Piano Roll vs. Staff

[stevel]

Recently I've taken up composing with notation. I'm very poor at reading notation

Well, it's great you're doing this now becuase trust me, you'll get better at it!

and I cannot imagine what the different notes sound without the aid of a computer, so I'm very reliant on my ears. But with notation I can get much better visual feedback about my score. I can see more of the music than by using piano roll.

I'm used to looking at both and I can pretty much "read" a piano roll "score". It's not really all that difficult and in fact, it's really easier than notation in that time is graphically rather than symbollically represented.

I agree that the piano roll gives a lot more precision for making the MIDI sound what you want it to, but I have found general composition to be faster with notation for myself.

Depends on what you want though - if you want to draw in a line of notes it's often easier to do it graphically in a roll layout.

May I ask how do you do the patch changes? I'd be very interested to know about another method as I've always struggled with patch changes on sound libraries when composing. It's rather annoying. If I use notation I'd have to mess up my score by adding keyswitch notes to it to trigger different articulations, and it's not easy using the piano roll to do it either.

Well, ideally, you have more than 16 channels and more than one device so you don't have to make patch changes :-).

But when I do, I put them in a list editor. Actually, that's another form of notation we haven't mentioned but it can be just as viable, if not more so, a method of inputting data depending on what you're doing. Patch changes usually involve an MSB/LSB pair to determine the Bank, and a Patch Number to determine the sound. So since there's three elements you need to enter, I find entering them in a list to be the most accurate and efficient (and easiest to change if need be).

You can also enter them in other graphic types of display but I've always found it's difficult to put 128 choices in graphically and have enough mouse resolution to confidently pick the right one, and then usually the bank changes are poorly implemented.

Best,
Steve

[crimson]

A list editor? I don't think I've ever heard of it. Is it a separate program, or does one come with sequencers such as Cubase? Sounds very interesting.

One strategy with using sound libraries on Sibelius that I've thought of would be to create separate instrument staffs for entering solely keyswitch notes but is seems like such an ugly and unelegant solution. In my opinion notation software developers and library developers should cooperate more to create quality sound libraries that can automatically interpret notation. It would make things so much easier.

[chckn8r]

Originally Posted by crimson

A list editor? I don't think I've ever heard of it. Is it a separate program, or does one come with sequencers such as Cubase? Sounds very interesting.

Yeah, it's usually a part of any major DAW. It's a list of all the MIDI events in order of occurance throughout the piece. Most let you filter the list to display a certain MIDI port / channel (or range of channels) and/or certain MIDI events. It's pretty handy when you want to get into some pretty nitty-gritty editing. It assumes that you have a pretty good understanding of MIDI - controller numbers, MSB, LSB etc...

[Boneman]

Originally Posted by stevel

And actually, I don't compose on the computer. I compose in my head, and then use paper, or a computer to preserve it, either as sound, or as notation.

Best,
Steve

Wish I could do that Steve!

[MidiWorld]

Composing in your head is fine, I don't know of any other body part better suited for the job. Writing on paper is a bit slow and low-tech, but it did work well for many pre-MIDI folks from Bach to Bartok. I prefer using a MIDI keyboard to play the sketch straight into the computer before I forget it. Later when I have time (I never really do) I can push the wrong notes to the right places and record other parts. MIDI is truly a blessing! I don't have the patience to compose note-by-note, but I have to edit whatever I recorded and I always use staff view for that. It just makes more sense to me. I also use the Event List to insert controller messages and such. It's all a lot of fun but also a lot of time, that's why I specialize in unfinished compositions. I think the most difficult part of composing is deciding when to stop. There are unlimited ways to improve a tune not to mention all the variations, when do you end the creative process and call the piece perfect and done?