# 'OVERWORLD' Orchestra & Choir fantasy cue



## Dean (Jan 8, 2007)

Hi,
names Dean I work as a full time composer,I joined the forum recently.
Heres a composition I wrote in Dec 06 ,there is no brass and very little low percussion,I used Strings,woodwinds,piano & Choir

Tilte: 'OVERWORLD'

http://deanvalentine.com/mp3/OVERWORLD.mp3

(my first post was titled 'Darkmatter' which I've completely remixed and extended,thanks to some very helpful critiques here,hopefully I get a chance to post it soon for comparison.)

Dean.


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## PolarBear (Jan 8, 2007)

Nice one. Only thing I might want to mention that the orchestration in the second bigger part of the piece (with choir in the background the and the solo violin motive going on) sometimes could use a bit support in the mid to mid-low range from maybe woodwind or viola or celli. Also towards the end, before the forte part.

Technically perfect! How much of it is samples?

All the best,
PolarBear


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## IvanP (Jan 8, 2007)

Hello, Dean, excelent cue, mood and dynamics, I like your style (also listened to other compositions of yours before  )

As far as mockup goes, the fast strings runs and crescendi are fabulous! What did u use?

I would personally lower a bit the sustained and solo strings, they reveal a bit too much it's a sample library...just MHO...the rest is very good.

Welcome here 

Iván


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## synthetic (Jan 8, 2007)

Astounding realism in the strings and a very nice composition which held my interest throughout. I think the solo violin is the weakest link, it sounded thin to me. Otherwise it's a great piece of work. I'm also interested to hear how you accomplished the string runs and swells.


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## JBacal (Jan 8, 2007)

Very nice composition.

Best,
Jay


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## D.J. (Jan 8, 2007)

Hi Dean,

I enjoy the sound you get on this track. 
Nice writing. Nice control of the samples.

In fact I liked it enough to check out your site.

I liked listening to your work even more with the visuals.

( Spiral has a nice texture too).


BTW my brother was a writer on Mutant Ninja Turtles. Small World.


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## Dean (Jan 9, 2007)

madbulk @ Mon Jan 08 said:


> Nice.
> I'm bugged by the taikos in the beginning. There's not much grounding the tonality at that point. I'd have used timps. But that wouldn't foreshadow the taikos later, and I think there they sound great, if a little heavy.
> Agree the runs and clusters and dynamics are all very well done.
> I have a hard time coming up with things to say about pieces like this compositionally because they sound so much like score that I can only imagine what they might be mapped to.
> But it's got its moments certainly. I liked it.



Thanks madbulk,
Thats exactly what I wanted I did'nt want to ground this track at all except the big taiko section evan then I avoided timpanis,I agree its a bit muddy there.

Dean.


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## Dean (Jan 9, 2007)

IvanP @ Mon Jan 08 said:


> Hello, Dean, excelent cue, mood and dynamics, I like your style (also listened to other compositions of yours before  )
> 
> As far as mockup goes, the fast strings runs and crescendi are fabulous! What did u use?
> 
> ...



Hi Ivan,
Thanks very much,this is very different to 'Darkmatter' ,theres no brass or timpani which is a big change for me.

I use EW/QL Platinum Pro XP symphonic orchestra,and EW/QL symphonic choirs,I spend most of my time picking the right articulations then work on the performance.I only have the library about 8 months so I'm still learning.

I'm not too fussed about the samples being ultra realistic at times as long as the composition and performance works.

Thanks again,
Dean.


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## DeOlivier (Jan 9, 2007)

Beautiful piece. I like your choice of instruments and detailed orchestration a lot. One of my favorites is the ethereal choir passage starting at about 01:00. Solid production and transparent sound. Congratulations!


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## madbulk (Jan 9, 2007)

Dean @ Tue Jan 09 said:


> madbulk @ Mon Jan 08 said:
> 
> 
> > Nice.
> ...



Yeah, I understand that, but just to clarify, I wasn't really suggesting that we needed to have a bass note, but rather that the taiko, which I guessed was xp, is just in a tough spot, too present. Seems like you meant it to be a foreboding juxtopostion with the thinner stuff. I think they're too close. (I hate it when someone does this "it sounds like you were thinking..." to me, so I apologize in advance.) Perhaps I dislike it in part because xp is my principal orchestra as well, and I find the those taikos hard to work with.


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## Dean (Jan 9, 2007)

Hey madbulk,
no you're right that was my intention,I agree with you re the taikos I also find them difficult to sit in a mix,because they're big and ambient/un-defined,if that makes sense :???: 

I recently bought samprojectbrass,have you used this library?

Dean.


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## madbulk (Jan 9, 2007)

I have and like the SAM trombones. I opted for epic horns when I was looking to supplement the xp stuff. I don't even know if SAM sells the individual sections anymore. I bought the bones a long time ago. In any event, good move. The SAM brass is obviously great.


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## Dean (Jan 9, 2007)

Thats good to know,thanks.299.00euro for the entire brass library seems very resonable.

Dean.


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## Dean (Jan 9, 2007)

madbulk @ Tue Jan 09 said:


> I have and like the SAM trombones. I opted for epic horns when I was looking to supplement the xp stuff. I don't even know if SAM sells the individual sections anymore. I bought the bones a long time ago. In any event, good move. The SAM brass is obviously great.



meant to ask do you use kontakt 2 player?, the crossgrade from Kompakt comes with a 15ghz library,any good?

Dean.


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## D.J. (Jan 9, 2007)

I have K2 and it does include a very generous 15 Gb library.
7 Gb of that is symphonic. It's a collection of basic instruments provided by VSL and 
works very well. For anyone getting started this is a fantastic package considering they're buying Kontakt. 

The programming is consistenly organized, but the articulations are stricly standard and most folks feel they become limiting pretty quickly.


However the 7 gb in question would seem unecessary for you if you already have QLSO ProXP and Sam.


Cheers,


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## Dean (Jan 9, 2007)

yeah,its mainly for the player re using S.Choirs and the orchestra to its full potential,the library is a great bonus,a musical army swiss knife,as I dont have any other libraries besides Orchestra & Choirs.
Can SamprojectBrass be authorised to run on two sepearate machines,like EW lbraries or is it less restricted?
Dean.
Thanks Dean.


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## Dean (Jan 9, 2007)

synthetic @ Mon Jan 08 said:


> Astounding realism in the strings and a very nice composition which held my interest throughout. I think the solo violin is the weakest link, it sounded thin to me. Otherwise it's a great piece of work. I'm also interested to hear how you accomplished the string runs and swells.



Hi Synthetic,
Thanks very much,I'm very happy with this composition.

Everything is EW/QL Platinum Pro XP and EW/QL S.Choirs.
re string swells and runs,I used mainly 11 Violin, 10 Viola and 10 Cello trem articulations and harp for runs,
also 11 violin thrill H articulation, piccolo, clarinets,alto flute and mellow glock for swells,
For each run/swell I just played each string section in seperately at a time then adjusted the velocity/length/of each note,also adjusting release,attack adding extra reverb,(in kompakt player),untill the runs/swells flowed as naturally as possible.
Sorry,being self-taught,I can't give a more technical explanation.

Dean.


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## JacquesMathias (Jan 9, 2007)

Very nice work. I like your style as well! :wink: 

Best,

Jacques.


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## Dr.Quest (Jan 9, 2007)

Superb work on this. Nicely done. The choir is wonderfully ethereal.
Sweet!
J


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## Dean (Jan 10, 2007)

JBacal @ Mon Jan 08 said:


> Very nice composition.
> 
> Best,
> Jay



Thanks Jay.

Dean.



> Dj:I enjoy the sound you get on this trackNice writing. Nice control of the samples.
> 
> In fact I liked it enough to check out your site.
> 
> ...



Thanks alot Dj,I always try to get the best performance possible
Re 'spiral' track ,I love this organic,moody style also using real guitars,bass,real harminum in a looped way.I plan to re-record all those tracks with female vocals.

Also Re my website,unfortunately most of the 'video & music' samples were composed pre EW library.I dont know why more composers don't put the visuals on their sites aswell,it makes a big difference.

Small world indeed.I worked for Murakami Wolf films in Dublin from 1989 to 1997 as a Special FX inker,BG painter,post-production you name it, as the company down sized.

Dean.


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## Frederick Russ (Jan 10, 2007)

Nice piece Dean! Smooth mockup. Keep up the good work!


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## madbulk (Jan 10, 2007)

Dean @ Tue Jan 09 said:


> madbulk @ Tue Jan 09 said:
> 
> 
> > meant to ask do you use kontakt 2 player?, the crossgrade from Kompakt comes with a 15ghz library,any good?
> > Dean.



Yes, I use K2 and I strongly recommend the crossgrade just because I think you'll get way more performance out of your machines. But I haven't even experimented with the included library, to be honest. Sorry, can't be of any help. It's largely vsl based, probably a downsized opus 1, and I'm sure it could be employed both as a layer and as a less mushy alternative to XP (of course there are many here on V.I. who can answer this thoughtfully, I don't use VSL either. Too much money. I've sworn it off.)


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## Dean (Jan 11, 2007)

DeOlivier @ Tue Jan 09 said:


> Beautiful piece. I like your choice of instruments and detailed orchestration a lot. One of my favorites is the ethereal choir passage starting at about 01:00. Solid production and transparent sound. Congratulations!



Hi,
Missed your post sorry,Thanks very much,I'm very happy with this section even though its not quite the mix I wanted,I wanted more bottom end from the Dbl basses but quit while I was ahead.



> Very nice work. I like your style as well!
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jacques.



Hey jacques,
Thanks,I'm trying to find something a little different,not there yet.
Your compositions are performed brilliantly,very realsitic.
Dean.


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## Dean (Jan 12, 2007)

Dr.Quest @ Tue Jan 09 said:


> Superb work on this. Nicely done. The choir is wonderfully ethereal.
> Sweet!
> J



Hey Dr.Quest,
thank you!
The EW Symphonic Choir is incredible,especially with wordbuilder.

Dean.


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## neoTypic (Jan 12, 2007)

Gorgeous work. I honestly forgot I was listening to samples.


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## Dean (Jan 13, 2007)

Frederick Russ @ Wed Jan 10 said:


> Nice piece Dean! Smooth mockup. Keep up the good work!



(Missed your post,sorry.)

Thanks for listening Frederick.

Excellent site by the way.

Dean.


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## Dean (Jan 15, 2007)

Hey Neo Typic,
Thats great to hear.
Love your photo by the way.
Dean.


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## kid-surf (Jan 15, 2007)

Bitchen cue™...  

Nothing bothered me. I don't always need the mid frequencies filled. Sometimes I like them wide open. All depends. In other words the intro didn't bother me.


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## Dean (Jan 16, 2007)

Mike Greene @ Mon Jan 15 said:


> Really nice piece!
> 
> The taiko drums and violin don't bother me at all. I guess it all depends on what you were going for and it sounded like it went right to me. Not to say timpani or other samples or mix changes would or wouldn't be better, just that it's workin' in my book! :mrgreen:



Hey mike,

thanks,I agree,I'm not that bothered about perfection,sometimes you can mix the life out of a composition,I prefer a live sound,as I've said before I dont really care if the samples are ultra realistic all the time as long as the composition and performance works.

Thanks again madbulk for Kontakt 2 info.

Dean.


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## Dean (Jan 17, 2007)

kid-surf @ Mon Jan 15 said:


> Bitchen cue™...
> .



How much do I owe you?
Dean.


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