Composition tools - The music libraries |
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Watch also the following video:
The musical libraries [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
The music library is not itself a new software function not
yet explained in the previous lessons. It is a set of Pizzicato
documents that contain music structures and objects that can be
used to compose and to structure music.
In this lesson, we will cover what the present libraries
contain. The content of the libraries is going to grow with the
next versions of Pizzicato. While working with Pizzicato, you
will also be able to create you own library. You may also share
your personal library with other people by sending the Pizzicato
files to them.
The music libraries is a set of Pizzicato documents located in
the main Pizzicato directory, inside the Libraries folder,
itself found in the DataEN folder. Any document you add
or change in this folder or in any folder included in it will be
referenced by Pizzicato the next time you launch it. You may
create any hierarchical set of folders and sub-folders inside the
Libraries folder. But we recommend you to do that within
the conductor view, as explained in the lesson on dragging and
dropping elements of the libraries.
If you want somebody to share your personal libraries, just
send him/her the content of this folder. To use it, (s)he needs
to copy its content inside his(her) Libraries folder.
We are of course ready to receive pieces of your personal
music libraries so that we can add them in the next release of
Pizzicato.
The idea behind music libraries is not a set of finalized
compositions to listen to. Valid elements of a library must be: a
rhythmic pattern for one instrument or for any section of
instruments (percussion, orchestra,...), melodic or rhythmic
ideas or structures to develop, chords progressions, instrument
combinations, a virtual keyboard setup, a music generator, an
harmonic space or any combination of those elements. They may
then be used by other Pizzicato users to compose and create their
own finalized compositions. It is a set of musical construction
blocks that anybody may then use to build his/her personal music
compositions.
A small example [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
The techniques we will use here have been explained in the
previous lessons on composition tools. They are assumed to be
understood. If you encounter any difficulty in this lesson,
please review the other composition tools lessons.
- Start Pizzicato with a new document and open the
conductor view. We will now construct a small music
composition to illustrate how you can use this library to
start composing your own rhythms. Create a new group of
scores by right clicking the desktop and selecting the
appropriate menu item. Give it a name, for instance My
composition:

- Locate the following node of the library (configuration
3):
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Percussions / Bass drum / Prepared patterns / Bass drum 4
- and drag and drop it inside the group so that you have:

- Set the group option to play in loop. For this, right
click the background of the group and check the Play
in loop option. From now on, you may start the group
and it will continue to play in loop while you are
building it. Increase the vertical size of the group by
dragging its lower right corner below (but do not enlarge
it, otherwise the loop will become longer than the score
it contains).
- Drag the following node in your composition so that it
now displays:
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Percussions / Snare drum / Prepared patterns / Snare drum 1

- Right at the beginning of the next loop, Pizzicato will
include that new score in the playing. The rhythmic
pattern gets build progressively. Do the same with the
following nodes of the library, adding them below each
others:
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Percussions / Charleston / Prepared patterns / HiHat 8
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Percussions / Bongos & congas / Prepared patterns / Bongos
& congas 8
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Percussions / Bongos & congas / Prepared patterns / Bongos
& congas 8
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Percussions / Snare drums / Prepared patterns / Tambourine 6
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Individual instruments / Basses / Basses - 2 notes / Bass 12
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Individual instruments / Continuous pads / 1/2 - Large position
/ Wide strings 7
Music libraries / Patterns by instruments /
Individual instruments / Rhythms and arpeggios / Arpeggios
in eight notes / Arpeggio 2
- Your composition now plays everything together and looks
like this:

- This is the main rhythm pattern of our composition. We
may now arrange it in a more interesting sequence. A
music composition, to be of interest, will not start with
the full ryhthm and maintain the same rhythm up to the
end of the score. Some variation will occur, instruments
will start playing while others wait,... With the tools
you have learned in the lesson about the conductor view,
you should be able to transform the above one measure
sequence into the following little piece of arrangement:

To do it, you must create an alias of some of the scores
and you must resize the scores so that they are played
several times. You may of course try another arrangement for
this composition.
You should understand that the decisions we have taken
here to select the various instruments and rhythm patterns
are just arbitrary decisions. Taking other choices would have
resulted in a completely different composition. With what you
have learned here, you may now start to compose your rhythmic
patterns by combining what you find in the libraries. You may
also create new scores with different instruments and define
yourself the content of the measures and use them in the
composition.
You may vary the instruments of the above little
composition, by selecting them from the Basic instruments
folder of the library. For instance, in the Bass
sub-folder, you will find several bass instruments:

Remember that you can drag such an instrument and drop it
on a score by holding down the CTRL key. The instrument will
replace the instrument of the first staff of the score. If
you do not hold the CTRL key, the instrument is added to the
score, which is not here what we want. We just want an easy
way to test various sounds for a given score.
Another easy way to test different scores with minimal
handling is that you may drag a score of the library and,
while holding the CTRL key, drop it on one of the scores
inside the group. The new score will automatically replace
the previous one so that you do not need to delete it first.
Warning: if the original score has aliases in the
composition, they will be deleted.
Also, when you work some portion of the full composition,
don't forget to use the green and red arrows to specify the
section of the composition you want to play or loop. It is
quite easy to test various possible sounds or patterns when
Pizzicato plays it in loop. You have an immediate feedback to
decide whether you like it or not.
We will now examine the content of the present Pizzicato music
libraries.
The content of the libraries [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
When you display configuration 3, the library is presented
more or less as follows:

At the top, it contains one main document and two folders.
Here is a summary of the content of the Pizzicato musical
libraries as they exist in Pizzicato 3.5. The main folders are
also displayed and available in configuration 3, 4 and 5. Explore
them to see where they are.
- Instruments and templates
- Basic instruments [you can reach this folder
with the key shortcut 'i' inside the conductor view]
This folder contains all the basic instruments
definitions. They are classified inside sub-folders, by
families, like the pianos, strings, woodwinds, brass,...
For transposing instruments, you will find that the
instruments are first defined without transposition and
then you find the various corresponding transposing
instruments. For instance in the Brass
sub-folder, you will find the Horn and then the Horn
in F. While composing with a computer, you do not
need to worry about the fact that some instruments are
transposing instruments. It is only if your score needs
to be played by real instrumentists that you will have to
take that into account, in the final steps before
printing the scores and the parts.
The Percussions sub-folder needs some more
comments. You will find all the individual percussion
instruments inside the Individual instruments
folder, which is the standard General MIDI list of
percussions. You will also find most common instruments
in the Classified instruments folder. We
recommand using these because they are classified in an
more natural way and some use specific grouped
combinations, like the Toms. There are 6 toms in
standard General MIDI and in the classified
instruments/Standard drums [you can reach this folder
with the key shortcut 'b' inside the conductor view], you
will find one combined instruments with the 6 toms on one
6-lines staff. Same for the Hi Hat instrument
(foot+closed+open).
You will also find there the Solo percussions
(series of toms, woodblocks,... on the full range of the
keyboard) and Chromatic percussion instruments
as the Timpani, Vibes, Xylophone,...
- In the Sections and ensembles
folder, you will find several combinations of the
basic instruments, classified as templates. You may
use them by dragging and dropping a folder of
instruments to the main conductor view and have the
template score immediatly at disposal.
- Synthesizers - This folder is
initially empty. You may add your specific
synthesizers so as to use their instruments in your
scores. This is more useful when you have several
synthesizers and you want a better control on which
synthesizer will play which instrument. When there is
only one synthesizer, Pizzicato will assign it
correctly because there is no other choice. To add a
synthesizer, right-click that folder and select the Import
a synthesizer... menu item. Select the
synthesizer and validate. A new set of instruments
will be created, containing all the instrument
references of the selected synthesizer.
- Virtual keyboards - This
folder contains at this time only two examples of
virtual keyboards. To use them, see the lessons on
virtual keyboards.
- Harmonic spaces [you can reach
this folder with the key shortcut 'h' inside the
conductor view] - This folder contains a few simple
examples of harmonic spaces. To use them, see the
lessons on harmonic spaces.
- Scales - You will find here
numerous scales that you can use with the score
arranger and the music vectors. See the lesson on
scales and chords.
- Chords - You will find here
numerous chords that you can use with the score
arranger and the music vectors. See the lesson on
scales and chords.
This folder contains the main part the Pizzicato music
libraries. It is classified into the following main
sub-folders.
- Audio - This folder contains all the audio
WAV files used by the virtual instruments. You will
find 4 sub-folders in it:
- Papelmedia - This folder contains the
audio files used by the Papelmedia library, as it
is included in Pizzicato.
- Samples - These are files used as
various samples in the virtual synthesizers.
- SoundFonts - Whenever you import a
SoundFont file in Pizzicato so as to use the
sounds contained in it, Pizzicato creates here a
folder to store the various wave forms used in
that SoundFont file.
- Wave Forms - The basic oscillators of
the modular synthesizer use these wave forms to
produce their output.
- Basic libraries - In this folder you will
find the most elementary pieces of music materials.
They are classified as follows (alphabetical order):
- Chords [you can reach this folder with
the key shortcuts 'c' or 'a' inside the conductor
view] - The chords are themselves classified into
three folders.
- Chords by scale - You will
find here two folders, one with the
triads and one with the 7th chords.
Inside each folder, there is one
music generator for each scale,
including in it the chords
corresponding to the 7 degrees of the
scale.
- Main chords - You will find
here the most common chords, like Maj,
min, 7, dim,... Each group
contains that kind of chord for every
note.
- Other chords - This folder
is similar to the above folder and
list less common chords, also for
each possible note.
- Notes - The scores of this document
contain only one note. It is a library that
contains all the notes of octaves 0 to 6, as
separated scores. They may be used to construct
music generators for instance, in combinations
with rests and rhythms.
- Rests - This document contains the main
rest values, each inside one score. They may be
used to construct music generators for instance,
in combinations with rhythms and notes.
- Rhythm sequences - This folder contains
documents, each one designed for a specific time
signature. Inside one of the documents, you will
find one or more music generators. They contain
combinations of some basic elementary rhythmic
values, for instances "Half notes + Quarter
notes + Eighth notes". Inside that
generator, you will find a classification of all
possible combinations that fit the duration of
the measure time signature, classified by the
number of rhythmic values used. This part of the
library contains thousands of basic rhythmic
combinations and may be a source of inspiration
to find and use specific rhythmic patterns.
- Rhythms - This document contains the
main rhythmic values, each inside one score. They
may be used to construct music generators for
instance, in combinations with rests and notes.
- Scales - You will find here a music
generator for each scale, each containing the 7
notes of the scales.
- Chord progressions [you can reach this
folder with the key shortcut 'p' inside the conductor
view] - You will find here thousands of basic chords
progressions, organized as follows:
- A minor - 3 notes chords - This
document contains progressions of 4, 8 and 12
chords (1 chord / measure). The first folder
containt 54 basic chords progressions each
with 4 chords. The other two contains 1000
combinations of these 54 basic progressions.
All these progressions are written starting
in A minor.
- C Major - 3 notes chords - Same as
above, but for C major.
- Major tonalities - 3 notes chords - Same
as above, but for all other major tonalities.
- Minor tonalities - 3 notes chords - Same
as above, but for all other minor tonalities.
This is a similar folder, but prepared for a 4/4
measure time signature instead of 3/4. Some folders
have 2 chords per measure.
It contains 2 series of prepared chord
progressions, one with triads and dominant and the
other with 7th chords.
You can easily adapt the time signature while you drag
and drop it, with the drag and drop dialog options
regarding the time scale.
- Effects [you can reach this folder with the
key shortcut 'e' inside the conductor view] - Here
you will find the following effects that you can drag
and drop on any measure or set of measures to apply
the corresponding effect. When you drop it on one
measure, it is applied at the target beat. If you
apply it above or between staves, the effect applies
to all staves. When you select a set of measures, it
is applied on the selected staves and the effect is
scaled to include the range of selected measures (for
a crescendo or accelerando for instance). You can
adjust the exact range with the time factors of the
drag and drop dialog box.
- Chorus - You can use fixed values from 0
to 100 % of chorus level.
- Modulation - You can use fixed values
from 0 to 100 % of modulation level.
- Panoramic - You can set a fixed
panoramic position or also move from one position
to another.
- Pitch bend - Various effects are
prepared for 1, 2, 3 or 4 beats duration. They
include up+down, up, down, oscillation and the
suppression of the pitch bend effect. Most are
available at 25, 50, 75 and 100 % of the pitch
bend range (which can be 2 half tones or 12 half
tones, depending on the pitch bend range
parameter of the synthesizer).
- Reverberation - You can use fixed values
from 0 to 100 % of reverberation level.
- Tempo - You can use fixed values from 40
to 380 beats per minute or you can accelerate or
slow down in a wide range of tempo.
- Velocity maps - A velocity map is a set
of 16th note each with a specific velocity level.
When applying that velocity map on a score, the
velocity is copied into the original notes of
that scores (without touching the other
specifications of the notes). You can see it as a
set of various accents placed to give a
"feeling" to the music. The groups are
drawn with a graphic rough approximation of where
the accents are. The best way to have an idea on
its content is to click on the various velocity
maps to hear where the accents are placed. Each
map is available with various levels of velocity.
- Velocity - You can use fixed values from
0 to 100 % of velocity level and you can create
crescendo and decrescendo by multiples of 10 %.
- Volume - You can use fixed values from 0
to 100 % of volume level and you can create
crescendo and decrescendo by multiples of 10 %.
- Harmonic spaces - You will find here
numerous harmonic spaces classified by types of
chords, common notes and degrees to sequence. See the
lesson on harmonic spaces.
- Melodies - You will find here thousands of
sequences of notes and rhythms that you can use to
design melodies.
- Music vectors - You will find here thousands
of music vectors ready for use. You can drag and drop
a vector in a measure to see the notes. See the
lesson about music vectors.
- Patterns by instruments - You will find here
basic musical materials written, each score has one
measure and is written for one specific instrument.
They are classified by instruments, by time signature
and sometimes by the number of notes or pitches
present in the measure. The best way to discover this
library section is to go through it and play each one
of them.
- Prepared structures - You will find here
some examples of string instruments combinations.
- Prepared styles [you can reach this folder
with the key shortcut 's' inside the conductor view]
- You will find here 35 prepared styles ready to be
used with the real time arranger and/or the score
arranger. See also the lesson on how to use styles.
- Virtual instruments - In this folder you
will find all virtual instruments included in
Pizzicato. They are presently classified in 5 groups:
- Components - These are modular blocks
that can be used while constructing a modular
synthesizer. They are building blocks more than
predefined sounds. You will find here envelopes,
generators and various filters. See the lesson on
the modular synthesizer for more information.
- Papelmedia - SoundFont version - This
Papelmedia library version keeps the original
SoundFont format. It may sometimes have a better
rendering for synthesized instruments, but needs
more computing power to play in real time or
export an audio file. The SoundFont synthesizers
is not editable by Pizzicato.
- Papelmedia - This version of the
Papelmedia library is in the form of an editable
sample reader. It needs less computing power and
its quality is as good as the above one. We
encourage you to use this version of the library.
Moreover, a series of improvements have been made
in this version, compared to the original
library.
- Sampled sounds - You will find presently
a series of original percussive effects, that you
can use as a percussion map on the staff (each
note of the staff corresponds to one percussive
sound).
- Synthesized sounds - You will find here
a series of virtual instruments constructed with
modular synthesis. You can modify them. See the
lesson on modular synthesizers.
This folder is initially empty. You may create in it all
the documents you want, keep track of your composition
libraries and work with them as you want. We recommand to use this folder
instead of modifying the original libraries, so that when
there will be updates available of the original libraries,
you can download them without losing your own library parts.