Topic: I spend more time Arranging than Playing. Do You?

[rogerc]

I spend hours arranging midi files on my PSR S900 (soon to upgrade) by changing voices, tempo, etc. rather than actually playing the keyboard.
Anyone else do this?
I am not musically inclined and have struggled to play piano and keyboard so I use others midi files to vent my creative side.
Really enjoy all the different ways I can put a song together and just enjoy the music.
Interested if others do this as much as I do?
RC

[Al Ram]

I do not use midis.   I use registrations and do what you describe . . .

arrange the song, tempo, style, etc.

It takes me some time to set up one registration for one song, but not hours . . . .

I don't dislike the setting up portion but I rather spend less time setting up and more time playing.

Thanks.

[rogerc]

I also spend a great deal of time on registrations getting them just right for the song I am playing.
These keyboards are very deep in what they can do. I like learning the ins and outs of all the different features.
Only wish the PSR S category of keyboards had 88 keys and graded hammer action.
One can only wish.

RC

[Graham UK]

Myself I spend time tweaking all the styles I use to suit my preferences, very often renaming for a certain tune.

[mikf]

You mean spend 2 hours to find and edit a style, select and tweak voices, set up OTS, registrations, - then 3 mins to play it!! And it doesn't finish there because you have to then mark up the music or a cheat sheet to know what to press and when. I'm not a big fan of individual registrations except in special cases for exactly this reason.
We all approach it in different ways, some people like to have every song arrangement set up exactly. Some just use the 'out the box' set up and work around what is easily available. A nice middle way is to spend time setting up the keyboard and a bank of registrations and styles so it covers a wide range of what you are likely to play, and once this is done you might hardly have to set up anything else.
Its important to remember as well that how it is played is probably going to matter more to whether it is interesting and listenable than the perfect style or voice.
Mike 

[Gloria]

Hi RC,
   Your ? is a good one!  I also spend lots of time creating an arrangement, especially if it's an instrumental.  Without singing it, I feel I need to find the proper keyboard voices & style to properly express the words & melody; but first, I check out the One Touch voices!   

Gloria

[Bachus]

Arranging definately is a thing that consumes time..
I would say i spend 20 to 30% of the time setting things up and arranging
But in general i spend most my time playing..

[Toril S]

Hello RC
You say that you spend time arranging others MIDI songs, and that is fine. This is one of the wonderful things we can do with our keyboards! MIDIS can also be used as backing tracks. But for me, the best use of the MIDI songs is when I want to learn a new song. I don't read music, but play "by ear." That means I have to listen to the song to learn it I load MIDIS into the keyboard, and play along untill I feel I have learned the chords and the melody. Then I set up my own arrangment, choose a style, voices etc.
And sometimes I just lean beck and let the keyboard play for me. Other times I spend ours playing and making songs on the keyboard. Keyboard is about fun, and there are so many fun ways to use them!

[beykock]

It does not matter what you are doing.🐼

Important is to do what you like to do,  to have fun and enjoy it.😃

Babette

[rogerc]

I can spend hours just listening to the midis from the members of this great forum.
I have dozens of members mp3 songs on my playlist and listen to them frequently.

[pfeuh]

Hello,

I spend more time reading topics than playing, that's a fact! Arranging on an arranger means often just getting the good style.

As I like to play with my 2 hands, from time to time I make a style quick midi recording, I delete all except bass  drum and rythm guitar. Than I save it as playback. After that I can play piano with 2 hands or a voice on right hand and a counter voice on left hand. But this operation doesn't take much time.

Regards,

Pfeuh

[alanclare]

I think that this question has served to answer why we love these instruments. Their amazing flexibility allows them to be what their owners want them to be. When I bought my PSR s970, I wanted an instrument which would provide me with endless possibilities of different features, many of which I should never master, or even understand - but nevertheless give me hours of fun finding out and actually playing it.

I had two strokes if luck: I chose the exact tool for the job (even though the salesman said it was far too complicated for my needs), and I came across this forum and met it’s oh-so-friendly and talented members.

Just have fun.

Alan

[ugawoga]

Hi
I spend most of my time practicing and not recording lately.
I had a spell of getting mixes hopefully right and i will have to get down to more vst using as well in cubase
So much to do as I want to write my own compositions. Practicing is the way to make music easier than lego brick building as you can right simple mistakes.
Getting your registrations right can be a pain and shaping your sounds. Getting all registrations at the same volume.
There is millions of things to do!!


All the best
John                       "Keep plugging on"!!

[TiasDad]

I tend to play at night and use headphones. I spent hours and hours fine tuning the levels, reverb etc of each instrument used in the 250 songs I keep in my database. I then took my s970 round to a friends for a jamming session and couldn't hear any of the right hands... Lesson learned

[ugawoga]

Hi
It is hard to find the sweet spot level for all songs or regisrtations and it can take an age sorting that out

All the best
John

[panos]

Usually every week I try to learn a new song/composition.
I am not enjoying to play the song if the style parts and voices don't sound right or sound kind of boring to me.
I don't spend much time equalizing it perfectly to my liking though, for the same reason Tiasdad explained.
Headphones off and all the EQ setttings for every part/main/voice must  be "corrected" once gain.

Whatever make someone feels good is fine.
Waist of time is doing things you don't enjoy unless these things help you make a living of course 

[Keyboardist]

Hi RC
Looks like you are an arranger by heart. Doesn't matter that you know how to play well or not.
What kind of matters is you enjoy what you are doing.
These Arrangers have the best of both I think.
We can arrange create and play or improvise any way with which we wish.
I use it for all and been having fun creating improvising and arranging.Its fun to see what people come up with on this site  with a song.So many songs so many variety's ,so little time.
Enjoy any way you choose RC

Craig "Keyboardist"

[markstyles]

The Genos is a very complex instrument.  I think whatever gives you satisfaction, and whatever way you create music is fine..  If you feel you are spending too long, Try an experiment, and set a time limit, on how long you will spend on tweaking.   I spend a LOT of time on arranging a piece.  I use Genos in conjunction with a DAW. Probably much too lengthy and detailed for some here.  But this is what gives me pleasure..
 

[travlin-easy]

I think the big difference is that when you are a home player, you can spend lots of time arranging, editing, tuning, tweaking, etc..., which is a luxury so to speak.

When you are a full time entertainer/musician/singer, which I have been for more than 40 years, your goal is to learn as many new songs as quickly as possible, program in the quickest time you can, then get them to your audiences, hopefully sounding as close to the original performer as possible. I worked 7 days a week for the past 30 years, therefore, as soon as I got home, I went to work on putting a new song together and inputting the data into the keyboard for the next day's show.

Good luck,

Gary

[motekmusic]

Hi,
Years ago when 1st got arrangers  was doing lots of multi tracking arranging,, etc...
Now that am hitting 73 soon, don't want to spend  time arranging and just enjoy the playing part.   Yes, will still search for the
best possible style and voices but have not engaged in extensive multi tasking.   In some cases will put in extra track or two.

Right now doing more sit and plays than have previously.   I am basically a home player but have done music backing for
our community plays and even those backing files are not tracked.   However, am grateful that there are numerous arrranger
function and features that are available anytime...

cheers
elaine

[Joe H]

The nice thing about arranger keyboards is when you just feel like playing it's ready to go.  But also I like to do a lot of "remixing" of styles.  I get a great deal of pleasure from that.  After all... it's called an arranger for a reason.

Joe H

[rogerc]

 Truth be known I’m a lousy keyboard player. But I just love music so arranging midis gives me a lot of joy. Slowly losing the function of my left hand so it is even harder for me to play.
So Arranging is the way I get the most joy out of my keyboard now.