J.S. Bach's Prelude in Color with Pianoteq 8 and LEDs

navindra

Prelude in Color, an exercise in visualizing Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier with the help of the color spectrum.

There are 2 Raspberry Pi's involved. A Raspberry Pi 400 is capturing the MIDI and rendering the Steingraeber E-272 from Pianoteq 8.

The first Pi is also rebroadcasting the input MIDI wirelessly via rtpmidi to a Raspberry Pi Zero W. That second Raspberry Pi is running Piano LED Visualizer for the LED effects.

https://github.com/onlaj/Piano-LED-Visualizer

I'm also using MIDI Visualizer by Simon Rodriguez.

https://github.com/kosua20/MIDIVisualizer

Honestly, there's so much more work I put into this, I can't even remember it all.

I didn't want to go the route of a harpsichord, but I feel the Steingraeber E-272 from Pianoteq 8 served me well here. It's a very pure sound.

At the very end of the project, I was having serious misgivings on my Bach rendition, but after a day's worth of pondering, I figured it is what it is.

CyberGene

Wow, that's very nice! I enjoyed it a lot and for a lot of reasons:

Your playing is beautiful!
That thing with the falling color bars is stunninng, I'm not sure how it's exactly done and how you managed to superimpose it so cleanly on top of your piano video with the perspective correction and stuff but it looks amazing! (I guess the rear lights are a real LED strip on the wall? Judigng also by the first linked GitHub project)
I actually like how Pianoteq is working for this Prelude, I mean the rather clean timbre that I would usually bash when used for romantic/modern piano repertoire is suitable for Bach who ultimately played (almost) no pianos in his life
Of course I love Bach
That prelude is one of the first pieces I learned when I started learning the piano and is also the very first piece I performed publicly in church with my sister on flute, in the so called Ave Maria arrangement by Gounod who created a lovely melody on top of the prelude (and one additional measure). I was so nervous at the time...

Fantastic video, keep on doing them! 🍻

navindra

CyberGene Wow, thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate it!

The color bars -- all the magic is done in Final Cut Pro X. I always knew this software was amazing, but now it has exceeded my expectations. The MIDI visualization is generated with an alpha background, so then it's a matter of compositing/transforms/masking in FCPX. That part is more manual effort than I would like but the fact that I can do it at all as an amateur is impressive.

Rear lights -- yes I stuck an LED strip to the back of my Novus and it's reflecting on the wall. It looks way better in real life and it was disappointing to see it turn out this way when recorded. I actually had to turn down the LED brightness quite a bit to not completely blow out on video.

Re: Your first performance -- nice one! I truly wish I had known about this piece earlier. I think it would have opened more doors, earlier for me. James Rhodes makes such a good case for it: https://youtu.be/pLB64p4J8FQ

And Ave Maria, it's just so completely genius to build a melody on top of this.

QuasiUnaFantasia Heh, it's Bach... but thank you!

MHirsch

CyberGene Fantastic video, keep on doing them!

You should record Scriabin like this!

QuasiUnaFantasia

Very nice, and very cool!

Del Vento

navindra Rear lights -- yes I stuck an LED strip to the back of my Novus and it's reflecting on the wall. It looks way better in real life and it was disappointing to see it turn out this way when recorded. I actually had to turn down the LED brightness quite a bit to not completely blow out on video.

It's not too bad, but having been bitten by similar experience when taking pictures (I don't like and don't take any efforts for videos) let me ask again. Have you tried (at least in pictures) to see if you can capture them with HDR or with RAW editing, based on my earlier comments about log vs linear response of cameras vs human eye?

But most importantly, excellent playing, really expressive. You are progressing quite a lot, congrats!

navindra

Del Vento Have you tried (at least in pictures) to see if you can capture them with HDR or with RAW editing, based on my earlier comments about log vs linear response of cameras vs human eye?

Indeed, I shoot all my pictures in RAW and I had been previously experimenting with recording video in S-LOG2 / CINE4 then doing the color grading in post in my previous videos.

With pictures, I have some idea of what I'm doing and I get excellent results, but with video I'm less adept. I had already recorded this footage in normal mode when I received this suggestion... and by that time I had already wrongly concluded that S-LOG2 / CINE4 was generally a waste of my time.

No doubt this would have helped a lot here!

Del Vento But most importantly, excellent playing, really expressive. You are progressing quite a lot, congrats!

Thank you so much!

MHirsch

Now I'm curious to see same the type of recording for the second half of the pair, 4 voices of the c major fugue should look really nice that way!

QuasiUnaFantasia

MHirsch You're being brutal; the fugue is four Henle levels higher. 😀

MHirsch

QuasiUnaFantasia You're being brutal

Well complaining to J.S. would be too late! He wrote the pair, we have to play it! Nothing brutal about it!

Learning voice by voice gets the job done 😃

David B

Very attractive video. Vivid colors, nice playing, variety of camera angles. Really professionally done. What are you using for lighting?

God Bless,
David

navindra

David B Thank you!

If you are referring to the room lighting, it's nothing special. I bought a couple of workshop lights from Costco when they were on sale and I just direct them at the ceiling. The video itself may look different because I cranked up the saturation, to try to get the LED lights to pop a little more.

Joannchr

I like your video and it’s a departure from usual Rousseau , Traum and Kassia video style . I have never been able to watch these videos until the end . I can listen to it to the end without watching as they are talented pianists but I prefer a video that tells a story to complement the music . If I listen to clair de lune and see a video at the same time , I much prefer to watch a nice evocative scenery rather than to watch pianist hands . Of course, its a different matter is the purpose of the video is to be a tutorial . So we’ll done

navindra

Joannchr Thanks and thanks for the insights!

Yes, I agree with you. Rousseau has been a puzzle for me as well. I'm also unable to watch these videos.

There are indeed some pianists out there with amazing production values, but I assume they are supported by a whole production team. I also assume that they do multiple takes and piece the footage from various shoots. And the actual performance is probably recorded when no cameras are even running.

I'm shooting for the middle ground, for better or worse.

Joannchr

navindra definitely . It’s always a collage of several takes + midi editing to normalise note durations , specially In arpeggios passages + rendering within a DAW + specific reverb plugin + EQ . I guess nothing wrong with that . Classical recordings on CD or Vinyl of our favourite pianists are also a montage of various takes + enrichment/mixing of the audio.

CyberGene

Joannchr Classical recordings on CD or Vinyl of our favourite pianists are also a montage of various takes + enrichment/mixing of the audio.

True. Until recently I was unaware of that fact and it was quite a shock for me to realize that even Krystian Zimerman relied on many takes to produce the wonderful Chopin Ballade videos and the final performance is a mix from multiple takes, not just "the best" take. So far all my piano recordings have been of "easy" (for me) piano works because that's the best I can play with only a few mistakes and after more than 20 takes until I minimize the mistakes. And it makes me reconsider that approach and start attempting more difficult works and record through MIDI and then edit wrong notes. Or combine multiple takes into one without mistakes. But I don't believe in that latter approach since the feel is different in each take.

David B

Joannchr Classical recordings on CD or Vinyl of our favourite pianists are also a montage of various takes + enrichment/mixing of the audio.

I never knew that. I also didn't realize that YouTube videos can be done like that as well. I usually have to play a song for a while, and then when I feel I'm ready to record, I'll end up recording several takes and choose the best one to upload.

God Bless,
David

Joannchr

CyberGene indeed , it is hard work to reassemble and make it sound as one take . Usually what they do is they assemble different passages with different atmospheres such as intro , 1st theme introduction , 2nd theme etc. It is very difficult on acoustic to proceed otherwise . With midi you can do anything you want , adjust the tempo if needed , and it is a video ? From the moment you have at least 2 cameras , there is no limit to editing . I suspect a lot of videos using midi on YouTube are also accelerated.

CyberGene

David B I also didn't realize that YouTube videos can be done like that as well.

They use multiple cameras from different angles, so they can switch to the other camera at the point of stitching so that it’s not obvious.

Joannchr

David B you know sometimes it is more authentic that way . For the anecdote best recording of Ravel concerto for left hand was a recording from Samson Francois , probably the best Ravel interpreter . There was a few mistakes in the recording but overall it was an exceptional piece of art . The music company wanted to take a second shot but Samson F. refused and said that he preferred to stick with that recording as he felt it was magical and it was more important than some bump notes.

Del Vento

David B Joannchr Classical recordings on CD or Vinyl of our favourite pianists are also a montage of various takes + enrichment/mixing of the audio.

I never knew that.

Sadly that is the state of the affair for most recordings, and it has been so for a while.

Joannchr David B you know sometimes it is more authentic that way . For the anecdote best recording of Ravel concerto for left hand was a recording from Samson Francois , probably the best Ravel interpreter . There was a few mistakes in the recording but overall it was an exceptional piece of art . The music company wanted to take a second shot but Samson F. refused and said that he preferred to stick with that recording as he felt it was magical and it was more important than some bump notes.

Oh absolutely. Luckly, there still are live recordings. Music a performing art, and the immediacy of the performance, and the "magic" of the moment is its best IMHO. This is obviously true in jazz, but it was true in "classical" music too, more or less until the rise of the recording devices, when perfection started to become a fixation of the performers. I have some books of that era (*) in which they go at great length on what the performer should be concentrate on, and it's shockingly how different the recommendations are for concerts vs recording.

I like a lot Phil Best's quote that there are no wrong notes and no wrong rhythms, as long as what you play is what you mean (which I guess for lowly amateurs like myself is the crux….)

(*) for example this one

QuasiUnaFantasia

I wonder what happens when AI can generate a video to match a given soundtrack, as in: AI generate a video that matches this sound file perfectly, showing me playing this music on my digital piano!

Just a (slightly disconcerting) thought ...