| Pro Tools has never had the reputation of being (MIDI)
Composer friendly, but with the upgrade to PT 8 I’ve found that
it’s now my preferred sequencer when composing. The method I’ve
been using and will share with you today has some great benefits to it,
but also a few drawbacks… lets go over them below.
First the negatives… The main drawback to using this method is
that it’s quite time consuming at first. So if you have very strict
deadlines and not enough time to familiarize yourself with this method,
then it may not be for you (at least not at this time). Also, somewhat
related to the previous drawback, you must be fluent in both Pro Tools
8 and Sibelius 5 +. Otherwise, using this method will just be frustrating
and inefficient. I wouldn’t call this a negative, but this method
is not really necessary for loop-based/electronic composers. This method
caters more towards the crowd of composers who like to notate their work
and tend to write orchestral pieces. Last but not least, if you’ve
just purchased your first few virtual instruments or sample libraries
then this method may not be for you. This method works best for a composer
who is familiar with his/her libraries.
With those negatives out of the way, it’s time to talk about the
benefits of using this method. If you are familiar with Pro Tools 8 and
Sibelius 5 +, then you’ll be able to use this method to more accurately
compose for your project and have a notated copy of your most important
parts! I’ve found that when I sit down and focus on every aspect
of notating something (as you have to in Sibelius), my ideas are more
complex, richly detailed, and accurate towards what I want to express
(especially if it’s an instrument/section I can’t play or
in a style that is not improvisatory in nature). It’s also fantastically
convenient to have a majority of the parts already notated for those times
you’d like to have some studio musicians come in and record their
parts to help your mostly sample-based Composition sound alive.
So with that little intro out of the way, lets get to the method...
First off, I like to start with a few of my own personal Pre-Compositional
“rituals” which usually consist of watching the video, looking
at some concept art, or other inspirational project material, and describing
everything in detail. (Perhaps my own personal Pre-Comp rituals would
be a good topic for a future article, but I’ll spare you the time
in this article :)) After this is completed to my satisfaction, I would
begin to work in Sibelius.
If it’s a video you’re working with, then you should go through
and map out the hit points and decide which ones are important (downbeat
hits) and others which shouldn’t carry as much weight (less emphasized
upbeats etc.) {Ex. 1}. If it’s concept art or something else that
doesn’t need to be time synced, then imposing a “big picture”
form on the entire thing is a wise decision. Which really just means that
you’d be making a rough blue print on where important changes are
to occur and how long you’d like the piece to be. All of this is
subject to change when the “ink hits the paper”.
{Ex. 1} (This Example is already
notated, but yours won’t be at first)
Next, it’s best to actually take a step back from
Sibelius and choose your instrumentation based off of all the information
gathered in the Pre-Composition process. By this time, you should have
a rough idea of when certain instruments will be used, what will be your
primary/focus instrument, your background instruments, etc. All of this
is important to physically write down for three reasons. One, studies
have shown that a majority of people remember and learn better if they
physically write down something as soon as they think of/hear it. Two,
you’ll have something to go back to later as reference in case you
forget. Three, if your piece becomes huge and yourself famous, then this
little piece of paper could be worth a ton and you could sell it on E-bay
:-P.
Once this is done, all of the organizational markers and
structures are in place for you to begin composing. How you do this though,
is completely up to you. I know many people who like to just improvise
on their instrument (keyboard, guitar, etc.) until they come up with something
appropriate. However, I know of many others who can already hear a majority
of the piece in their head, so they immediately begin notating. I personally
have used both methods, as the situation always dictates my process. For
example, I will always “toy” around on the guitar first to
come up with a metal groove or jazz chord melody. If I tried to notate
either of these two things before playing them, then it will almost always
come off as contrived. This is almost never the case when I write for
something like a choir or string quintet. I always try to hear those parts
in my head first, and start with notation. I’ll only go to the keyboard/pick
up a guitar if I’m lacking inspiration or can’t hear the complex
harmonies in my head. As a wise man once told me, “It’s all
about context.”
Now, the great part about using Sibelius first (besides
the fact that you have a hard copy of what you composed for future performers),
is that you can go into rich detail and add articulation, dynamics, etc.
Although some of your details may not translate into transferable MIDI
data, the important part is that you were thinking about your composition
in more depth (something you may not get if working outside of notation).
You can always “tweak” later in Pro Tools to accurately express
the detail that your Sibelius MIDI left out. However, most of the time
Sibelius can pick up these nuances and is able to translate them into
importable MIDI data. This will make your job in Pro Tools that much easier.
{Ex. 2}
{Ex. 2}
It’s also important at this point to think ahead of
the libraries you’ll be using to record these parts (I can’t
stress enough the importance of familiarity with your libraries when using
this method). For example, I may want an unmeasured tremolo articulation
in the string section of this piece, but by being familiar with my libraries
I know that I already have a great sounding unmeasured tremolo articulation.
However, it only works over a sustained MIDI note. Sibelius will literally
chop up that unmeasured tremolo articulation into many MIDI notes and
will almost always sound “robotic” if used as is.
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So, in my Sibelius notation I will leave the
string section without the unmeasured tremolo articulation and instead
add a note right above saying “U.Tr.” for unmeasured tremolo.
{Ex. 3} (Measured tremolo is different and can usually be used as is).
Then, when you import the MIDI data into PT 8, all you have to do is remember
where you wanted to have the unmeasured tremolo articulation and switch
up the string patch for that section. Little things like this can either
make your workflow consistent and seamless or be utterly frustrating to
the point of discarding this method entirely. That’s why I stress
the importance of being familiar with your libraries.
{Ex. 3}
I know a few of you are probably thinking right now. “Are you
saying we should notate every single instrument out and do so before we
even play/record anything? I don’t have time for that!” The
answer is actually... “No”.
I recommend only notating the instruments that: Aren’t improvisatory
in nature (sometimes stylistically dependent), you might have a session
musician come in and play later, or you can’t accurately articulate
while playing through a MIDI keyboard/controller. For me personally, I’ll
usually just notate the Orchestra’s “foundation instrument
sections” like the strings, brass, and woodwinds or whatever other
instrument/section is most important in this piece. It may be all of them
or just one… it completely depends on the length of the piece and
my deadline. Context :).
So lets say during the notating process you run into writer’s
block, are getting bored, or decide that some “non-notateable”
instruments have a larger role in this composition. At this point it’s
perfectly fine to begin working in Pro Tools and recording a few of the
parts which don’t need to be (or aren’t able to be) notated.
This will help break up the monotony of the notating process and may even
inspire new ideas! Just make sure to have your PT session “mapped”
out like you did in Sibelius before you begin recording.
That segues to our next important topic in this method… map out
your PT session :). That means making markers at hit points/important
sections, changing meters/tempos, and all of the other little things you
can do to help reference back to where you are (and what should be happening)
in the piece. As long as your not asking yourself “Where was this
part supposed to go again… or where the heck was that hit in measure
43?” then you’ll be fine. {Ex. 4}
{Ex. 4}
Now that you have your PT session mapped out, it’s time to convert
your Sibelius Notation into MIDI data and then import all the MIDI data
to your PT session. I prefer to have just one Stereo Aux Track with a
VI loaded as a plug-in and then bus it through to its appropriate Audio
and MIDI track. {Ex. 5} However, you can also take the imported MIDI data
and use instrument tracks instead… it just tends to take a lot more
work and CPU if you have a ton of tracks to work with.
{Ex. 5}
Once your tracks are all set up how you like (color coded, grouped,
etc.) I would recommend going through and slightly altering the velocity
on each one of your MIDI tracks before recording. Even though your Sibelius
dynamics will be included in the MIDI data it’s not always perfect
and doing this will help “shape” the piece and feel more realistic
in the long term. At this point, your ready to load up the appropriate
virtual instrument(s) and record all of the audio. Of course, as you listen
to the piece and it begins to take form, you’ll find that some of
the parts you wrote aren’t necessary any more or that you may even
like to add a few new ones. That’s perfectly natural and a part
of the Composition process. If you feel that this method feels too “robotic,”
then I would recommend playing only the main melody/focus line on your
keyboard and keep the rest true to this method. You’d be quite surprised
at how that tends to “rejuvenate” the other instruments.
The end result of using this method (after mixing/mastering which would
be a completely new article) is something that you not only have a hard
copy of, but have probably thought more about as well. Thus helping it
feel more authentic and accurate in expressing yours (or the project’s)
intention. In fact, if you’d like to hear the result of one of my
pieces using this method, just Click
Here and tell me where to send the track.
Thanks for reading, take care, and keep composing fellow artists!
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