made entirely from instruments available for free at pianobook.co.uk for the second monthly composition/ production challenge in ólafur arnalds' opia discord server.

got a lot of use out of the TCIPK percussion, it accounts for all the percussion in the second half (with the exception of a bit of table lamp)

also made pretty heavy use of the orchestral swells, especially in the first half. 

a more complete description can be found in the youtube video submission https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fUZa9iX82Q

"pianoconfetti" - opia x pianobook

a sketch i made a couple months ago with (almost) all spitfire audio labs instruments and bbcso discover

the core of it is the labs soft piano but this sketch actually started after messing around with the labs mandolin, which was the first part i added after the piano in this track. other labs instruments in order of appearance:
- frozen strings: super sul tasto cello right off the top with a beautiful pad for the piano to sit in
- choir: long slowly swells in, gradually adding intensity
- trumpet fields: floating vibrato delicately holding two notes, inspired by the beginning of "storm" by gy!be
- opia: pluck synth comes in in the big section, supporting the melody giving it more attack and adding some warble and sheen
- dulcimer: hammered i have two tracks panned left and right playing 3-note arpeggios that harmonize with each other
- dulcimer: tremolo is in the background holding a big sus2 chord just for some happy noise
- rare groove piano: sustain playing a sus2 arp inspired by "they're beginning the moon" by lowercase noises, slowly increasing the "harp" amount through the big section like a filter opening
- mandolin: tremolo in there adding some nice flourishes to counter the robotically consistent dulcimer arp

i also used most of the available instruments in bbcso discover, starting with some strings building up to the big section where the whole orchestra is present save some percussion. i also cheated and whipped up a little bass synth patch in arturia's pigments plugin just to give it a little more propulsion in the big part.

if i was starting it again now i'd probably try using the cinematic soft piano, which i just picked up. i tried plopping it in instead of the soft piano but the midi i played just worked better with the original. i did keep it as a second track just for the "pad" sound and some atmosphere though. i would also maybe use the intimate strings, which i also just picked up. that flautando sound is great and would fit the first part pretty well i think

also i called it "trapezoid 628" because dynamically it's trapezoid shaped as are most things i make, and i started on it on june 28th so the logic file is called 2020-06-28.logicx
i can't shake the feeling that i accidentally ripped the melody in the big section from somewhere but if i did i have no idea where i got it from

i uploaded it to youtube shortly after making it (of course without the cinematic soft piano pad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ToKklaLIlA&ab_channel=JonathanMacKenzie

Jonathan MacKenzie

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