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One of the great things about film music is the immediacy. You write something and record it.

But samplers have always been a hindrance rather than a help. I just couldn’t write what I wanted, I was limited to writing for the sampler’s limited abilities. It was just a completely unmusical experience.

Things are changing. For the first time I can imagine something for real instruments of an orchestra and just play it with the sounds inside my computer.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s not the same as a real instrument and I doubt it will ever be, but I can finally write what I want as if I were writing for real instruments and just play it rather than program it.

Today I want to present my newest toy: Clone Ensemble.

Choir samples are as limiting as you can imagine. You just can’t write as if it was a choir, forget it. Some get close, though, but it still becomes programming rather than music. And what about capturing the right inflection and emotion in the voice? Forget it. Only singing can do that.

Enter Clone Ensemble. With this plug-in I am able to sing what I want and it takes care of making my voice sound like the different sections in a choir.

Here is an example I wrote in about 5 minutes and then recorded in about 10. It has a Mozart meets Orff vibe. I sang all the parts independently, letting the plug-in take care of making my tenor voice jump up an octave to create the sopranos and altos. I just had to make sure I sang falsetto.

I doubled the choir with instruments to increase realism, because the choir plug-in sound when exposed is not as satisfying, but I haven’t finished experimenting with it.

Not bad. Not bad at all. Let’s what else it can do.

Today I begin engraving Sandro’s piece!

But that doesn’t mean it is finished, because it definitely is not. I have the skeleton of the piece in place, and I just need to fill it out.

Here’s an example.

This shows an idea for a line where I knew how everything else was supposed to go around it, so I didn’t stop to write out all the details, choosing instead to keep on writing the main line.

If I had taken the time to fill out every detail of note, chord, counterpoint, voice-leading etc… then I would have surely lost my flow of ideas.

This is an extreme example, though. Most of the piece is much completely fleshed out than that. Filled out enough that I am ready to begin engraving.

I like to start engraving at this stage because it is really exciting and motivating to see the piece start to take on its final, engraved look.

But I also start engraving now because it breaks up the work a bit: I fill out a page or two of the piece with paper and pencil at the piano, and then move to the computer to engrave them. Then back to the piano and so on.

It keeps it more varied and thus more interesting.

And because it is done digitally, once the piece is engraved I will still be able to make all kinds of changes, additions, deletions and whatever else needs to be done to get this piece as a fit as a fiddle.

Now, I need to start thinking about titles…