Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy - 2 piano transcription by Henri Dutilleux

[derschoenebahnhof]

This is my first attempt at playing solo a 2 piano piece.

Equipment used:
- Yamaha YDP-181 digital piano

Software:
- Pianoteq 3.6
- Audacity 1.3

Piano 2 uses "C3 Solo Recording Variant 1".
Piano 1 uses "C3 Solo Recording".

While mixing I made Piano 1 a bit louder than Piano 2 to emphasize the melody mostly carried by Piano 1. I also added "tip notes" to help me with synchronization and removed them afterward.

I am still working on it, there are some synchronization issues and some chords are hammered too hard I think...

Comments welcome, but let's avoid another debate of sampled versus modeled piano 

CG

[arielpiano]

I like this a lot! I think the sound is very convincing and the balance appears fine. Of course, you may be aware of deficiencies that the listener may not pick up, but to me this sounded better than most recordings of digital pianos. And I think Debussy would be a greater challenge to play on this type of instrument than, say, Bach or Bartok. Without starting a debate... this is a modeled piano, right?

[birba]

Interesting.  LIke singing in playback and adding the other voice.  But I don't get it.  Are YOU playing both parts or were they "programmed".  Of course, it's a very stilted interpretation and there are problems of syncronization - but it's a neat idea.

[derschoenebahnhof]

Arielpiano, thanks for the kind comment.

Birba, it looks like I need to explain how this was recorded 

My digital piano can record on 2 separate tracks. It can record "left" and "right" part for the same song.

So I recorded the "Piano 2" part first as the "left" track. Several times throughout the piece, I had to switch from one piano to another so that this "left" track contains a high proportion of fast (or faster) notes so that the "right" part can be easier to synchronize. Thus I played "Piano 2" for a few measures, then switched to "Piano 1" if necessary, then back to "Piano 2", etc. Otherwise, synchronization is just impossible...

Additionally, I modified the "left" part with a MIDI editor to fix a few uneven notes (timing wise) and add a few "tip notes" which give me clues for the other part.

After that, I recorded the "right" track (mostly "Piano 1" but sometimes "Piano 2") while listening to the "left" track. This gave me a MIDI file with the whole piece (on a USB drive). After that I split this file into 2 separate MIDI files (on the digital piano), one for one piano and one for the other. I transferred these files to a computer,  I removed the tip notes from the "left part" first and then used PianoTeq (modeled piano software) to render both pianos separately. Finally, I used Audacity to merge both tracks.

So yeah, there are synchronization issues, which I am sure I could fix either by using a MIDI editor (OMG, is it cheating?) or by repeating many times and ingraining the timing into my memory. Lack of time and a vigorous 3 year old that sleeps too late at night will prevent me from polishing the piece more, and I want to learn other things too...

Also because of playing things separately, and not having the benefit of two-way synchronization that piano duos would have, you inherently have less control over dynamics and variation of tempo (I think). Another thing is that the 2 piano transcription here has some wider chords leading the melody in some places than the one piano original, so that makes it harder too. I wonder what was Henri Dutilleux's goal in the end... in many parts the transcription sounds identical to the original. In places it adds more depth to the bass and a bit more texture in the crescendo leading to the climax in the middle.

In the end, it's a good exercise to see some of the challenges encountered in ensemble playing. Ensembles have a conductor though. Piano duos, like Anderson and Roe, do not, and they don't even use visual clues. These guys are just amazing...

CG

[arielpiano]

CG, Anderson & Roe use plenty of visual clues. Anyway, you should have no difficulty keeping in synch as long as you can listen to one track while playing the other. Jazz musicians do that all the time when they practice with -1 recordings.
Ariel