I recorded that a year ago and I've forgotten about it. Cassidybole resurrected it in his unmistakable style 😉 Well... thanks, I guess.
Joannchr May ask you a question with respect to the overdubbing in Logic , have you done it with two identical presets with different adjustments or just overdubbed the same preset twice
Do you mean the piano preset? I don't think I change presets at all, I always record with the same preset that I use for the final export. However it's possible that I used the player stereo image when recording it (bass on the left, treble on the right) and then swapped it for the export. That's something I do occasionally after somebody on YouTube remarked that it's awkward to hear a piano from the player's standpoint. Also, I don't apply any effects, reverb or compression to the piano sound, it's all pure Garritan CFX with the default distant mics amount that I love.
Joannchr Now next step is to make an arrangement of the score so that you can play the synth part as part of the main score .. tricky
Indeed. The piano part isn't really difficult, most of the time it's rather close-voiced chords, so it's doable. However there are two approaches:
- Solo piano arrangement where both the original piano part and the solo part are played by the piano. That will be slightly easier and there might already be some solo piano transcriptions on IMSLP for this work, I have to check. It depends on the piece, but his particular one by Tchaikovsky is not very complex in terms of piano writing, so it's possible to compress both parts into a single two-handed score.
- Custom piano (left hand) + synth (right hand) arrangement, so that I don't have to overdub. This is trickier, since my entire right hand would be dedicated to only the solo and I can't use free fingers to help with the piano part, so that will require sacrificing notes on the piano part.
BTW, I have found many great duet pieces (piano + solo instrument or voice) that are good candidates for my piano + synth arrangements like this one, however in many of them there are various challenges with longer rests in one of the instruments which would then be tricky to overdub in two complete takes for each part. I may have to cut and/or do multiple takes in order to get the two instruments back in sync after rubato rests.
When recording one of my more recent similar piano/synth arrangements, the Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, I used an "aid": I recorded the piano part which turned out to contain so much rubato it was almost impossible to play the solo part on top of it, so I temporarily created a track where I would manually enter ticks before the solo part to cue it about the tempo and the proper entering point in time. Anyway, nothing can replace two musicians playing live like one whole...🙁 That's art in itself and successful duos train this their entire life.
P.S. Sorry, actually it wasn't the Vocalise above where I used temporary cue track. It was the Scriabin's Romance for Horn and Piano where the piano plays in triplets and the solo plays in eights and they both start right away and I had great difficulties in starting the synth solo overdub without putting manual metronome-like ticks before the start of the piano part. BTW, many people who are not familiar with this piece find it very confusing rhythmically, not just in my arrangement but as a whole. It's why I love Scriabin so much, he always makes everything a bit awkward 😉
