Consumed by the Universe - Vibraphone Solo - v2 Update

[@EricPeelMusic]

Have you seen the v2 Update for Dusk to Dawn yet? kzbin.info/www/bejne/n52vimOLgd6WocU

[@lucashawthorne8105]

You could so easily just have the title cover of the music while it played in the background and nobody would blink an eye. But instead you take us on a journey through the music that is almost as beautiful as the music itself. This is by far your best video I can tell a lot of work was put into it. Keep it up man.

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks, Lucas! Can't wait to do a video in this format for my following updates. Thanks for patiently staying tuned.

[@EricPeelMusic]

Sorry for delaying so long to upload! Hope this format is engaging! There was so much more I wanted to do for this video, such as having various celestial bodies fly in from the right. Or the background color changing. Perhaps I can update the video in the future with more visual elements. But here are a couple insane facts: There are over 2,500 video layers. Every note, and beam needed to be timed and colored depending on it's velocity and sustain duration. In addition, each pedal line, hairpin, and many other objects are colored and animated. It took over 30 hours to render! I had to buy a more powerful computer just for this video. My old one had an estimated 90 hours render time which kept increasing and it crashed on multiple attempts. Please take the time to watch in 4k on a big screen, and use headphones or good speakers!

[@CAPAE]

From when I first saw your pieces and musical structure when you first started your channel all the way through now, I love your rhythmic progression, melodic lines, and cadences. I will always be subscribed to you, and hope to work with you in the future. You possess one of my favorite sounds.

[@EricPeelMusic]

That means a lot! Thanks for watching for so long!

[@EricPeelMusic]

Happy to work with you on something in the future too, video-related or whatever. Feel free to pitch me your ideas and skill set anytime.

[@dadestroyer2643]

This is absolutely beautiful. I felt completely immersed from begging to end in the amazing visuals. The level of detail you put into every score reminds me us percussionists don’t just hit things, we hit things with purpose!!!

[@EricPeelMusic]

Very well said and thanks very much for commenting! Can’t wait to share the next thing. Sorry it takes me so long with day job and all but quality over quantity.

[@darrenmann8095]

One of my favorites. Played it in High School in 2013.

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks very much for playing, and for coming back to listen to the update!

[@releasethecaptives-christine]

I used to play the vibes in drum corps!! Love this!!

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks for watching!

[@Pyro2334]

Im gonna perform this piece for a solo contest later in the year, im really excited to play it!

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks for purchasing! Good luck and have fun! Please send me a video recording!

[@Pyro2334]

@@EricPeelMusic i will try! Do note, i do not have professional equipment most i got is an iphone and a go pro if that’ll suffice

[@EricPeelMusic]

@Pyro2334 iPhone and GoPro are usually great, just have to get them close, like within 15 feet away. If you can find an audio recording device and place it directly in front of and close to the vibraphone, that would be the best way to get decent sound without dedicated equipment. If I were you, if your school or local university has an audio engineering program, I’d see if you could borrow equipment for just 1-2 occasions. Often, they’ll have stuff laying around they’d be happy to let you use for free.

[@short3338]

this is such an amazing piece, i might have to try and learn it. it might be a little hard for where i am but it sounds so good so i wanna try it.

[@EricPeelMusic]

Play it as slow as you need to. It translates well played slow. Thanks!

[@sondreborgund]

Hi Eric:) I just wanna start off by saying that this compsition is my favorite piece ever and i have been kinda obsessed with with for as long as I have played the vibraphone and that's starting to become quite awhile ago. I have been practicing it(at times very hard) on and off for some years but never have I been able to actually play it properly. After starting music school this fall i have spent alot of energy on it again after maybe atleast two years of not touchining it and almost not using the vibes all together and finally I am starting to get somewhere with it and really seeing the results of hard work and practice. So I thank you for that. I would never have dedicated myself to the vibes at this level if it wasn't for you since its not even my main instrument anymore, only something I do in my spare time. I really wanna be able to perform this and finally get it into my reportoire so I could at last know that I made it happen even tough I have been saying to myself its an impossible task for atleast 6-7 years. Sorry for the bible:)) I also saw the email about the updated version and I was wondering what changes have you made? only aesthic stuff on the sheet music or? Thank you for taking the time to read all this lol

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks very much for your long comment! I’m happy that you like the solo and I appreciate the time you’ve put focusing on and learning it. I’m glad that you haven’t given up. And try not to feel defeated as it’s meant to be a challenge. In the update, only a few notes have been moved around. The biggest changes are with the pedaling and dynamics. The new pedaling falls more inline with what I’ve seen others tend to perform live. And the new dynamics better emphasize what I originally intended. The sheet music is larger with more white space, and the notation is just much more professional and clean. I took out a few bars at the end because it felt too drawn out. There is more text written to guide the performance, and the dreaded mallet drop was removed. What do you think of using percentages vs standard Italian dynamics?

[@sondreborgund]

@@EricPeelMusic I like the idea of «upscaling» the sheet music and making it more friendly for the reader and look foreward checking it out:) I also think that changing the dynamics over to %’s is a very good and interessting idea. It makes it a bit easier to really understand what you intended the piece to move like when you wrote it, apposed to standard oldschool dynamics which can vary a bit in what you recieve from the individual musician. I have never encountered it before and I think its perfect for something like the vibraphone where one really can make phrases flow like no other instrument with the right pedal- and mallet touch. Great with more added guidance too in the sheet music too. Thanks for still caring so much about your work to put more effort into it even after all these years. I look very much foreward to having a look at the new version and maybe it can boost my learning of the piece to a bit too, who knows. I will make sure you get to see a recording at some point when i am actually able to get through this legendary solo. Thanks again:)

[@shaan7486]

Absolutely amazing video, and I just purchased it to learn! Such a beautiful piece

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks for your kind words and thanks for purchasing! Good luck, have fun, send me a video please!

[@Ged____]

Wow beautiful piece aside I am absolutely loving the video part of this! Do you mind me asking how one goes about making visuals like that?

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thousands of layers in After Effects is how I did it. It was an extreme challenge both for me and my computer.

[@Ged____]

@@EricPeelMusic I'm a video editor myself, so I know how tedious that kinda work can be so all that effort is certainly not going unappreciated 👍

[@EricPeelMusic]

@@Ged____ Perhaps I can make a tutorial vid explaining everything in detail. Interested to know if you could point out easier ways things could be done. I really want to do all my videos like this in the future, but it is a TON of work. Made me appreciate video editing more in general!

[@Ged____]

@@EricPeelMusic I would be incredibly interested in watching that personally, that kinda stuff is super interesting to me. In terms of speeding up the process, I would say unfortunately it's gonna be a lot of work regardless of how you choose to do it. Try to steer away from animating on a note by note basis as much as possible though, possibly using your sheet music as a matte that reveals a color gradient of some kind, as opposed to having to select note colors on an individual level. You clearly have some quality experience of your own, so I'm sure you'll find yourself a far more efficient system. I'd just say automate everything you possible can and stay away from endless grunt work!

[@quantumsoap2719]

this is actually so cool. how do u even manage to animate a video like this?

[@EricPeelMusic]

Lots of patience! Thanks!

[@fattycake1246]

Did you use virtual Drumline for the audio? This sounds incredibly realistic. I love it

[@EricPeelMusic]

I did not use VDL for this this one. I proudly used Pure Jazz Vibes by Orange Tree Samples.

[@fattycake1246]

Sorry for all the questions but, I saw in a different video of yours that you used Logic Pro and virtual Drumline for audio. How do you edit modwheel values and pedals? I can’t find any info on it.

[@EricPeelMusic]

Mod wheel is CC1. Sustain (pedal) is CC64. They should work with VDL by default.

[@cheea5]

I wonder how this would sound with a slow motor on vibraphone. Not the whole time, but maybe for the build or something? I wish people would play with stuff like that more.

[@EricPeelMusic]

I did try that while writing this and it didn’t fit well in my opinion. But if you’re performing it, feel free to try a slow motor! Please check out my piece “Metabolism”. It has the slow motor for the first part. Combined with the syncopation of the marimba, it sounds pretty cool I think. Here’s a link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJDIkmd3fZipjNU I think part of the reason why composers don’t write for the motor very much is because most vibraphones in the world don’t have a working motor! Almost every high school I’ve worked with, the vibes motor was busted or had parts missing.

[@cheea5]

@@EricPeelMusic It's been about a decade since I've actually played. Metabolism is one of my favorites. It's always such a welcome surprise when I see another piece from you. I hope you're doing well.

[@EricPeelMusic]

Oh, thanks for watching for so long! I was going to post an update for “Relationship” this week, just a first draft but I’m a little scared it’s not ready yet. I’m experimenting with with individually, binaurally panning each key, so it’s it sounds immersive on headphones. Here’s a draft if you’d like to hear, do you think I should post it?: drive.google.com/file/d/1b6Q-ZLmvpa_QDy0bBSJZumqGGIk5T8kB/view?usp=drivesdk

[@cheea5]

@EricPeelMusic I really love the opening section, but it doesn't flow into the next part because the resolution is very conclusive and doesn't really lend itself to the next section. What if instead resolving it like you do you, you use the built anticipation of the suspended notes to pull you into the next section. Right now it plays as "okay, this part is done". Overall, the melodies relate to each other, but that transition is just abrupt. I'm gonna listen on repeat and get back to you with more thoughts.

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks for that feedback! Can you give me a timestamp of exactly the awkward transition where you mean?

[@wilsonh1058]

I’m trying to learn this piece and I really struggling to play the section from 3:48-4:00 at tempo. I’m playing the version for 3-octave vibraphone in F. Do you have any advice?

[@EricPeelMusic]

Instead of trying to figure out a way to play something at the written tempo, figure out what tempo you CAN play it and work up from there. Increase the metronome up 1 tick at a time. Just focus on one or two bars at a time.

[@GrooveWarrior_Kai]

How do you edit this and how do you make your own website?

[@EricPeelMusic]

I used Illustrator and After Effects to edit Sibelius graphics for the video. And I code my site.

[@DavidThePercussionist]

how do you record sibelius in 4K 60fps?

[@EricPeelMusic]

I don’t.

[@DavidThePercussionist]

@@EricPeelMusic Becuase whenever I export videos through the Sibelius export setting it only maxed at 1080p, but your video is 4K 60

[@CollinWestland]

Y'all think this would work as a scholarship audition piece?

[@EricPeelMusic]

Yes, absolutely!

[@CollinWestland]

@@EricPeelMusic then I shall. Thank you for this amazing piece of music!

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thank you too for supporting my work! Please post a video recording once you get the whole thing roughly down and maybe I provide some playing feedback? Would also like to see a recording of your audition!

[@CollinWestland]

@@EricPeelMusic yes sir I will. It will probably be later in the school year like February but I will send a video and hopefully will be able to record my audition.

[@EricPeelMusic]

@drummerdude5088 Looking forward to seeing your playing. Good luck!