Music Examples
The examples on this page are provided in MP3 streaming format (M3U), most of them use a 128kbit/s bandwith. They should work fine with iTunes, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and most other popular audio plug-ins. As our products do not produce audio directly, the sound quality depends on the audio equipment you will be using. Most examples were rendered using NI Akoustik Piano, Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO) and the internal software synthesizers of MacOS X and Windows.
1. Human-like Performance |
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This fragment is a reused and recycled texture from a piece by Claude Debussy ("Reverie"). It was rendered against completely different chords - those of of "Angel Eyes" - and processed with a human-like smooth rubato waveform in the Shift parameter.
Reverie Revisited |
2. Orchestral Passage |
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This is an excerpt of a mockup for a dramatical film score. It took about one hour to complete from scratch. Several motifs were analyzed and imported from Anton Bruckner's 7th symphony. Everyting was edited and transformed to a very large extent, so the original source is no longer recognizable.
Variation 1: A harmonic progression with a chromatically descending bass. Composed and rendered with Synfire Pro 1.5.2 and EWQL "Play" Orchestra Gold. Variation 2 in F# Minor: Only a single parameter "Harmony" was replaced to achieve this result after 140 milliseconds:. Variation 3: Again, only "Harmony" as replaced. Variation 4: The same texture, interpreting a single chord only (Fmaj7/D). This example demonstrates how Synfire Pro executes rich melodic lines without sticking stupidly to chord tones. |
3. Separation of Form and Content |
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The basic concept behind Synfire is the separation of form (figure, texture) and content (harmony). Both can be created and shaped independently and then put together by the composer. Listen to an arrangement (form) whose content was replaced three times. Simple drag and drop operation with the mouse was sufficient to achieve these results: Original in B Hundred milliseconds later: Exactly the same arrangement, only harmony was replaced:Variation in D Once again, the same form with different content:Variation in F# Imagine how these possibilities could change the way you are working. Go and get some old stuff from your archives, put it together with other forms from various sources and render them alltogether in new harmony. In about 1-2 hours you'll sit in front of a composition you would otherwise not have created. At least not that fast and easy. (Examples rendered on Native Instruments "Acoustik Piano" and Garritan Personal Orchestra) |
4. Recombination And Morphing |
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Morphing allows for musical phrases to be crossfaded (blended) continously, resulting in new musical material that practically appears out of nowhere. In conjunction with other techniques that Synfire has to offer, one is able to build lively and complex compositions in no time. This example is based on three piano phrases blended with the morphing technique. As a result the piano player seems to improvise new phrases all the time. The flutes were "borrowed" from a Bach concert and copied into this piece. They are playing in 6/8 time while the piano is in 4/4. The possibilities of what can be combined are simply amazing! |
5. Virtual Musicians |
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Synfire simulates virtual musicians who immediately play the chords you are clicking in one of the many colored harmony palettes. Every chord needs to be clicked only once. The band continues until you click the next chord. The resulting performance is absolutely seamless, as if the "band" already knew the song you were just thinking of.
D C# | C#aug F#sus4 | C#sus4 D | Fdim F#m | G D | A Bm | G A | D Bm | |
6. Evolution of a Score |
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While Synfire offers great possibilities for the creation of Pop and Jazz compositions, its most obvious strength lies in the capability of handling complex arrangements. Andre Schnoor: "This is a small excerpt of a quick & dirty score. I spent around an hour throwing a few basic figures together, all derived from the same motif (except the piano phrase). I liked the overall texture, but not the harmony ..." 1st Try: "Then I started changing the harmonic context. I dropped some progressions from my personal library on it, which I expected to sound more dramatic and better fitting into the theme. Honestly, it took a few mouse-clicks only. I very much liked the immediate result and didn't change anything." 2nd Try: (These examples were performed on the Garritan Personal Orchestra) |
7. Harmonic Analysis |
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An example from the Classical domain, demonstrating the current level of accuracy of the built-in harmonic analysis. To any melodic phrase there are hundreds of thousands of possible harmonizations. Hence, it is the job of a harmonic analyser to find one more or less meaningfull subset and offer it to the composer to choose from.
The following result was manually corrected at four places only. That is, four chord choices were changed by picking them from a list of alternatives. Which is not much, considered the length of the sample.
Excerpt of a piece by J.S. Bach, right hand only: Harmonized output (playing along the original plus chords and bass): BTW: The analyzer is invisible most of the time. It is used internally to transform recordings into their pitch-independent representation. However, the most rewarding application of the analyzer is to find interesting chord progressions to existing melodies, which is supported by a specialized tool. |
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Music and text on this page are made available under a Creative Commons License. Click on the logo to learn about the terms. |