Yesterday I was trying to convert some new songs I have been working on from .midi form (which I do my notations in) into .mp3 files, but the site I normally use (HamieNET) was down.
I was not impressed.
And as is usually the case in these situations I promptly looked for alternative free routes.
And that lead me to the Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter. It may not be free but it’s got a great 30 day trial which I’m VERY pleased with. It comes with it’s own soundfont and makes adding new soundfonts incredibly simple. The sound is crisp and clear which is a huge step forward; HamieNET’s conversions (as I’m sure you heard) tended to get scratchy. Not these. And it lets you control the reverb and adjust individual track volumes as you’re about to convert your files which is just fugging awesome. Needless to say I’m very impressed. It may not be garageband but it’s the best I have to work with right now and it’s a hell of a lot better than what I was using.
So in light of the new renderings at my disposal, I thought I’d share some of my older, pre-Dysfunction stuff here on the ol’ blog. It’s all classical/instrumental shit stuff, so I hope you like it, let me know what you think.
This one’s aptly named ‘Orchestration 4′. Really got the creative juices flowing on
that title. This was the first time I ever really toyed around with percussion instruments, as well as weaving motifs throughout a song. SO MUCH fun to write. It’s for strings, harp, glocksenspiel and numerous percussions, along with the occasional orchestra hit.
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This second one is called ‘To London’. It’s a piece I was writing in dedication to my city (here in Ontario, not the one cross the pond). It’s got a bit of a jazzy feel, I was aiming for something kinda urban
although I think I failed at that. I worked on it for a couple days then got bored so it’s not even close to being finished. It’s for full orchestra.
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This final one here was a string quartet piece I was working on called ‘Orsus’, being Latin for ‘a beginning, undertaking, or initiative’. I thought of it as one of the first more serious pieces I worked on, and so ‘a beginning’ referred to the beginning of the wonderful things I would write (roflmao, talk about delusions). It’s very slow and not even CLOSE to being done, but this new rendering sounded amazing compared to the old version so I might just be inspired enough to work on it again.
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On a side note, I rearranged my room last night!!!111!!1!1!! I know you’re as excited as I am. There’s something about newly rearranged rooms that inflicts me with such joy. It’s a sickness really… and it runs in my family. My mom didn’t work on Fridays when I was younger and so more often then not, we’d come home from school and the living room would be turned around or the computer would be in the basement or somehow the couch found it’s way onto the back patio. -sigh- Goooooooooodtimes.
-Travis Conrad
