Fresh MIDI from fresh composer

[raib]

First post. And my first full song I've written. Previous experience is limited to 4 or 8 bar Guitar Pro loops, free time whistling and some teenage guitar play.

For some time I've had this little dream of having a creation of mine play on someones Doom map. On 8th of January 2024 the inspiration hit, and with the energy boost provided by black tea I rushed out this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pbdiIswKwYIvu9hzpNtIm2X0vXVS08JW/view?usp=drive_link

Black Tea - by raib (I know. I suck at naming)
Made with Guitar Pro 5.2 for Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth

It's an experimental song with the aim to combine certain midi instruments for a cool sounding lead, while keeping it fairly simple (9 tracks total).
Influenced by EDM and Melodic Death-Metal.
No fadeouts or empty bars for a bit better loop.
- I know it's not very Doom-like. But I'd be super happy if any of you find any use for it!

It's also a learning step for me. As I'm completely new to the scene I have no idea what the prerequisites for a working file are...
...Do I need to avoid certain instruments or percussion?
...Do I need to avoid any effects of Guitar Pro? (I've used the mix table to change instruments, volumes)
...Do I need to have other soundfonts in mind?
Help with the general guidelines is greatly appreciated. I'm interested in learning. Critique and ideas are welcome. Thanks!

Self Critique:
-Transitions are non-existent
-Lacks bass melody or even a mid-line (Edit: Not so much anymore. But I'm not too happy with the result lol)
-Build-up might be too slow

All my MIDIs can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RdhhP9u5heGirWG1rfLCqZckjzZyfRg-?usp=drive_link

(Edit: New links. First version had a bit too low volume and some playback issues when hitting the sound limit at the end. Seems it's not just about the amount of notes but echoing sounds overlapping! So I had to get rid of some octaves. Hardly noticeable. - I'll still include a no_bass version plus the buggy original file in the google drive folder)

Edited January 24 by raib

[Lippeth]

Sounds great on my end, I really like main melody and chord progression; the added percussion sounds add a lot to the energy. The MIDI used in Doom wads these days can really vary in style, but this has a nice atmosphere that I can hear in like an underground tech map or even a big gothic cathedral. If I were to get critical I would want to hear a tight low bass melody (off the cuff I'm hearing a quarter note triplet pattern and something more busy when the synth goes into triplets) to fill out the frequency spectrum and make the whole thing really groove, all it's missing to me is a nice low end rhythm. I just read your self criticism but instead of deleting what I wrote I'll just cross it out.

 

If you're talking about compatibility with the majority of end users in mind, I would avoid using anything outside of what's supported by GM1. As far as GM1 instruments, nothing's off limits if you trust your own style and sensibilities. Dragonfly has this MIDI challenge exercise where you compose a song in under two hours using the specified instruments, time signatures and tempos at least once in the song in order to encourage experimentation and broaden mental limits.

 

I don't personally use Guitar Pro, but several folks on here do and can probably be more helpful in that regard. As long as it's supported by GM1 and plays back after you export the .mid file, I'm sure it'll playback for others just fine.

 

Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth seems to be the general end target for many composers, but if there's a different soundfont or synth you like, you can always specify the target in a text file when people download it. You either will or won't grow accustom to others ignoring that and using an array of wild soundfonts on your music that may or may not ruin all sense of your intention, so all you can really do is listen back on a few of the more popular soundfonts before releasing it and try not to go crazy making adjustments in each one. I don't really know what soundfonts most people are into either, I usually just target MS GS WS or GS hardware.

 

Anyway, welcome to the forum and I hope to hear more tunes!

[raib]

5 hours ago, Lippeth said:

 

Thank you for the tips and the kind words. This piece might see a v2 with a bass line someday. I just need some serious practice and studying with those.

And yeah. Hopefully another experiment will meet its final form in the near future!

[Fookerton]

I like the tune a good bit, but I'll refrain from any advice about composition because the inherent subjectivity of the subject and also there are many other much more qualified people here to comment on such things.

 

BUT I do have considerable experience using guitar pro 5 for sequencing my own midis, so here's a few notes about the software:

• Looks like you've already figured out not to utilize the RSE effects or playback engine, that is there for playback within GP5 and not really for exported files.
• GP5 handles "individual" tracks in kind of a non intuitive way. You'll notice that when you add a track, it actually assigns two channels to the track. The reason for this is to allow for greater-than-one step pitch bends and certain other "guitar" techniques to actually playback correctly in General MIDI (which doesn't support >1 step bends) [EDIT: I kind of misspoke here, pitch bend range is technically decided by the synth, but the GM parameter is generally synced to +/- 2 semitones by most MIDI synthesizers) ex: Track 1 utilizes MIDI channel one for the first half of a two-step pitch bend, and the second channel to complete it. Obviously what this means is that your total amount of tracks are halved unless you assign the track to one channel. The trade off there is that if you try to utilize anything that might need that second channel (ie. large pitch bends, the wide vibrato, or whammy bar stuff) needs then it will not playback correctly, either in GP5 or the midi file you export. A good rule of thumb regarding this is that instruments with alot of articulation (say, a guitar, other stringed instruments, synths, the vocal/choir patches, and so on) could benefit from this, but anything that generally doesn't (pianos or other percussive instruments) may as well use one channel.
• Vibrato and especially "wide vibrato" take up alot of space and I mean alot in an event list. Your exported midi file could bloat to be quite large if you overuse these.
• Save often. GP5 has always been considerably unstable for me though I suppose ymmv. But better safe than sorry.
• If you are using the MSGS wavetable for playback, then the Chorus and Reverb settings on each track won't seem to do anything, but they do work. The Microsoft wavetable simply doesn't support effects, but most other synths do and your settings for those parameters are saved in your exported midi file.
• On that note, I'd recommend getting a softsynth set up for playback as opposed to the Microsoft wavetable. This is more for convenience and avoiding buggy playback, because while you should use whatever you think the end-user will use, the MSGS wavetable simply doesn't work or borks out on occasion. I personally use coolsoft virtualmidisynth and a roland GS based soundfont which essentially is the same thing as MSGS but with better quality samples and effects support. This has the added benefit of being able to switch soundfonts on the fly.
• Using the mixtable is perfectly fine, it's more or less an interface for inputting MIDI commands and/or altering parameters. Everything it can do is supported by General MIDI outside of the RSE field.

I have a few other things I wanted to get into, but this is running long and my memory is goin fritzy. But i hope this helps a bit and if you have any specific questions about gp I can try to answer.

Looking forward to more tunes!

Edited January 10 by Fookerton
clarification

[raib]

4 hours ago, Fookerton said:

 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Very important stuff that I didn't have a clue of. Seriously appreciated!