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Gestrument for orchestral music?

Isolator707Isolator707
in General App Discussion

Hello, I’ve been considering Gestrument while it’s on sale. High quality orchestral instruments, and the means to articulate them realistically, are very important to me. (FingerFiddle, ROLI NOISE with SWAM strings, etc). Can Gestrument Pro scratch this itch?

Thanks and happy holidays!
Isolator707

Comments

  • skiphuntskiphunt
    edited December 2018

    @Isolator707 said:
    Hello, I’ve been considering Gestrument while it’s on sale. High quality orchestral instruments, and the means to articulate them realistically, are very important to me. (FingerFiddle, ROLI NOISE with SWAM strings, etc). Can Gestrument Pro scratch this itch?

    Thanks and happy holidays!
    Isolator707

    This incredible piece was composed using Gestrument on an iPad. It was also used in the performance! Magnificent! :) Emerging from Currents and Waves, Baltic Sea Festival 2018

  • ohwellohwell
    edited December 2018

    @Isolator707 I agree with @skiphunt Do keep in mind that the piece above uses Gestrument for control, not for its sound engine.

    Do you mean using Gestrument pro with the built in sounds only? If so, you might not be satisfied. The built in sounds are certainly nice and very useable, but AFAIK they aren't trying to do the kind of job things like SWAM do - or any other tool to achieve highly articulated orchestral instrument sound. If you're looking to use Gestrument pro to control external synths with the kind of articulation you like, then sky is the limit.. (If other experienced Gestrument pro users have a different take, please correct me. I haven't been heavily focused on exploring the built in sounds - I tend to control external synths with the midi data.)

    @JesperNordin @Gestrumentsander Speaking of which, it would be truly wonderful to get some kind of tutorial/video lesson where @JesperNordin gives some example(s) of his own composition workflow with Gestrument pro. (I mean, (1) how does Jesper go about trying out new musical ideas quickly on Gestrument? (2) What kind of strategies has he found effective in capturing promising trials, and building them into something more definitive? (3) How does Jesper use Gestrument to expand/develop material that has already been selected/somewhat arranged (as in step (2) - or e.g. in Emerging from Currents and Waves)? )

  • JesperNordinJesperNordin

    Oh my - don't indulge me @ohwell, I can go on forever when I start to talk about my own music;-) Actually, we have talked about a tutorial like that - great to hear there is interest for it!

    @Isolator707 - I think the others replied well to your question, Gestrument is not really focused on the built-in sounds or ways of making things sound realistic (even though some of our possibilities for control can make things sound quite "human" in some ways). It's really about finding new ways of thinking about, and interacting with music on larger scale - what we have started calling that you play on "DNA" of music. You can define the global rules and then change them while you play, which gives you compositional possibilities that you can't find almost anywhere else.

  • simonnowissimonnowis

    +1 on the tutorial :)

    i LOVE LOVE LOVE gestrument pro :)

    ...even in my ham-fisted monkey way, it always rewards

    and playing with the "dna" of music makes a great deal of sense to me

    i've been enjoying feeding it midi files - aspects of the original drifting through - somehow different, somehow the same - always a joy :)

  • MayoMayo

    @simonnowis said:

    i've been enjoying feeding it midi files - aspects of the original drifting through - somehow different, somehow the same - always a joy :)

    How about a tutorial on this?

  • simonnowissimonnowis

    oh issa nothing special - the magic comes from gestrument pro :)

    i simply feed a midi file in, as a scale, then play with the instrumentation and settings

    this builds a piece / a playing surface that feels original, but with fragments of the real original coming through - its 'dna'

    it pleases me

    and, as it's a playing surface (rather than a fixed 'song'), my original can be different (but similar) everytime too - i'm playing with its 'dna'

  • scadetscadet

    @JesperNordin

    +1 for a tutorial! Absolutely loving Gestrument Pro here.

  • ohwellohwell
    edited December 2018

    @JesperNordin I know it can be very time consuming to create this kind of material - the tutorials so far are extremely well produced. Two small thoughts:

    • For something that is more about sharing your own Gestrument Pro workflow, I'm guessing a less formal/produced format like a live stream (with the option to playback the recording - I think youtube enables this?) would be just as satisfying for those of us who are interested. Even more simple (don't know how easy to setup a live stream would be for you/your team), a format where you do the same thing you would do with a live stream (fixed amount of time, one shot + no editing) but just give users access to the unedited video after the fact would still be great.

    (I know it's very important to have promo/tutorial material that is carefully edited and produced for gestrument pro. Maybe it's just me, but when it comes to learning from your own approach and workflow, the content is more than interesting enough to find an audience even with a less polished form..)

    • As (perhaps) a different kind of step in the direction of giving us occasion to learn from your own approach to Gestrument Pro, I wonder if you might have any interest in releasing Gestrument Pro presets of your own. Anything from an official Jesper Nordin presets IAP to simply posting a few presets of yours on the forum here would be super valuable to many of us IMO.
  • lukesleepwalkerlukesleepwalker

    For what it's worth, I still am challenged by importing MIDI files but would love to know how!

  • simonnowissimonnowis

    @Mayo @lukesleepwalker

    re: midi file as scales

    the fur Elise scale under the 'Piano Improvisation' preset shows how this sounds

    for my own, i tend to use 'open in' from audioshare to get the midi into gestrument, though i have just tried using the Files app, and 'open in' from the internet, and both worked well

    Note: the .mid extension needs to be lowercase

    the scale will appear at the bottom of the scale list, under USER

    :)

    i'm having good fun with the 'Space is the Place' midi from here ...

    http://www.rob-cohen.com/marchestra.html

  • JesperNordinJesperNordin

    Thanks @simonnowis for helping out when we were slow in replying! We will do a tutorial about this in the not too distant future! @Gestrumentsander is on the case!

    @ohwell - thanks for your suggestions! I have been thinking along those lines, so it's good to hear that you think it would be a good format!

  • lukesleepwalkerlukesleepwalker

    @simonnowis thanks for your explanation--your bolded note about lower case extension cracked the code for me! I can now import MIDI files predictably. Merci!

  • MayoMayo

    @simonnowis - thanks for the tips!!!

  • MayoMayo

    OH YEAH - great find
    Sun Ra midi files....

    • :p
  • MayoMayo

    So what is the story with midi files containing chords?
    Or really long midi files...
    When importing midi files, is it more suited to driving melodic content?
    Trying to get my head around this beast :/
    Would be great to have a video on interacting with midi files

  • simonnowissimonnowis

    @mayo

    i'm still in the 'ain't this just magical' stage of gestrument pro, enjoying it everytime i pick it up, so others may be better placed to give detailed information.

    but, as for long midi files, the circles at the beginning and end of the darker grey shading of the scale (the first at the top of the front, and the second at the bottom of the end) can be dragged and moved to give a smaller (or greater) range within the scale.

    if that makes sense ;)

    i tend to use this to find interesting sections within a larger midi

  • MayoMayo

    Thanks for the great tips @simonnowis
    There are not many apps I want to give much of my time to - so that I know it like the back of my hand,
    but GP I am so impressed with.
    So.... I'm going to be a good boy and properly do my homework o:)

  • MayoMayo

    @JesperNordin - what is "Stream" when quantization is selected?

    Any more videos coming soon?

  • JesperNordinJesperNordin

    @simonnowis - thanks for explaining, we will do a video about this in the future as I said. As for chords, they become a series of notes, as they do in ScaleGen.

    @Mayo more videos coming as soon as we can make them;-)

    Stream and On grid are explained like this in the manual - is it clear?

    Quantization
    You can set Quantization to either On grid or Stream. On grid quantizes all onsets on the grids of the durations relative absolute clock start, while stream allows syncopes to happen if a long duration comes after a short. Think of it as On grid is always on time with the current duration and Stream creates a stream of notes of the current duration.

  • MayoMayo

    Thanks for the explanation,
    "Stream creates a stream of notes of the current duration" - makes sense.
    I need to play with Stream to find out what I can do with it.
    Is anyone else mucking with Stream instead of Grid?

  • lukesleepwalkerlukesleepwalker

    @Mayo said:
    Thanks for the explanation,
    "Stream creates a stream of notes of the current duration" - makes sense.
    I need to play with Stream to find out what I can do with it.
    Is anyone else mucking with Stream instead of Grid?

    Honestly, I don't really understand the explanation!

  • JesperNordinJesperNordin

    Here is an example:

    If you have only 1/1 notes and 1/16 notes in your Pulse generator and you start playing in the 16th-note area for three 16th notes and there move to the 1/1 area and stay there you would get two different results with Stream and On Grid:

    On grid - you get three 16th notes and when you go to the 1/1 area you get silence until the metronome has reached the next full bar, since the whole will be on the grid. All whole notes will be on the first beat of the bar - always.

    Stream - you get three 16th notes and when you go to the 1/1 area you get a whole note directly, which is then offset from the first beat of the Metronomes by three 16ths. All following whole notes will be offset by three 16th notes.

    Is this more clear? If so - we will add it to then manual;-)

  • lukesleepwalkerlukesleepwalker

    @JesperNordin said:
    Here is an example:

    If you have only 1/1 notes and 1/16 notes in your Pulse generator and you start playing in the 16th-note area for three 16th notes and there move to the 1/1 area and stay there you would get two different results with Stream and On Grid:

    On grid - you get three 16th notes and when you go to the 1/1 area you get silence until the metronome has reached the next full bar, since the whole will be on the grid. All whole notes will be on the first beat of the bar - always.

    Stream - you get three 16th notes and when you go to the 1/1 area you get a whole note directly, which is then offset from the first beat of the Metronomes by three 16ths. All following whole notes will be offset by three 16th notes.

    Is this more clear? If so - we will add it to then manual;-)

    That is very helpful! Use it on the manual.

  • MayoMayo

    That is a much clearer explanation.
    I presumed moving from area A to B with stream meant a succession of randomly timed notes were generated.

    Still need to play with this feature when I get a chance, cause at the moment I cannot grasp why I would want to use stream.
    But I trust you guys have been playing with this for some time and stream is a performance plus.
    Homework to do.

  • JesperNordinJesperNordin

    @Mayo - as always it totally depends on the music you want to make! To simplify it, the On grid setting is great for its clarity and the Stream setting is great for making rhythmic things that are a bit out of the ordinary. But since there are so many other settings as well, you can use both in all kinds of music with good result.

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