# Orchestral suite (exercise)



## Christof (Jun 13, 2012)

Recently I started to do some daily exercises to improve my craft, this time I was heavily inspired by an 80 years old over the top composer....

I didn't have much time for mixing and mastering.
http://music4motion.org/orchestral%20suite%20no1.mp3


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## Hannes_F (Jun 13, 2012)

Fabulous.


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## Christof (Jun 13, 2012)

I have to add that it is interesting that this old master ripped off from Dvorak, Tchaikowsky, Korngold, Mahler or Stravinsky, now we rip off from him


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## Gabriel Oliveira (Jun 13, 2012)

"Fabulous." o/~ 

very hedwig-ish


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## Rach (Jun 14, 2012)

I'd say that's a pretty spot-on exercise! JW would be proud...
I am floored by your talent Christof. You are an inspiration to those of us clawing our way up the ladder. I am pleased you are on this forum. I think I can learn a thing or two listening to your works. 
Cheers and bravo!
Stephen


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## lamandolina (Jun 14, 2012)

wow! really nice! felicitaciones!


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## lamandolina (Jun 14, 2012)

what did you use?, could you tell us something about yours steps? did you work in the traditional way or directly on the sequencer? I ask it because of the wood runs, is a big work to write it on a papper.


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## Dracarys (Jun 14, 2012)

You just made 2 minutes of intricate music sound like 5, well done.

Which library for the winds/bells?


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## Blakus (Jun 14, 2012)

Wow. Very impressive! Would love to know what libraries you used!


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## parnasso (Jun 14, 2012)

That is really a very nice composition, compliments! You have a lot of beautiful and varied ideas in it and it has a fantastic flow and vividness. It's also performed very well. My only criticism would be that you use too many shifted root position chords in the harmonization, at least for my classical taste... in my opinion it would be even more beautiful if it was more sophisticated in that regard.

Great work!


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## Christof (Jun 15, 2012)

Thanks for your compliments!

I wrote it directly into Logic, this is my usual approach, afterwards I notate the score in Sibelius.

For the woodwind runs I used Cinesamples Hollywood winds (prerecorded runs) this works perfectly for a quick draft like this, the other woodwinds are all VSL.
Strings are Hollywood Strings, the string runs are OSR.
The pizzicato string section in the middle is Spitfire Albion, they have this excellent human touch.
Brass is Cinebrass Pro, in my opinion the best sounding brass library I know, so much fun to play with it.
Harp, Celesta, Bells and percussion are VSL.


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## leafInTheWind (Jun 15, 2012)

Lovely piece!


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## lamandolina (Jun 15, 2012)

thanks for the info, I've also listened more music from your web site, congrats!, you write beautiful music! do you have a soundcloud account?


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## Christof (Jun 15, 2012)

Yes I do:

http://soundcloud.com/christof-unterberger


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## germancomponist (Jun 15, 2012)

Very nice!


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## TGV (Jun 15, 2012)

Fantastic bit of homage. I wasn't that impressed by the Potter reference, but rather by the structure of the whole, and the great lines of the lower strings. And the sound ... I don't know why you excuse yourself for having had little time for mastering and mixing. Wish I could get that in such a short time!


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## Christof (Jun 16, 2012)

I have to add that this is not really a daily exercise, I did each part on one day and put them together at the end, so it took me almost two days, which is quite long for just two and a half minutes of music.


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## ryans (Jun 16, 2012)

Well that was awesome. 

Thanks for sharing 

Ryan


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## SergeD (Jun 17, 2012)

Full of life, samples without the mechanical side effect.


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## Erik (Jun 17, 2012)

Christof @ Sat 16 Jun said:


> I have to add that this is not really a daily exercise, I did each part on one day and put them together at the end, so it took me almost two days, which is quite long for just two and a half minutes of music.



Two days only? Good craftmanship Christof! Very well done, nice piece, congrats man!


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## Gabriel Oliveira (Jun 17, 2012)

at 0:05 i ALWAYS look at my mobile phone...

there's something on the left channel that sounds like a mobile phone vibrating alert 

what is it, Christof? it's like "rrmmmmmmmmm"


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## Dracarys (Jun 17, 2012)

Christof @ Fri Jun 15 said:


> the other woodwinds are all VSL.




Which VSL package specifically? My next purchase is going to be vienna woodwinds.
Also roughly how much ram did this consume? Lots of tracks or vst mapping?

Thanks!


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## Steve Martin (Jun 17, 2012)

Hi Christof,

that is a wonderful piece of music you have written there. Brilliantly done!

Thanks for sharing this with us on the forum!

best,

Steve :D


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## Christof (Jun 18, 2012)

The mobile phone alert at 0:05 is a harp arpeggio (lower register), I have a special deal with Nokia

I used VSL woodwinds I and II, total RAM usage of this project is about 6 Gig.
No VST mapping, I use Logic, in this project I have 35 tracks.


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## Christof (Jun 18, 2012)

*Piece updated*

I have added a new sequence at the end:

http://soundcloud.com/christof-unterberger/orchestral-suite1-1-updated


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## jsaras (Jun 18, 2012)

Diggin' it!


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## Wibben (Jun 20, 2012)

If I could write something even half as dynamic, interesting and beautiful as this I would be a happy man... kudos, sir.


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## christianhowes (Jun 20, 2012)

This is so dynamic! Love it, man. Keep up the strong work.

chris howes
http://christianhowes.com/christian-how ... ensembles/


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## Christof (Jun 22, 2012)

Thank you Chris!


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## Benji (Jun 22, 2012)

Hi Christof,

I must say you did a great job, however the second part (starting at 1:49) of your tune sounds very common to me... 
The harmonic progression, orchestration, maybe the melody...

Indeed it sounds just like "Buckbeak's Flight" (J. Williams) from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. 
The ressemblance is rather striking!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZPYcGVA_Y&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZPYcGV ... re=related)

After listening one more time I could say I hear "The Whomping Willow" from the same OST.
Don't get me wrong I'm not trolling here nor being sarcastic, I'm just pointing out that I hear one of my favorite tracks in this composition.

I doubt not you worked on these tracks and I enjoyed it!

Thanks,

Ben


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## Christof (Jun 23, 2012)

Yes Benji,

I mentioned this in my introduction post of this thread.With this exercise I did not intend to write my original music, I wanted to try to write in the style of Williams.
In the part at 1:49 I took the rhythmic and harmonic progression of "Buckbeak's Flight" and wrote a new melody on top of it.And at the beginning you can hear the first 5 notes(first bar) of "The Whomping Willow", then the music takes a complete new direction.
I would NEVER compare my skills to Williams, but actually I did what he does: You can find many resemblances of classical composers in his scores, even the same melodies and chord progressions, orchestration and moods, sometimes it is even frightning!In Star Wars I hear Korngold's Robin Hood and a lot of Dvorak and Holst, in Harry Potter I hear Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker all the time.
I did exactly the same in this exercise, I am a self taught composer without any education except my cello studies in Paris.So I am learning by doing.

Cheers,
Christof


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## Benji (Jun 23, 2012)

Yes sir,
And no doubt you did an awesome work, as I said I really enjoyed it ! =)

There is nothing wrong learning from maestros, to mimic them is giving them a new breath of life, what J. Williams did very elegantly.

I couldn't agree more with what you're saying, this type of exercise which I do frequently is perfect for improving your skills.

All the best,
Ben


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## Christof (Jun 23, 2012)

I did the same with a Zimmer style score here a few months ago , but then people here on the forum posted quite rude and angry, maybe because so many people try to write like Zimmer, not only as exercise, also in real scores.


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## Benji (Jun 23, 2012)

Christof @ 23/6/2012 said:


> I did the same with a Zimmer style score here a few months ago , but then people here on the forum posted quite rude and angry, maybe because so many people try to write like Zimmer, not only as exercise, also in real scores.



Yeah, 
That's why I want to make my point as clear and open minded as possible 

Maybe we should ally and troll at J. Williams "eh you stole Stravinsky!!!" haha jokin'

Ben


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## Christof (Jun 26, 2012)

This is quite interesting, especially from minute 3:10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9IV5u9iwuQ&feature=related


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## RyBen (Jun 26, 2012)

Thanks for that video. It's pretty educational hearing such influences. I always disliked Rite of Spring, but there's some good treasures in there apparently.

Edit: Oh, and your exercise was nice too. :D


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## Christof (Jul 29, 2012)

I have been asked how I programmed/orchestrated the string parts, especially the long notes:
I used HS only, volume and vibrato are controlled via mod wheel, and I added some Lexicon reverb (concert hall).
Orchestration is very simple and classic, 1st and 2nd violins play mostly in octaves, violas and cellos play counterpoint lines and basses play...well the root notes of the chords, or the inversions.

Pizzicato strings are Albion only, runs come from OSR.


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## kclements (Jul 29, 2012)

fantastic work. Really enjoyed listening to your piece.

Cheers - 
kc


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## Audun Jemtland (Jul 30, 2012)

Stolen,borrowed,inlfuenced,unconciously taken :D 
I don't care.

Kudos to you Christof, it takes some understanding of orchestration and colours to do this kind of work. People simply copying others fail miserably.



Where's that hans zimmer one? I want to hear it!


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## Christof (Aug 1, 2012)

Here is the Zimmer one, based on a pattern by Daniel James who took it from Dark Knight.

http://soundcloud.com/christof-unterberger/a-new-world


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## SimonCharlesHanna (Aug 1, 2012)

The pizzicato is my favorite part. Fantastic writing and those pizz samples are just gorgeous. Almost makes me wanna dive in to albion for them.


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