I spend a lot of time using sample based instruments, and a constant issue is trying to get the music to not sound like...well, samples. Tonight I decided to revisit an older composition, and see about trying to get it to sound a bit more human....and decided the best way to do that was to hook up my microphone.
The piece I was looking over was my City Theme, a decidedly medieval piece that features several recorder parts, as well as basic handheld percussion. I like the piece, but it's always had a video game feel to it, largely in part because of the sampled instruments. Since I already had my MIDI information in the project, all I had to do was have Logic display the MIDI as notes, grab my instruements, and press record. (I know there's probably a way to get Logic to display the note information of a MIDI line while you record an audio line, but I couldn't find it. I just took a screenshot of the MIDI score, and kept it on top of the Logic window using the Afloat plugin). I added a little basic hand percussion in the form of a shaker and a low-end bodhran from Irishfest, and the transformation was complete.
Here's how it sounded originally...
And here's the version with four tracks of real instruments amongst the samples. (I also added some EQ adjustments and some compression to thicken up the sound...so the difference isn't all because of live instruments).
City Theme - Real Recorders
I know that it seems like the take-home message here is, "well, duh...real instruments sound better than sampled ones!" I think the surprise is that somewhat badly recorded instruments (as in, no fancy room, recorded in my living room) can sound better than a decently sampled instrument. The randomness imbued into a performance by a human is still pretty hard to replicate!
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