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Steppin’ Out - StaffPad w/ Pure Piano, Digistix: Orchestrated groove

A friend asked me to solo over a rhythm track he’d put together in Ableton Live. The solo was way longer than they needed so for my own amusement I borrowed the samples and MIDI from Ableton and recreated the groove using 4Pockets’ apps on AUM. I mixed the whole piano improv and rhythm parts to a single audio file and imported it on StaffPad. I then completed the ‘conversation with myself’ by scoring the virtual orchestra using in part lines from the piano part.

StaffPad Muse libraries, Pure Piano, 2 x Digistix, Bassalicious, 2 x Helium, Grand Finale

Comments

  • I very much enjoyed and recommend this cinematic jam. Thank you!

  • This is fantastic! It’s the kind of music I love to listen to. Great combination of orchestral chaos and sweet piano improvisation. It really held my attention from beginning to end. Excellent orchestration and arrangement. Great work, Andy!

    I’m gonna listen a few more times.

  • Your tracks are to far in between, Andy. PThis one sounds great. @McD should give this a listen. Excellent interaction between strings and piano. Very stylish, indeed.

  • Very nice!

    There's a new drum app released from Klevgrand, OneShot that sounds totally amazing and there's a few jazz kits included that would fit this like ... Nothing wrong with the ones now from digistix but you get what I mean if you liksten to OneShot.

  • Nice and groovy - had to play along. Interesting workflow - it's really good to see the StaffPad score flow by with the piano audio. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to hearing more!

  • Really nice arrangement and performance.

    I’m trying to figure out how you made the final video with a scrolling Staffpad score. My guess… you create a Staffpad screen shot recording and what comes next to play that video while displaying a keyboard to perform the piano and mix the piano display with the StaffPad video eludes me.

    Nice mastery of your tools!

    For vinyl jazz collectors this reminds me of the formula for a Creed Taylor Inc (CTI) production. So many great jazz soloists made CTI produced albums. The arrangements were by studio masters like Claud Olgerman or Bob James.

    It’s a jazz style intended to pull in a larger audience with smooth, danceable grooves that highlight the improvisational talents of the headliners.

  • Thank you all for listening and commenting. I know you guys really know your jazz.

    I don’t know where my piano lines came from but the groove and key made it an easy birth. I’d been experimenting with playing ‘out’ and had been to a workshop that suggested leaving solo space as if breathing. Pleased it matched your likes @myapologies and @paulieworld.

    I’ll try and pick up the pace @LinearLineman! As a workflow, StaffPad plus audio offers a lot of possibilities but in my hands, fast it is not. I did try improvising the orchestral lines on a keyboard connected to StaffPad but it didn’t give the result I was looking for. Something about writing the notes with a pencil that engages the composer in me.

    I’ve just given in and bought OneShot @Pxlhg. I already have 9 other drum samplers and at the time DigiStix was the only one that could load and edit the Ableton samples and freely assign MIDI note numbers.

    Glad you liked the flowing score @pbelgium. I wanted to show what was under the bonnet but wondered if it might be a distraction. I’ll definitely be using this workflow again.

    The video was edited in Luma Fusion @McD. StaffPad and AUM recordings were put in a multicam container so I could switch between them and keep sync. The container track was sized to leave room for the Pianoteq animated keyboard at the bottom of the screen. As long as each video clip has audio, it’s fairly easy to sync everything to the master sound track.

    I do have albums by Bob James and Don Sebesky (as well as his book on arranging) so I think the observation about a nod to Creed Taylor’s formula may be well-founded. It was not a conscious decision.

    What encouraged me most to get back into StaffPad was hearing “Quantic Moods - Cadavre Exquis Op.1”, your orchestral collaboration with @JanKun. Thank you again for that.

  • Great piece! Nice textural blend! Glad the Collab with @McD brought you back to Staffpad.

  • I'm always impressed by those of you who can use Staffpad and also by how good the sounds are and expression. I thought your orchestration was spot on for this.
    I liked your composition of the intro measures but to me it stood out as stylistically different from the rest.
    The rest reminded me of those 70s era cop/detective movies so I can't help thinking that what it needed was one of those (not sure of the technical term) funky/chunky/wahwah guitar chord things going on like they always used.

  • Thank you @JanKun. Nowhere near as detailed as your orchestrations but it’s given me a taste to do more. I have followed your advice with the chilled Muscadet and every time I draw a natural and StaffPad interprets it as a sharp, I take a sip :) .

    Great to hear your reaction @MrStochastic. Yes, the groove is a bit of a handbrake turn from the intro stylistically even if the opening did derive from the improv at 01:48. My goto format is beginning, middle and end but perhaps neoclassical, 70’s cop movie and 60’s Bossa Nova might be a step too far in under 4 minutes (but it is called ”Steppin’ Out” after all).

    I haven’t listened to the Tom Scott album with the theme from Starsky and Hutch (‘Gotcha’) for probably more than 30 years but returning to it now there’s certainly some similarities to my string writing and parallel chord progressions. Interesting you suggest the wahwah rhythm guitar - definitely of an era - earlier in the year I did a band arrangement of War’s “The World Is A Ghetto” - plenty of wackawacka in that. Who knows what was swilling around in the brain soup that emerged as this improvisation. Perhaps I was channelling someone in long-style knitted jacket?

  • I love the beat. I love your improvisation. Just a great piece of music that makes me want to get up and dance. ( I won't because there are other people home, but I want to!)
    This is great. Thanks for sharing 🙏

  • Very nice track. I love this orchestral jazz style. Sebesky and Ogermann are big heroes of mine. This one reminds me a little more of David Axelrod, who is in the same league as those two giants.

  • That’s the first time I’ve been told I’ve made someone want to dance @MadeofWax. Made my week. Thank you.

    Had never come across David Axelrod @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr but so glad you’ve introduced him to me. Can hear some similarities - uncanny. Thank you.

  • Absolutely tremendous sir 🤯 🥰🥰🥰

  • Tasty and tasteful! The sense of space and rhythmic flow blended beautifully with the piece. Great feel too!

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