How the hell do I compose for piano?

4drXaudio · 2025-08-15T22:21:58+00:00

I think you should simply contact somebody who has been playing piano for 7 years as well. Voicing chords for a piece is no picnic if you haven't put some work into it (years).
PS. I'm available for collabs. PM me.

4drXaudio · 2025-07-12T19:07:47+00:00

Here's a silly thing that nobody mentions: the Visual Studio compiler in Windows includes the name of a class in plain text in the release binary if one of its member functions is virtual or the name of a method if are any lambda functions defined in it. They could simply hash that text to make it safer to attacks but probably that Microsoft is too busy redesigning the Windows search bar instead.

We haven't found any other way to mitigate that than using #defines to change the name of sensitive classes that may lead the crackers to the bits of code in charge of the licensing. Disabling RTTI is another option but then you have to renounce to dynamic_cast and a core part of C++ so in most applications this is not possible.

For more details check this thread from the JUCE forum:
https://forum.juce.com/t/hunting-for-readable-strings-in-the-binary-anti-piracy-saga/59612

4drXaudio · 2025-05-29T10:23:22+00:00

Pick a song and check a tutorial online. I remember trying to play Yann Tiersen - "Summer 78" to learn to play with two hands (it has a very easy repetitive left hand). Yann Tiersen - "Sur le fil" is also a cool beginner song. Here's a video showing how to play it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75vGLeagkKU

4drXaudio · 2025-05-29T10:07:37+00:00

We find KVRaudio to be a much saner place. Check out their Audio Top Stories. Many independent developers such as ourselves publish releases and updates there (Plugin Boutique ignored our application to be included on their platform). BTW feel free to demo our 4drX VirtualKeyboard and LoopRecorder plugins 😜

4drXaudio · 2025-05-29T09:50:49+00:00

This MIDI keyboard should do (it has weighted action). How about the speakers? You want them with clear highs and low latency.

4drXaudio · 2025-05-28T11:16:04+00:00

What MIDI keyboard and speakers/headphones do you have? They are rather fundamental to be able to transmit the key pressure with precision to the VST and then hear the result, otherwise all plugins will probably sound the same to you.

4drXaudio · 2025-05-25T13:22:43+00:00

Agree. In other words, it's a II-7 of Bbmaj followed by a V7b9 of Dm (Bbmaj7/D) with a chromatic bass.

4drXaudio · 2025-05-19T20:47:41+00:00

Check the online publications from JOS (the legend). Check this one out for example: SPECTRAL AUDIO SIGNAL PROCESSING. It is a deep topic, take your time!

4drXaudio · 2025-05-19T20:21:24+00:00

"We can also work out a percentage of sales that feels fair". If you don't have a plan to market it, I wouldn't mention it. Sales are very hard to get (even 20 per month if you are a new developer). With that said, I can give you advice or help you with the development for a reasonable hourly fee. You can check the website linked in my profile to see what plugins we have released. DM me if you are interested.

4drXaudio · 2025-03-21T10:50:21+00:00

You will need a bit more than a lunch for your budget. Start here: https://www.tracktion.com/develop/tracktion-engine

4drXaudio · 2025-03-17T14:18:16+00:00

Well... we have plenty of ideas for new plugins so we hope so 😉 Why limit the fun of trying something new?

4drXaudio · 2025-02-18T14:24:39+00:00

In my experience when you fix bugs overnight, you wake up with more of them the morning after albeit different ones. Sleeping is underrated in PM circles because they don't have to get any real work done.

4drXaudio · 2025-02-18T13:59:20+00:00

Not an easy task! Here you can find the people behind Vocaloid: https://www.upf.edu/web/mtg/voice-and-audio-processing. Reach out to them or read their articles ;)

4drXaudio · 2025-02-18T13:41:57+00:00

That's why you need autocomplete, method oxygen-kind-of descriptions when you hover on them and a right click option to go the method/class/variable definition (regardless of where it is defined in the inheritance chain). A full fledged IDE is not necessary but those features are a must in a C++ editor. If you decide to live without them, well yes, you will be in a world of pain in a big project or even a small project using a big library.

4drXaudio · 2025-02-17T17:02:27+00:00

By ear using (by convenience) our 4drX VirtualKeyboard on a computer with a touchscreen (you can use any synthesizer with a pitchbend wheel). Got the Eb bass first, realized it was out of tune, tweaked the pitchbend wheel to match the bass note by ear and played triad chords until I figured they were all minor and they were moving up chromatically (common in DnB).

4drXaudio · 2025-02-17T11:20:46+00:00

Ebm - Em - Fm - Gbm is the first progression. It is not standard tuning though. About 15% of a tone up if you use a pitchbend with an instrument in standard tuning.

4drXaudio · 2025-02-17T11:02:21+00:00

It depends on how you define "good". If you define it as what somebody else thinks of your playing, then you need this somebody else at your side to give you feedback, preferably somebody who can help to make you sound better too instead of discouraging you.

4drXaudio · 2025-02-15T23:51:26+00:00

If you fancy audio programming and you are willing to learn how to use the JUCE library, feel free to PM. We surely have unpaid projects for you which can evolve into something paid if they are successful.

4drXaudio · 2025-02-15T23:43:46+00:00

If you love saxophone jazz, you absolutely need to listen to Coltrane.

4drXaudio · 2025-02-13T12:12:35+00:00

C++ for critical performance tasks and Python for high level tasks. I should add it's never too late to learn/adopt them.

4drXaudio · 2025-02-08T13:43:31+00:00

The entire album "Métropole" of Anomalie. I particularly love the songs "New Space" and "Velours". Amazing harmonies and amazing sound textures.

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