
HOW TO MAKE YOUR GUS SOUND LIKE IT COST MORE THAN IT DID (in mids):

1) CHORUSING EFFECT: 
This is probably the most common one I use to make the sound richer. The
basic idea is to set up two channels with the same patch, put them in 
different stereo positions using controller 10 messages (eg. 0 and 127).
put a small pitch bend message (eg. about +-200) in one or both channels
(i.e. in opposite directions if on both channels!), and then send the same
note messages to each channel. This can be done very quickly on Cakewalk:
use the 'track clone' command, change the midi channel number of the new  
track and use `event view' and the insert button to put in the pitch bend
message.

2) DELAYS:
Pretty obvious one this. Just play the note again at a different volume
level (and different stereo position if using a second midi channel). If you
want more echoes, just do it again and again and again (four is the most
I've tried so far in warfilm.mid, but if someone wants to go the full 16...).
A few different types of delay: there's the 3/4 of a beat or beat and a half
delay, both of which are good for padding out solo noises. Then
there's the 'doubling' delay - a quite short delay just to stagger the
nosies a bit: I generally use this along with the chorusing effect above -
makes the effect a little more intense (good for pad type nosies).
Again, really easy to do in Cakewalk: Use track clone, then use the 'time'
column in the track info. This gives how many ticks you want to shift the 
track (+ or -). Then change the volume levels and you're done.

3) REVERB:
This one's the tricky one. What you have to do is look for a patch that's
similar to the one you're using but has a different volume envelope to it
(one that cuts off slowly). Then you double the two sounds as for chorus 
and muck about with the volume level to try and get things right. An 
extra trick is to use the Cakewalk 'edit length' (I think that what it's
called) command to lengthen the duration of the notes in the second part.
The only one of my attempts at this I'm really happy with is the voice noise 
on Chris3.mid which is really quite a convincing `reverb' effect.

4) STEREO PANNING EFFECTS:
Well, what you need here is some way of recording midi controller 10 messages
on to your track. In my case I can just assign one of the wheels or sliders on
my keyboard to do this and then just record while sliding noises around.
If you've got Cakewalk for Windows, there's a window that let's you do a
similar thing with the mouse. Another trick for people with keyboards that
don't send controller 10 messages: you can always send controller 1 messages:
(mod wheel) and then convert them to controller 10 (for example, using
Cakewalk's interpolate command).

5) VOLUME FADES:
Same as panning but using controller 7 messages. Only problem is, if you've
got to do 10 tracks this becomes pretty boring on a track by track basis.
Still, it works, and it makes you think about how each individual track 
should fade. Just thought of another approach that I've never used, though:
If you used 'Expression' messages (controller 11?) then you could fade all
the parts equally without destroying their intial controller 7 mix
levels. (i.e. record one track then copy the controller 11 messages across
to all the others). This would get an absolutely uniform fade which would be
good for the 'fade on endless loop of chorus' type strategy used when you 
can't figure how else to end the damned thing.


Well, that's most of it. If I can think of anything else I'll use it first
and then reveal my secrets later. Check out Chris1-5, Chrisnot and 
Warfilm for demonstrations of these. (You can actually see a lot of them in
the flashing lights of playmidi).

Chris.

