Bill why not just find a good midi file. I have maybe 20 or 30 real good midi files I use for Rocking Robin, Ray Charles Georgia, etc. They are almost excatly like the record.

Uh, I said in the first sentence there is no midi for the hypothetical song. (There aren't midis for some songs I'd like to play. Contemporary hit songs.)

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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

The easiest way by far, is to start with PG Music's Band-In-A-Box. You can literally create a song in minutes... selecting from 100s of styles. You may then want to refine the song in their PowerTracks sequencer, altho, BIAB may be all you need. Great program - cheap, easy, and good support.
http://www.pgmusic.com/

Glenn

Hi Bill
Here's one I baked earlier!
Have fun with your own efforts.
here

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Eddie from Rotherham
Skype:eddiefromrotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

Good points Bill!

To sidetrack a little, the reason I use midi files (in the keys / drums / vocals duo of which I am half) is that the public - especially the younger public - is expecting us to produce a noise which is a reasonable representation of the original. We started using sequences over 18 years back (we were a trio then) after being involved in a disastrous audition; we were the only totally live act (everyone else had tapes) and were completely and obviously outclassed. An Ensoniq ESQ1 was purchased to provide limited sequence capability, and to beef up the sound.

More recently (say 15 years back) it became obvious that when working with DJ's we were finding that even though we were doing pretty good versions of modern stuff, the younger end of the audience just would not dance when we were on. At this point I got an Ensoniq SD1 (with floppy disc!) to allow much greater flexibility and opportunity to use more sequences (the ESQ1 was memory limited).

And a few years after that I did a couple of years mid-week as a solo act (to help out a hotel who'd been let down). I got a PSR630 for that job and thus got into Midi files.

And now I'm a PSR3000 owner!

These days, even though as two middle aged gentlemen mostly singing songs originally sung by younger acts (with (a) more members and (b) girls) we find that we can shift any age group, because whilst the files are "our version" (and more especially "our key") they still are close enough to the originals that they are INSTANTLY recognisable; this greatly reduces the "I don't know this song I'll sit down" tendency.

To anwser the original question, am I try to get an exact representation?

Sort of.

I try to exactly reproduce drums and bass as these hold the song together. I like to get string and brass pretty close as well. Piano I get exact if slow and melodic and somewhere near for rapid rhythmic stuff; ditto guitar.

When transcribing a song I try to isolate the elements that make the song different and get those precisely right; so I look for the hits, fills and riffs, especially those that are not being played behing vocals. I concentrate less on the finer details of the track behind lead vocals because the audience is listening to the vocals and not the backing at that point.

The mix of the track is also biased to leave space for me to play some keys and esepcially the drummer to play lots of drums; these stops our "version" turning into glorified karaoke.

I find that the more uptempo a track, the more fine detail you can leave out because in a live situation no one can hear it anyway. These are the "go for the right feel" situations.

I would say that you have captured EXACTLY the art of "our version".
What the general public listen for are the bits which they recognise, even without knowing the technicalities.
Overall, I would say that your synopsis is perfect.
Well Done!
cheers
Eddie


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Eddie from Rotherham
Skype:eddiefromrotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info



[This message has been edited by eddiefromrotherham (edited 08-18-2006).]

MacAllcock, how long would you estimate it requires for you to do a song?

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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJmXzNgi1Qc

This video might help you with the process.

How long does it take to do this....

Thats the hardest question of all.

Sometimes, if I know a tune really well, I can get to the "usable" stage in under 3 hours, but this would tend to be with ballads where the various elements are easy to isolate.

In reality I don't really count the time because I know if I did the answer would be longer than I'd like it to be. I suppose the average is about 10 hours, but in real time it's probably onger because I get frustrated and do something else, or worst case get frustrated and start from scratch again!

I admire the people who do this professionally, they must work their socks off!

I suppose the "that's good enough" point is reached by the law of diminishing returns, once I've decided that the version created does sufficient justice to the original.

Also, the nice thing about midi files is that you can always go back. At times my partner in the band has got so frustrated with the time I'm taking on "fine tuning" that we have "gone live" with a version that I personally am not happy with, just to see how well it works. And usually, I must admit, they go fine. But if the version sounds dodgy, at least there's another voice suggesting improvements and the next time is usually better.

Ultimately we are back to that old favourite, personal opinion!

Semi,the most important thing that you are going to get out of this exercise is bigger ears because you're gonna be running your playback device into the ground!

Another way to figure out backing tracks is to isolate each track of similar styles in the mixer section of your keyboard and listen to it at least 10x.This will further give you an appreciation for how seemingly simple music can be sometimes when,in reality,it isn't.

[This message has been edited by casiobot (edited 08-19-2006).]