Friday, January 23, 1998
Looked again for the VarSend controller. I thought it might be under Control Change 94 so I cranked it up to the maximum only to find that the LCD hadn't been turned on. Obviously, I still didn't know what I was doing so I decided to go through the corrections and auditioning manually.

After a coffee break, I read through a section at the end of the manual about the MIDI data format. Yes, there it was: Variation Part Number. I had totally forgotten that the default setting for Variation Connection is Insertion. I decided to treat myself to a celebratory cup of coffee.

I came back and started working on the next song using the setup for XG. I had to add some text to the setup because it was originally designed for the MU100R. An MU100R setup on the XG! What am I doing?

*** Have you guys figured out that I didn't have the slightest clue when it comes to VL yet?

soon began to work on a freestyle concept for the next song. As I often do, I tried to forge out an image through the voices. I'm using kind of an ambient style this time, like the background scores that they use in films. It's time to bring out that pads and strings. I really want to show off the power of the 64 polyphony in this one. Despite lofty expectations however, the day ended without spectacular results.

*** Please don't think that I am a slow worker. I am throwing in a few exaggerations just to keep things interesting.

Saturday, January 24, 1998
(Small businesses are open on weekends!)
Still oblivious to the complex world of VL, I started to take an afternoon nap. Just as I was about to fall asleep, lightning struck: the idea. I pulled myself together and got back to work.

Using timpani and traditional Japanese drums, I would give an ethnically ritualistic touch to the music. Last January 15th (Adult's Day in Japan), I had gone to a performance of the "Eisa", (a traditional Okinawan folksong), with a friend. I thought that it would be interesting to combine some of the fantastic images that I had brought back from that experience into the music.

First, I looked for voices. I used Filter and other effects to create a soothing collection of sounds, a blend of similar colors. I started to compose the flow that the music should have, keeping the chord progressions and rhythm very simple.

Once again, my problem is the melody. I couldn't find anything good. I wasn't comfortable with VL yet so I had to use a pan flute. Things went very smoothly with this one, I was almost done. I decided to let the concoction simmer overnight and went home.

Monday, January 26, 1998
I came back in and went over the song again. Something wasn't quite right...it sounded cheesy. I decided to polish each part individually. The first step was to make the sounds more real. I assigned similar voices to two different parts and panned them to left and right. For the pads, I made identical copies of a sequence; then I put one of them on the left and the other on the right after making subtle changes.

I made the bass very light with a touch of piano; I threw in some percussion just for flavor (does it sound like I'm cooking again?). To make it more real, I added some vibrato using Pitch Bend and then I added the strings.

Are you interested in how it all turned out? (^_^)

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