# The incredible Mister Crow



## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 8, 2017)

Hi Guys,
I apologize in advance that I post to many tracks here. I know probably, some people are already tired to see my works here, anyways I am always happy to get feedback from you guys here. Thank you.
This track was composed in 2 sessions, yesterday and today. (inbetween my comissioned soundtrack daily work). So excuse for the rough rendering.



Drier Version:


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## Mihkel Zilmer (Jun 8, 2017)

Nice writing and very imaginative ideas, Alexander, as per your usual! 
But what the hell is going on with intonation? Was that an intentional decision? I found it very distracting, especially 1:20 onwards.


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## novaburst (Jun 8, 2017)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> I apologize in advance that I post to many tracks here





Mihkel Zilmer said:


> Nice writing and very imaginative ideas, Alexander, as per your usual!



well this.............

@AlexanderSchiborr nice string and brass work also mix was nice. beautiful entrance, the deep brass is it the trombone hope I am right, maybe its coming to hard on the right or biting to hard,

Don't believe there is one here who is tired of listing to your work, you have a high standard and you stick to it and it kind of before listing you know its going to sound good.


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## Emmanuel Rousseau (Jun 9, 2017)

@AlexanderSchiborr , I absolutely love what you've done, as I'm a huge fan of that "Elfmanish" style. Coming with a rich orchestration like this in only two days makes you a kind of superhero, at least for me 

But I second @Mihkel Zilmer about the intonation, I feel like I'm hearing an old vynil with wow & flutter issues. Was it intentional ?


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 9, 2017)

whitewasteland said:


> @AlexanderSchiborr , I absolutely love what you've done, as I'm a huge fan of that "Elfmanish" style. Coming with a rich orchestration like this in only two days makes you a kind of superhero, at least for me
> 
> But I second @Mihkel Zilmer about the intonation, I feel like I'm hearing an old vynil with wow & flutter issues. Was it intentional ?



@Mihkel Zilmer 

Yes you are right, guys. It is a bit shaky though, thank you. I wasn´t hearing that after 2 hours of orchestrating..
I also added a drier version. Thank you for the input and words. Always appreciated.


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## Guy Bacos (Jun 12, 2017)

Very lively track, great sense of contrasts and orchestration, as you always do. But 2 sessions is a very long time.  One thing that disturbed me was the intonation, I had the reaction: "What the hell is going on with intonation?", and I thought it must be me, but then I saw that exact comment, so maybe something to look into? 
As for the 2 different mixes, I think I like more the one with more reverb, however, I find the hall sounds huge, I'd prefer a tighter sound, and the drier version, I find you loose too much compared to the 1st. Not sure what the solution is, but that's what I hear.


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## Fab (Jun 12, 2017)

ha, nice

I think the day you commission an orchestra will be good


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## Steve Martin (Jun 13, 2017)

Yes, I really like this. What a great fun type piece of music this is! I bet you had a lot of fun writing this. Very enjoyable to listen to. I'd Like to hear more of this kind of material from you if you have some. Thanks for sharing


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 13, 2017)

Guy Bacos said:


> Very lively track, great sense of contrasts and orchestration, as you always do. But 2 sessions is a very long time.  One thing that disturbed me was the intonation, I had the reaction: "What the hell is going on with intonation?", and I thought it must be me, but then I saw that exact comment, so maybe something to look into?
> As for the 2 different mixes, I think I like more the one with more reverb, however, I find the hall sounds huge, I'd prefer a tighter sound, and the drier version, I find you loose too much compared to the 1st. Not sure what the solution is, but that's what I hear.



Hi Guy, 
Thanks for chiming in. Yes..the intonation is a way of.., I am going to fix that soon, I guess in the next session (hopefully today with some cold beers after work). Regarding the more close miced version: This version is not yet balanced right. As close micings behave totally different I have to rebalance some of the sections. But yes for such tracks dryier settings are normally better because you have more detail in the shorts which contributes better to it I think..


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 13, 2017)

Fab said:


> ha, nice
> 
> I think the day you commission an orchestra will be good



Oh haha, I don´t know if I am yet at that point of experience to be able to work with a live orchestra..I want to respect the musicians in the orchestra and not to piss them of, so I am pretty careful.


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## handz (Jun 13, 2017)

Hi Alex, nice piece as always - like your style.


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## Jaap (Jun 13, 2017)

As always I enjoyed listening to your work. The intonation confused me as well (also first thought it was me being tired haha), but love the writing and orchestration!


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## Guy Bacos (Jun 13, 2017)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hi Guy,
> Thanks for chiming in. Yes..the intonation is a way of.., I am going to fix that soon, I guess in the next session (hopefully today with some cold beers after work).



Ok, but not too many, maybe that's how the intonation problem started.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 13, 2017)

Guy Bacos said:


> Ok, but not too many, maybe that's how the intonation problem started.



Yes agreed :D



, just started an hour ago with a corona. haha.


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## Paul T McGraw (Jun 15, 2017)

@AlexanderSchiborr if anyone thinks you post too much, it would be because they were jealous of your skills. Very attractive composition and orchestration. The intonation thing is really weird. I can't even imagine how that happened. 

Anyway, please keep posting. I love hearing your music.


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## mcalis (Jun 15, 2017)

By intonation do you folks mean that it sounds detuned/pitchbended at around 0:30? 'Cause that's what I am hearing and I want to make sure I am not going crazy from wearing headphones all day...

Seems the drier version is not available anymore? I'd like to listen to this without the strange detuning


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## Guy Bacos (Jun 15, 2017)

mcalis said:


> I want to make sure I am not going crazy



Alexander is playing mind games with us.


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## ghandizilla (Jun 16, 2017)

The rapid color-switches are here remarkable. Would be very instructive to have a score.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 16, 2017)

mcalis said:


> By intonation do you folks mean that it sounds detuned/pitchbended at around 0:30? 'Cause that's what I am hearing and I want to make sure I am not going crazy from wearing headphones all day...
> 
> Seems the drier version is not available anymore? I'd like to listen to this without the strange detuning



Yes, I guess so.And yes, I had to take down the dryier version from soundcloud, because I did run out of space. But I will upload it to the dropbox later this afternoon for comparisson. 


ghandizilla said:


> The rapid color-switches are here remarkable. Would be very instructive to have a score.



Score sheets..well that would take a while for me..is there any specific thing you are interested in, maybe I could answer it just "out of the box".


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## ghandizilla (Jun 16, 2017)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Score sheets..well that would take a while for me..is there any specific thing you are interested in, maybe I could answer it just "out of the box".


 I have troubles following what's going on with the melodic perc and the brass from 0:20 to 0:30. I know it's a very idiomatic writing, but I would have troubles transcribing it. Maybe you could quote the influences so I can check 'em?


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 16, 2017)

ghandizilla said:


> I have troubles following what's going on with the melodic perc and the brass from 0:20 to 0:30. I know it's a very idiomatic writing, but I would have troubles transcribing it. Maybe you could quote the influences so I can check 'em?



I will look that up and bounce everything out, but not today anymore..my eyes are literally burning already from staring at cubase since 7 in the morning..


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## ghandizilla (Jun 16, 2017)

Take care and don't die from DAW-radiations!


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## Lawson. (Jun 16, 2017)

I gotta say, this is my favorite piece from you yet. Sounds fantastic, and your orchestration choices are wonderful. I'm trying to figure out why the orchestra is drunk though! I don't know your process, but did you accidentally have something on your pitch bend while recording stuff in?


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## Guy Bacos (Jun 16, 2017)

Could always be "The Incredible Mister Tipsy Crow"




))


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 17, 2017)

ghandizilla said:


> Take care and don't die from DAW-radiations!



Hi so finally today I came to do something for you. I have uploaded all the single sections stems, so you can get a better understanding first by listening to it. Tomorrow I will add for you some descriptions about the focus of the melody, harmony, ornaments etc. Just download them, they have all the same offset, so you can load them into your daw and listen to the whole sections together, or you mute brass, or combined different section to get an idea how my shitty orchestration sound like :D A little sidenote: This single stems sounds somehow a little rough at times because I didn´t had that much time (only a few hours) to compose and orchestrate that piece. See the performance as a rough sketch. COmments will follow soon.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u6wjst76bagk19e/The inredible Mister Crow Stems Section.rar?dl=0



Guy Bacos said:


> Could always be "The Incredible Mister Tipsy Crow"
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Cool Pic! :D



Lawson. said:


> I gotta say, this is my favorite piece from you yet. Sounds fantastic, and your orchestration choices are wonderful. I'm trying to figure out why the orchestra is drunk though! I don't know your process, but did you accidentally have something on your pitch bend while recording stuff in?



Orchestra suffers sometimes that Alex just overdid it with effects, thats all..haha.
Thank you for the comments regarding style / orchestration. Much appreciated


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## ghandizilla (Jun 17, 2017)

Excellent ! Thousands of thanks for the stems, I will learn a lot from them


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## Guy Bacos (Jun 17, 2017)

Alexandre, I have a question. When you fiddle around with the tuning, do you detune as a group or for each track? For instance, say you have horns playing F-A-C as a chord, and 2 horns per note, will you detune everything at once, or individually, for each track, say 6 tracks, a separate tuning per track? Unless, your preferred method of working is 1 track for the the 3 horns, which is fine, but could explain. What I hear is that the entire section detunes in the same direction, (the tipsy effect  )which sounds more like a vinyl record having speed/pitch problems rather than a healthy non perfect tuning orchestra in which not one player has the same tuning as the next. Don't know if I'm explaining myself well. If so, possible? If the case, I think you should skip detuning the sections, cause I think you lose more than you gain here.


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## Cass Hansen (Jun 20, 2017)

Setting aside the obvious "wow and flutter" problem, I agree this is one of your best overall original pieces I've heard Alex. You've really refined your mixing and mastering techniques during the past few months and it shows. Since I'm getting back into orchestration, I'm wondering if you'd be willing to share your what reverb you're using _(if any, because I know you're using libraries with multiple mics)_ on your master output, and what stage placement software (again, if any) in achieving your stereo width, placement and depth balance of the instruments. It's all sounding very polished and professional at this point.

Anyway, glad to see you're advancing so quickly as an top-notch orchestrator/composer although I know it takes hours an hours of dedicated work and unfettered discipline to do so.

Cass


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 26, 2017)

Cass Hansen said:


> Setting aside the obvious "wow and flutter" problem, I agree this is one of your best overall original pieces I've heard Alex. You've really refined your mixing and mastering techniques during the past few months and it shows. Since I'm getting back into orchestration, I'm wondering if you'd be willing to share your what reverb you're using _(if any, because I know you're using libraries with multiple mics)_ on your master output, and what stage placement software (again, if any) in achieving your stereo width, placement and depth balance of the instruments. It's all sounding very polished and professional at this point.
> 
> Anyway, glad to see you're advancing so quickly as an top-notch orchestrator/composer although I know it takes hours an hours of dedicated work and unfettered discipline to do so.
> 
> Cass



Thanks Cass, much appreciated. But your writing skills are stupendous.Heard the other day that piano composition..


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