That is a beautiful waltz. I really like the melody and definitely would love to hear if you orchestrate it, although it stands alone beautifully as a piano solo.  The key of E flat was perfect for the delicate structure and elegant simplicity of this piece. 

That is a beautiful waltz. I really like the melody and definitely would love to hear if you orchestrate it, although it stands alone beautifully as a piano solo. The key of E flat was perfect for the delicate structure and elegant simplicity of this piece.

Thank you. And I wish I could say that I had more thoughtfully selected Eb minor... but really, Eb minor and Gb major are just where my hands fall on the piano at this point... hard to play wrong notes, when the pentatonic scale is physically a quarter of an inch higher than the rest of the notes ( ಠ‿<).

[quote=Bunjigram]That is a beautiful waltz. I really like the melody and definitely would love to hear if you orchestrate it, although it stands alone beautifully as a piano solo. The key of E flat was perfect for the delicate structure and elegant simplicity of this piece. [/quote] Thank you. And I wish I could say that I had more thoughtfully selected Eb minor... but really, Eb minor and Gb major are just where my hands fall on the piano at this point... hard to play wrong notes, when the pentatonic scale is physically a quarter of an inch higher than the rest of the notes ( ಠ‿<).

What a sweet melody. Nice work on this!

What a sweet melody. Nice work on this!

man, that piano sounds so good tho, such an elegant piece, full of sorrow and melancholy
- Ebrit

man, that piano sounds so good tho, such an elegant piece, full of sorrow and melancholy - Ebrit

Thank you.  Melody writing is my favorite part of the whole process, and I really did enjoy this one. 

Thanks.  I expect I will be making a fair bit more of these over the next 40 weeks.  Much faster to mix when theres only one instrument in the mix (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧, which leaves a lot more time for fussing over the melodic, harmonic, and dynamics details. 

[quote=Mission Crossing]What a sweet melody. Nice work on this![/quote] Thank you. Melody writing is my favorite part of the whole process, and I really did enjoy this one. [quote=Devieus]man, that piano sounds so good tho, such an elegant piece, full of sorrow and melancholy - Ebrit[/quote] Thanks. I expect I will be making a fair bit more of these over the next 40 weeks. Much faster to mix when theres only one instrument in the mix (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧, which leaves a lot more time for fussing over the melodic, harmonic, and dynamics details.

This one is perfectly expressive in terms of velocity variation. It builds larger-scale waves over the natural ebb and flow of waltz. Well built, well performed, good job!

This one is perfectly expressive in terms of velocity variation. It builds larger-scale waves over the natural ebb and flow of waltz. Well built, well performed, good job!

beautiful piece! i'm impressed with the composition and the playing, sounds great too

beautiful piece! i'm impressed with the composition and the playing, sounds great too

Thanks, yeah, this is for sure one of those places where the S88 is NOT the thing I wanted.  Most of the work for this track was fixing velocities because (in my experience) the Komoplete Kontrol fully weighted midi controllers velocity curves (at least all the built in ones) don't feel as dynamic as I want them to be (could totally be a skill issue though).  Which is fine for 85% of the things I write, but there's just not a lot of articulations available with solo piano... so I spent a couple hours just tweaking velocities for this... many nits were picked, so I'm glad it paid off. 

Thank you so much.  In all honesty, this piece was more "produced" than it was "played"... I mean I'll take the compliment, doubly actually because the goal was to make it sound like it was well played, but its a bunch of production tricks that got me there. The biggest ones being that I recorded the left and right hands separately.  And, I recorded the left hand at around 85 bpm, so I could focus on getting smooth arpeggios with close enough velocities. Which I then copied and pasted through the rest of the track, editing note starting position, velocities, and pitches to fit the sections. Then I sped it all up and recorded in the right hand parts.  Also, I used some tempo automation to make it "breath" a little, so the tempo starts off (and finishes) around 108, then quickly gets up to around 118.  Then for the rest of the track I smoothly moved between 122 and 113 to give it some life... but you know "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" and all that. 

[quote=rplktr]This one is perfectly expressive in terms of velocity variation. It builds larger-scale waves over the natural ebb and flow of waltz. Well built, well performed, good job![/quote] Thanks, yeah, this is for sure one of those places where the S88 is NOT the thing I wanted. Most of the work for this track was fixing velocities because (in my experience) the Komoplete Kontrol fully weighted midi controllers velocity curves (at least all the built in ones) don't feel as dynamic as I want them to be (could totally be a skill issue though). Which is fine for 85% of the things I write, but there's just not a lot of articulations available with solo piano... so I spent a couple hours just tweaking velocities for this... many nits were picked, so I'm glad it paid off. [quote=nedsferatu]beautiful piece! i'm impressed with the composition and the playing, sounds great too[/quote] Thank you so much. In all honesty, this piece was more "produced" than it was "played"... I mean I'll take the compliment, doubly actually because the goal was to make it [i] sound [/i] like it was well played, but its a bunch of production tricks that got me there. The biggest ones being that I recorded the left and right hands separately. And, I recorded the left hand at around 85 bpm, so I could focus on getting smooth arpeggios with close enough velocities. Which I then copied and pasted through the rest of the track, editing note starting position, velocities, and pitches to fit the sections. Then I sped it all up and recorded in the right hand parts. Also, I used some tempo automation to make it "breath" a little, so the tempo starts off (and finishes) around 108, then quickly gets up to around 118. Then for the rest of the track I smoothly moved between 122 and 113 to give it some life... but you know "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" and all that.

wow thanks for sharing that detail. i would never think to do that and the results were great. very clever!

[quote=Napear] Thank you so much. In all honesty, this piece was more "produced" than it was "played"... I mean I'll take the compliment, doubly actually because the goal was to make it [i] sound [/i] like it was well played, but its a bunch of production tricks that got me there. The biggest ones being that I recorded the left and right hands separately. And, I recorded the left hand at around 85 bpm, so I could focus on getting smooth arpeggios with close enough velocities. Which I then copied and pasted through the rest of the track, editing note starting position, velocities, and pitches to fit the sections. Then I sped it all up and recorded in the right hand parts. Also, I used some tempo automation to make it "breath" a little, so the tempo starts off (and finishes) around 108, then quickly gets up to around 118. Then for the rest of the track I smoothly moved between 122 and 113 to give it some life... but you know "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" and all that. [/quote] wow thanks for sharing that detail. i would never think to do that and the results were great. very clever!

Beautiful. I don't use The Giant enough either, it really has a nice character and atmosphere here. Absolutely a composition you should follow up on, this has a lot of delightful moments. Lovely to listen to.

Beautiful. I don't use The Giant enough either, it really has a nice character and atmosphere here. Absolutely a composition you should follow up on, this has a lot of delightful moments. Lovely to listen to.

This is gd beautiful

This is gd beautiful

A beautiful composition! The piano tone has such a nice mellowness to it. Beautiful playing/producing, interesting to read about the process. Tempo automation is such a nice touch I wouldn't think of, it all sounds organic to me.

A beautiful composition! The piano tone has such a nice mellowness to it. Beautiful playing/producing, interesting to read about the process. Tempo automation is such a nice touch I wouldn't think of, it all sounds organic to me.

Thanks.  Yeah, I need to give The Giant more love, because you're right, it has a great and really unique character to it.

Thank you （人´∀`*）

I'm glad you liked it... and yeah I totally just stumbled into using tempo automation because of how clunky doing tempo changes in Logic is.  I needed to a do a hard tempo change for a bit of score that went from like bubbly feel good stuff to horror scoring, and I clicked on the wrong little dot, and caused a curved rise in the tempo line... and was like "WAIT...WAIT... that little black dot is a bezier handle... so I can make smooth curves to tempo changes!?!??! 〣 ( ºΔº ) 〣 "  Instantly changed my life. 

[quote=neon liminal]Beautiful. I don't use The Giant enough either, it really has a nice character and atmosphere here. Absolutely a composition you should follow up on, this has a lot of delightful moments. Lovely to listen to.[/quote] Thanks. Yeah, I need to give The Giant more love, because you're right, it has a great and really unique character to it. [quote=jwh]This is gd beautiful [/quote] Thank you （人´∀`*） [quote=Cursory]A beautiful composition! The piano tone has such a nice mellowness to it. Beautiful playing/producing, interesting to read about the process. Tempo automation is such a nice touch I wouldn't think of, it all sounds organic to me. [/quote] I'm glad you liked it... and yeah I totally just stumbled into using tempo automation because of how clunky doing tempo changes in Logic is. I needed to a do a hard tempo change for a bit of score that went from like bubbly feel good stuff to horror scoring, and I clicked on the wrong little dot, and caused a curved rise in the tempo line... and was like "WAIT...WAIT... that little black dot is a bezier handle... so I can make smooth curves to tempo changes!?!??! 〣 ( ºΔº ) 〣 " Instantly changed my life.

A waltz is always a good direction to go imho   This sounds lovely and the piano tone has a nostalgic sorta feel to it.  An elder remembering a childhood memory of sorts.  The space and reverb sound excellent too.  Nice work.

A waltz is always a good direction to go imho :) This sounds lovely and the piano tone has a nostalgic sorta feel to it. An elder remembering a childhood memory of sorts. The space and reverb sound excellent too. Nice work.

Lovely composition, enjoyed this. Agree with Tone Matrix, sorta nostalgic. Ah the memories.

Lovely composition, enjoyed this. Agree with Tone Matrix, sorta nostalgic. Ah the memories.

Oh you're using The Giant on this? I played a bit with that Kontakt instrument but was not convinced. That track however makes me want to revisit my judgement. Beautiful playing, and a waltz with a light touch is beautiful. Great delicate play!

Oh you're using The Giant on this? I played a bit with that Kontakt instrument but was not convinced. That track however makes me want to revisit my judgement. Beautiful playing, and a waltz with a light touch is beautiful. Great delicate play!

Gilded Shadow is an awesome title for a song, kind of has some duality to it and invokes a strong image. Beautiful composition as always, nice upwards momentum towards the center with the following descent.

Gilded Shadow is an awesome title for a song, kind of has some duality to it and invokes a strong image. Beautiful composition as always, nice upwards momentum towards the center with the following descent.

[img]https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExM3dsOTN0b2Rnb2k0Y3h1M3NsZTg4MHZ1d3g1bTBsYjJ1Z3A2d28zZyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/xJlu63zTpKMnxGIFYP/giphy-downsized-large.gif[/img]

Thanks, I know I've said it before, but Replicka XT is really an amazing effect... just SOOO versatile.  Though Neoverb is no slouch either, and a lot of the like "room"  in this is coming from that plugin... and how it's interacting with the Giant's "room noise" settings. 

I'm glad you liked it.  And yeah, I get that nostalgic thing... I wonder where that comes from... I kind of feel like it's something to do with how the two chord progressions interact... funny side note, the two primary chord progressions in this track are both lifted directly from pop music.  21 Guns by Green Day for the A section and then the "Royal Road" progression (so basically every JPop song of the last 20 years) for the B section... so I guess coming from a decidedly minor, but driving progression into the kind of liminal nature of the koakuma progression probably gives it that whistful, times past feeling...  ┐(ﾟ ～ﾟ )┌

Thanks, there are a couple of notes above (in my response to nedsferatu's comment) about how I got it to sound like I'm actually a proficient pianist (which I am not... competent, sure, proficient... no).  And yeah, I think the Giant really shines with it's "Dark Giant" cinematic patches.  GREAT for textural pads and ambient FX. 

I do like that name... but not gonna like... it came from ChatGPT (*ﾟｪﾟ*)... after I finish most pieces, I go to ChatGPT to workshop names, and have Dall-E generate thumbnails... And thank you very much, I'm really glad you mentioned energy of the piece.  I was pretty please with the "energy management" of this track.  I got a tip from one of my teachers a couple weeks ago, to pick a climax point in my pieces, and then ask myself how any other section is either building to, or descending from that moment. And, I felt like that lesson kinda gelled with this piece, so it's good to have someone else confirm it.

... very close to the moment I had in mind while writing this...

[quote=Tone Matrix]A waltz is always a good direction to go imho :) This sounds lovely and the piano tone has a nostalgic sorta feel to it. An elder remembering a childhood memory of sorts. The space and reverb sound excellent too. Nice work.[/quote] Thanks, I know I've said it before, but Replicka XT is really an amazing effect... just SOOO versatile. Though Neoverb is no slouch either, and a lot of the like "room" in this is coming from that plugin... and how it's interacting with the Giant's "room noise" settings. [quote=miraclemiles]Lovely composition, enjoyed this. Agree with Tone Matrix, sorta nostalgic. Ah the memories. [/quote] I'm glad you liked it. And yeah, I get that nostalgic thing... I wonder where that comes from... I kind of feel like it's something to do with how the two chord progressions interact... funny side note, the two primary chord progressions in this track are both lifted directly from pop music. 21 Guns by Green Day for the A section and then the "Royal Road" progression (so basically every JPop song of the last 20 years) for the B section... so I guess coming from a decidedly minor, but driving progression into the kind of liminal nature of the koakuma progression probably gives it that whistful, times past feeling... ┐(ﾟ ～ﾟ )┌ [quote=Kedbreak136]Oh you're using The Giant on this? I played a bit with that Kontakt instrument but was not convinced. That track however makes me want to revisit my judgement. Beautiful playing, and a waltz with a light touch is beautiful. Great delicate play![/quote] Thanks, there are a couple of notes above (in my response to nedsferatu's comment) about how I got it to sound like I'm actually a proficient pianist (which I am not... competent, sure, proficient... no). And yeah, I think the Giant really shines with it's "Dark Giant" cinematic patches. GREAT for textural pads and ambient FX. [quote=ViridianLoom]Gilded Shadow is an awesome title for a song, kind of has some duality to it and invokes a strong image. Beautiful composition as always, nice upwards momentum towards the center with the following descent. [/quote] I do like that name... but not gonna like... it came from ChatGPT (*ﾟｪﾟ*)... after I finish most pieces, I go to ChatGPT to workshop names, and have Dall-E generate thumbnails... And thank you very much, I'm really glad you mentioned energy of the piece. I was pretty please with the "energy management" of this track. I got a tip from one of my teachers a couple weeks ago, to pick a climax point in my pieces, and then ask myself how any other section is either building to, or descending from that moment. And, I felt like that lesson kinda gelled with this piece, so it's good to have someone else confirm it. [quote=emily] [/quote] ... very close to the moment I had in mind while writing this... [img]https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExM3BiN2sxaTY3b2czaDA0NnFuMmcxdXg2cjNmYXg5NjA1ZDQ5N3BwcSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/3o6Zt3tMC4lhl2d3BC/giphy.gif[/img]

swoon i love that scene

swoon i love that scene