PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Beginners Forum Flute Solos

Hi
I am doing a cover of Nights in white satin,how can I find a Flute obtion for a Solo ?
I have 2024 band in a Box ultra ?
Thanks
Rich

Rich, I'm not sure that you'll find the same flute solo as the song, but open the RealTracks picker, filter by the word 'Flute' and listen to the available samples. To preview, you can play them with backing or as a solo.

Rich,
If you have a keyboard with a flute voice you can record it yourself.
I spent about an hour and recorded this. It's far from perfect but you get the idea.
I don't read music so I just played along with the track until I got something half decent.

If your keyboard skills are about as good as mine, MIDI might be a way to go.

Flute Solo

midi is the way to go. play the solo on a keyboard and choose a midi flute. its quite easy to work out by ear. i did as lead guitarist in a band and played the solo with lots of sustain overdrive and treble cut

Ya, Bass and Bob have this right. You really will need the midi (or play it ) since this is not something you want some RT jamming on... . A cover of this song has to do it justice since everyone knows the notes!

This is actually an interesting subject. With today's (old and new) technology one has several choices to accomplish something like this. It depends on the goals, tools available, time and maybe budget.

If the goal is absolute "perfection" then acquiring a recording from a masterful muscian may be the choice.

If improving your MIDI skills and producing a note for note output is the goal, then doing MIDI yourself could work.

If the satisfaction and growth from playing a physical instrument is important, then working with a physical flute or keyboard might make sense.

If staying within BiaB is important, then an RT might be your choice even though, note for note you may not get close to the original. But some covers intentionally do not want to duplicate the original note for note.

Personally, I have BiaB, my bass guitar, a capable keyboard, a drum pad, drum machines, a software sequencer, and human collaborators available (so far I haven't touched MIDI). So when constructing a new song I find the inevitable decision trees all part of the fun.

Ya, I was also listening to this back in the day... Would you like the midi file?

I have no need for it, but if Rich comes back maybe he would.

But I am curious, did you build that yourself?
If so, in what tool?

This is done in Musescore.

I realize that was the 'machine' playing it, and not meant to be an emulation of the performance.

But

As a flute player, that was terrible. IMO, what's wrong with it?

1) The flute solo isn't and shouldn't be quantized. This sounds robotic
2) There are no dynamics, every not is the same volume
3) The articulation of every note is the same
4) There are no ornaments. grace notes, slurs, etc
5) There is no realistic flute vibrato.

I think if you practiced it on a MIDI keyboard until it's under your fingers, then recorded it in real time with a good physical modeling flute synth patch you could get close enough to a real flute to pull it off.

As a flute player, I do a number of things to get expression out of the solo, including:

1) Changing the tightness/looseness of my embouchure to get more or less air sound
2) Roll the flute a bit in either direction for intonation ornaments
3) Do various things with my oral cavity and throat to change the tone a bit
4) Use vibrato, which on the flute is more volume than pitch change, and not similar to the sine wave LFO on synth patches. It's closer but not like a square wave, and the frequency is seldom constant.

But I play flute, so I listen critically to flute synth patches. I also play sax, guitar, bass, drums, wind synth, and they listened to as critically, too. Plus instruments I don't play.

How does each instrument get their expression? Guitarists bend strings, change the angle and firmness of picking, hammer-ons, pull-offs, picking closer to the neck or the bridge, when using fingers for vibrato it's more from the pitch to above the pitch and back, hitting a note a half step flat and bending up to it, and so on.

Sax players change the shape of their oral cavity, adjust their breath support, change the pressure of the lip on the reed, use throat growl, flutter tongue, and so on.

To do a good emulation of an acoustic instrument, first you need to know the limitations and advantages of the instrument. This is defined by the construction. For example, if you use pitch bends on the piano it isn't going to sound like a piano (it might sound good, but it won't sound like a piano).

Once you understand how the instrument gets its expression, it'll help you know what to do to get a MIDI voice sound like the instrument you are trying to emulate.

I hope this helps. It's an acquired skill. When I first started playing synths back in the DX7/TX81z days, I started learning these things. Decades later, I'm a lot better at it now. Each new discovery adds to your knowledge base and will make the music sound better.

Insights and incites by Notes.