"Oh, You Beautiful Doll"

[Ruffo]

"Oh, You Beautiful Doll" was written in 1911 by Nat D. Ayer, with lyrics by Seymour Brown. I wrote this arrangement in the mid-60s for my septet, The Nocturnes (see earlier posting for "Autumn Nocturne").

Unlike my two earlier posting for "Autumn Nocturne"and "Harlem Nocturne", this arrangement was done on my CVP-405 completely in Step Recording (Edit). This is the last of its ilk that I will post here, as shortly after I finished this song, I started using Notation Composer from Notation Software, Inc., to enter my arrangements. My CVP-405 is still the target for this software. Step Recording is very labor-intensive and time-consuming.

It's taken a little getting used to, but the unison sound of trumpet, tenor sax, trombone and baritone sax in the main theme is a little odd on the CVP-405. There are perhaps other variations of these horns that I could have used, but all-in-all, I love the sounds created by this Clavinova.

This is meant to be "happy music". I hope you enjoy hearing the attached midi file. The mp3 version of this arrangement can be heard at:

http://www.box.net/shared/jkxgqamhc9ta226gm3g3

Ruffo

[dbjorck]

Hi!

Nice.

I try to avoid voices in perfect unison. Especially if they are based on the same instrument patch; it gives a really weird result, as it tries to play the same note twice at the same time using the same sample. It becomes kind of tinny, weak sounding as the synchronized sound waves cancel each other out, and all reverb disappears as it fills memory. When I do want to do it anyway, to make absolutely certain they're from different samples, I select different voice types, e.g. a Live voice, a Sweet voice and a regular voice. I also tend to detune them slightly; soprano +4, alto +2, tenor -2, bass -4. If I do use the same sample anyway, I also make sure they have different attack, release, vibrato, and reverb settings to separate them and ensure the waves don't cancel each other out.

In this particular case, perhaps it would have worked equally well with just having one combined voice, such as BigBandBrs?

Brgds

Danny

[Ruffo]

Hi Danny,

Thanks for the suggestions. All good. I'm still just seeing the tip of the iceberg with my Clavinova. There are so many under-the-covers features that I haven't even touched on yet. I read the conversations and hear the sounds that you and others are presenting on this forum, and I marvel at how much there is to learn. I'm finding that the music part is a rather small piece of the whole Clavinova experience. Glad you liked the arrangement.

Ruffo

[dbjorck]

Hi!

I'm amazed at the arrangements you do. I can't do that. So all I can contribute is the occasional technical info.

Brgds

Danny