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  • Hi William,

    Outstanding!

    Great composition, love the orchestration. Your structure works very well, the reoccurrence of the motivic ideas are very well done. Classy! The sound is wonderful too, I wish sometimes the brass would punch a little more, but I know how delicate that is.

     Congratulations!

    (This is very strange, such good music with not a single post! Come on guys! If we don't encourage what's good, who will?)


  • I can't stand getting into a forensic, second by second analysis of someone else's work. But Guy is right. It's a great piece of music and it's definitely retro in it's structure. Certainly has throwbacks  STYLISTICALLY (before anyone gets shirty) to Herrmann with the ostinato strings and fanfares that are reminiscent of a Rosza style and even a little 60's Mission Impossible and RKO. I think it's great. Must have taken a lot of work.

    I never care about what sounds real - but I know others do and I can tell the difference. So purely from personal taste on mixing - I would agree with Guy about the brass. I would just prefer the whole thing to be more in your face with a little less reverb - or at least a different reverb. The brass can get lost slightly. The snares are maybe just a little to far back at times. I would bring the strings forward too. Sometimes the balance is making me want to turn it down and then up again. 

    The whole sound is like something from another era. It's almost like Orson Wells is going to start a narration at any given moment.

    I listened to this on Quested monitors through an Apogee Ensemble at very loud volumes in an untreated room that probably woke the neighbours in the next village.

    Epic!


  • This sounds like it could have been mixed mainly on headphones.


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  • Thanks for sharing. Took a listen 2 times. Thought it was a great well developed piece with lots of movement and salient moments Thought you stated the main theme quite early. I say this in that the contrasting section with the strings does come rather soon and there is quite a bit of space until the next hint of the main theme in its original setting. Although you have somewhat of an introduction , perhaps a larger intro section using some of the ideas from your development to draw it out a little longer and bring balance. The other weakness in form that stuck out in my opinion is that your ending is pretty much the same dynamic as your initial theme statement. And this point I would have everything doubled FFF tutti.

    THe use of brass is to be expected but I find the rather thin nature of VSL requires doubling and more considerate orchestration. Not that you did not ignore them completely but I did find you could of used more winds especially the lower winds to your advantage. It found the orchestration rather sparse and did not match the epic scope I think you were after

    The mix , as far as the headphones, I would actually say you should try listening on headphones as the stereo field is extremely wide and this would probably be more pronounced on headphones. While listening, I felt like there was nothing coming from the centre. Everything seemed hard panned and some sort of delay on each side to widen the image more. Your main theme when stated is hard panned and it just doesn't have the effect you were after. I would start with the centre and build around that. IF you want to take a traditional approach, that is placing items in the field in a traditional manner. I would really keep in mind that it is an audio recording, not a live setting and unlike a live setting which is forced to have the instruments in a certain way because there is not infinite space and that is how it ended being for several reasons, you can be a little more liberal. I also feel that even a live recording would make more use of room ambiance making the actual spread of the instruments not so noticeable.

    One final thing regarding the programming, it does come across a little dull and I think you perhaps rely too much on the given articulations and velocity triggers when you should be automating some gain changes to simulate and I suppose mimc the swells and lulls of a real orchestra. I found this could of been used for the section following your main motive with the strings. They were rather dull and desperate needed some sort of movement and expression.

    Nice effort and I can tell the work you put into it. Good luck on your cd. One last thing and it is rather frivolous but perhaps don't use the term Heroic in the title. For some reason, it flourishes some negative connotations in my head. probably from all the heroic film music but it also sort of corners the listener in their interpretation. Although most will find it heroic sounding, I don't think you have to mention it. I think overture is quite enough. Could you see yourself calling it "Sad Overture" "Happy Overture" if the material was sad or happy ? I think Overture is enough. Anyways, not really that important but just an opinion I wouldn't waste too much thought on.
    R

  • The sound is really amazing! Nice work, in my opinion technically perfect.

    The composition works well, too. But I don't think I would listen to it so many times. The main reason is that it lacks a "story". There's is a great orchestra playing skilfully made themes. But they remain as fragments. I would like to hear that little thing with a beginning, middle and end that talks to me and touches me.

    This only my humble, most personal opinion. I'm sure this kind of music has its place and many people are going to like it. I'm truly impressed.

    Best, Pekay


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  • William,

    I tried listening to two of your pieces, but the plug in does not work on either of my on line computers.

    Is there any chance you can post the link directly to the mp3 file? Otherwise, I cannot listen.

    Marko


  • You composed this 3 years before I was born. lol . Suddenly I feel young and cool!

  • What's that supposed to mean?


  •  Marko, yes I will alter that so it is just a link.


  • It means I appreciate your vintage age. For personal reasons tho.

  • Hi William, this is very awesome indeed =)


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  • PaulP Paul moved this topic from Orchestration & Composition on