Freezing tracks
I’ve been continuing to move along on the pentatonic orchestral piece.
For the past few nights I’ve been freezing MIDI tracks. That’s the process of converting MIDI tracks to audio. As I’m doing it, the process reminds me of my mom canning fruits and vegetable for the winter when I was a kid. In a sense, I’m packing away the sonic elements I’ll be using in the months ahead to shape the final piece.
Using just the MIDI sequences and MOTU Digital Performer’s Song Mode I’m able to layer tracks and hear roughly how they’ll sound together. But by converting the to audio allows me vastly greater flexibility in layering and moving the sound beds around, adjusting relative volume and pan to make the mix more clear, as well as adding filters and effects.
I’m still not done adding tracks yet. The strings and woodwinds are done but brass and percussion still need to be recorded and frozen. But already the process of creating this piece is giving me ideas for how I might develop other works in the future.