all the Garritan libraries and couldn’t find a Garritan loon call. The closest I got was a Garritan Forum loon, but that is a different story…

[Kinvint]

This is a superb rendering a beautiful piece of music. For many years, has it been in my collection. Dan is such a master with the tools and software! This sounds very real and your work with the GPO Steinway is outstanding.

My only 'niggles', if I may, are with the pitch bend/portamento on the violins right after the last harp gliss. They temporarily remove me from "the world" of the piece, and are very synthetic in their movement. That is not to say the finished product isn't wonderful. On the contrary; in fact, I often find, that when I hear a piece as well assembled and real-sounding as this, my ears become far more critical, picking up on even the slightest of oddities. I think it's due to an admiration of the work; I am enjoying listening to it so much, that I do not want to hear it falter even in the slightest. I am rooting for it to be perfect throughout. Does this make sense?

My other issue was with the bird samples. They seemed forced. Could just be me. I spend a lot of time with ambience, foley & ennvironmental sound FX in film and sometimes, I hear sounds so many times that nothing ever sounds real to me!

This really was a pleasure to listen to, Dan.

Thanks so much once again, for more of your wonderful work.

Paul

[DPDAN]

Danny, "were the birds wingin it?"
he he he
even your humor is clever,
you bet they were, me and the birds both
Thank you!

Joe, your articulation with words is so elegant,
I am humbled, thank you!

David, as always, thank you for listening with you ears and your heart!

Alan, you have such a calmness about you, I really like that.
Thank you for always posting such kind words.

Ron, Thanks for taking your time to post, these musical tools are getting better and better all the time. My best to you!

Mike, I made you smile, that makes me smile too!

Jack, you never fail to put me on a pedestal, I don't deserve to be there.
I am so grateful of your friendship!

Jovan, I don't do midi music for a living, well I have made some money with it. I have been a recording engineer practically my whole life, back in 2004 when I bought a Mac computer and Digital Performer to do my recording and mixing with, I then decided it was time to learn midi stuff.
It has been fun to finally be able to vent some of the music and emotion that is in my head, but only because of these tools. It is extremely satisfying for me to sit back and say, "wow!, little ol me did that."
Personally, I think the orchestra sounds real nice, far better than some I've heard in real life.

JJ, I picked this piano song out many years ago by ear from Dave Grusin's CD of some of his movie music. Although I am only able to play about the first 90 seconds or so (and not without mistakes) I enter chords at a time, and most of the time I enter notes one at a time to create the chord that Dave played. A very long and tedious process, but I know that's how I have to do music. Even though the process is painfully slow, it is still very satisfying to listen to when I am done... well, most of the time.
Thank you for such a nice post, and thanks for listening.

Rolifer/ Ron, you have been such a great member here on Northern Sounds.
I appreciate you taking the time to listen to this cool song written by Dave Grusin and posting your thoughts, thank you!

Pingu, I have not heard the theme from Meet Joe Black, where can I hear it?
If it is "up my alley" I would be happy to do a Garritan version for you just for fun. Thanks !!!

Trent, I downloaded those loons and birds after a google search for free sound effects. The sounds were all mono so I cut and pasted a bunch of them and made sure they were all out of sync with each other, that way, I could have them chirping in LIVING STEREOPHONIC SOUND Thanks for always listening and posting!

Paul, you are absolutely correct, the portamento, portamenti??? is overdone. I have gone overboard trying to make it sound real, you are so right, and I am going to redo it because it needs to be re-worked. I shall
Thank you.

To Dave Grusin if you are out there,,,,

what a gorgeous piece of music you wrote, and what an amazing gift you have!!!!!

Thank you everyone,
and thank you Gary Garritan, Tom Hopkins, Jeff Hurchalla and David Plogue for all your long hours and hard work.

Dan

[pianodoc]

Dan:

Absolutely stunning.

I am at a loss to know what to say about this. Your musicianship is astounding. This is absolutely lovely.

I really don't know what else I can say about this other than to thank you for posting this and allowing us to hear it.

Your friend,

David Mauney

[DPDAN]

Thank you David Friend!

[Pingu]

Sorry Dan, short of ripping the track and sending it to you (which isn't my style) I couldn't find any way to play you Meet Joe Black. There's a few seconds' preview in a couple of places:-

http://www.gomusic.ru/album.aspx?id=11831

http://www.amazon.com/Meet-Joe-Black...7175117&sr=8-2

Have a listen to what you can of the track 'Yes' which is just stunning.

The soundtrack is also around as a torrent, but, again, I couldn't be telling you that.

[DelCarry]

Dan - wonderful arranging, rendering and mixing job on this. I have always admired Dave's writing as well. The piano sounds great although I find most piano libraries do a fair job of the high end but tend to fall short (a bit muddy) in the low end. Lack of definition. It was hard to judge as most of your piece was in the upper end. What there was sure sounded good though.

Your recording abilities of course really help out here. Wish my DP sounded like yours!

Del

[DPDAN]

Thanks Pingu,

Del, I'm glad you like it too.
Thank you for posting such nice compliments!

Dan

[sunbird]

Dan,

A magical sound, wonderfully expressive, and I love the natural background of the birds' songs, especially the loon.
Thank you for creating and sharing this joy to the ears, heart and soul!

Yudit