# "Ancient Archeology" (Cinematic Orchestral Piece)



## Michael_Picher (Jul 28, 2017)

My latest composition, which was inspired by Jerry Goldsmith's score from "The Mummy", as well as John William's music from the Indiana Jones series!


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## BenG (Jul 28, 2017)

Some really good ideas in here, Michael!


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## Michael_Picher (Jul 28, 2017)

BenG said:


> Some really good ideas in here, Michael!



Thank you!


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## E.Heart (Jul 28, 2017)

Michael_Picher said:


> My latest composition, which was inspired by Jerry Goldsmith's score from "The Mummy", as well as John William's music from the Indiana Jones series!




Hi Michael,

The music is fine, good story telling and evolution over time! The rendering of the music however could be better. The instruments sound a bit dry/digital. (library limitations I guess) The ambience is also rather limited, sounds like a standard reverb, the stereo image could be wider too. (panning) Improvements in those area's would do music much more justice.


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## Michael_Picher (Jul 28, 2017)

E.Heart said:


> Hi Michael,
> 
> The music is fine, good story telling and evolution over time! The rendering of the music however could be better. The instruments sound a bit dry/digital. (library limitations I guess) The ambience is also rather limited, sounds like a standard reverb, the stereo image could be wider too. (panning) Improvements in those area's would do music much more justice.



Unfortunately, I am limited to what I can afford, but I might play around with stereo image in the future project. I also usually like a reverb on the dryer side, for the sake of clarity, but that could be another I can experiment with as well. Thank you!


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## Paul T McGraw (Jul 29, 2017)

I can clearly hear the Goldsmith and Williams influence. The composition skills exhibited in this piece are first rate. It would be great to hear this with a real orchestra or better samples. Some folks will not be able to hear beyond the quality of the samples, which will hurt your professional aspirations. What you are using isn't terrible. The individual instruments are clearly recognizable, and not comic caricatures. But there are a number of sections where I can tell the visceral impact of the music would be tremendous with better samples.


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## Michael_Picher (Jul 29, 2017)

Paul T McGraw said:


> I can clearly hear the Goldsmith and Williams influence. The composition skills exhibited in this piece are first rate. It would be great to hear this with a real orchestra or better samples. Some folks will not be able to hear beyond the quality of the samples, which will hurt your professional aspirations. What you are using isn't terrible. The individual instruments are clearly recognizable, and not comic caricatures. But there are a number of sections where I can tell the visceral impact of the music would be tremendous with better samples.



Thank you for the thorough review! Despite working on a limited budget, I'm looking for creative ways to improve the sound of my virtual orchestra. My next big purchase will likely be a dedicated string library. I might also write out sheet music and try to con an orchestra into playing it at some point as well. We'll see.


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## Arden Meissner (Jul 30, 2017)

E.Heart is right, pretty dry without rendering. Cool piece, though.


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## Michael_Picher (Jul 30, 2017)

Arden Meissner said:


> E.Heart is right, pretty dry without rendering. Cool piece, though.



Which section of the orchestra do you feel needs an upgrade the most? My thoughts were to get a dedicated string library as my next big purchase.

Edit: Sorry, I just realized you probably meant the reverb, but I'm curious either way.


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## Paul T McGraw (Jul 31, 2017)

@Michael_Picher I know you were not asking me, so forgive me for butting in. It is just my opinion, but if you can only afford one thing right now, strings would probably be your best bet. But if money is tight, you have to be careful not to waste funds on a product that can not cover all of your needs. Spitfire, Orchestral Tools or VSL string libraries are very comprehensive but also very expensive. A lot of folks on this forum love Cinematic Studio Strings and from the demos I have heard they are a bargain at $399. If that is still too much, the Cinematic Strings 2 by the same developer at $299 is almost as impressive. I do not own either product, I own VSL Orchestral Strings, Cinesamples CineStrings, and just bought Spitfire Symphonic Strings.


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## Michael_Picher (Jul 31, 2017)

Paul T McGraw said:


> @Michael_Picher I know you were not asking me, so forgive me for butting in. It is just my opinion, but if you can only afford one thing right now, strings would probably be your best bet. But if money is tight, you have to be careful not to waste funds on a product that can not cover all of your needs. Spitfire, Orchestral Tools or VSL string libraries are very comprehensive but also very expensive. A lot of folks on this forum love Cinematic Studio Strings and from the demos I have heard they are a bargain at $399. If that is still too much, the Cinematic Strings 2 by the same developer at $299 is almost as impressive. I do not own either product, I own VSL Orchestral Strings, Cinesamples CineStrings, and just bought Spitfire Symphonic Strings.



Cinematic Strings 2 and CineStrings were two that was I seriously considering. The others were on my radar, but I'll have to refresh my memory. Thank you for the advice!


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jul 31, 2017)

I agree with the previous comments, the orchestration and piece itself is wonderful, but the programming is not doing it justice (sounds too "MIDI" if you know what I mean, especially the woodwinds and brass). What libraries did you use? It's not so much the libraries, but how you program them properly using CC's.


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## Michael_Picher (Aug 1, 2017)

Wolfie2112 said:


> I agree with the previous comments, the orchestration and piece itself is wonderful, but the programming is not doing it justice (sounds too "MIDI" if you know what I mean, especially the woodwinds and brass). What libraries did you use? It's not so much the libraries, but how you program them properly using CC's.



My template mainly consists of instruments from Project SAM's Orchestral Essentials 1, Garritan Personal Orchestra 4, and VSCO 2 Community Edition. OE1 serves as the foundation, GPO4 is mainly supplying the woodwinds, and VSCO 2:CE fills in the gaps (especially in the strings).


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## Jeremy Spencer (Aug 1, 2017)

Michael, I'm actually surprised you made GPO sound as good as you did (that's one library that is tough to get realism out of, from my experience). Once you invest in some good libraries, and learn how to use them, your compositions will sound amazing. EastWest Hollywood Orchestra would be my first choice, but I'm sure you'll find what suits you best. Keep up the good work!


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## Michael_Picher (Aug 1, 2017)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Michael, I'm actually surprised you made GPO sound as good as you did (that's one library that is tough to get realism out of, from my experience). Once you invest in some good libraries, and learn how to use them, your compositions will sound amazing. EastWest Hollywood Orchestra would be my first choice, but I'm sure you'll find what suits you best. Keep up the good work!



Yeah, GPO4's quality can radically differ from section to section. The woodwinds, though, are pretty decent.

Hopefully I can upgrade soon, or find a way to kidnap an orchestra. Thanks for the advice!


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