Sounds really professional, my friend! I keep waiting for you to get a scoring job... if only you had time! My only thing with this is that the ending is rather abrupt. Maybe consider reworking it or try experimenting with other ending strategies.
Well at least this way I might manage to do a few game scores. If you were doing them, I'd be out of a job. :P
Keep compos(ed/ing)!
These are very supportive words Samulis but I don't think I am equipped enough with the knowledge, experience and expertise to do anything close to what you are doing. I am still learning from you guys and hope to have some improvements bit by bit.
Many thanks for your presence which is enough for me to have a boost.
Pretty chill. I think you could have added more to this instruments-wise though- it's very sparse. Perhaps some guitar or something, I don't know.
However... this is definitely not classical by any stretch of the imagination! Probably best in Jazz or maybe even electronic or cinematic or something like that since it's music designed for media. Next time if you don't know what something is, just put it in miscellaneous. ;)
I kept only a few instruments because it still is background music, I didn't want anything to pop too much to distract from the dialogue. Thanks for the comment!
Alright, who's been listening to Bosa? ;)
Great emotion, great chords. I'd say more but unfortunately I can't listen very loud so I can't get the full breadth of the piece, but very good from the quiet level I can listen to it at!
*raises hand* Haha, I do love me some Bosa! I actually was inspired by Bolero de Ravel and Ride of the Valkyries.
Glad it's good at the level you're listening, hopefully you can pop on some headphones and listen to dat bass a little easier. Mm, mm.
Sounds like someone likes John Williams, as my buddy Chris said below. ;)
Sounds great! I think I've heard of you before indeed...
I just wish you used reverb... those trumpet staccatos are so dry (and almost everything else for that matter)! The mix doesn't sound very convincing because of the lack of reverb. Also, the area around 2:00 is too quiet to be the climax. Consider building up more around then- trombones doing some sort of counter-melody to what else is going on and such.
The flute melody at 0:57- instead of doubling on glock/celesta, have glock/celesta do arpeggios perhaps.
Consider using timpani (I hear a tiny bit of it only) and more bass in this. It feels kinda empty in that range). Another thing I felt was missing was high strings.
The brass work around 1:35 on is strange- the trombones are too quiet and the call-and-answer feels unbalanced. Maybe consider bringing in some strings.
There are some great ideas in this, you should consider working more on building what goes AROUND those ideas- counter melodies, motion of the piece, so the flow is a bit nicer. Also, consider playing around with more key changes. Great idea for climaxes. ;)
Above all, keep compos(ed/ing)!
I should call you extremely reckless for spending all that money on those samples without first having at least a few years of struggling up through some starter sample libraries and a few dozen works, but this is very very well written and shows a lot of experience for a "first piece" so I can't say that. :P
Excellent motion and feel in this. You have a great ear for ideal dynamics and orchestration. I would be shocked if you haven't at least studied composition and orchestration for a few years and/or been under a mentor.
The only shaky transition I see is at 1:59. It's just too sudden. I'd use the 60" gong from EWQL SO with a mid-volume hit to just "whooosh" that through.
You remind me a lot of myself- you have a lot of ideas, and you try to cram them into one piece because you're in a state of "oh man, this is awesome, I know what should go next!"
The motif at 3:16 with the trumpet being doubled by horn should also be doubled two octaves below or such by trombones or tuba. Make that one bad ass tutti.
In general, this piece reminds me a lot of the fantastic score to How to Train Your Dragon, which won an award I believe. Give it a listen if you haven't already.
Let me know if you're ever interested in collaborating. You have a very good sound and lots of great ideas.
Keep compos(ed/ing)!
-Samulis
GONG! You're right! Hahaha. I had a well hard time with that part. Sounds like the snare player is just going "oh we're stopping? ok..." I shall edit the piece at some point (Whenever I have the patience to load up the project again). I'll try out the lower octave doubling at 3:16 too.
Thanks for the compliments. I have been gradually building my sample lib collection for a few years now yeah :P and have studied mainly modern music as a guitarist. I picked up most of my orchestration stuff from just ripping people off, doing little bits and pieces all the time. That's probably why it reminds you of John Powell! I do love that score, and I started a piece a while ago that sounds like a COMPLETE rip off of Test Drive. I'm feeling a bit more motivated to finish that now, so perhaps I'll post that someday.
This is definitely not just oriental instruments, first off- don't think you can hide your violas from me. XD
My main concern is with the scales you used. I heavily recommend you employ a form of the pentatonic scale when working in oriental music, or a similar feel to such. You should spend more time researching the feel you want to write, especially if it is world/ethnic. Not only does it sound more like that actual places' sound, but most instruments from that place won't be tuned chromatically, so it's important to realize the PHYSICAL limitations of the instruments you use, not just use them like pads on your chromatic keyboard and call it a day. ;)
I really think you need to use the "quantize" button on this... some things sound really laggy and off-beat from time to time, especially that drum.
As Tatort said, I think the pitch bend wasn't that good of an idea... pitch bends sounds really cheesy in 90% of applications of the pitch wheel- I'd stay away from it if I were you tbh, especially with all the amazing portamento/gliss/legato/slur instruments out there on the market, it's not really needed anymore except in some rare cases.
The strings at the start have too long of an attack IMHO... it sounds like they are coming in on the and of one and that's rather disorienting. Pull the notes to start BEFORE the start of the measure and that way they'll hit the attack correctly. Also, some string releases are a bit too sudden.
The start of the piece is strange... very very western. Sounds fitting in maybe a Spanish-style work (if you look in my library at El Cid, it uses a very similar chord prog).
The drum beat that comes in at 1:00 made me laugh- the most cliche and over used drum cadence in the history of cinematic music. I put it in my pieces now sometimes just for laughs. Consider listening to some real Taiko ensembles, I'm fairly sure there are some videos online. They employ an extremely complex style of what is called Polyrhythm, which is common in many non-western forms of music. If you want this to sound oriental, consider looking into some of those.
2:57 feels like Deja Vu. Consider having the flute or some other instrument come back and take the melody a bit. You might want to make your melody a bit clearer... it's a bit unmemorable.
The ending is very strange. Either decrescendo or have a drum hit or something after to ease that cut off.
All in all a decent piece. Keep working on developing more of an ear for other scales for this type of music.
Keep compos(ed/ing)!
Nice track, but the orchestra feels very confined to the center. Consider spreading them out in the future or using some stereo doubling to give them some space.
Detuning and all that is a neat trick... it works well in the track although it's a bit strange to a good ear.
The centering thing is a very good point! Completely disagree with you on the modulation, though! Regardless, thanks a bunch for the feedback!!
Not bad.
First, the bass drum sample is strange and very loud. I can send you some decent bass drum samples I made myself if you want. The percussion in general needs a revisit I think... orchestral percussion is normally a transparent thing- backing up what is going on instead of providing a "groove".
I think the melody stuff is nice, it just needs to come out more. You can do this by doubling it up an octave or on other instruments. Use your ear to determine what sounds good doubling what. Think of the orchestra as a big tray of watercolors. Each one is different- yellow, red, green, blue, etc. but when you mix them you can either get cool colors or something that looks like puke. It takes a lot of time to be good at picking the right instruments, just as it takes time to know exactly how much red and yellow make that shade of orange.
In a lot of cinematic music, there are generally two parts: a fast repeating pattern (ostinato), often played on quick (marcato or staccato or pizzicato) strings or a piano or drums, then a slow, powerful melody played on brass or slower strings. Try experimenting with quick strings if you have any and see what you can come up with!
Orchestral music, weird instruments, and sample libraries just about sums it up.
Age 29, Male
Sample Library Dev
Berklee College of Music
New England
Joined on 1/3/10
Underworld 
Dream Analysis 
Cthulhu Surfaces 
Space Hero 
Hero Music 
Among Ancient Ages 
The Carmine Dragon 
