I thought the post from
@jbuhler about creating a preset for the opening of The Matrix was an interesting idea, so I've made an attempt at it.
Here is an overview of my approach, the problems I've met and some potential solutions.
I'll try to stick to an overview and keep this post (semi-)manageable, but will hopefully follow up with some further details in separate posts.
I attach, for those interested, the user preset file 'The Faketrix (132).nka' and a MIDI file with the data to drive the preset.
Simply place the .nka file in the 'Ensemble User Data' directory at the location where you installed your 'The Score' library files.
Reference Track for The Faketrix
My first step was to come up with some reference MIDI/tracks to use as a target for what I was trying to achieve.
Now I don't have the score for The Matrix, so I've tried to cobble together something as close as possible based on the original post, the low resolution sample page of the Omni Publishing Score and the original Soundtrack recording.
I split the parts into ten tracks using the single instruments from The Score - I'm not using the Ensemble instrument yet, although I did select single instruments available in the Ensemble with the aim of turning each track into a slot in the Ensemble instrument.
(I had trouble with balancing things, especially the Low Woodwinds, because the individual The Score instruments seem to be stuck at quite a high volume/dynamic level. Despite about a million options for FX, there doesn't seem to be any mixer controls for the individual instruments and it doesn't help that it keeps resetting the Kontakt output volume to default.)
I ended up with the following, which I thought was more or less passable:
View attachment The Faketrix - Target.mp3
(BTW, the intro of the Brass is purposefully delayed by a couple of bars to make it easier to hear what the other instruments are doing in the background.)
This basically consists of the following:
- Clarinet & Bass Clarinet parts assigned to Low WW Staccato (and simplified the harmony a little to make life easier).
- The French Horns assigned to Big Horn Sustain
- The Trumpets to High Brass Sustain
- Timpani doing a low roll
- I've split the original Harp and 2 Piano parts across Harp, Marimba and (Grand) Piano
(You can't use any instrument in more than one slot in the Ensemble.
I could have used the Grand Piano and the Piano, but I thought I'd try the Marimba instead.
Since the Marimba doesn't have the range to replace the Piano, the Marimba is doing the Harp part while the Harp is then doing one of the Piano parts.)
- Violins I and II are High Strings Sustain
- Both Viola parts are High Strings Staccato (and simplified the harmony again)
- Celli and Basses are on Low Strings Sustain
Formulating a Chord Scheme
The next stage is to formulate a chord scheme which we can use to program the Ensemble instrument into producing something like the reference MIDI.
That is to say, working out what notes we need to press to get the MIDI output (from the Ensemble instrument) that matches what we produced earlier.
I think the goal here is probably to keep the chord scheme as simple as possible while still being able to access the notes required.
When designing a preset of any reasonable level of complexity, I think there is a danger in over-engineering the system such that you can get the desired output but only through the use of a very particular combination of input - playing the preset with any other input will then produce strange and undesirable results.
Keeping the chord scheme fairly simple will hopefully make the preset more robust and forgiving, or, if not, then at least it should make it easier to play without completely breaking the effect you are trying to achieve.
If I understood him correctly,
@jbuhler was expressing some concern in his original post about the ability to provide the input such that he would be playing in the correct register for the given instruments.
To my mind, the chord scheme is largely independent from the output MIDI and what is critical is to be able to isolate the particular note values (i.e. C, F#) rather than the particular notes (i.e. C3, F#5).
Once you have access to the particular note values that you want, you should then be able to offset them to the correct register for a given instrument using that instrument's Octave offset setting.
(Of course you may still run into issues, particularly with the Envelope module, with note groupings not coming in the desired order/placement, as with the High Strings Sustain.)
To give a concrete example which will hopefully make sense of this, I settled on the notes E2-C3-E3-G3-B3 as the desired input:
(The C1-F1 notes in the MIDI are triggering the preset stage keyswitches.)
This note input enables us to get the following:
- E2-G2-B2 for the Low WW Staccato using Top 3 note selection with -1 Octave
- E3-G3-B3 for the Horn Sustain using Top 3
- the alternating E-B run for Harp/Marimba/Piano using Lowest + Highest in the Sequencer
- E3-B4 for the High String Sustain using Lowest + Highest with +1 Octave
(actually we wanted E4-B4, but I settled for E3-B4)
- B2-E3-G3-B3 for the High String Staccato using Top 3 in the Sequencer
- E1 for the Low String Sustain using Lowest with -1 Octave
(ideally would have wanted E0-E1, but settled for E1 only)
This gets us most of what we want, with the notable exception of the High Brass Sustain (more on that shortly), with a relatively simple chord structure.
The notes are certainly fairly prescribed and we won't get quite the right voicings/effect with other variations.
However, we can generate the entire track using only those five notes and without having to shift around chords between preset stages, so I'm calling that a success.
